PROJECT MANAGERS' RESPONSIBILITIES IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION PROJECTS: A CASE STUDY IN EDUCATION

Abstract

The success of a project is not only built upon the performance of the team involved but also on the contribution of the project manager and the other participants such as the client, stakeholders, consultant, suppliers, and authorizing bodies. In particular, the project managers' contribution in coordinating and leading the participants is fundamental to the project success. The research hypothesis addressed in this paper is to investigate how a multidisciplinary collaboration experience between two departments, using a Work-Based Learning (WBL) method, can improve students' training while handling responsibilities in project management. This paper presents a practical approach to the teaching of Project Management, based on multidisciplinary collaboration protocol developed by the College of Engineering at Qatar University. Collaboration between two Project Management courses was repeated for two years, involving students of both disciplines in a joint assignment (a collaborative project). During the experience, the project managers' responsibilities were analyzed and evaluated by the students. Outcomes of the study show that because there is a close correspondence between project manager's skills, interpersonal action, and readiness to take responsibility, the success of a project is strongly influenced by the capabilities of its leader. The paper meditates on the contribution of the multidisciplinary experience in developing students' capabilities and responsibilities when working on a collaborative project, improving entrepreneurship's performance and building new ways of collaboration in higher education.