DesENCrenca: a PBL experience on Project Management

education
Erik Teixeira Lopes1, Marina J. Mendes¹, Gabriel F. Silva¹, Lucas T. M. Rosado¹, André Luiz Aquere¹

1
University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil.

Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],

[email protected], [email protected].

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5095347

Abstract
This paper reports the experience of the students of Group 1 of the discipline Project Management and Multidisciplinary
Teams (“Gestão de Projetos e Equipes Multidisciplinares – GEPEM – in Portuguese) developed during the 2020.1 academic
semester of the University of Brasília. The GEPEM discipline uses active learning methodologies, focusing on the Flipped
Classroom and Project-Based Learning. The project aims to improve the access of students of civil engineering and
environmental engineering courses to the information of the subjects offered by the Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering and assist them in the process of assembling the grid of disciplines to be studied in the school period. For this,
all stages of product development were carried out, from market research (via questionnaire and focus groups), to the
delivery of a prototype. The team organized and worked in a format adapted from Scrum and used project management
concepts learned in the classroom during the semester. The final product consisted of an interactive panel, fed in real time
by questionnaires intended for students, in order to centralize information of interest to students, such as degree of
difficulty of the subjects, evaluative methods and perception of effort demanded, assisting in the personal organization of
students of civil and environmental engineering courses. During the process, it was remarkable the improve of productivity
and direct application of the study in the classroom, so that all members of the group considered the discipline satisfactory
and obtained high mentions in the evaluation by the teacher.

Keywords: Active Learning; eduScrum; Project Management; Engineering education.

1 Introduction
In recent years, the profile of students from engineering universities and that required by the labor market has
changed, valuing experiences, soft skills and practical knowledge, in order to allow greater synergy between
higher education and daily professional activities (Filho et al, 2019). Long, exhibition classes in crowded
auditoriums are becoming less common, as institutions are forced to meet these demands and provide new
engineering education. According to the National Curriculum Guidelines of Engineering Courses (2001), the
trend is undergraduate courses with more flexible structures, which allow the future professional to have
options for areas of knowledge and performance, also involving socioeconomic and environmental aspects for
a complete training.
In this sense, active learning methodologies, characterized by its centralization of the process in the student,
has gained strength around the world (Filho et al, 2019). Among the different practices that have been
incorporated, project-based learning stands out because it has a clear affinity with the end of engineering
activity, allowing an easy adaptation of both teachers and students.
Thus, in the discipline Project Management and Multidisciplinary Teams of the semester of 2020/1, offered by
the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Brasília, the use of Project-Based
Learning was adopted, among other methodologies. The discipline in question addresses varied topics in the
context of project management, so that the concepts discussed were applied by the groups on a day-to-day
basis, during the academic semester, based mainly on the PMBOK (PMI, 2017) and the book Getting Started in
Project Management, by the authors Paula Martin and Karen Tate (2001), the main bibliographic references
adopted in the course. During the semester, the students were divided into groups for the development,
management and delivery of a real project. The prerequisites determined by the professor were that this project
was not for profit and met some demand from the institution, faculty, or students of the University of Brasília.
Thinking about it, the group identified the lack and decentralization of clear and objective information during

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the enrolment period of the courses of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, hindering the
organization of students and causing a fall in academic performance during the school period.
This article reports the process of identification, development and prototyping of a platform to gather and
present information about the disciplines and extension projects related to civil and environmental engineering
courses, nicknamed "DesENCrenca” by the students of the project team. It is a Project-Based Learning
experience applied to meet the students' own demands, using the concepts studied in the classroom.

2 Theoretical Framework
The development of the project permeated two main themes: project management, because it is the main
scope of the discipline and its application during the course; and Project-Based Learning, the main
methodology adopted in the classes and the motivating fact of the project.

2.1 Project Management

According to the PMBOK (PMI, 2017) project is a temporary effort aimed at creating a single product or service.
It may contain repetitive activities, but your delivery necessarily needs to be unique. Projects occur at all levels
within companies and in everyday life, for example, when we face personal issues as projects to be completed.
As for the temporary nature, it is understood that a project has a well-defined beginning and end, being closed,
for example, with the delivery of objectives, exhaustion of resources or even by legal requirements.
Since the project can be understood as described above, some consequences of its implementation arise. The
first is that it is an agent of change in organizations, as it lists and organizes activities that will make a difference
at some level. The second is that it adds value to stakeholders, as it is motivated by meeting their interests,
complying with legal requirements or even creating or improving some process (PMI, 2017).
Aiming to execute the projects efficiently, meeting deadlines and ensuring the results, there are tools and
techniques that make up the project management. According to Karen Tate (2001), project management is
then this set of tools, techniques and knowledge that produce better results, involving various topics such as
team management, communication and risk management.

