Why ENCE 662

Project managers are in high demand across every engineering discipline. To be succesful requires techincal and leadership skills, as well as business acumen - and the right processes to maximize the likelihood of success. In this course, you'll learn to lead a project throughout it's lifecycle using predictive, agile, and hybrid approaches to delivery. This changes how you develop requirements, schedule and plan work, identify and manage risks, and ensure delivery within budget. More importantly, it requires a diverse set of leadership skills to set the goal and motivate project teams to deliver value. And you'll need to do this while ensuring that projects work within the constraints of the business and drives progress toward your company and your customer's strategic goals.

Gregory Baecher, PhD

John Johnson, PMP, CSM Credits 3 Offered^* Fall On-Campus, Fall Online, Spring Online

Topics

Project Management Context

Project management is about execution and getting the job done. We discuss the evolution of project management as a discipline, the execution models, business context, and project selection concepts. PM's are much more successful when they understand the context within which they are working.

Initiation

Project success is only possible if the project is launched properly. We cover organizational strategies, contract types, attributes of effective managers and teams, and the relationships of the parties.

Planning

Creating the project plan is a dynamic process that is ongoing throughout the life of a project. The level of detail is a function of the degree of uncertainty. Planning includes defining the work to be accomplished, defining the relationships of the tasks, estimating, budgeting, risk analysis, managing uncertainty, and communications planning.

Execution

Implementing the project plan is a function of proactive thinking, quick response to changes, leadership, monitoring, control, and quality control. A firm grounding in ethical behavior and professional responsibility is essential.

Closing

Closing a project starts in project planning and is carried on throughout the project. Actions include: performance evaluations, auditing, releasing resources, closing all of the contracts and financial instruments, and coordinating with the customer. Lessons learned are critical to building future success for the organization.

Student Feedback

“I liked that it covered the whole project management process. The notes I received from this course are notes I will be keeping with me for a while.” Spring 2022
“I appreciated the workshops every week and whenever the class gave feedback on the course, the professor found a way to help us as a group. Professor Johnson cared about the class and it showed.” Fall 2021
“I really liked the real-life examples that the professor used to explain concepts as they helped me understand the material better. I also enjoyed working on the projects and doing case studies for the homework. I really enjoyed the lecture videos because the content was so practical and easy to understand and I feel I learned so many things that I can implement practically.” Fall 2021
“The course gave an insight on project management practices and various principles. The concept of Agile project management was also introduced which equips the student for the challenges of the current industry.” Fall 2021
“This course introduces the new emerging product life cycle of a project known as Agile. I am very interested in this type of project management life cycle and the ability to implement this into my organization.” Fall 2021
“I really enjoyed the workshops with classmates as well as the project teams. It was a good representative of work models in project management. I also enjoyed the guess speakers who brought real life examples to the table sharing their experiences.” Fall 2021

Books^*

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)–Sixth Edition By Project Management Institute

Project Management in Practice Seventh Edition By Jack R. Meredith, Samuel J. Mantel Jr., Scott M. Shafer and Margaret M. Sutton

Schedule

Offered: Fall On-Campus, Fall Online, Spring Online^*

Week 1Project Management Overview + global context

Capability Maturity Models
PMI's Project Management Body of Knowledge "PMBOK"
Individual Time Management

Week 2Initiating 1 - Project selection

Project Context
Project Selection
Project Initiation
Project Charter

Week 3Initiating 2 - Project Delivery

Project Delivery Strategies
Execution Models
Types of Contracts

Week 4Initiating 3 - IT Tools for Managing Projects

IT Tools for Managing Projects

Week 5Initiating 4 - The Project Manager

Project Manager
Managing Teams
HR: Performance Evaluations

Week 6Planning 1 - Project Planning

Project Planning
Work Breakdown Structure
Managing Effective Meetings

Week 7Planning 2 - Project Communications

Project Communications Plan
Communications process
People to People
Personality types

Week 8Mid Term Exam

Week 9Planning 3 - Project Cost & Risk

Project Cost Management
Resource Planning
Estimating, budgeting, & control
Project Risk Management

Week 10Planning 4 - Project Scheduling

Project Time Management
PERT & CPM
Critical Chain
Resource Planning
Project Expediting

Week 11Project Execution - Leadership

Leadership Principles
Risk Aversion & Change Resistance
How to motivate & build trust
How to influence others

Week 12Project Monitoring and Control

Schedule dynamics & risk
Scope creep & change control
Performance reporting
Quality concepts

Week 13Closing the project

Project Evaluation
Auditing
Termination and Closeout
Ethics and Professional Responsibility

Week 14Project 2 Due

Project 2 Presentations

Week 15Final Exam

^*All course content, including schedule, topics, and books are subject to change semester-to-semester. Course costs are dependent on students' individual situations, including but not limited to, online vs on-campus enrollment, in-state vs out-of-state enrollment, and scholarships. Not all books on this page may be required readings and additional readings may be assigned. Please check the UMD Schedule of Classes for most up to date semester offerings. Instructors give students specific semester details once they are enrolled.

The GAC and PMI logos are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc. For the full list of PMI’s legal marks, please contact the PMI Legal department.

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Why ENCE 662

Topics

Student Feedback

Books*

Schedule

Books^*