Development of a project management structure for final year engineering projects in a fast growing university

Abstract

With the increasing number of registrations for final year engineering students at the North West University, Potchefstroom campus, the current final year project structure is not ade-quate. This current structure results in strain on Project advisors and students. Research was done to determine the time constraints with regards to lecturers who also act as project advisors. This research concluded that with the increasing number of registrations for final year engineering students, project advisors will not be able to maintain the current workload with the time constraints. Research was also done on each element of the current structure of final year engineering projects at the North West University, Potchefstroom campus, and also on alternative struc-tures. Comparison between the different structures at different universities concluded that group projects and industry projects prove to be beneficial for departments and students. It also concluded that final year projects must comply with the research programs that are of-fered by the universities. One main problem that the research indicated was that students are experiencing problems with writing formal reports which then also contributes to additional strain on project advisors. From the research a final project management structure, project management framework and a project procedure was developed. The final management structure is a combination of the Programmatic based management structure and the Matrix based management struc-ture. The project management framework that was developed compels projects to be fo-cused and that the ultimate objectives and outcomes of projects are known before projects are initiated. Tools were also developed to aid project advisors and students. One of the tools include aids for students for report writing. This include implementing text editing ser-vices and initiating report writing lessons.