Many educational institutions preparing specialists in business and management offer a compulsory course entitled “Project Management”. At the same time, non-specialised courses also include project management approaches and techniques, for example, in group project assignments.

The author intends to define principles and aspects of project management applied by students and instructors in business projects in non-project management-specific disciplines, highlight determinants of project success, and current problem areas.

Based on a qualitative study conducted at Lomonosov Moscow State University, the paper demonstrates instructors’ and students’ perceptions of business projects and their role in the particular course, used project management approaches and techniques, project success factors, challenges, limitations, etc.

The author highlights that both instructors and students positively perceive client-centric, human-centric, and problem-centric approaches to business project assignments; they use project management basics in managing business projects (e.g., in planning, monitoring and controlling, etc.); students lack soft skills (e.g., conflict management, critical thinking, emotional intelligence) in managing group projects; students and instructors are interested in modern solutions based on artificial intelligence (AI), but they lack knowledge and trust.

Keywords: Project management, non-project management, business project, education and research, Russia,  .