Project and Contract Management

Project management is a set of principles, practices, and techniques applied to lead project teams and control project schedule, cost, and performance risks. The basic elements are

• Project integration including the establishment of life cycle phases ending in milestones, producing a set of project documents and preparing a project management plan,
• Project scope definition including the definition of requirements, breaking down the work into single components, establishing cost and schedule baselines,
• Time management using automated scheduling systems, conducting critical path analysis,
• Cost management covering the preparation  of cost estimates, tracking costs at the work package level,
• Quality management by defining goals and stating methods toachieve quality assurance, implementing quality measurement and continuous quality improvement,
• Risk management composed of risk analysis and implementing measures for risk avoidance and mitigation
• Human Resources management entailing the establishment of clear goals, maintaining channels of communication, and instruments to resolve conflicts,
• Communications, including internal project team communication and external public relations,
• Procurement.

Contract management covers aspects that are part of project management such as Procurement. Although contract management is an integral part of project management it deserves particular attention due to its legal implication during the execution of a project and the potential to preserve knowledge in spite of long-term staff attrition. 

The following course/module was developed at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg

Learning outcomes / Competencies:

The objectives of the module are to convey principal elements of project and contract management.

Project Management: The student will be able to identify, analyze and structure the issues involved in a large scale environmental remediation project. On the basis of this skill, the student will be in a position to set up, organise, and control a project and its components including the procurement of outside services. He/she will be capable of managing the tendering of contracts, identifying critical paths, setting up financial controlling, initiating technical controlling as well as establishing quality assurance and control.

Contract Management: The student will be able to identify the various types of contracts required to manage large scale environmental remediation projects. In particular, he/she will be in a position to compile information required to generate contracts, formulate draft contracts, expedite the execution of contracts, and to establish the organizational structures to facilitate the storage and retrieval of crucial information by project personnel. Presentation of small group projects and case studies forms an essential part of the module in order to train communication skills.