Academic year 2014-15
Finances in Technological Projects
| Degree: | Code: | Type: |
| Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science | 21453 | Optional subject |
| Bachelor's Degree in Telematics Engineering | 21741 | Compulsory subject, 4th year |
| Bachelor's Degree in Audiovisual Systems Engineering | 21649 | Optional subject |
| ECTS credits: | 4 | Workload: | 100 hours | Trimester: | 1st |
| Department: | Dept. of Information and Communication Technologies |
| Coordinator: | Pilar Lloret Millán |
| Teaching staff: | Raul M. Abril |
| Language: | English |
| Timetable: | |
| Building: | Communication campus - Poblenou |
This course is lectured along the group of curses covering management, legislation and innovation domains in engineering studies ofered by the ESUP.
This course covers the financial aspects of particular relevance for the targeted engineering degrees from a managerial perspective of technological projects.
This course has obvious synergies with the courses in its group “Gestió Tècnica de Projectes” (GTP) and “Organizatció d'Empreses de TIC” (OETIC).
With the themes of this course the student will achieve financial competencies on the process of designing, planning, executing, monitoring and closing technological projects. Students are exposed to detailed descriptions of 'how to' address these topics in a logical manner from an engineering perspective.
The course incorporates real life case studies specific to technological proyects that span cost drivers and revenue drivers, value capture, cash management under uncertainty, revenue analysis, profitability analysis, capital budgeting analysis, portfolio analysis, knowledge assets valuation, and business intelligence on financial positions.
Following Bolonia’s guidelines student’s performance will be based in a continuous evaluation and the overall teaching approach is to develop student’s generic and specific competencies.
This course teaches the essential managerial financial skills of technological project, program and portfolio management and it is designed for prospective technical engineers
Competencies of this course are compliant with the following guidelines:
-Model del pla docent de l’asignatura. CQUID www.upf.edu/
-Memoria para la solicitud de verificación de Títulos Oficiales. Anexo I BOE #260 pp 44046-8 October 30th 2007
Additionally, the following benchmark sources have been considered:
-The competency framework in the Advanced Management Programme
Henley Management College, UK 1999
-Syllabus for Entrepreneurial Management and Change (FEUC19) Umeå School of Business, S 2007
-Syllabus for Managing Portfolios and Projects (TECH 922) Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University USA 2007
-A methodological framework for gaining research focus by Abril, R. M.
The case of problem sense making in CRM using a data warehouse.
Henley Working Papers. Henley Management College, 2005
Student will demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt successful achievement of the
following general competencies, appropriate to an engineering, managementoriented,
demanding and continuously evaluated course:
Definitions of competencies are in the annexes.
| Competències transversals | Competències específiques |
|---|---|
|
Instrumentals Interpersonals Sistèmiques |
P1, P4, P5. P8, P9, T2, T3, TE3, AU1, B7, B17 |
ASSIGNMENTS AND IN-CLASS ACTIVE PARTICIPATION (45%) –NO RECOVERABLE-. TYPE OF ASSESSMENT: EXECUTION TESTS. Group evaluation. Case studies, outside readings, and presentations will be assigned throughout the duration of the course. Class time will be devoted to discussion and essential explanation of assigned materials. You should expect assignments in each class session.
Attendance is expected and necessary so we can have productive class sessions. I wil call on each and every one of you throughout the duration of the course. Please actively participate. If you should have to miss one class session, get notes and materials from a class friend. There will be an attendance list for each class session. The best delivered work for each assignment will be designated as benchmark and posted in the webpage of the course. You are responsible for all readings on the due date whether discussed in class or not. All assignments that are submitted for grading must be submitted on the expected date and electronically.
PROJECT (20%) –NO RECOVERABLE-. TYPE OF ASSESSMENT: EXECUTION TEST. Group evaluation. The financial aspects of a technological project will be evaluated by a group.
EXAM (35%) – RECOVERABLE IN JULY-. TYPE OF ASSESSMENT: WRITTEN TEST. Individual evaluation. There will be a final exam including material from textbook reading assignments, handout material, classroom discussions, project materials, and other miscellaneous assignments. Requirements to take the exam:
5.0 or more in the aggregated mark of the execution tests.
- Bloc 1: INTRODUCTION TO FINANCES IN TECHNOLOGICAL PROJECTS (T 2hrs)
Block objectives: To understand
· Course structure
· Technological projects scenarios
What the student CAN after this block
· Find the lecturing material of the course
· Understand the differences among start-up projects vs. R&D projects vs.
project financing vs. internal projects from a financial perspective.
