Competencies and Objectives for Each Topic in the Course

Topic 1: Project Management Concepts

The graduate explains how project management helps organizations achieve their goals.

An overview of project management, how it differs from operations, the role of the project
manager, and different types of projects for different types of organizations, guided by the
following objectives:

Define projects, including their purpose.

Describe the role projects play in achieving strategic business initiatives.

Define project management.

Describe the role of a project manager.

Describe the communication methods used by the project manager.

Identify globally recognized project management organizations and their standards.

Describe the advantages and disadvantages of common types of organizational

structures.

Explain the advantages of a project management office (PMO).

Topic 2: The Project Life Cycle

The graduate describes the project life cycle, including how project constraints will impact a
project.

An overview of the project management phases, how the phases relate to each other, and how
constraints affect the outcome of a project, guided by the following objectives:

Identify each phase of a project.

Describe the activities of each phase of a project.

Describe the iterative nature of a project.

Explain the purpose of developing lessons learned.

Define the project term triple constraint.

Describe how triple constraint impacts project quality.

Topic 3: Project Selection Criteria and Methods

The graduate explains the criteria and methods used for project selection.

An overview of the qualitative and quantitative models used to prioritize and select projects,
guided by the following objectives:

Explain the various criteria used when constructing a project selection model.

Explain how comparative checklists are used for project selection.

Explain how a scoring model is used for project selection.

Describe how financial concepts are used for project selection.

Topic 4: Project Management Methods

The graduate explains how different types of project management methods are used.

An overview of the traditional and agile methods used to manage projects, guided by the
following objectives:

Contrast common project management methods.

Identify the five steps to managing a project.

Describe traditional project management methods.

Describe agile project management methods.

Describe extreme project management methods.

Topic 5: Project Planning

The graduate applies elements of project planning to prepare key documents of a project plan.

An overview of various documents created during the project planning process, including the
scope, work breakdown structure, risk register, and budget, guided by the following objectives:

Describe the purpose of project planning.

Describe how the scope of a project is developed.

Describe required skills and common tools used to assign project team roles.

Describe how a project's work breakdown structure is created.

Prepare a work breakdown structure given a project scenario.

 Define risk and risk management.

Describe how to construct a risk register.

Describe the different types of estimation techniques.

Explain how to construct a project budget.

Prepare a calendarized project budget.

Topic 6: Project Time Management

The graduate constructs a project scheduling network diagram including the identification of
the critical path.

An overview of methods used to estimate durations, diagrams to visualize project schedules, and
managing the critical path, guided by the following objectives:

Describe common techniques used to estimate activity duration.

Construct an activity duration estimate.

Describe the components of an activity network including their sequencing.

Construct a project network diagram.

Describe task relationships and dependencies in network diagrams.

Describe how a Gantt chart is used in project scheduling.

Determine and manage the critical path.

Describe schedule compression.

Topic 7: Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, Closing Project Work

The graduate explains key activities for executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing
projects.

An overview of the processes used to manage a project during the execution phase by working
with team members, monitoring progress from a schedule and budget perspective, and applying
lessons learned from previous projects, guided by the following objectives:

Describe the characteristics of an effective project team.

Describe how managers monitor against project baselines.

Describe project change management processes.

Describe the principles of quality management.

Describe the components that make up earned value management.

Determine the progress of a project given various earned value scenarios.

Describe how to close a project.

Describe the steps in performing a lessons learned review as part of project closeout.