Micro-Projects ― Six Exercise for Developing Project And Team Skills

A project is more than an assembly of methods, tools and resources. Projects often seem to have a soul. They require dedication, belief and commitment. The only way to gain experience of a project, assess and develop the skills associated with it is to live through it. The six micro-projects in this collection highlight the kinds of skills typical of creative project teams. They can be used to practise: ¢ team working in a project environment ¢ working as a team to satisfy a need expressed in terms of time, cost and quality ¢ the skills associated with creativity, problem solving and team leadership ¢ the guiding principles for tackling projects creatively. The collection includes the following games: Eggbox is a creative project that emphasizes idea generation; Ironbridge simulates a scenario in which consortia explore the specifications of a construction project; Tower of Straws produces a situation in which change is frequent and normal; Domino Race is based on an imaginative design project that needs to reflect operational constraints; Catapult is an all-day task offering a complete project management experience and, finally, the Autonomous Team Activity encourages productivity and initiative in the project team.

Ian Stokes is chairman of two small consulting/training companies and more recently he has developed methods that are specially suited to innovative and cross-functional project teams. He is author of the two-volume looseleaf collection Training for Project Management, also published by Gower.