PMFORUM Breaking News

Reported by Renate Prantner in Vienna

In the past 4 years the University of Applied Sciences (UAS) BFI Vienna has started a project management quality initiative in one of its most successful degree courses “European Economics and Business Management” led by Thomas Wala, PhD.

Within this initiative the content and didactic methods of the courses “Project Management Basics” have been harmonised within this program. Since then only certified top PM experts have been teaching PM basics following common course materials, exam questions and quality criteria. Additional value has been developed for the students of the “European Economics and Business Management” program by organising annual project exhibitions; a Best Paper Award was established and students with the best project handbook were nominated. In addition the UAS supports and coordinates project management certifications for students.

Following the trend the UAS BFI Vienna has introduced a project management competence team in January 2008, consisting of Mitra Arami, Klaus Brixler and Renate Prantner.

Photo: Project Management Competence Team at the UAS BFI Vienna - April 2008

The competence team will further enhance the project management competence of the university in education and research activities. Funded by the city of Vienna the courses covering project management basics will now be harmonised for all 6 study programs at the UAS and the lecturers of these courses will be further trained and certified according to IPMA standards.
As of now the competence team will perform high-quality research in the following fields: project-oriented companies, the female project manager, as well as Diversity and Change Management in a project management context. The research results will be the basis for the newly developed master study programme “Project Management and Organisation”, which will officially start at the UAS in autumn 2009.

The competence team is especially interested in cooperation and contacts with the international PM Community, project-oriented companies, universities, education and research institutions, PM associations, PM networks etc. The University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna offers project management in all of its courses and puts a major focus on it in the degree course “Project Management and Information Technology”.

For more information about the project management competence team, please contact us at kpm@fh-vie.ac.at.

Renate Prantner International Correspondent Austria Renate Prantner is an International Correspondent for PMForum and PM World Today in Vienna, Austria. She is also a member of the newly founded competence team for project management at the University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna, there being responsible for further developing competence in project management in education and research. Before that she was a research fellow for project management in the PROJEKTMANAGEMENT GROUP at the University of Economics and Business Administration, Vienna where she worked since 2005. At the PROJEKTMANAGEMENT GROUP she participated in various research projects and programmes such as research programme project orientation [international], project orientation [austria II] and “PM CAT. Since 2007 she has also coordinated the international network PMUni, an international network of universities to promote professional education and research in project and process management. She has a Masters degree in International Business Administration from the University of Economics and Business Administration, Vienna, where she is currently writing her doctoral thesis on the subject of “Change Management – Project and Process Orientation”. Renate can be contacted at Renate.Prantner@fh-vie.ac.at