Orientation: Project Management Applications

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Message from your Instructor

This message confirms that you have signed up for Project Management Applications, a Fundamentals course that I will be teaching entirely online. I have prepared this document to help make your online educational experience as positive and enjoyable as possible. It contains contact information, a description of our course delivery system, course mechanics, and a course schedule.

How to get Started:

This course is conducted through an online classroom. You will need to go to this classroom to obtain your lessons, work through tutorials, take quizzes, complete assignments, participate in discussions with your fellow students, and ask questions of your instructor. As soon as the registration office verifies receipt of your payment, you will be able to participate. Here's how it works:

1. Wait until after 12:00 a.m. (Pacific Time) on the start date for this course.
2. After the course begins, go to https://www.ed2go.com/ksuconed/. The Online Classroom is open 24 hours a day and seven days a week, so please feel free to log in to your classroom at any time of day that is convenient for you.
3. Once on the website, click the Login link at the top right of the page.
4. Finally, log in with the username and password you provided us at the beginning of this orientation procedure. You should then be able to enter the online classroom and begin your studies.

Course Description

Increase your value to your employer by discovering and mastering essential quantitative and qualitative project management applications.

A successful project begins with process definition, data collection, and the scoping of project requirements. Every project ends with a motivated project team able to accomplish objectives on time and within budget. Winning projects rely on accurate cost and time estimates, identification of the critical path, and use of tracking and control tools.

In this course, an experienced Project Management Professional will teach you the same powerful tools and techniques that experienced project management professionals rely on every day.

You will increase the probability of project success by mastering the tricks of the trade: Earned Value Performance Measurement, Gantt Charts, Network Scheduling, Work Breakdown Structure, and Cost-Volume Analysis.

You will become proficient at recruiting project team members and empowering them to succeed. You will understand the stages of team development, and you will gain skills in developing and motivating team leaders. You will learn how to understand and relate to an organizational culture and the differing characteristics of its work groups.

The course also includes essential information that will help you prepare for the Project Management Professional (PMP)® and the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM®) exams offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI)®. Certification Magazine recently identified PMP certification as "the highest-paying certification" of the year.

PMP, Project Management Professional, Project Management Professional (PMP), PMBOK, PgMP, PMI-RMP, CAPM, PMI-SP, PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP) and the PMI REP Logo are registered marks of the Project Management Institute.

Course Requirements

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

• This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

• PC: Windows 8 or later.
• Mac: macOS 12 or later.
• Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
• Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

• Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Course Mechanics

I will make two lessons available to you every week for six weeks. You do not have to be present when a lesson is released, but you'll need to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

Once all 12 lessons have been released, I will give you a two-week grace period to complete your studies and take the final exam. This means that you have a total of eight weeks to complete this course. If you're thinking of taking another course after this one, you can avoid overlap by starting that course exactly two months after this one begins.

Lessons are released by 12:00am (Pacific Time) on Wednesdays and Fridays. To access your lessons, simply visit the online classroom (as described in the "Getting Started" section), and then click the lesson title you wish to visit.

Once the class access ends, I won't be able to send you the lessons. If you would like to keep the lessons for future reference, I suggest using the print lesson feature in the classroom.

Each time you complete a lesson, you will also be asked to complete a brief multiple-choice quiz. I expect you to complete each quiz within two weeks from the date that the corresponding lesson was made available. I realize that you are busy, and don't want you to worry if you can't complete a few of the quizzes on time due to illness, vacation, or other commitments. Once I release a lesson and quiz, I will make sure it is available to you as long as the classroom is open.

The interactive multiple-choice quizzes are designed to test your comprehension of the course material. When you complete a quiz, you will receive an instant analysis of your work.

This analysis will include a brief explanation of any errors you may have made. If you are not satisfied with your performance, you are welcome to re-take the quiz until you feel that you have mastered the quiz objectives.

Note: If you ever want to see a progress report showing your performance on the quizzes over time, simply return to https://www.ed2go.com/ksuconed/ and click Login or Account at the top right of the page. Once logged in, click the Report tab under the course title.

