Project Management in Higher Education: Bolstering yourself (and your projects) against sector changes

How do I know all this? I’ve been there, and over the past 2 years have really started to question how Project Management works (or doesn’t work) in HE. I want to share some of the key takeaways that have helped me to understand how to navigate project management in HE, and how, in turn, this has made me a better project management professional. It will also provide you with the tools to manage your projects better in a sector that is known for regular changes, within a climate where resources are more challenging to access and manage.

1. Do we understand what a project is?

I regularly run workshops in which I ask the question: what is a project? Most people identify it as something that has defined objectives, has multiple objectives and a wide group of stakeholders. The Association of Project Management defines a project as; a unique, transient endeavour undertaken to bring about change and to achieve planned objectives ^[1]. Projects in HE are really knotty in reality. That is because the majority of our work operates on a cycle and what we presume is a project within HE is normally BAU disguised as a project. Projects within HE should still follow the same simple rule of being time-bound and unique, creating an outcome or output that is clear, and well defined, through a set of specific objectives. Anything else falls within the boundaries of BAU.

2. Mixed Methodologies

If you’ve ever Googled Project Management you get bombarded with adverts for the next best training programme from various providers, all trying to convince you that they can solve your project problems. However, for managing projects in HE there isn’t a one size fits all option. My advice is to pick what works for you, your project team and your stakeholders - the latter two being groups that are often overlooked. As a professional who manages multiple projects, the temptation is to create project structures that work for you, you’re the most important person right? However, I’ve found that what works for you, doesn’t always work for your project team or (more importantly) your stakeholders. Discuss preferences with your project team and your stakeholders in the early stages of the project, either to select which methodology you will use, or what blend of methodologies will work best for your project.

3. Setting up the foundations

When you think about building something with structure, the foundations play an important part in ensuring sustainability and the effectiveness of any blueprint. A project within HE is no different. There are a number of key documents that act as your project blueprint that will guide your project from start to finish. These are:

• Project initiation document (PID) or a project briefing document
• Communications plan
• Stakeholder engagement plan
• Impact and Evaluation plan
• Budget

These will all come under the umbrella of your Project Plan. These are organic documents that will change over the duration of your project. They also become the stable foundation around which you build your project. As a word of caution, keep good version control of these documents. The way in which we now work has made document sharing easy, but it can make version control challenging. The adage of failure to plan, is planning to fail, is never truer than when you are managing projects.

4. Are all stakeholders built the same?

In HE we deal with people, whether that is students, academics, professional service staff or the local community, to name a few. However, how often to we take the time to understand how they may perceive a project we’ve been working on, and are they even interested. A wise colleague once told me no response is a response. Stakeholders will be engaged in projects if you encourage them to be. They will not always be willing to participate, unless they have a good understanding of the why and the what of a project. Learn early within the project who has the most influence and the most interest, as these will be the stakeholders who need managing the most. You should also be open to that priority stakeholder group changing, depending upon where your project is within its lifetime.

Project management within HE can be simplified to make it feel easier and less burdensome that we might imagine it actually is. Once you open the door to a more adaptable approach to project management, cherry-picking the most appropriate tools and techniques for your context can develop and bolster your projects against an ever-changing HE landscape.

^{[1]  https://apm.org.uk/resources/glossary/#p}