Master
2025/2026
Project Seminar
Type:
Compulsory course (Data Analytics and Social Statistics)
When:
2 year, 1-3 module
Open to:
students of one campus
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
3
Course Syllabus
Abstract
Project Seminar is a practice-oriented course on managing multidisciplinary academic and applied projects in data analytics and applied statistics. Working on a group project throughout the course, students move through its full life cycle: project initiation and problem framing, project design and Team Charter development, ethical and legal assessment, data sourcing and reproducibility planning, scheduling and effort estimation, stakeholder mapping and communication, risk management, workload balancing, project defense and post-project reflection.
The course combines agile and iterative project practices with individual assignments, team-based project artifacts, cross-panel review and structured peer feedback. Particular attention is paid to documenting assumptions and decisions, making individual contributions visible, comparing planned and actual progress, and adapting the project when constraints or risks change. By the end of the course, students will have produced a coherent set of project-management documents and presented a Post-Mortem Report reflecting on the project process and its results.
Learning Objectives
- To provide students with an understanding of the principles and main stages of managing academic and applied projects
- To develop the ability to select and apply appropriate methods for project planning, monitoring, communication, risk management and evaluation
- To provide practical experience in managing a multidisciplinary team project, documenting project decisions and presenting its results
Expected Learning Outcomes
- Be able develop and/or foster critical thinking skills.
- Be able to criticize constructively and determine existing issues in project management.
- Be able to understand the basic steps of project organization.
- Have basic academic writing skills in both English and Russian.
- Have oral presentation skills.
- Have project planning skills.
- Know the most recent advances in network science and applied statistics.
- Know the requirements and guidelines of project management.
- Know topics, terminology, and principles of project management approach.
Course Contents
- What is project management? Agile and iterative project work
- Problem framing and project design. Team Charter
- Project management in academia. Presentation of projects for the course
- Time, schedule, cost and effort estimation
- Stakeholder mapping and communication
- Risk management and workload balance
- Ethical constraints, data sourcing, responsible implementation and reproducibility
- Project defense, Post-Mortem and peer review
Assessment Elements
- HomeworksEvery homework weights 10% of the final grade and has to be conpleted according to the internal course deadline set by the teaching staff.
- Final project
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Cavanagh, M. (2011). Second Order Project Management. Burlington, VT: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=411221
- Harris, E. (2009). Strategic Project Risk Appraisal and Management. Farnham, England: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=292718
- Pernille Eskerod, & Anna Lund Jepsen. (2013). Project Stakeholder Management. Routledge.
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Neal, J., & Harpham, A. (2012). The Spirit of Project Management. Farnham: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=456961