Learn the basics of project planning and management so you can run effective projects at work or in daily life. Projects are all around us. Virtually every organisation runs projects, either formally or informally. In this course you will learn planning principles and execution methods so your projects can be run more effectively and efficiently at work and in daily life. You’ll discover the language and frameworks for scoping projects, sequencing activities, utilizing resources, and minimizing risks.
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You also have the chance to earn professional development units (PDUs) as the University of Virginia Darden School of Business is approved by the Project Management Institute (PMI®).
What topics will you cover?
Week 1
- What a project is, what it is not, and why that matters
- How projects are defined and a project’s three objectives
- Models for examining a project’s organization and its stakeholders
- Reasons why projects fail and how to measure success
- Key stages in the project life-cycle and the features of each
Week 2
- Why we plan and how to develop a project plan
- Process of scoping
- Tools that can help us identify what should be included in a project
- Sequencing project tasks and the nature of dependencies among project activities
- Determine a project’s duration and critical path
- Schedule a project and making changes to a plan
Week 3
- Identify and assess project risks
- Prioritize and schedule project risks
- Setting a project budget
- Identify methods that can be used in situations with high degree of ambiguity
Week 4
- Execution phase of a project
- Earned value approach for monitoring and controlling progress
- How habits of individuals executing the project can impact progress
- Alternative methods for project execution: Agile, Scrum, and Kanban
Learning on this course
You can take this self-guided course and learn at your own pace. On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you'll be able to...
- Describe how to initiate a project by defining the project goal, identifying the priorities, and establishing the organization.
- Explain how to develop a project plan by identifying the scope, task dependencies, schedule, critical path, and risks.
- Identify factors that lead to project success.
- Describe the four stages of the project-life-cycle and the role each stage has in the evolution of a project.
- Explain how to execute a project by monitoring the progress, communicating with stakeholders, and deciding how to correct and control.
- Develop an awareness of some behavioral biases in project settings and identify how these impact the planning and execution of a project.
- Develop the language and mindset for planning and managing projects by properly setting and prioritizing project goals and objectives.
- Identify the most appropriate project management methodology given the project objectives, the degrees of uncertainty, and the constraints.
Who is the course for?
This course is for anyone interested in project planning and management. If you want to develop planning techniques to ensure your projects run smoothly from start to finish, this is the course for you. You don’t need any prior experience.
