Teaching students in project management - A survey from a project semester

At most universities, the curriculum of mechanical engineering still focuses on teaching "hard" subjects such as mechanics, material sciences etc., even if soft skills as well as process knowledge become increasingly important in industry. In 1996, the TUM Munich therefore established a tutor system. The participating tutors run through a special coaching and one leads a group of approx. twelve tutees afterwards. During the first semester the groups meet weekly to get both input from the tutor about specific soft skills aspects, and to prepare presentations by themselves and to participate in didactic exercises. In the second semester the tutees take part in a team project of about ten weeks in that they are asked to design a small technical system. They face some constraints (e.g. money), but mostly choose their procedure on their own. For most of the tutees it is the first time they take part in a "professional" team work. By observing the students during their project semester, this paper analyses to which extent the tutees are aware of the importance and the elements of project management, and apply them in practice. Main aspects of the analysis are the general project characteristics, the project run, the project organization and human factors. Based on the observation several suggestions are made to improve the current tutor system.