INTEGRATING PROJECT CHANGE MANAGEMENT LEARNING INTO AN ACADEMIC COURSE ON IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Within project management, little attention has been devoted to controlling and facilitating changes when constraints of a project have been changed such as scope, time, cost, or quality, also known as Project Change Management (Arami, 2008). Growing statistics prove it is imperative for students finishing IT programs to acquire an understanding of project change management (PCM) for industry preparation. The U.S. spent 3.28 billion dollars on global change management and accountability projects for technology (roughly one-third of the total budget for global change) in the year 2000; this percentage still continues to rise (Goncalves, 2007). As a result, students must understand the importance of project change management. This project addressed the research question; Can the introduction of tools like mind mapping software and the process framework of organizational change management improve student understanding of project change? These tools have recently emerged within industry and academic environments, but have yet to be integrated. This study demonstrates how the integration of both tools allows students to approach new concepts taught in the classroom while improving their understanding.