2.2 Project-Based Learning

Project-Based Learning is an active learning methodology based on real day-to-day situations (Pereira, Barreto
and Pazeti, 2017) (Bell, 2010) (Thomas, 2000). This proposal seeks to bring not only technical knowledge, but
also skills such as problem solving, investigation and decision-making, based on the guidance of a teacher
(Thomas, 2000). There are different definitions found about Project Based Learning and also a lack of universal
acceptance (Thomas, 2000), what infers in different ways of it apply.
Usually, a project developed on PBL is focused on solve a problem. Pereira, Barreto and Pazeti (2017) cite five
distinct aspects to define the PBL: the resolution of the problem can be proposed by the students themselves;
the initiative to solve the problem part of the students and requires integration between educational activities;
a final product is delivered; the solution of the problem is usually developed as a project; the teacher plays as
a consultant to the teams that will develop the project.

3 Methodology
Following the chronology of a project, its development began by identifying possible demands in the context
of the University of Brasilia. A survey was conducted by the project team about the pains to be solved in the
academic environment. Among them, the lack of information and the difficulty in organizing the school
semester was considered the most impacted by the students of the group, especially those of the initial
semesters of graduation. This is because it is necessary to reconcile extracurricular activities, compulsory
subjects, internship and personal life.

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A focus group was organized with students from other groups of the discipline itself with the aim of exploring
this understanding and validating in a reduced context. The focus group was voluntary, being recorded for
further analysis and interpretation.
Once the initial hypothesis was validated, through some adjustments and directions from the focus group, an
objective questionnaire was elaborated to achieve a greater reach of students and confirm the existence of
demand in a generalized way in the department and in the university as a whole. Among the answers, 96.6%
of the students approved the structuring of a tool that centralized the information during the enrolment period.
Then, the development of the project began, using the tools and knowledge discussed in the room, for example
the Kanban framework and the Analytical Structure of the Project. It is worth noting that the whole process
was managed by the students, remotely, due to the context of the pandemic and the adoption of remote
classes by the University of Brasilia.
According to Eric Ries in "The lean startup" (2019), a minimum viable product (MVP) should be used to validate
its assumptions regarding the need of customers. Therefore, development ended with the presentation of the
minimum viable product to the Product Owner of the project, in this case, the teacher. The platform was
functionally structured, with fictitious information for validation, being presented together the learnings of the
development process and the next steps for product consolidation and release to the public.

4 Project Development
From the initial understanding and validation with the focus group, the answers of the questionnaire were
collected to identify the main aspects that the platform should cover. In this sense, it was noted the need to
limit the scope to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Brasília,
depending on the available time of development and the amount of information needed. Also based on the
questionnaire, the main information that should be gathered was determined: official information of the
disciplines (made available by the department when publishing the list of offers of disciplines) and reports of
experience of the students, describing aspects such as evaluative model of the discipline, difficulty and need
for extra class dedication. In addition, the demand to incorporate the standard flowcharts of disciplines of each
of the courses (Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering) and information related to extension activities
was identified, following the same division of official information and experience reports.
From the first definition of the scope, a PM Canvas was elaborated for the project, Figure 1, which provided a
better initial organization and overview of the product, identifying its justifications and objectives, defining its
requirements, stakeholders, benefits, risks, costs and restrictions, and delimiting the team, deliveries and
timeline of product construction. Using PM Canvas, it was possible to study the feasibility and continuity of
what would become delivery.

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Figure 2. Project Model Canvas, in Portuguese.
Then, the necessary information was collected to make up the information panel. For official information,
students used the department's systems and means of communication, such as the published enrolment offer
list and SIGAA (student enrolment and monitoring system). The other information was collected with
anonymous questionnaires with the students, so that the experiences could be consolidated in objective
questions, facilitating the understanding and allowing the average sums of the values obtained. It is worth
mentioning that, because they are personal opinions, in the questionnaire the group made it clear that
responses offensive to teachers, extension groups, or considered inappropriate would be considered.
To monitor the activities, a spreadsheet was assembled using Microsoft Excel where they were assigned
responsible and deadlines for the closure of each action. In class, the Scrum methodology was presented, so
that the team chose to define deliveries in the form of Sprint fortnightly, each containing a package of actions
and a closing meeting was held for team alignment, which made the process more agile and with great time
gain. The team also opted for the use of the Trello application with the Kanban tool applied, so that it was
possible to monitor the development of the actions during the Sprints in an easier way and without the need
for many meetings, optimizing the working time, since the students who had other commitments and had little
availability of hours beyond the class (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Trello of Group 1, in Portuguese.

