How to train engineering students to cope with complexity in project management ?

Telecom Bretagne is a famous French graduate engineering school in Information and Communication Technology. For the students who follow an apprenticeship based curriculum, project management is a major engineering skill. Project management training generally involves small teams of students setting on topics corresponding to their technical skills with deliberately limited scope and complexity for undemanding customers. At the beginning of their final year, students should already be able to manage these small projects. As our ambition is to train efficient project managers able to cope with complex projects, we enhance complexity in three dimensions. First, the project topic was chosen outside the learners' technical abilities. Second, students have to face many stakeholders (customer representatives, technical experts, methodology supervisors). Finally, project teams are large (around 15 students). Furthermore, the supervisor team puts students under a constant pressure by strong constraints on schedule, on quality of results by introducing unexpected events (e. g. specification changes, audit). So the students are forced to use efficient project management methods. They are given freedom for defining their management process while we propose support (supervision and courses) for methodology, communication and team management. For increasing the realism and motivation of all stakeholders, we choose a bidding process involving a real customer with a real need (the school steering committee). After being destabilized by the project scope and the group size, students quickly realize they must agree upon a strong organization structure (project manager, technical roles, responsibilities). The customer adopts a professional attitude; he may accept or reject some deliverables. Students become aware of the true reality of the project management which favours emulation helping students to give their best work. In addition, students working on a field outside their scope of competence trust them in getting adaptation skills. Hence, this is a major factor of success in the students' learning outcomes. Despite a heavy work load, the students recognized this course has a significant experience in their curriculum to become efficient project managers. They learnt and applied the important concepts in project and conflict management in these real situations. All stakeholders benefit greatly from this experience, improving mutual understanding within Telecom Bretagne.