Some of your lessons will also be accompanied by an assignment. The assignments are designed to help you expand your understanding of the material taught in this course. Assignments are typically more detailed and may take a bit more time to work through than quizzes.

I expect you to complete each assignment within two weeks from the date that the corresponding lesson was made available. Unlike the quizzes, your assignments will not be evaluated. Assignments are designed primarily for your enrichment. You have the sole responsibility for evaluating your performance on each assignment. If you have questions about an assignment, please feel free to use the Discussion Areas to discuss your assignments with your fellow students and me.

When you work through an assignment, you will be gaining practical first-hand experience with the new skills taught in this course. Your performance on the final exam will depend in no small part on your mastery of the assignments.

The course will conclude with a final exam, which will test your comprehension of the material covered in this class. You must complete the final exam within two weeks from your receipt of lesson 12. Please review your selections before submitting. You may only submit your final exam answers once. Your performance on the final exam is the only factor we will consider when determining your eligibility for a certificate of completion. Although your quiz and assignments will not count toward your eligibility for a certificate, I do recommend that you try to complete each quiz and assignment to the best of your abilities. Doing so will leave you better prepared to pass the final exam.

When you finish your studies, please note that our classroom log-out process is fully automated. We will log you out of the classroom automatically whenever you close your browser or shut down your computer.

Questions

This course can be highly interactive, but the level of that interactivity is controlled by you. Since I can't see that puzzled look on your face, it's going to be up to you to ask questions when you get stuck.

I expect to get many interesting questions from you and your fellow students. I want to make sure that you and your classmates benefit from these often illuminating queries.

Therefore, I would like to request that you avoid e-mailing your questions to me. Instead, I have created 12 Discussion Areas in the online classroom (one Discussion Area for each lesson). To reach these Discussion Areas, all you will need to do is wait for the course to begin, go to the online classroom, select the lesson you're working on, and click the Discussion Area tile.

Your Discussion Area questions will serve as a challenge for your fellow students. Someone is bound to have an answer for you. Likewise, you should be able to find questions in the Discussion Area that you can answer. The Discussion Area will be open to you and your classmates 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Please try to visit the Discussion Area at least every other day while the course is in session, and don't be afraid to participate!

I firmly believe that the best way to learn a new skill is to teach it to others. We will all benefit by helping one another understand this complex material.

Because I don't want to see any unanswered questions, I (or one of my very capable teaching assistants) will be monitoring the Discussion Area at least every other day (excluding weekends and holidays). If you ask a relevant question, but fail to get a correct answer (or any answer whatsoever) from your classmates, then we will try our hardest to answer the question for you.

Please understand that the Discussion Area is reserved for conversations about the material in your lessons. While it is perfectly acceptable for you to employ a bit of friendly banter as you converse with your fellow students and instructors, I must ask you to always remember to stay on topic.

It is not appropriate to use the Discussion Area to sell goods or services, complain about something, or talk about subjects that are not specific to the lesson at hand, for example. Such off-topic conversations waste people's time and detract from the learning experience for all involved. I reserve the right to immediately delete any message without comment if I feel that it does not pertain directly to the material I am trying to teach.

I will also delete any messages containing language that I feel is derogatory, controversial, insulting, or otherwise inappropriate for my classroom.

Syllabus

Note: This course will run for six weeks. Two lessons will be released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when each lesson is released. Instead, you can take up to two weeks to complete each lesson after it is released.

Important: In order to keep this material as up-to-date and informative as possible, I reserve the right to make changes to the course content, description, and syllabus at any time and without warning.

A new session of each course we offer starts on the second or third Wednesday of every month. You may enroll in more than one course at a time. If you are enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week 1

Basic Project Management Tools

Wednesday

In this lesson, you will learn how to use a variety of project management data collection tools including check sheets, histograms, performance charts, and process definition tools such as work breakdown structure (WBS) and flowcharts. After you master these tools, you will be able to increase your project management effectiveness by leaps and bounds.

