Introduction to Project Management
- Course Description
- Learning Objectives
- Who should take this course
- Professional Training Certificate Core Course For:
- Textbook
- Instructor
- Instructor Biography
In every economic sector, project teams create and deliver value for their organizations. Thus, project management (PM) has become, for organizations today and their stakeholders, an essential practice, one with unique challenges, approaches, constructs, and tools.
This course introduces today’s practice by way of its two main paradigms: the 20th Century “Plan-driven” paradigm, and 21st century “Agile”. In the course, participants tackle a global project via a commercial case study and a project that they themselves are familiar with. As they do so, they learn how project managers today approach disruptive business contexts, engage stakeholders, build teams, model products, and deliver valuable product increments.
For this introductory class, there are no academic prerequisites. Participants need to be able to meet via Zoom® and to do work on the Mural® platform. What is essential is experience in some project setting. This is because participants will need to refer to and elaborate on one of their own projects, as a thought experiment, for individual coaching and case study purposes.
Upon successful completion of this class, participants will know how to:
1. Collaborate in dispersed project team via popular platforms Zoom® and Mural®
2. Given a case study, critique project decision-making constructively (i.e. by root cause analysis, generation of solution options, criteria-based solution recommendations)
3. Walk-thru and enhance project artifacts that they themselves and others have created
4. Inform decisions and develop work products in team organized as agile or plan-driven:
Agile decision-making and work products
● Product Vision
● Product Backlog via User Story Mapping
● Release & Iteration Plans
● Progress Measurement via Dashboard of Big Visual Charts (BVC)
●Plan-driven decision-making and work products
● Project Charter, Project Management Plan
● Scope Modeling (e.g. via WBS down to the work package level)
● Schedule Mgmt, via Critical Path Methodology (CPM)
● Cost Control, via Earned Value Management (EVM)
2 Early- to mid-career managers, professionals, or technical people who would like to enhance their ability to lead the development of deliverables by an agile or a predictive ("waterrfall") approach.
3. Individual creatives or designers wishing to enter or succeed in group project settings.