Overview

This course will be useful for anyone who might need to perform project management activities in their job roles on either a formal or informal basis, or any individual who wants to build upon their current project management knowledge to be more productively involved on a project team. In this course, you'll define project management basics and identify influencing factors. You'll also identify project stakeholders, authorize a project, and identify the project scope. Then, you'll develop a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), identify activity resources, estimate time, plan an adaptive project, develop a project schedule, and create an initial release plan. This is the first course in a multi-course Specialization. All of the courses in this Specialization require that you have a recent version of Microsoft Word and Excel installed in order to open the course data files. The course setup instructions provided in the first module of this course go into more detail about the hardware and software requirements.

Syllabus

Getting Started with Project Management

Successful project management requires effective planning and adherence to best practices. Over time, two fundamental approaches to project management have emerged—Predictive and Adaptive. By having a solid understanding of the basic concepts and approaches to project management as well as its influencing factors, you will be better prepared to lead a project in your organization and position it for success. In this lesson, you will define project management concepts, its approaches and methodologies, and identify the factors that can influence and have an impact on your project.

Launching Projects

Now that you have an understanding of project management basics, you are ready to start managing projects. The first step in managing the project is to perform the initial tasks required to get the project off the ground. It's essential to properly identify who your stakeholders are, as well as define the scope of the project so it progresses smoothly. In this lesson, you will launch your project.

Planning the Work in Predictive and Adaptive Projects

Now that you have identified the project stakeholders and created the project charter and scope statement, you are ready to estimate the amount of effort and resources your project requires. The success of your project depends on the accuracy of the effort and resource estimates you make in the beginning of the project. Ensuring your project starts with good estimates saves time and resources and potentially eliminates the need to backtrack once your project is officially underway.

Creating Project Schedules and Release Plans

Now that you have estimated project effort, you are ready to begin project planning with project schedules, which will drive your project. Creating a project schedule is commonly done in Predictive projects due to the amount of detail known at the beginning of a project. Conversely, in Adaptive projects, the product or solution is delivered to customers based on a Release Plan.