SYLLABUS

MBAD 625A– PROJECT MANAGMENT

4 Semester hours

University of St. Francis

Delivery format: On-campus; Thursday evenings May 19 – August 11th, 2005

Prerequisite: None

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Instructor: Donald Maier, Ph.D.

Phone: 815.740.366

Email: dmaier@stfrancis.edu

COURSE DESCRIPTION:   As the business environment continues to be characterized as a global marketplace with constant change, employees are being asked to do more with fewer resources. The ability to manage a single project can be cumbersome; managing multiple projects seems almost impossible at times. What’s more, the ability to manage projects is usually secondary to one’s technical skills or corporate position. What occurs in many cases is the project itself is mismanaged and fails without a root cause or plans to prevent future project failures. Effective project management ensures that a project is completed on time, within budget, and with high quality.   Specific techniques for accomplishing these three goals are not always so obvious.   The purpose of this course is to make these techniques more obvious, and expose you to a variety of techniques to manage the budget, schedule, and quality of projects that you are responsible for.

This course provides an overview of professional project management practices. It equips students with the ability to assess the degree to which organizations apply these practices at individual, team, and whole organization levels. It also helps them contribute as productive members of cross-sectional project teams and understand project management as a dynamic learning process.

COURSE OBJECTIVE:

1. Define project management
2. Identify the project management process
3. Determine the reason to employ project management as a means to create change.
4. Evaluate the importance of time, cost, and quality/performance as related to project management.
5. Evaluate project management as a strategic framework to improve an organizations systems and processes.

REQUIRED TEXTS:Gray, C., & Larson, E. (2003). Project Management: The managerial approach. (2 nd Ed.) McGraw-Hill Irwin. Boston, Ma. With CD-ROM.

SimProject software. Pinto, J. & Parente, D. purchased with textbook. ISBN # 007293858-7

Other articles will be provided via WebCT or distributed in class.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED:   The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) (5 th edition).

From the University of St. Francis Graduate Studies Catalogue

A	Excellent: The student performs in a consistently active, accurate, creative, and independent manner. An ability is demonstrated not only to master the course material, but to synthesize and evaluate what was learned. Communication skills are commensurate with the student's ability.
B	Very Good: The student is able to master the course content and often demonstrates creative thought and independence, but does not give evidence of a consistency in excellence.
C	Satisfactory: The student meets the basic expectations of the instructor, usually shows little initiative in attacking new problems, and indicates some progress in personal development.
D	Passing: The student demonstrates an inability to master fully the basic course requirements, but does give indication of minimal growth expectations.
F	Failure: The student fails to meet the minimum course requirements.
I	Incomplete: The incomplete grade may be given only upon agreement between the student, the instructor, and the Graduate Dean. This grade is given when the student has, for a reason beyond the student’s control, been unable to complete the required course work. The student must then complete the requirements by the end of the sixth week of the following semester at which time a final grade will be recorded. If the student fails to complete the requirements at this time, the final grade will be recorded as an "F".
W	Withdrawal

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:

Students in this course will be expected to comply with the University Policies and Procedures regarding academic integrity that appear in the university catalog. Honesty in all academic work is expected of every student. This means giving one's own answers in all class work, quizzes, and examinations without help from any source not approved by the instructor. Written material is to be the student's original composition. Appropriate credit must be given for outside sources from which ideas, language, or quotations are derived. You are expected to do your own work in this course.

ADA STATEMENT:

Any student who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact your instructor privately to discuss your specific needs. Reasonable accommodations, as arranged through the disabilities coordinator, Pat Vivio, will be provided for students with documented disabilities. Contact Pat Vivio at (815) 740-3204 in Tower Hall room S 210 to coordinate accommodations.

MISSION STATEMENT :

As a Catholic university rooted in the liberal arts, we are a welcoming community of learners challenged by Franciscan values and charism, engaged in a continuous pursuit of knowledge, faith, wisdom, and justice, and ever mindful of a tradition that emphasizes reverence for creation, compassion, and peacemaking. We strive for academic excellence in all programs, preparing women and men to contribute to the world through service and leadership.

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS MISSION STATEMENT:

The mission of the College of Business is to offer undergraduate and graduate degree programs that are career oriented and focus on academic excellence.  Undergraduate programs are designed for traditional and nontraditional students providing a blend of professional studies and a strong liberal arts curriculum. Graduate programs are designed for working professionals and are practitioner based. All programs in the College of Business are driven by the University's Catholic Franciscan mission. The College seeks to inspire in its students a love of knowledge and truth and to instill the Franciscan values of respect, compassion, integrity and service.

