GLOBAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT

67-326: Global Project Management

Spring Semester, 2000

Course Information:

Course: 67-326 Global Project Management
Semester: Spring 2009

COURSE OVERVIEW

Project Management is the art of 'getting things done.'
Global System Project Management is a new three-unit "impact module" offered in Qatar intended to expose students to basic principles of global project management and effective teamwork and collaboration. In this survey course, students will learn about global project management, effective teamwork and collaboration from theoretical and practical viewpoints. It will prepare students to understand key issues in systems lifecycle planning, managing and coordinating distributed project teams, organizing work products, implementing process and quality metrics, maintaining effective control and coordination, and risk management. The course will provide students with guidance to resources for follow-up and additional learning. Students across all disciplines are increasingly likely to find themselves working on global development teams during internships or upon graduation. They will collaborate with team members, business partners and vendors in highly distributed work groups on a wide variety of business, consumer, and intellectual products and services. In a highly interconnected global marketplace, the ability to work on, and manage, distributed teams and distributed project development is an important skill. Students who understand the basics of global project management, teamwork and collaboration are likely to find themselves at a competitive advantage over those who do not. 

Students will be exposed to topics including: project initiation, planning, and budgeting; control, measuring and monitoring performance and quality; building effective project teams; working with third parties, communicating and collaborating across political and cultural boundaries, and risk management. Topics will be explored though a combination of assigned readings and lectures. 

Students will collaborate with classmates on a real-world project planning assignment, and will complete various project management exercises intended to challenge them to think about key issues in managing complex projects across traditional boundaries. 

Classes will typically consist of lectures, a guest speaker, class discussions and in-class exercises, and discussions of case studies. A short final examination will be arranged; questions will be distributed to the class in advance of the exam.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

The main objective of this course is to expose students to basic principles of global project management and effective teamwork and collaboration. In this survey course, students will learn about the latter themes from theoretical and practical viewpoints. The course aims at preparing the students to understand key issues in systems lifecycle planning, managing and coordinating distributed project teams, organizing work products, implementing process and quality metrics, maintaining effective control and coordination, and risk management.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this course, students will gain:

  • (LO1) An understanding of a global project life cycle and the basics of project management; including project initiation, planning, and budgeting;

  • (LO2) An understanding of team-building and collaboration; including working with third parties;

  • (LO3) An exposure to key issues in cross-cultural communication and collaboration across cultural and temporal boundaries;

  • (LO4) A practice in designing quality assurance methods and risk management techniques; including control, measuring and monitoring performance and quality.

RECOMMENDED READING LIST


General Project Management:

  • The Art of Project Management by Scott Berkun. O’Reilley. ISBN-10: 0-596-00786-8. 2005. First Edition.

  • Information Systems Project Management: A process and team approach by Mark Fuller, Joe Valacich (Author), Joey George. Prentice Hall (February 22, 2007), ISBN-10: 013145417X.

  • Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products by Jim Highsmith. 2004, Pearson education. ISBN 0-321-21977-5

  • Global Project management: Communication, Collaboration and Management Across Borders by Jean Carlo Binder. Ashgate Pub Co (November 30, 2007), ISBN-10: 0566087065.

  • Working Across Cultures by John Hooker. Stanford Business Books; 1 edition (July 30, 2003), ISBN-10: 0804748071.

  • Project Management Primer by Nick Jenkins

  • Offshoring Information Technology: Sourcing and Outsourcing to a Global Workforce by Erran Carmel and Paul Tjia.

Software Failures:

  • Why Software Fails: We waste billions of dollars each year on entirely preventable mistakes By Robert N. Charette in IEEE Spectrum Magazine

  • Who Killed the Virtual Case File: How the FBI blew more than $100 million on case-management software it will never use by Harry Goldstein in IEEE Spectrum Magazine