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In parallel, as the team matures, both in relation to productivity and in relation to the understanding of the
project, and as taking into the concepts of project management were discussed in the classroom, of the project
was elaborated, dividing it into three macro steps: planning, development and finalization of the, which in turn
were subdivided into activities, and again subdivided into shares. The planning stage included two activities:
research and data collection, sources and stakeholders, so that a Sprint was dedicated to perform all the actions
of each one. The product development stage was also divided into two activities: structuring of the MVP and
validation and adjustments, for which a Sprint was also designated for each. Finally, the last stage of product
completion was divided into three activities: preparation of a final report, presentation of the product to
stakeholders and structuring the next steps for the project, and as in the other stages, each activity was
assigned a Sprint, but due to the closing period of the school semester, the period of the Sprints was reduced
to one week. , In addition, a, survey of risks associated with each stage, incorporated into the same diagram in
order to manage it and avoid development impediments.
With the understanding of the negotiation aspects in advance, the structuring of the prototype began. In this
sense, one team member was allocated to centralize this activity, while the others finished collecting
information and structuring the final report, consolidating the development process, difficulties, learning and
next steps to complete the delivery. Such a report was determined as a formal delivery by the teacher, together
with the prototype, in order to evaluate the performance of students in the discipline.

5 The Prototype
The platform used for development was Microsoft Power BI. This platform was chosen because it allows the
creation of interactive panels, visually friendly and updated in real time. In addition, you can share the
dashboard via link, and you do not need to download the app to view the information. This was a point of
great importance to increase the reach of the product and allow its visualization using mobile phones and
tablets.
The initial interface was subdivided into 6 menus (Figure 3), which direct to the functionalities, of which three
were presented in the prototype, the information panels. The simulators were partially developed as a
complement, aiming that the student could assemble hourly grid models, check the time needed to complete
his graduation and calculate his academic performance on the platform itself. However, because they are
complementary functions, they were defined as future scope, therefore disabled for initial testing.

Figure 3. DesENCrenca main page, in Portuguese.

The information panels were divided between official information, information about the students' experience
and a comparison of both data. In addition, the field "Tips and Comments" provides a brief report on subjective
aspects of each subject or extension activity. On the side there is also a menu of navigation and filtering, in a
way that directs and facilitates the experience of users on the platform (Figure 4).

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Figure 4. Example of discipline information at DesENCrenca, in Portuguese.

Finally, it is worth noting that all pages allow access to online questionnaires that feed them, so that the user
is redirected and can contribute to the collaborative database that feeds the system. As responses are being
stored, an update has been scheduled so that the dashboard is also updated and can provide more current
and accurate information.

6 Conclusion
At the end of the semester, the students presented the product and the report for evaluation of colleagues
and teachers. The prototype was enthusiastically received, both by graphic choices and consolidated
information, although incomplete.
Thinking about the experience of developing the project, the group noticed a maturation and improvement in
productivity during the semester, as the theoretical discussions were presented in the room. The direct
application of the concepts for the elaboration of the tools allowed greater clarity in the priorities and
understanding of the proposed scope. Still, the greatest perceptual gain was the application of the concepts
of agile methodology, so that the structuring of internal deadlines, adoption of Kanban and sprints with fixed
deadlines increased productivity and ensured the delivery of a minimum viable product beyond initial
expectations. All members of the group received the maximum mention in the discipline, "SS", and considered
the discipline of great practical utility and aggregator of tangible knowledge for professional life.
Thinking about the continuity of the initiative "DesENCrenca", the next steps include the development of
complementary functionalities (simulators) and release for use in beta by students. In addition, from the
collaborative databases built, it is possible to structure other panels for analysis, serving for example for the
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering to understand the students' view of the disciplines offered.

7 References
Bell, S. (2010) Project-Based Learning for the 21st Century: skills for the Future. The clearing house, 83:2,39-43, 2010.
Filho, G. E., Sauer, L. Z., Almeida, N., N., & Villas-Boas, V. (2019). Uma nova sala de aula é possível [A new classroom is possible]. LTC.
Martin, P., & Tate, K. (2001). Getting Started in Project Management. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Parecer CNE/CES 1.362/2001. Available in: <<http://portal.mec.gov.br/cne/arquivos/pdf/CES1362.pdf>>.
Pereira, M. A. C.; Barreto, M. A. M.; Pazeti, M. (2017) Application of Project-Based Learning in the first year of an Industrial Engineering
Program: lessons learned and challenges. Production, 27 (spe), 2017.

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Project Management Institute (PMI). (2017). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide). Newton Square, PA:
Project Management Institute.
Ries, E. (2019). A startup enxuta [The Lean Startup]. Sextante.
Thomas, J. W. (2000) A review of research on Project-Based learning. The Autodeks Foundation, San Rafael, California, 2000.

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