Course Listings

Foundations of Project Management

PMAN 634 | 3 Credits

Course Desc: An overview of the theory and practice of managing projects in any organization or industry using traditional, agile, and hybrid methodologies. All three skill sets of the Project Management Institute Talent Triangle are addressed: Technical Project Management, Leadership, and Strategic and Business Management and provide a foundational project management knowledge and skill base that is highly relevant to workplace project challenges. Emphasis is on blending hard and soft skills to realize superior project outcomes. Skills associated with harnessing diversity, building, leading, and motivating project teams, communications, conflict management, and emotional intelligence are intertwined with tools and techniques drawn from all ten of the project management knowledge areas: integration, scope, schedule, cost, quality, resource, communication, risk, procurement, and stakeholder with emphasis on Integration Management and Scope Management. These skills and techniques are contextualized to predictive (traditional) and adaptive (agile) life cycles and to the initiation, planning, executing, monitoring/control, and closure of a project. Emphasis is on the need to constantly align projects with value creation using practices and approaches that are tailored to mission, vision, and strategy of an organization, to the needs and priorities of stakeholders, and to organizational culture and mores.

Project Schedule, Cost, and Resource Management

PMAN 635 | 3 Credits

Course Desc: Prerequisite: PMAN 634. An in-depth coverage of the logical and conceptual progression of a project from scope to schedule and budget, developed in the context of traditional project management, and then adapted to the agile and hybrid approaches. Aspects of resource management that relate to schedule and cost are also addressed. Emphasis is on cultivating practical and workplace-relevant skills, tools, and techniques essential for effectively estimating, modeling, and managing schedule and budget, and for addressing the associated uncertainties, imperatives, and challenges encountered in real-life projects. Students will use project management software to develop actionable reports and dashboards that provide a realistic and well-informed depiction of the schedule and budget, so that stakeholders can effectively engage with and support the project, make informed decisions, and assist in narrowing the gap between plan and actual performance. Extends learning from projects to programs and portfolios and develop the leadership skills and insights required to ensure their alignment with organizational mission, strategy, and goals.

Project Uncertainty: Risks, Ambiguity, and Complexity

PMAN 637 | 3 Credits

Course Desc: Prerequisite: PMAN 635. An in-depth exploration of project uncertainty and its manifestations in project risks/opportunities, ambiguity, and complexity. Includes comprehensive coverage of risk/opportunity in both the traditional and agile contexts - identification, qualitative and quantitative analysis, responses, and monitoring. Considerations for navigating and reducing ambiguity are addressed. Modeling and simulation techniques are leveraged to gauge the impact of complexity and project risks/opportunities on project schedule, cost, quality, and team motivation/morale, which are used to derive meaningful and informed forecasts that facilitate ongoing project planning and execution leading to successful project outcomes. Emphasis is on leveraging data visualization techniques to communicate project uncertainty and performance effectively and expeditiously.

Project Stakeholder and Communication Management

PMAN 638 | 3 Credits

Course Desc: Prerequisite: PMAN 634. An in-depth exploration of project communication and its manifestations in project communications/opportunities, ambiguity, and complexity. Discussion covers communication/opportunity in both the traditional and agile contexts, including identification; qualitative and quantitative analysis; responses; and monitoring, navigating, and reducing ambiguity. Modeling and simulation techniques are leveraged to gauge the impact of complexity and project communications/opportunities on project schedule, cost, quality, and team motivation/morale; these impacts are in turn used to derive meaningful and informed forecasts that facilitate ongoing project planning and execution for successful project outcomes. Emphasis is on leveraging data visualization techniques to convey project communications/opportunities and performance effectively and expeditiously.

Project Management Quality

PMAN 639 | 3 Credits

Course Desc: Prerequisite: PMAN 634. An applied study of the quality management policies, processes, and procedures required to ensure that projects satisfy customers and stakeholders. Emphasis is on process improvement and quality planning, assurance, and control to effectively manage customer satisfaction, promote prevention over inspection, and facilitate continuous improvement. Activities associated with determining quality objectives, policies, and responsibilities are evaluated and implemented in the context of quality management principles, practices, and standards. Contemporary project quality management processes, tools, and applications, including the most widely used metrics and measurements, such as benchmarking, cost of quality analysis, trend charts, control charts, cause and effect diagrams, and Six Sigma, are appraised for potential application to a project. The need to mold the quality management approach to resonate with organizational priorities, objectives, and challenges is discussed.

Project Procurement Management

PMAN 641 | 3 Credits

Course Desc: Prerequisite: PMAN 634. An examination of the tools needed for project procurement management. Focus is on determining what needs to be purchased or acquired and determining when and how to acquire it. Topics include planning the contracting efforts (documenting products and services and identifying potential sellers); requesting sellers' responses (obtaining information, quotes bids, offers, or proposals); selecting the seller (receiving and reviewing offers, selecting among those potential offers, and negotiating a contract); administering contracts (managing the relationship between buyers and sellers, including documentation, corrective actions, and contract changes); and closing contracts (completing the contract and settling all open issues).

Financial and Strategic Management of Projects

PMAN 650 | 3 Credits

Course Desc: Prerequisite: PMAN 635. An investigation of financial and strategic decision making in the management of projects. Topics include estimating project costs from work breakdown structure; formulating, monitoring, and controlling project budgets; monitoring, evaluating, and forecasting project costs, schedule, results, and performance using earned value management; and deriving project cash flows. Discussion also covers the impact of project scope, schedule, and changes; management reserves to cover risks and contingencies; top-down and bottom-up budgeting; investment project analysis; discounted cash flow, internal rate of return, and net present value methodologies; cost of capital; and capital budgeting. Broader issues (such as links between project and corporate financial performance, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, project and organizational culture, information flow, and project sustainability) are also examined.