The Master of Science in Project Management Curriculum is made up of 12 courses for a total of 36 credits. The curriculum consists of three foundational or core courses to prepare students with the basic project management skills and knowledge, six advanced project management courses dealing with strategic specialization and ethics, and three constructive action courses associated with the capstone project.

Purpose 1
 Purpose 2
 Purpose 3
Constructive Action 1: Strategic Project Research and Analysis Constructive Action 2: Strategic Project Planning and Analysis Constructive Action 3: Strategic Project Implementation
Principles of Project Management Planning and Scheduling Projects Project Risk and Quality Management
Communications in Project Management Project Resource Management Ethics in Project Management
Project Scope Management Project Cost Management Procurement and Supply Chain Management and Legal Aspects
12 credits 12 credits 12 credits

 

Purposes in MCNY represents semesters

CA 1: Strategic Project Research and Analysis

COURSE DESCRIPTION: The Constructive Action 1 course familiarizes the students with the research techniques and methodologies by which to explore and analyze the trends and needs in one of the different industries using project management. The CA 1 focuses on the project research and need analysis. From their assessment, they compile a report of their findings, identifying needs, trends, or areas for further research, and present their conclusions for the particular field using project management techniques.

The first CA gives the students an opportunity to determine the feasibility or viability of a project management plan by researching and analyzing the project environment and need assessment. A need assessment and analysis is crucial to building a project management plan from the ground up. The need analysis in field of project management takes into account the research related to project environment, constraints, and risks.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: At the conclusion of the course, students should be able to:

  1. Develop and conduct research leading to need analysis for assessing the feasibility of project management in the chosen field.
  2. Gather information from several written sources, critically evaluate this information, determine its applicability to (and implications for) the specific project. Exhibit Proper citation methodology throughout.
  3. Learn to conduct and document practitioner interviews and meaningful site visits in the field of project management, formulate effective questions, interpret responses and data in an insightful and logical way.
  4. Present results of research investigations and determine overall viability of project. Make changes accordingly.
  5. Analyze the soundness and viability of their research conclusions, drawing on feedback from mentors, supervisors, and other significant participants as well as from knowledge acquired from each Dimension class.
  6. Present all the above in a comprehensive and detailed report/paper called the CA document.

Principles of Project Management

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course familiarizes the students with the foundations of concepts and proven techniques of project management involved in the design, planning, implementation and evaluation stages of a project. The field of project management is integral to all the industries and the course material would be relevant to all the practitioners. The course will provide learning content which is aligned with the ‘Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) from Project Management Institute. The course details a structured approach to understand the 10 knowledge areas and the processes needed to understand the complete project life cycle. The topics include knowledge of the processes to initiate, plan, execute, supervise, and control and close a project. Students learn project management skills through hands –on exercises using the project management tools and techniques to understand the real-world scenario of managing a project.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of this course, students will:

  1. Have a clear understanding of the main concepts of project management.
  2. Understand the role that project management plays in achieving an organization’s strategic goals.
  3. Define the project life cycle, phases, processes, and knowledge areas.
  4. Assess different project development approaches, including agile.
  5. Have the ability to develop a comprehensive project management plan.
  6. Be able to apply the proven techniques of project Management to define, plan, implement, and close a project.
  7. Learn about the latest technology used in project management.
  8. Differentiate between project, program, and portfolio management.

Communications in Project Management

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course emphasizes on the need of effective communication and planning from the initiation through the closing of the project. Communication includes internal and external activities and information in a written or oral form and can be formal or informal. And effective communication is critical to keep a good relationship with all the stakeholders in a project. Management of a successful project requires strong interpersonal and communication skills. This course enables the students to learn such skills and techniques so as to develop, execute, and monitor an effective communication plan about how critical information is delivered throughout the project.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

  1. Understand the best tools and methodologies for communication in projects.
  2. Recognize that effective communication creates a
  3. Realize that communications are both internal and external, formal and informal, written and oral.
  4. Learn how to manage day to day communications in a handling a project.
  5. Understand that depending on the originator and the recipient, communications can be directed upwards, downwards, or sideways, each direction affects the format and content of the message.
  6. Recognize the efforts required to prevent misunderstandings and miscommunication in the process.
  7. Learn about project management information systems and information management
  8. Implement virtual project management strategies

Project Scope Management

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Defining the scope of a project is an important parameter in determining the success of a project. The course on project scope management provides the students with the knowledge of the set of processes that ensure a project’s scope is defined and mapped accurately. The knowledge modules in this course provides students with an understanding of the various scope management techniques to ensure that the project focusses on all the important components in the project life cycle. It enables the project managers to allocate the right amount of work and time within the scope of the project. The scope of a project as defined by PMBOK, Project

Management Institute, is the ‘The work that needs to be accomplished to deliver a product, service or result with the specified features and functions.’ The course teaches the processes of scope management including planning, controlling, validating, and closing of the project and identification of various parameters like objectives, goals, resources etc. to define scope.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

  1. Define project and product scope
  2. Understand the detailed set of deliverables or features of a project.
  3. Understand that the deliverables of a project are derived from the requirements of the project.
  4. Develop tools and processes to define the scope of a project.
  5. Understand that there are three main process of the scope of a project: planning, controlling, and closing.
  6. Learn the importance of scope validation
  7. Understand the key project deliverables that organize the project team’s work into different hierarchical sections.

