Haaga-Helia students won the national final of the Project Management Championship Competition

Students from Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences Péter Gerhát, Krisztina Rácz and Janis Aizpurientis took the win at the national final of the Project Management Championship Competition (PMC). The other two teams who were competing on the PMC-final were from Haaga-Helia and VAMK University of Applied Sciences.

In the PMC-final the teams were given a task of procuring a new IT-system, specifically a system for issuing parking fees, for the city of Helsinki. For the first time ever, the task was completed by a project simulation game Project Business Game (PBG) developed in the University of Oulu, where the game development team is led by Professor Jaakko Kujala. PBG allows you to model different projects into a game format for learning tasks. Almost any project can be used as a model for a game task. The game can simulate e.g., the realization and impact of different risks, explore dependencies, compare different design and implementation approaches, and include investment and cost accounting. Besides the performance in the PBG-game the judges evaluated teamwork, how well the teams introduced themselves and reflection of the team’s own performance.

This year’s jury was formed by Postdoctoral Researcher Jere Lehtinen from the University of Oulu, Project Professionals Association board members Elsa Paasilinna and Taina Rämö-Korpinen and Alexandra Ekman from Åbo Akademi University. Lehtinen has been on the development team of the PBG-game, so he was an expert of understanding the game. Choosing the winner was not an easy task for the jury as all the teams gave and excellent performance and succeeded in different areas.

- I’m proud of all the finalists! They are such promising young professionals. I’m looking forward to following their careers, comments one of the judges, Taina Rämö-Korpinen.

In the end the winning team was chosen based on their excellent preparations, clear performance, and their seamless teamwork. The winning team had a clear drive for succeeding in the competition.

- Through the best of our efforts, exceptional communication and chemistry in the team, absurd amounts of caffeine and a deep understanding of the subject at hand, we have emerged victorious by a very thin margin! I am grateful for being able to call Krisztina and Janis my teammates, comments the winning teams Péter Gerhát.

Krisztina Racz sends her gratitude for all the other teams:

- Congratulations to everyone! It was a great honor to be amongst the best three teams of Finland. 

Besides gaining an amazing experience and glory, the winning team gets to represent Finland in the International IPMA Project Management Championship Final in Berlin. There the winning team gets to compete against other teams from all over the world. In addition to that, the winning team gets a chance to get certified with the internationally known IPMA Level D-certification.

Text and image: Jonna Vuorenpää, viestintäkoordinaattori Projektiammattilaiset ry