Estimating

Friday

Estimating is a very important activity for every organization. It helps you calculate time and costs for your project. When you successfully use estimates, your actual cost of project work is very close to your projections. In this lesson, you will learn how to apply quantitative and qualitative estimating methods, such as historical analogy, the walk through and Delphi methods, expected value, and estimates under uncertainty.

Week 2

Earned Value

Wednesday

Earned value is gaining in popularity in project management circles. Although some people view it as a new concept, they're often surprised to learn that it's been around for more than 30 years. This lesson will define earned value, describe its history, and discuss its benefits. You will learn about the overview of earned value and discover how to create a step-by-step earned value performance measurement (EVPM) system.

Gantt Charts

Friday

Gantt charts, along with work breakdown structure (WBS), earned value performance measurement (EVPM), and the precedence diagram method (PDM), make up the big four of project management. A Gantt chart may be the most popular tool associated with project management because it's an easy to follow timeline chart. In this lesson, you will learn about the history of Gantt charts, find out how to create one, and discover their benefits and limitations.

Week 3

Precedence Diagram Method

Wednesday

Network scheduling, along with earned value, represents one of the most technical aspects of project management. If you enjoy working with charts and numbers, this lesson is right up your alley! As with earned value, the precedence diagram method (PDM) includes a fair amount of terminology and a little bit of tricky math. In this lesson, you will learn the basics of networks and see how they relate to project management.

Project Planning and Control Tools

Friday

In this lesson, you will take a break from using calculators and studying elaborate models. Instead, you will learn how resource planning, work flow diagrams, and storyboards can help you create and implement an effective project plan.

Week 4

Data Analysis Tools

Wednesday

This lesson introduces a few more tools to help you with your projects. You will learn about the cost-volume analysis, a tool to help you optimize choices using costs, volume, and desired profits. You will also learn how to use and apply the Monte Carlo simulation, force field analysis, and the Pareto principle.

Project Management Software

Friday

This lesson focuses on the nature of project management software and identifying winning techniques. You will read two case studies to help you understand issues pertaining to software implementation. You will learn why some people are reluctant to use project management software and discover ways to evaluate and select a software supplier.

Week 5

Statistics and Process Improvement

Wednesday

This lesson introduces the measures of location (median, mode, and mean), the normal curve, and measures of dispersion (range, mean absolute deviation, variance, and standard deviation). You will see how the Taguchi loss function is an alternative to traditional go/no-go inspection. You will also learn how to measure variation, use prevention, and apply statistical process control (SPC) to help you produce predictable and acceptable results.

Dimensions of the Project Team

Friday

For your project to succeed, you need a skilled project manager and committed capable project team members. This lesson will teach you how to identify the essential competencies of an effective project manager and how to establish a winning project team. You will understand what it takes to recruit, evaluate, and select project team members. You will also learn about the concepts of a core team, extended team, and the highly important project team.

Week 6

The Project Team in Action

Wednesday

This lesson introduces work group theory. You will learn about the stages of team development, understand why change is so important for your project, and find out why people are reluctant to change. You will learn how to overcome resistance to change and empower your project team.

Organization and Motivation

Friday

This final lesson focuses on fundamental organizational concepts. You will discover the purpose of an organization chart and learn why a matrix organization is a common project management organizational structure. You will understand key coordinating principles such as authority, responsibility, accountability, and power.

Instructor

Tony Swaim

Tony Swaim has helped many clients, colleagues, and students reach their professional and personal goals. He has been an online instructor since 1998 and has taught at colleges and universities across the United States since 1981. His focus areas are project management, Six Sigma, and supply chain management. Tony manages a successful consulting firm, and his industry experience includes 20 years of supply chain management. He earned a Doctorate in Business Administration from Kennesaw State University and holds professional certifications in six disciplines, including the Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI)® and Certified Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB)® from the American Society for Quality (ASQ)®.