COURSE ASSIGNMENTS:

SimProject 100pts: Simulation of learning to manage a project by utilizing the skills learned in the course. Students may be divided in groups or manage their team individually. The professor will make this decision based on the size of the class. Each group/student will be managing a project team to complete the same project. You will be graded on having decision submitted on-time, the quality of your decisions, as well as the final score or ranking of each project team. At the end of the simulation, you will be submitting a final/overall report based on the final outcomes of the simulation. In other words, you will be compiling all of your weekly assignments in one large report. The length of the report is up to you but keep in mind that too little information is difficult to gain the full appreciation of your project; too much is redundant/overkill.

Weekly Assignments 100 pts.: Most weeks require specific assignments to be completed and submitted. You will be graded on having assignments submitted on-time and the quality/content of your response.

SimProject Peer Evaluation 100pts: Each student will submit an evaluation of every member in their SimProject team/group. Forms will be provided via WebCt. Other students will NOT be privy to this information. This assessment is designed to ensure that no one member is allowed to "skate" during the semester while the others pull their weight.

Real-Life Project Paper 100 pts.: Each student will submit a report discussing a project that you are currently working on, have worked on, or desire to work on. The length of the report is up to you but keep in mind that too little information is difficult to gain the full appreciation of your project; too much is redundant/overkill. The format of the paper will be similar to the assignments that are submitted each week, however, rather than submitting responses to your SimProject projects, you will be writing about the real-world. Detailed instructions for this assignment can be found in WebCt under assignments.

Real-Life Project Presentation 100pts: Based on the "real-life" project paper above, you will be required to present your findings to your "Project Management Oversight Committee", aka, the class. Consider this assignment as a means that you are a) looking for approval on a project; b) providing a status report of the project; or c) presenting a project close-out/audit. You will be graded both on content of the information provided and on the presentation format itself.

COURSE SCHEDULE:

Week	Topic(s)	Reading	Problems/ Exercises Due beginning of class via WebCT	Simulation Processing All decisions due by 6PM each Thurs.
1 5/19	Course Introduction: Syllabus, text, and assignments; Introduction to SimProject	Ch 1   Modern Project Management; SimProject Player's Manual		Startup - Student Registration Review Project for SimProject Simulation Code 3T4-GQ2M
2 5/26	Organization & Project Strategy	Ch 2   Alignment of Projects with Organization Strategy	SEE 1-1 Define a Project p.556 SEE 2-1 Project Fit p. 556 SEE 2-2 for Project Goals p. 557	Trial Processing Round #1
3 6/2	Project structure & culture	Ch 3 Organization: Structure and Culture	SEE 3-2 Org Culture (for Project Team – hypothetical	Trial Processing Round #2
4 6/9	Project definition & organization	Ch. 4 Defining the Project	See 4-2 Project Cost 558 See 4-4 Project Priorities	Processing Round #1
5 6/16	Project estimation - times & costs;	Ch 5 Estimating Project Times and Costs; Ch 6 Developing a Project Plan	SEE 5-1 Project Budget	Processing Round #2
6 6/23	Issues/Conflict/ Challenges	Ch 7 Managing Risk	SEE 7-1Risk Response	Processing Round #3
7 6/30	Scheduling personnel	Ch 8 Scheduling Resources		Processing Round #4 at 6pm & 5 by 9pm
8 7/7	Project scheduling and crashing	Ch 9 Reducing Project Duration	SEE 8-2 Unplanned Time Constraint	Processing Round #6 at 6pm & 7 by 9pm
9 7/14	Leadership	Ch 10 Leadership:   Being an Effective Project Manager	SEE 10-1Stakeholders	Processing Round #8 at 6pm and 9 by 9pm
10 7/21	Team management Interorganizational relations Outsourcing, contracting	Ch 11 Managing Project Teams Ch 12 Managing Interorganizational Relations	SEE 11- 3 Virtual Team Assessment (project team)	Processing Round #10 at 6pm and Round #11 by 9pm Guest Speaker???
11 7/28	Performance measurement & Project Audit Real-Life  Report Due	Ch 13 Progress & Performance Measurement & Evaluation; Chapter 14 Project Audit & Closure	SEE 13-1 (submit status report from Microsoft Project)	Processing Round #12
12 8/4	Individual presentation preparation		SEE 14-1& Peer Evaluations Due!!
13 8/11	Real-life Project  Presentations

The instructor reserves the right to revise/adjust the syllabus and class schedule as circumstances may warrant during the semester. Students are expected to follow all policies in the USF Catalog and Student Handbook.