- Bloc 2: FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF KEY ASPECTS OF TECNOLOGICAL PROJECTS (T 2 hrs) (P2 hr)
Block objectives: To understand
·Temporal organization
·Success criteria
·Life cycle
·Costs and revenue drivers
·Uncertainty. Risks
·Governance. Reporting
·Knowledge assets
What the student CAN after this block
·Understand the relevance of quantitative financial analyses in technological projects
·Identify the key financial drivers in a technological project
·Associate cost drivers and revenue drivers to the project life cycle
- Bloc 3: KEY ORGANIZATIONAL ASPECTS OF FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT (T 2hrs)
Block objectives: To understand
·Financial management as a functional area
·Financial management in the value chain
·Financial management as a business process
·Cash management perspective of a project
What the student CAN after this block
·Understand the key tasks covered by the financial management function in a permanent organization
· Understand the capture value impact of financial management in the business value chain
· Understand the cross-functional aspects of financial management as a process
- Bloc 4: PROJECT REVENUE ANALYSIS (T 2 hrs) (P 2 hrs) (S 4 hrs)
Block objectives: To understand
·Working capital analysis
·Forecasting methods
·Customer equity
What the student CAN after this block
·Understand the difference between invoicing and collecting
·Understand the difference between purchasing and paying
·Understand the difference between revenue and cash
·Asses the maturity mean period
·Identify the requirements for a forecasting method
- Bloc 5: PROJECT PROFITABILITY ANALYSIS (T 2 hrs)(P 2 hrs) (S 4hrs)
Block objectives: To understand
· Cost structure
· Levels of accuracy estimating costs
· Overview to the types of profitability analyses
· Financial analysis.
· Performance analysis
·Contribution analysis
What the student CAN after this block
· Identify types of costs in a project
· Asses the Profit and Loss Statement
· Apply the Earned Value Technique
· Perform break-even analyses
- Bloc 6: UNCERTAINTY IN PROJECT PROFITABILITY ANALYSIS (T 2 hrs)
Block objectives: To understand
· Expected commercial value
· Estimating probabilities of success in the project life cycle
·Project cash management under uncertainty
What the student CAN after this block
·Understand the impact of risks in the quantification of profitability
· Design scoring checklists for estimating probabilities of success
· Create a probability graph for the project life cycle
- Bloc 7: PROJECT CAPITAL BUDGETING ANALYSIS (T 2 hrs P 2 hrs, S
8 hrs)
Block objectives: To understand
· Investment analysis
· Estimating cash flows
· Estimating funding needs
· Designing the financing model
· Cash flow assessment
What the student CAN after this block
· Understand the difference between net income and cash flow
· Design the sources and mix of funds.
· Identify the internal sources of financial resources (i.e. bootstrapping
techniques)
· Identify the external sources of financial resources (i.e. debt and equity)
· Evaluate the financial attractiveness of a project using metrics (NPV, IRR,
etc.)
- Bloc 8: PROJECT PORTFOLIO ANALYSIS (T 2 hrs)
Block objectives: To understand
·Project portfolio concepts
·Evaluation methods (maximize value, balance, strategic fit)
·Make go/kill/hold decisions
·Sunk cots fallacy
What the student CAN after this block
·How to prioritize projects with limited resources
·Identify the realization step in a stage-gate process.
- Bloc 9: PROJECT KNOWLEDGE ASSETS VALUATION (T 2 hrs)
Block objectives: To understand
·Knowledge assets in the project life cycle
·Quality knowledge assets
·Best in class knowledge assets
·Valuation of a knowledge asset
What the student CAN after this block
·Understand the relevance of project knowledge assets
·Chart the maturity of best in class assets
·Assess the economic aspects of knowledge assets
- Bloc 10: BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE ON FINANCIAL POSITIONS (P 2
hrs)
Block objectives: To understand
·Sources of information
·Benchmarking analyses
·Market value analyses
What the student CAN after this block
·Identify the sources of information
·Seek for financial information on thirds
The course provides conceptual as well as operational guidance through discussion of underlying theory and hands-on work. For that the course includes lectures, group exercises, coursework and readings.
A collaboration environment supported by Moodle will be used. The learning materials
(e.g. slides, readings, URLs) will be posted immediately after the lecture. At classroom students will focus their attention on understanding the basic concepts and actively participating with questions. Each lecture will have one or two assignments to be delivered not later than one week after the lecture via e-mail. It is expected that assignments are presented in classroom by one of the members of the group randomly selected. All members in the group should participate in group assignments. Evaluations of assignments will be communicated ca. two lecture days after presentation and, optionally, a benchmark assignment will be designated and posted in Moodle. Students will have the opportunity to learn from their assignments and from the other’s assignments as well.
Before each lecture, the professor will available for one hour for questions.
Seminars will be scheduled for each group. Each group will have a case to work with and to deliver not later than one week after the lecture via e-mail.
The project assigned to each group, generally speaking, will provide the context for the assignments and seminar in this course.
It must be noted that there is a continuous evaluation based on attendance and assignments.
Seminars will be delivers as workshops and might require that student come with their laptops
Recommended text books
“Preparación y evaluación de proyectos”, Nassir Sapag (McGraw-Hill Interamericana Editores S.A. de C.V. 2007) ISBN-10: 9562782069
“Formulacion y evaluacion de proyectos de inversion” Abraham Hernandez Hernandez and Abraham Hernandez Villalobos (Thomson Co 2005) ISBN-10: 9706863885
Auxiliar text books
“Portfolio Management for New Products”, Robert G. Cooper, Scott J. Edgett and Elko J. Kleinschmidt (Perseus Books Group, 2001) ISBN-10: 0738205141
“Project Portfolio Management Tools and Techniques”, Parviz F. Rad and Ginger Levin (IIL Publishing, 2007)