Abstract for: Learning to face project management dynamics through System Dynamics-based games: the Project Management Board Game

Projects are common elements of our business domains and yet their management is said to be difficult and affected by various challenges. Extant literature clarifies that the success (or the failure) of a project relies on the ability to understand and manage the interplays between internal and external factors as well as internal and external stakeholders and their mental models and agendas. To this aim, modern project managers need a few core competencies to become able to tackle the feature of dynamic complexity naturally embedded in projects. In this regard, traditional educational courses and established methodological approaches have been frequently criticized thereby opening up avenues for further research, especially in the fields of Systems Thinking and System Dynamics. Starting from these considerations, the paper presents the experience of the European Erasmus+ KA project called “Project Management Board Game” (PMBoG). The project’s main aim is to teach project management skills through the creation of a Board Game and, in parallel, of a System Dynamics-based Interactive Learning Environment (ILE). The joint use of the board game and the ILE will support the participants in understanding and learning project management concepts and also in exploring the systemic structure underlying the dynamics of projects.