Fundamentals of Project Planning and Management

Discover the importance of project planning and management

On this course, you will learn project planning techniques, principles and execution methods to create projects that can be run more effectively and efficiently.

Whether it’s for projects at work or in daily life, you’ll discover the language and frameworks for scoping projects, sequencing activities, utilising resources, and minimising risks.

You also have the chance to earn professional development units (PDUs) as the University of Virginia Darden School of Business is approved by the Project Management Institute (PMI®).

Find out how to create a project plan

Once you’ve learned about the basics of project planning and management, you’ll explore in more detail how to create a project plan. As well as examining the scoping process, you’ll learn about the project life-cycle, duration, and critical path.

Once you’re finished, you’ll have a solid project planning template that you can use across a whole range of different situations.

Develop your project management skills

If you’ve already taken a project management course, you’ll know that the planning stages are crucial to your ultimate success. By learning how to plan a project, you’ll also cover topics such as risk assessment, budgeting, and prioritisation.

With this course, you’ll learn how to use the right language and mindset to create an effective project management plan.

Equip yourself with project planning tools

With the set of project management skills you’ll develop on this course, you’ll be equipped with the necessary tools to manage all kinds of projects, no matter their size and scope.

When it comes to the project’s execution phase, you’ll also learn about some of the methods you can use to carry out and analyse your plans.

This course is for anyone interested in project planning and project management.

It’s suitable for anyone considering a career as a project manager who wants to develop planning techniques that ensure projects run smoothly from start to finish.

It will also benefit those already in management positions who have taken on new responsibilities and want to further their knowledge of project management processes and techniques.

• Welcome to the World of Projects
• Prepare for Course Success
• Understanding Projects
• Project Success and Failure
• Project Life-Cycle
• Week 1 Wrap Up Activities
• The Ins and Outs of Project Planning
• The Importance of Planning
• Scoping and Identifying Dependencies
• Determining the Completion Date and Critical Path
• Scheduling and Making Changes
• Common Mistakes in Project Planning
• Week 2 Wrap Up Activities
• It’s a Risky World and Then the Unexpected Happened
• Why Think About Risks?
• Properly Managing Risks
• Schedule Risk Analysis and Tornado Charts
• Schedule Risk Analysis and Monte Carlo Simulations
• Cost Risk Analysis and Planning for Ambiguity
• Week 3 Wrap Up Activities
• Ready, Set, Go: Project Execution
• From Plan to Action
• The Execution Phase
• Agile Project Management
• Week 4 Wrap Up Activities
• Course Wrap Up