Depok-As industry demands increased efficiency and accuracy in digital project management, understanding work time planning has become a crucial skill for aspiring professionals. This is especially true given data from the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Informatics (now the Ministry of Communication and Digital), which projects Indonesia’s digital economy sector to grow to US$360 billion by 2030. To address this need, the Media Production study program, Vocational Education Program, Universitas Indonesia (UI), held a guest lecture entitled “Workshop Mandays” on October 15, 2025 in Room VB303, Vocational Education Program, UI.
The guest lecture featured Brilyan Nathanael, a professional software engineer, who explained the concept of Mandays to students. A Mandays is a unit of work for an individual in one day (eight hours) used to measure the workload and duration of a project. “Estimation isn’t about right or wrong, but about how realistic and accountable it is,” Brilyan said, explaining the importance of accurate work time planning in the digital industry.
At the workshop, Brilyan also explained the basic formula for calculating Mandays, converting work time into project cost estimates, and strategies for optimizing human resources in a digital project environment. To strengthen students’ understanding, Brilyan also invited students to participate in a case study simulation of the “KostFinder App” project, a web-based application designed to help students find boarding houses near campus.
(Photo: Group photo after the Mandays workshop)
The simulation guides students in developing a work breakdown structure (WBS), determining work time estimates (mandays calculations), and converting costs using a man-day rate. Through this project-based approach, students learn to apply theory directly to real-world contexts such as development, debugging, deployment, and managing cross-functional teams.
This guest lecture is integrated with the Stream Engineer courses, which include Game Development, Human-Computer Interaction Development, and Creative Technology. Furthermore, the workshop is designed to align with the Media Production study program curriculum, enhancing students’ capacity in planning, cross-functional collaboration, and project time management through Mandays simulations that reflect real-life creative industry situations.
“We want students to be able to create creative media products and understand the managerial and professional aspects behind them. The Mandays concept helps them see how time and resource efficiency are crucial in every production process,” said Ngurah Rangga Wiwesa, M.I.Kom., Head of the Media Production Study Program.
Through this activity, UI Vocational demonstrated its efforts to strengthen the synergy between theory and practice, producing graduates who are work-ready, collaborative, and highly competitive.
