NMBA-8762 Strategic Project Management (NB 762) 

Note: The following provides a suggested course description, objectives, and an outline. These may be modified pending discussion with the Faculty Chairs, proposing faculty, and other curriculum reviewers.

Representative Course Description:

Projects often represent huge investments that contribute to short and long-term business success. This course explores strategic project management including why, when, and how to use it. Students will learn to: link projects to business strategy and link strategy to project goals and activity; cascade goals from upper management to project teams; select right projects and manage project portfolios; assemble the right team and incorporate collaborative decision making; investigate the importance of consistency in dealing with stakeholders across multiple initiatives and manage stakeholder expectations; integrate projects with synergistic aspects; prioritize and manage complex resources; develop metrics and measure project performance, impact, and success; effectively communicate project and project portfolio performance; deal with complex unplanned change; assess, accept, mitigate and avoid risks.

Representative Course Topical Areas:

• Strategic project management models
• Comparison to tactical project management models
• Linking projects and strategy
• Setting appropriate expectations and evaluating corporate commitment to the project
• Evaluation of how projects align with corporate strategy
• Crafting effective project definitions in alignment with corporate strategy
• Selecting the right resources including the project team
• Collaborative decision making
• Managing complex resources and prioritizing competing demands
• Cascading out detailed work plans
• Selecting the right projects
• Managing project portfolios
• Identifying synergies among many projects
• Dealing with internal and external stakeholders and managing their expectations
• Effective communication of project status, effective communication plans
• Developing the right metrics and how to measure project performance, impact, and success
• Process control techniques
• Planning for and dealing with change
• Risk management and mitigation
• Capture the learning that occurs as a result of the project activities and integrating it for overall improvement

 

Prerequisite Knowledge:

Basic knowledge of project management

Special Note:

This course may build on topics presented NMBA 6760, NMBA 6761 and NMBA 6140.