Project management/Overview

Course Goals

When people work together, teaming is important for success, but there is always a large knowledge gap between those involved in a project's leadership, those in management, and those who actually execute the project (those who do the dirty work). Having a common knowledge base/language, which cuts across all levels of project organization will help demystify project management for each member of a team. With a shared understanding of professional project management, a team can be more integrated, smart, and responsive, increasing its chances for the successful and timely completion of its project.

Educational programs focus on creating a basic common level of understanding on the basic project management concepts. Project work is fundamentally team work, and everyone in a project team should know the concepts of project management so that the team as a whole can work more efficiently.

The readers of this page will get a fair understanding of the project management body of knowledge.

Topics Covered

Definition of a project
Difference between projects and operations
Programs
Portfolio management
Future value of money
Net present value
Payback period
IRR
Project life cycle
Project Management life cycle
MBO
Functional organization
Projectized organization
Matrix organization
Roles and responsibilities of a project manager
Roles and responsibilities of a project sponsor
Skills of a good project manager

Methodology

Project management is the discipline of defining and achieving finite objectives. The challenge of project management is the optimized integration and allocation of the inputs needed to meet those pre-defined objectives. The project, therefore, is a carefully selected set of activities chosen to use resources (time, money, people, materials, energy, space, provisions, communication, quality, risk, etc.) to meet the pre-defined objectives.

Learning projects

See: Learning Projects and the Wikiversity:Learning model.

Learning materials and learning projects are located in the main Wikiversity namespace. Simply make a link to the name of the learning project (learning projects are independent pages in the main namespace) and start writing! We suggest the use of the learning project template, by doing {{subst:Template:Learning project}} on the new page.

Learning materials and learning projects can be used by multiple departments. Cooperate with other departments that use the same learning resource.

Remember, Wikiversity has adopted the "learning by doing" model for education. Lessons should center on learning activities for Wikiversity participants. We learn by doing. Select a descriptive name for each learning project. Learning projects can be listed in alphanumeric order by code, however code numbers are optional. Get to work creating learning activities! Simply make a link to the name of the lesson (lessons are independent pages) and start writing!

Introduction to project management/Preparation

Resources

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