Although the course does not prepare students for the Project Management Professional® (PMP) exam, the textbook does cover advice on certification and you are welcome to ask the course author any questions you may have on this. You are not expected to know how to use Microsoft Project to take this course nor does the course teach you how to use the software.
Managing projects is a vital part of everyone’s job and mastering key concepts and techniques can help you be more effective in your career. This course puts project management concepts, tools, and techniques into a real-world context. The course logically follows the project life cycle and examines the technical and sociocultural dimensions of project management.
Whether you are already leading projects, working on projects, or wanting to take a more active role in upcoming projects, this course will provide you with essential project management knowledge and information (including techniques) that you can put to work immediately and build on in the future.
Outline
The course is divided into eight themes that are studied over an eight-week period:
Lesson 1: Introduction to Project Management
Lesson 2: Project Initiation
Lesson 3: Project Planning
Lesson 4: Project Implementation
Lesson 5: Leadership and Teams
Lesson 6: Monitoring and Control
Lesson 7: Project Close Out
Lesson 8: Next Steps
Objectives
By the end of this course, students should be able to
Understand project, program, and portfolio management
Explain how projects are managed through the project life cycle
Understand and apply some project management techniques and access a variety of project management templates
Apply project management concepts
Be familiar with the project management knowledge areas
Critically analyze, discuss, and debate topics in project management
Evaluation
Your grade will be based on the successful completion of one group assignment, one individual assignment, and on your participation in moderated group discussions.
Activity
Weight
Participation in Discussions and Weekly Nuggets
40%
Group Current News Assignment
30%
Individual Assignment
30%
Total
100%
Component marks for this course are translated into letter grades as per the Graduate Grading Policy.
Materials
eTextbook: Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F. (2021). Project management: The managerial process (8th ed.). McGraw Hill. (eText)
Athabasca University reserves the right to amend course outlines occasionally and without notice. Courses offered by other delivery methods may vary from their individualized study counterparts.