Fundamentals of Project Planning and Management

FutureLearn Fundamentals of Project Planning and Management

Platform
FutureLearn
Provider
Darden School of Business, University of Virginia
Effort
2 hours/week
Length
4 weeks
Language
English
Credentials
Paid Certificate Available
Course Link
Overview
Learn how to ensure your projects run smoothly
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.

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®).

This course is for anyone interested in ensuring their projects run smoothly. You don’t need any prior experience.

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

Taught by

Yael Grushka-Cockayne
Author
FutureLearn
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