Project handbook for grant-funded projects

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to create a project handbook for Arcada University of Applied Sciences. Arcada has recently invested in a project portfolio system where information about projects should be found. Being able to predict outcome and plan the budget for the University is possible only if sufficient information about applied funding and ongoing funded projects is available. A lot of information about projects are however still missing which creates challenges for the financial management at Arcada. The system is not used as intended and as a solution to this problem Arcada has commissioned the work to develop a handbook which contains instructions on how to work with grant-funded project so that information needed to support the overall financial management at Arcada is made available to the organisation. The main research questions are: What should be included in the handbook? How are good training materials with instructions written? What kind of process can be used? The work takes an action research approach and the handbook is developed using an instructional design framework. With the help of design thinking the intended reader is put in the foreground and the handbook is developed for the user. The final first version of the handbook is structured according to the project lifecycle of grant funded projects and includes instructions on how to work with grant funded projects in connection with the project portfolio system and, is mainly written as a tool for the project managers.