Project Management Flight simulator

[Ilir Rodiqi]

Dear colleagues,

Do you know is there any Project Management flight simulator that can be
purchased? I need it for teaching project management.

Thankfully,

Ilir Rodiqi BSc, MSc, CivEng
Director, Water Engineering and Management Postgraduate Course
Lecturer in Construction Management
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture
University of Pristina, Kosova
tel/fax: +381.38.548.883
mob:+377.44.120.790
e-mail:wem.ir@ipko.org

[Subscriptions, Toolan]

Ilir,

Some ideas that might help:

Firstly, I like the idea of using a Flight Simulator in this context.
Believe me (from my experiences of trying to introduce SD concepts to a
project management class) people learning project management seem to have
enough on their plates getting to grip with PjMt concepts, without
introducing SD concepts as well. So a ""play"" environment should work well.
However, I don't remember finding any good (i.e. well documented) PjMt
Flight Simulators when I looked at this area in some detail 2002/03.

Secondly, Forio (www.forio.com) has a web-based simulation which might be
useful. As with all Forio simulations, you can modify the model somewhat (or
have your students alter it). Also - if you have access to equations
supporting more complex Project Management models - you can import those
equations or build your own model step-by-step, using forio's intefaces.

Thirdly, have you thought about the use of board games? Like the original
Beer Game, I would suggest that a board game gives a more enjoyable user
experience and certainly underlines the concepts of teamwork - essential in
the PjMt context - better than simulations (1 person driving, 3 looking over
the shoulder type thing)

Fourthly, Winston Ledet Jr. has done a lot of work on applying his father's
original concepts to something called ""the Project Management Game"" (now
called ""The Project Value Game""). Like the Manufacturing Game (see Sterman's
book) it is designed to get the basics across to non-SD people, and to get
their buy-in to the underlying cause-and-effect and stocks and flows. The
Project Management Game is an instructor led board game (and not cheap) and
not useable for tuition without acreditation. (Status 2003). See
www.practicefields.com for more info.

At the bottom of the page http://www.practicefields.com/pvg.html you will
find a series of links to the underlying SD sub-models. I have adopted these
for lecturing purposes with animated PowerPoints with some success (I
enjoyed myself, but the students developed a sort of glazed look in their
eyes!) See http://www.toolan.de/Articles/FHKiel/Sy ... f_PjMt.ppt

Fifthly, there are some good ideas out there, which re-enforce the ideas of
teamwork and common goals. For example, www.squarewheels.com has some which
seem quite fun (""The Search for the Lost Dutchman's Gold MineT"") and are
available as ""print-your-own-materials"" version at a reasonable price.

Obviously I'll be watching the other responses with interest, but I'd love
to hear some of your classroom experiences, once you've implemented the tool
of your choice.

Regards,

Colm Toolan, Business Architect
Isarweg 35, 24146 Kiel, Germany
T: +49 431 7859-737 F: -738
M: +49 171 6450 998
E: colm.toolan@toolan.de
W: www.toolan.de

[Yaman Barlas]

Hello all;
This is in response to Ilir Rodiqi's inquiry about a week ago.
We indeed have a PM flight simulator.(SOFTSIM). Its essential structure
is Tarek Abdel Hamid's software project management structure.
We simplified some parts and added some structures so that it can be
used as a more general PM game. (Although the illustration is still
software management, the strategic project management notions are
generalizable). The game is stand-alone and does not require a special
software. It is built using some version of Delphi.
Please let us know if you want a copy or more info.
best,
Yaman Barlas
From: yaman barlas <ybarlas@boun.edu.tr>


***Please NOTE the telephone change***
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Yaman Barlas, Ph.D.
Professor, Industrial Engineering Dept.
Bogazici University,
34342 Bebek, Istanbul, TURKEY
Fax. +90-212-265 1800. Tel. +90-212-359 7073
http://www.ie.boun.edu.tr/~barlas
SESDYN Group: http://www.ie.boun.edu.tr/labs/sesdyn/
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