Project Management
Plan, execute and close projects within budget and on schedule.
There are five factors that differentiate a project from routine work. They are:
- A defined life span
- A well-defined objective
- People from several disciplines
- A project life cycle
- Specific time, cost, and performance requirements
In MNGT 6601 Project Management, you will learn how this process has evolved into its own field. Project management balances the technical and socio-cultural sides of a project while overseeing project teams, changing organization structures, tight timelines, resource conservation and more. Within a project, communication is key. A communication plan replaces request response with control of the information flow. By keeping stakeholders informed in a timely manner, project managers help senior management feel more comfortable about letting the team proceed without interference.
You will consider the importance of including slack time in a project for the flexibility to rearrange work and resources as needed. Free slack is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without affecting the early start of the activity immediately following it. Total slack is the amount of time an activity can be delayed before it becomes critical. You will learn to compute early, late, and slack activity times and identify critical paths. You will also look at risks that can arise during a project and evaluate ways to identify, analyze and assess these factors. You will also gauge the effects of compressing or crashing a project. Within an organization, projects usually share resources. Priority systems rank projects and determine where resources are to be deployed first. Resource scheduling usually reduces flexibility and can result in delays if a resource conflict occurs on the critical path. You will examine multi-project resource scheduling methods.
What You Will Learn in MNGT 6601
A key element of a project is the vision. You will learn the importance of communicating the vision to others so they can buy into it and choose to pursue it. Visions are more than goals. They can be used to motivate superior performance. Solving problems within a project can be achieved through escalation, a basic principle of resolving problems at the lowest appropriate level within a set time limit — before they escalate to the next management level. Escalation discourages participants from forcing concessions by delaying decisions. It empowers people to solve problems and contributes to quick and effective problem solving.
In this course, you will use a project planning software tool. This tool will enable you to build Tracking Gantt charts to compare planned time with actual time, or to use a bar chart layout for at-a-glance views of planned schedule and actual start, finish and remaining activity times. You will learn to calculate and interpret different project performance indexes. You will also appreciate the concept of earned value and how its inclusion of the time variable can more effectively measure project progress. Oversight and mentoring can contribute to successful project management and you will come to understand the role of each.
Course Topics
Throughout this course, weekly topics may include but are not limited to:
- Modern Project Management
- Defining the Project
- Project Development and Risks
- Resources and Leadership
- Managing and Outsourcing
- Evaluation and Closure
- International Projects and Oversight
- Project Management in Review
Course Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of MNGT 6601, you will be able to:
- Describe and use the traditional project management framework.
- Identify project initiation and project gate decisions relative to financial decision-making.
- Adapt project planning, execution and control to organizational behavior and structure.
- Describe how project management skills can be used to promote a positive and effective work environment.
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To learn more about the online Master of Business Administration curriculum from Benedictine University, including Project Management, call (866) 295-3104 to speak with a program manager or request more information.
Course content and outcomes may vary and are subject to change without notice.
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