No Prerequisites
Student Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion of this course, students shall be able to:
- Describe general Project Management (PM) principles, tools, and their applicability to engineering-specific projects and systems engineering endeavors.
- Define the several stages of the life cycle of projects, including the processes, stakeholders, obstacles, constraints, and risks associated with each step.
- Relate the practice of PM to that of Systems Engineering, including the domains, tools, and methods within each.
- Formulate effective PM strategies applied to ‘real world’ engineering problems.
- Utilize useful PM tools, such as Gantt charts, mind maps, work breakdown structures, project evaluation and review diagrams, PERT/critical path method, and earned value management.
- Demonstrate familiarity with select PM software packages, along with their benefits and limitations.
- Compare and contrast conventional project management, Agile, and Scrum techniques.
- Relate course materials to the literature from the Project Management Institute and its certification exams.
Course Description
This course covers, from a Systems Engineering perspective, the primary methods for successful project management relevant to engineering disciplines. Students are introduced to project management principles, practice and performance domains as defined by the Project Management Institute. A continuous and in-depth examination of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK) familiarizes students with the contents of the Project Management Professional certification exam. Topics covered include: proposal development, stakeholder identification, project scope, cost, communications, risk and artifacts devoted to tailoring the project management process. Both quantitative and qualitative scheduling models, such as the PERT\CPM method and Gantt charts, will be presented and used to develop efficient project management skills. Students will gain valuable experience with these topics by implementing them in project management software.