Master of ScienceProject Management

This course provides training in business writing, interpersonal communication and oral communication to prepare the student to be a more effective professional communicator. The student works on projects in the classroom that offer practical applications of concepts covered in the textbook, including case study examples of poorly executed business communication that the student revises and improves. The student also writes a proposal and a report, and prepares a plan to manage a project team kickoff meeting.

Successful project managers are adept at leading. Leadership, however, is a complex undertaking that requires knowledge and understanding of a number of competencies. This course builds these competencies. Focusing on organizational leadership, the course explores and develops skills and knowledge needed to lead organizational transformation and change, negotiate conflict resolution, build relationships and human capital, and instill business ethics and professional codes of conduct.

This course introduces the student to project management knowledge areas and processes used by project managers to successfully deliver their project on time, within budget and to the expectations of project stakeholders. The student will work on real-world examples, problems and case studies as individuals in groups. An emphasis is placed on hard and soft skills, and the tools and techniques used by project managers to initiate, plan, execute, monitor/control, and successfully close projects in typical project environments associated with waterfall and agile methodologies.

Each project from conception of an idea to the bidding and implementation process has both risk and reward. The basics of procurement, contract negotiations, and risk management are covered. Through experiences, readings and case study analysis, the fundamental tenets of procurement and contract sourcing for success are explored in real world scenarios. Project risk is reviewed and investigated for its role in the process of overall project management. The student is shown how to minimize risk and increase project success through risk management strategies.

This course uses Microsoft Project software to schedule and control projects. The student is introduced to, and practices with, the most widely-used project management software system available. Functions, monitoring alternative usages and maintaining data are developed as the student builds a project from the ground up. This is a comprehensive, semester-long project budgeting, scheduling and control course where practiced theory is the platform for learning.

This course covers the features, benefits and methodology of Agile Project Management with Scrum and how Agile Project Managfement with Scrum differs from traditional Project Management Institute-related project management.

This course guides the student to develop and finalize a selected research problem and to construct a proposal that effectively establishes the basis for either writing a thesis or launching an experiential capstone project. The course provides an overview of strategies for effective problem investigation and solution proposal. Research methodology is studies and applied as part of suggesting a solution to a problem. Writing and formatting techniques are also explored and applied as a communication tool for cataloging the investigation and recommending the solution.

This course allows the student to pursue an area of interest that is within the broad scope of project management. A faculty member will supervise this study.

This course provides the student with hands on experiential learning using Agile Scrum as a member of a team. The team develops a vision statement and user stories for a real application. The team then implements the product that is specified using Agile Scrum Framework and all of the standard Agile Scrum ceremonies such as Product Backlog, Sprints, Sprint Planning, Release Planning, Daily Standups, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospectives. Team members play the actual roles of Product Owner, ScrumMaster, Developers, Testers, etc. The course produces an actual working viable product that can be demonstrated to stakeholders. The teams consists of a mix of graduate students from Project Management, ISEM, Computer Science, Analytics, and Learning Technologies.

This level course provides the student with key strategies in agile lean product development that will help the student streamline new product development processes that will decrease time-tomarket, reduce waste, enhance product quality, and fully integrate new product designs into a lean production environment. This course uses principles rooted in the iconic Toyota Production system.

This course provides the student with innovative practices that need to be followed in order to transform a company or organization form a traditional waterfall mindset to more of an Agile Lean mindset and culture. Agile Lean Change management (not the typical change management talked about in project management relative to scope, budget, etc.) and Lean IT are two methods that are being used successfully in the industry to move organizations from a more traditional mindset to Agile. Both of these methods rely significantly on the leaders in the organizations to facilitate the change. In conjunction with this course, the student learns the responsibilities and techniques of the Agile Coach role, which has become a key role in the industry to facilitate change. The student studies change resistance, change adoption, change planning tools, transformation frameworks, and methods for leading change from any level in an organization.