In Spring 2011 I taught the course “Project Management for Designers” to Bachelor of Arts students of the Interaction Design and Communication Design program at the HfG Schwaebisch Gmuend. All together I taught this course three times.
In this course I gave lectures on:
1. Self-management. Being organized on an everyday basis as a designer; tipps and tricks.
2. Project Management. Theoretical background, methods, skills, and tools.
3. Project Management in Design Practice. Design process, work and self-organisation in design practice, applying project management methods in design practice.
4. Project planning applied with an example.
5. Collaborative work with the support of tools.
Students received practical assignments throughout the course, which were all put together in a documentation and submitted at the end. Assignments were on:
1. Self-management
2. Time-management
3. Work environment organization
4. Importance of project management for design.
5. Creating a project milestones plan and a project structure plans
6. Try using a project management software like GanttProject
7. Filing structures for design projects
8. Plan a project with the tools learnt (they got to pick an everyday event for this.)
The goal was to get design students (early in their careers) thinking about their work organization, observe and analyze themselves, and develop an understanding of how to be organized and efficient as a designer. Moreover, an aim was to have students students know about project management skills and tools and learn how they can be useful in design practice. See two examples of a student’s documentation with all assignments HERE and HERE.