PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Aims & Course Objectives

• Understand project management through an interdisciplinary lens and apply that knowledge to real projects.
• Develop the skills needed to be effective project leaders in diverse, global, and virtual environments.
• Expose students to various project management techniques and theories, and assess their strengths and weaknesses in a 21st-century context.
• Identify and challenge cultural assumptions, and build collaborative efforts across cultures.
• Create an open learning climate where diversity is viewed and used as a strength.
• Cultivate the ability to recognize one’s own biases and operate effectively outside of them.
• Produce reflection papers and project management materials that integrate ethics, diversity, and leadership.
• Provide opportunities for students to engage in project work in order to better understand their strengths as team members and project managers.

Learning Outcomes

• Explore a variety of project management theories and techniques to begin developing a personal project leadership theory and skill set.
• Understand the history of project management and how it relates to ethics in business and IT.
• Develop an understanding of Philosophy of Science and its relationship to project management.
• Review the relevance of a systems approach from computer science, business, and philosophy.
• Demonstrate knowledge of key project management concepts, including:
  • The triple constraint of scope, time, and cost and its relationship to ethics.
  • Project management knowledge areas and process groups in a global environment.
  • The project life cycle from a multi-disciplinary, systems perspective.
• Apply tools and techniques of project management, including project selection methods, work breakdown structures, network diagrams, critical path and critical chain scheduling.
• Develop cost estimates that include environmental impact and use earned value management that considers both financial and “Good Will” dimensions.
• Apply project management concepts by working on a group project as an active team member.
• Identify and develop key team and project manager attitudes and skills, including leadership and followership.
• Create a personal reflection paper that assesses individual strengths and weaknesses and the cultural and management styles within the project sponsor’s organization.
• Distinguish among vision, strategies, and tactics in project and organizational contexts.
• Explain intercultural understandings of what “project management” means in different organizational and cultural settings.

Texts, Policies & Assessment Overview

• Required texts: Kathy Schwalbe, Introduction to Project Management (3rd ed.), and Popper’s work on falsification (out of print).
• Optional texts: Craig E. Johnson’s Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership and the APA (6th ed.) Publication Manual.
• Presentations: As a CS-designated, speech-based component, at least 25% of the grade is based on oral presentations that develop rhetorical, leadership, and collaboration skills.
• Writing: Two major writing assignments (minimum 16 pages total) including a self-reflection paper and a project development journal; both receive formative feedback and require critical thought.
• Participation & professionalism: Active, respectful engagement in class and group work, timely completion of readings, and constructive communication in face-to-face and online interactions.
• Academic honesty: All work (except small group tasks) must be the student’s own, with proper quotation and APA citation for all primary, secondary, and academic sources.
• Assessment breakdown: Analytic reflection papers (35%), project reports (20%), course material assignments and quizzes (20%), and presentations (25%).