Research and further reading

Throughout this course, you will be asked to engage in independent research and discussion on the topic of major projects. There is a wealth of information in news coverage, government reports and academic articles about major project planning, delivery and performance.

To help you get started in exploring this topic more widely you might like to consider how to approach sourcing appropriate materials.

Ways to search

There are a number of tools you can use to locate information or examples of case studies. Using an internet search engine is a good place to start.

Search engines use algorithms to provide you with a list of internet sources based on keywords you have entered. The results listed are ordered by the search engine based on how you input your search terms.

When looking for examples of major projects, you might find it useful to search for news items or short opinion pieces. These can be found using general search engines.

Google News

Google News provides up-to-date lists of news articles relating to a chosen topic. You could begin by thinking about a major project you have heard about in the news and searching for relevant articles, analysis or discussion.

Project management sites

You might also find the blogs and analysis provided by dedicated project management websites to be a great way of starting to explore the learning content in more detail. The discussions and case studies presented by these websites will help you apply your learning in a practical context and may illustrate how the theory discussed in this course is applied in real-life scenarios.

Some key websites include:

Association of Project Management

Project Management Institute

International Project Management Association

Useful videos can be found from:

National Geographic Megastructures

It is likely that exploring this variety of sources will give you a range of answers and approaches to your question or topic. Getting information from a number of different sources will help you to formulate your own point of view on a topic. This is particularly important when you start to research your peer review assignment in Week 5 of this course.

Where you are using materials from another source it is important that you acknowledge this. In Week 5 of this course you will be introduced to the principles of academic referencing in preparation for your research assignment.

Throughout the course you’ll be asked to share and reflect on your professional practice. You may draw on work you are currently involved in, but please make sure you do not share any sensitive information related to your company or organisation.

You might also find it useful to save a copy of any links to materials you have found particularly interesting or inspiring. This may be helpful when preparing for your future research, study or practice.

Research and further reading

Ways to search

Further reading