Study the principles of project initiation, that is, the process of identifying and translating business needs into project requirements. You learn about basic requirements elicitation techniques, as well as how to conduct SWOT, GAP and detailed stakeholder analyses. You learn how to justify projects through ROI analysis, business cases, prototypes and pilot programs. As part of the course curriculum, you define an initial scope statement in a project charter, which also authorizes the project and addresses a range of business context requirements; budgetary, cost and schedule constraints; and key risks.
From that learning base, you then transition into project planning. You create baseline plans for scope, schedule, cost, risk and quality management, focusing on how each of these knowledge areas affects others, and integrating the information to create a consistent, high-quality, baseline project plan. You also prepare these documents for gate reviews and sponsor approval. You then prepare a project kickoff agenda for the project development team. You learn to apply all of the learned concepts to a project of your choice, read course commentaries and assigned reading, review case studies and engage with your fellow students in related activities.
Learner Outcomes
After successfully completing this course, you should be able to:
- Demonstrate mastery of best practices related to all project management knowledge areas, project initiation and planning, and stakeholder management through a project of your choice
- Produce a wide variety of portfolio-quality project management deliverables
- Understand and apply key concepts, tools and techniques related to scope, schedule, cost, risk, quality, communications and stakeholder management
- Integrate, communicate and maintain a wide variety of project-related project documentation
- Identify, define and manage project requirements
- Prepare for gate reviews and sponsor approval
- Create baseline project management plans
- Prepare a project development kickoff meeting