MS in Project Management

Contemporary business environments are increasingly competitive, global, fast paced, and knowledge intensive. In these environments, effective use of human capital is vital to an enterprise's success and survival. In this course, students will explore practical issues related to developing individuals and managing collaboration and will examine the skills and strategies necessary to address them effectively. Students will examine ethical and legal implications of managing a diverse workforce including issues that arise from cross-cultural differences and virtual work settings. The importance of communication as a tool to manage internal and external relationships is emphasized as it relates to the effectiveness of managing people to achieve organizational goals.

One role of the project manager is to lead teams in complex and diverse organizational settings while concurrently communicating with all stakeholders. In this course, students analyze this dual role and examine how individual and group behavior impacts organizational effectiveness. They discover how using influence, rather than organizational power, leads to more successful project management. Students learn ways to design projects to support organizational goals and how to build and engage organizational capital (intellectual, human, physical, financial, and structural). They also assess communications management as a tool to manage internal and external relationships with stakeholders, partners, vendors, and customers.

Modern organizations are constantly seeking ways to improve business processes and systems for greater efficiency and effectiveness. to ensure stakeholder's needs are met and business prospers. In this course, students learn how to harness the tools needed to help businesses gain competitive advantage through business processes and systems. Students examine strategies for managing the flow of business information within and across organizational boundaries. They become familiar with the concept of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and learn how these systems can lead to novel ways of efficiently managing project execution and business innovation. Students also assess and discuss technologies for business process integration, automation, and optimization, and they examine and practice using practical tools of enterprise.

How do project managers ensure that their organization's initiatives allow for sustainable business and promote positive change through products for a sustainable environment? Students in this course are provided with an opportunity to answer such questions as well as to develop their understanding of managing projects at the portfolio and program levels. Students learn about the nature of sustainability in project management in terms of how project management processes align with the three fundamentals of sustainable development: social equity, economic efficiency, and environmental performance. Students work toward gaining a real-world understanding of concepts through the examination of current research illustrating sustainability in project management and by assessing actual products developed through projects.

This course is designed to allow students to bring together knowledge gained through the program and to demonstrate mastery of the various course competencies. Students synthesize concepts and skills in an integrative project that combines multiple aspects of their program, illustrating  how ethics, internal culture, and external forces shape project managers’ behaviors when executing projects within an organization. Students articulate how project managers within an organization can drive social change and sustainability through the example they set in their everyday work.