Thinking Portfolio’s Master Talent program and gamification streamlines learning for University of Oulu Industrial Engineering and Management students

Photo: Katri Harju

Thinking Portfolio’s Master Talent program and gamification streamlines learning for University of Oulu Industrial Engineering and Management students

Project business is one of the research areas of the University of Oulu’s Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) and it is also one of the main subjects of the Master’s degree. One of the key teaching areas of project business is the management of entities consisting of several simultaneous projects that utilize joint resources. 

It is difficult to grasp it without getting hands-on experience of how to prioritize projects and allocate resources between competing projects. For this reason, it was decided to include an exercise related to project portfolio management in the course on managing a project-based company. 

The exercise was collaboration between the University of Oulu, South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (Xamkin) and Thinking Portfolio Oy, where each actor had their own clear role. The University of Oulu provided the framework for the exercise and was responsible for the overall management. Xamk was responsible for planning and directing the exercise. Thinking Portfolio, on the other hand, offered the university a Project Portfolio SaaS tool serving as a platform for the exercise as part of its Master Talent social responsibility program. In the exercise, groups of students act as management teams of the country units of an imaginary company. While playing, students encounter typical situations such as managing schedule changes, sharing limited resources and prioritizing projects. At the same time, students get to practice important teamwork skills and joint decision-making based on knowledge. 

The students felt that concrete practice and gamification enlivened learning. Most of the students were already familiar with various learning games, and a congruent view was that, when used in an appropriate proportion, they increase the meaning of teaching and study motivation. In the opinion of many, on one hand, the giving of the exercise emphasizing the human perspective was good and it clearly showed why systematic project portfolio management is important and on the other hand, complex and challenging. During the exercise, the teams took care of the situation of their own project, but at the same time, as a group, towards a common goal by negotiating and making compromises. The situation therefore simulated reality very well and showed in practice how clearly sanctions and bonuses can affect project prioritization and decisions, and how important foresight is. 

In general, students see practical exercises and cooperation with companies as useful. Also in this case, the students experienced the practical exercise using the Project Portfolio as a good experience. The feedback mentioned that the Project Portfolio is user-friendly and visual. Several students stated that it was easy to notice the changes the allocation of resources and the use of the prioritization tool were smooth, and the perception of the project risks and importance worked well. Although the same things can be done with traditional Excel, the tool developed for portfolio management helps especially in overall project management and in illustrating situations quickly and clearly to focus on the right things. 

The exercise was also meaningful for the teachers. Each implementation is different and therefore the exercise always opens new perspectives for the teacher on how portfolio management should be implemented effectively. The practical organisation of the exercise was made more challenging by the hybrid format. About half of the students participated in person and about half remotely. In addition, some groups were in a situation where some members of the group were present and some were remote. Because of this, it was necessary that the coordination of the exercise was planned precisely. However, the exercise was ultimately a success and a similar exercise, perhaps also on a larger scale, is planned for a future course!

Thinking Portfolio’s social responsibility program Master Talent offers a best practice Project Portfolio free of charge to educational institutions for educational purposes. 

Tommi Pauna

Dissertation Researcher at the University of Oulu’s Production Economics unit in the Project Business Group. 

Matti Koivisto

Doctor of Technology, Principal lecturer of Management and Head of Technical Education at South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences in Xamk.