Syllabus

Credits: 10

Schedule: 08.01.2019 - 06.06.2019

Contact information for the course (applies in this implementation): 

Timo Oksanen, Lauri Palva

Teaching Period (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

III-V 2019-2020 (spring).

Learning Outcomes (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

After completing the course, the student is able to describe typical phases of a project and use common project management tools and methods. Further, the student knows the benefits of project planning, is able to create a project plan and is able to identify risks and make a mitigation plan.

After completing the course, the student has an experience of completing a real project. Student can work in a group, has experience of reaching intermediate timeline milestones, is able to explain quality requirements of in-project deliverables, and is able to communicate within project team as well as with external stakeholders. The student is also able to evaluate the outcome of the project and knows how to write a final report.

Content (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Introduction to common project management tools, introduction to project management methods, risk management, resourcing, standardization and standards, product development process.

Student groups will plan and realize a real project work assigned by the teachers and researchers of the department. The final outcome of the project will be reported to the stakeholders.

Details on the course content (applies in this implementation): 

The course consists of lectures related to project planning and management and business aspects of development projects. Lectures, seminars and final gala are common activities for all students of the course.

Each students will be assigned to a Project group of about five students and each project group will get a project topic from the department. Each project is somehow related to research or education activities of the department and each project group will have the Instructor, who belongs to the staff of the department, usually a professor, lecturer, post-doc or post-graduate student - an expert in the topic.

Each project group will do a professional Project plan in the beginning which acts as an agreement what is the goal of the project, defines various roles in the project and sets milestones. In principle, the Project plan is a document that is completely written by the students and you have certain freedom to define your project according to your own calendar - e.g. if some students of the group have unbalanced workload in other courses in periods 3, 4 and 5; you may design your project to balance your calendar properly. However, the group must be able to reach the goal by the end of the course and risk management is in important role.

• The
  main activity in the course is participating in one project topic from
  the planning phase to the end, consisting of about 5 students.
• All
  project topics are proposed by EEA department, own topics are not
  possible. Each project topic has an expert instructor, working in the
  department.
• You cannot select the project topic directly, but the project topics are assigned based on the Query
• In
  the Query you will answer to questions like: "what
  is your Study Path in AEE Master's programme", "How much do you know
  about C++ programming" and "How much would you like to learn (more)
  about Microcontrollers".
• If you have not selected your Study Path in AEE Master's Programme yet, now it is the time to do that.
• Each
  project topic is designed to be suitable for a few Study Paths and
  there are various minimum skill levels and opportunities to learn things
  - you will get your project topic based on this match
• Each
  project topic consists of about 5 students and one of you must be the
  Project manager. For this reason, Query also includes some question on
  that. Each group will have one or more candidates for the project
  manager role, but after starting, you have about 2-3 weeks to make the
  final decision within your student group.
• After
  getting to know in which project you are going to be, the first
  priority is to meet your group and your Instructor, and start work
  towards project plan. The timeline to complete the project plan is very
  strict, you have only three weeks to complete it and this requires
  negotiations with your Instructor.
• Later on, there is a business aspects exercise on your project topic, supported with lectures.
• In
  the end, the Final Gala will take place, then all technical
  work should be completed and after that there is about a week to
  complete the Final report.

Assessment Methods and Criteria (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Lectures, exercises, group exercises, homework. Working in a project, competing the project, self-assessment, peer-review.

Elaboration of the evaluation criteria and methods, and acquainting students with the evaluation (applies in this implementation): 

The
grading of the course is based on self-assessment, peer-evaluation
within the project topic group and teacher assessment. This will done
the first time after week 10 and the second time after week 20.

Each
student will get a personal grade from 1 to 5. Grading is individual: in the same project group, the grade is not necessarily same for every project group member.

Self-assesment and peer-evaluation criteria is presented in the Kickoff lecture slides, as table. The sections for the evaluation are: reaching goals, meeting deadlines, participation in group work, commitment, quality, proactivity and learning - see definition in the table.

Workload (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Contact teaching 50 h, independent studies 227 h

Compulsory attendance (Seminars): 10 h

Study Material (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Will be announced at the beginning of the course.

Details on the course materials (applies in this implementation): 

Common course level materials, like Lecture notes will be provided in Mycourses, before/shortly after the lecture.

Project group specific materials will be provided by Instructor and delivered as the group agrees internally.

Substitutes for Courses (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

ELEC-E8002 Project work A - Theory and ELEC-E8003 Project work B - Practice

Course Homepage (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

https://mycourses.aalto.fi/course/search.php?search=ELEC-E8004

Prerequisites (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Bachelor degree in the field and the mandatory courses of AEE program and those of the chosen study path offered in the first two periods.

Grading Scale (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

0-5

Registration for Courses (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

WebOodi

Further Information (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

The course is for master students in AEE program and the course may limit the registered students. Language class 3: English

Details on the schedule (applies in this implementation): 

See the course home page in Mycourses; under sections Major Common events and Major Common milestones.

Besides Common schedule of the course, each project group must schedule their own work. Each project group plans their own schedule in the Project plan and agreement within the group but also with the Instructor is required.

Description

Registration and further information