Featured Course: Project Management 101

Project Management 101

There are those people who are born Project Managers.

And there are those people who achieve Project Management.

And then there are those people -- a surprisingly large number of people -- who have professional project management expectations thrust upon them. It is this third group of noble people who will find a nice, safe home within Project Management 101. I understand your pain. Please, have a seat. Would you like some tea? A cookie perhaps? Maybe something to break?

There is no widespread consensus, from within either the scientific or philosophical worlds, as to how this thrusting of project management actually happens. One moment you're standing there with your hands in your pockets staring at a motivational picture of people rowing or maybe climbing something, and the next moment *BAM* you find yourself at the epicenter of a vortex that bystanders are referring to as 'that project'.

And they're looking to you for direction, advice, input, and feedback which you're only too happy to provide, except for one important item:

They haven't actually provided you with the necessary foundational understanding of the concept of project management.

This is not a particularly nice thing for "them" to do, and it's reasonable to assume that none of the people in those pictures rowing that boat or climbing that thing would thrust project management upon you with such reckless abandonment. But what can you do?

Well, here's what you can do: enroll in Project Management 101, where we'll right this grave injustice to your sense of competence and human dignity, and learn about the basics of project management so that you can approach your challenge with the confidence that you are entitled to as a professional.

The goal of this course is thus to impart an overall understanding of project management through a focus upon basic concepts, definitions, tools, strategies, processes, and phases.

This course embraces students from any professional background, including those that may not work in a project environment but would simply like an introduction to the subject. So, whether you work in human resources, training, cake decorating, exorcisms, automobile repair...and so on, students will find the lessons in this course relevent. This is because project management is an approach to achieving a goal. As such, students will be able to adapt the generalized knowledge and principles that this course offers to fit within their unique and specific workplace project needs.

There are no quizzes or tests in this course, but an online discussion forum will support us throughout to add colour, depth, and of course, humour to our learning experience.