Project Management

This course is designed to introduce a systematic process for planning, organizing and controlling projects. The course will present a practical methodology for completing projects more quickly with fewer problems. Student work will consist of readings, research, class special-topic presentations, group activities, a project management journal, and participation in a real world IT business project. Students will be encouraged to apply project-management techniques to solve existing real-world technology-related business problems.

Students will effectively identify, analyze, and create engagement strategies for stakeholders in the context of project management. Students will also explore techniques for stakeholder analysis, communication strategies, conflict resolution, and fostering stakeholder collaboration. The course emphasizes practical application, ensuring learners can apply theoretical concepts to real-world scenarios, managing stakeholder expectations and enhancing project outcomes in alignment with organizational objectives.

Examine how to cultivate meaningful relationships across an organizational system, from co-workers, to team members, to broader stakeholders. Attention will be given to how to leverage both formal and informal relationships to create positive impact. Topics include perceptions, motivation, emotional intelligence, building teams, and conflict management.

In this course, students will explore project uses of accounting and financial information and the development and use of project cost accounts. An introduction to common cost engineering principles, financial systems, and conventions will enable students to develop and evaluate project budgets. In addition, students will learn techniques to integrate resources, schedules, and cost estimates throughout the life of the project to predict and manage cost performance.

In this course, students study Agile project management methodologies, in the context of software development, as a way of achieving Software Engineering quality goals. Students will learn what projects lend themselves to an agile approach, and how the agile approach relates to traditional project management, while learning the tools and techniques of Agile.

This course combines the critical aspects of strategic planning and project execution into a cohesive framework, enabling students to synthesize the planning, executing, and controlling of project work. Students will explore comprehensive planning strategies that include delineating project team structures, optimizing resource management, and establishing procurement plans. Students will also utilize metrics for strategic alignment and project performance evaluation, and use specialized techniques for navigating project constraints, ensuring team coherence, efficient resource management, and dynamic response to project evolution.

This course reviews the categories of a project's critical success factors (CSFs) and discusses their importance in project success. Students will research early warning signs of project failure and assessment techniques used to measure the presence, or lack, of CSFs and will apply that learning to case examples. In addition to learning how to identify a troubled project, students will learn a framework for executing a recovery of a challenged project.

In this course, students explore artificial intelligence (AI) through the lens of enterprise innovation, uncovering how AI is reshaping digital modernization. Students will learn how organizations across sectors are harnessing AI to forge customer relations and enhance process efficiency. Students will also engage with case studies that offer insights and strategies to architect an AI-centric business model tailored to an organization's scale, sector, and data governance strengths.

Students will explore program and portfolio management, focusing on supervising and regulating interconnected projects to align with organizational objectives. Students will also learn key strategies for selecting and prioritizing projects, implementing effective management practices, and utilizing tools like earned value management for overseeing projects efficiently.

This course is built around a project that is designed to apply, in a comprehensive manner, the core areas of knowledge around which the MBA has been built. The project may be performed for a current employer, a sponsoring workplace or as an internship as either a service-learning project for a qualifying nonprofit organization or another organization of the student's choosing.