Project management is a start-to-finish approach to getting things done and making projects more successful. It's a profession, but it's also a set of techniques that anyone can apply to achieve goals and manage project work more effectively. Project management can be used to guide small, simple projects as well as complex enterprise-wide initiatives.

In this course you'll be fascinated by how things work and how to make things work better. We will explain the fundamentals of project management, from defining the problem, establishing project goals and objectives, and building a project plan to managing team resources, meeting deadlines, and closing the project. Along the way, we will provide tips for reporting on project performance, keeping a project on track, and gaining customer acceptance.

Topics include:

• Defining the components of a project

• What it takes to be a project manager

• Using project management software like Microsoft Project

• Managing project scope, budget, and schedule

• Managing project resources, including people

• Managing project risk

• Initiating a project

• Identifying and managing stakeholders

• Identifying requirements and deliverables

• Developing a project plan

• Building a project schedule

• Assigning resources to tasks

• Understanding the critical path

• Running the project

• Managing teams

• Monitoring performance

• Closing a project