MAN 2582 - Introduction to Project Management

College of Business

Credit(s): 3
Contact Hours: 47
Effective Term Spring 2025 (645)

Course Description

This course is designed to prepare students for the PMI Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)® exam. Students will learn fundamental project management terminology and concepts, including project scope definition, planning, estimating techniques, staffing, and scheduling. The course will guide students through the development of project plans, writing project status reports, and conducting project status meetings. Key features of project management software will be covered, with hands-on practice using an example software package to develop project plans. Upon successful completion, students may be eligible to sit for the CAPM exam, provided they meet the SPC & PMI eligibility requirements.
Basic computer literacy and college-level math skills are suggested.

Learning Outcomes and Objectives

  1. The student will differentiate between various project life cycles and processes by:
    1. Identifying the differences between a project, program, and a portfolio.
    2. Distinguishing between a project and operations.
    3. Contrasting predictive and adaptive approaches.
    4. Defining issues, risks, assumptions, and constraints.
    5. Reviewing and critiquing project scope.
  2. The student will apply project management planning principles by:
    1. Describing the purpose and importance of cost, quality, risk, and schedule.
    2. Selecting between project management plan and product management plan deliverables.
    3. Using risk and stakeholder registers in given situations.
    4. Explaining project closure.
  3. The student will be able to summarize the roles and responsibilities of the project leaders by:
    1. Explaining the importance of the role the project manager plays (e.g., initiator, negotiator, listener, coach, working member, and facilitator).
    2. Articulating the differences between leadership and management.
    3. Describing Emotional intelligence (EQ) and its impact on project management.
  4. The student will explain when it is appropriate to use a predictive, plan-based approach to Project Management by:
    1. Identifying the suitability of a predictive, plan-based approach for the organizational structure (e.g., virtual, colocation, matrix structure, hierarchical, etc.).
    2. Determining the activities within each process.
    3. Giving examples of typical activities within each process.
    4. Identifying organizational process assets and enterprise environmental factors that facilitate the use of adaptive approaches.
  5. The student will explain when it is appropriate to use an adaptive approach to Project Management by:
    1. Comparing the pros and cons of adaptive and predictive, plan-based projects.
    2. Identifying the suitability of adaptive approaches for the organizational structure (e.g., virtual, colocation, matrix structure, hierarchical).
    3. Demonstrating how to plan project iterations.
  6. The student will draft a project management plan schedule by:
    1. Applying critical path methods.
    2. Calculating schedule variance.
    3. Developing a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).
  7. The student will apply key skills of business analyst (BA) roles and responsibilities that include:
    1. Demonstrating how to gather requirements.
    2. Matching tools to scenarios (e.g., user stories, use cases, etc.).
    3. Identifying the requirements gathering approach for a situation (e.g., conduct stakeholder interviews, surveys, workshops, lessons learned, etc.).
    4. Explaining a traceability matrix/product backlog.
    5. Analyzing a product roadmap.
    6. Validating requirements through product delivery by defining acceptance criteria.

Criteria Performance Standard

Upon successful completion of the course the student will, with a minimum of 70% accuracy, demonstrate mastery of each of the above stated objectives through classroom measures developed by individual course instructors.

History of Changes

C&I Approval: 07/19/2024, BOT Approval: 09/17/2024, Effective Term: Spring 2025 (645)

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  2. Business Administration (BUS-AS) (670) (Active)
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