CA 2: Strategic Project Planning and Analysis

COURSE DESCRIPTION: The students apply knowledge obtained and the strategic research and analysis conducted for their Constructive Action in the prior semester, to develop a comprehensive project planning in the CA 2. This CA would involve mapping out the logistics for the project and the students start building their plan, providing details of the scope, plan, time, and cost management plan.

One important aspect to this Planning CA is getting students to think in terms of “first things first” – one cannot do C unless B is in place first but cannot do B unless A is in place first. Though some

actions/parts of the project could be done simultaneously. These things would have to be rigorously conceptualized in this CA with the student determining the specific order of priorities and exactly how to arrange them so that the entire project is mapped out in a coherent and doable manner.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: By the end of the course, students will:

  1. Student will learn Theory and practice of determining logistics
  2. Conduct analysis of time- frames and logical sequencing. Lay out actual steps of the project in sequence.
  3. Learn to develop project plan details in terms of its scope, cost, and time management
  4. Learn to build a project schedule and create a project budget
  5. Envision both the details and the big picture of project simultaneously
  6. Determine challenges and possible solutions.
  7. Present the final constructive action document ( with strategic scope, cost and time management plan ) in a comprehensive and detailed report/paper called the CA 2 document

Planning and Scheduling Projects

COURSE DESCRIPTION: In project management, planning and scheduling are two distinctive yet inseparable facets of successfully managing a project. A schedule is a listing of a project’s milestones, activities, and deliverables within a certain timeline. Project planning involves selecting the appropriated procedures and policies with an aim to achieve the goals of the project. A well-planned and well- scheduled project is critical to successful project management. A proper planning and scheduling of the project is required to minimize the bottlenecks and maximize the results.

The course on planning and scheduling projects will equip students with the skills and knowledge to build a schedule management Plan. It will focus on the use of organizational procedures and processes needed for planning and scheduling the project. The course will also delve into the duration of each component of the schedule management plan and the importance of flexibility in a project schedule.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: At the conclusion of this course, students will:

  1. Understand the basic elements of project definition, management, environment, and criteria for success.
  2. Develop an appreciation for organization structures, roles, and work breakdown.
  3. Study basic elements of change and configuration management.
  4. Be able to perform both manual, graphical, and computer analysis of a project.
  5. Distinguish between project management and network planning.
  6. Develop the ability to do project close-out report and review.

Project Resource Management

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Project Resource Management includes the processes to identify, acquire, and manage the resources needed for the successful completion of the project. These processes help ensure that the right resources will be available to the project manager and project team at the right time and place.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: At the conclusion of this course, students will:

  1. Establish the differences between physical resources and team resources, including the skills needed to manage both elements.
  2. Understand the requirement that the project manager should be both leader and manager of the project team.
  3. Among things that affect a project are environment, location, communication, and change. The project manager must be familiar with each of these.
  4. Be able to develop team skills and competencies for each member of the project team.
  5. Develop an understanding that physical resource management is concentrated on allocating and utilizing physical resources.
  6. Apply soft skills such as leadership, negotiation and conflict management.

Project Cost Management

COURSE DESCRIPTION: The management of the project related costs is crucial to the successful completion of a project. The project cost management course focusses on the identification, planning and management of the project budget. The main topics covered in this course will be cost estimating, budgeting, and cost control. The course will discuss the techniques and the best practices in cost estimation and budgeting. In addition, the course will discuss the need of controlling the costs and to monitor the cash flows in a project. Using real life case scenarios, this course gives students a very comprehensive understanding and skill set for developing and monitoring the project budget baseline.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

  1. Understand and identify the characteristics and cost of the resources needed to complete a project.
  2. Understand the basic cost concepts such as cost estimation, budgeting and cost controls.
  3. Develop an appreciation of the costs concerns that pertain to different stakeholders.
  4. Develop the ability to project and analyze the financial performance of the product(s) of each project.
  5. Forecast the specific and total costs of a particular project.

CA 3: Strategic Project Management – Implementation & Evaluation

COURSE DESCRIPTION: In this Constructive Action, the students learn the skills to effectively implement a project and put it into action. The focus of this CA will be to evaluate the project work breakdown structure created in the previous two CAs.

Additionally, this CA will identify the risks involved in implementing the project and define the responses for those risks. Risk and quality planning will be an integral part of this CA. Critical Logs would monitor and document the key steps involved in this implementation and the challenges faced along the way, suggesting modifications for improvement. Outcomes and final assessments would be presented.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: By the end of the course, students will:

  1. Develop the skills needed to effectively implement a project
  2. Learn to evaluate the project work breakdown structure created in previous CAs
  3. Demonstrate organizational skill and communication skills to effectively implement a project.
  4. Learn to identify project risks and responses for those risks
  5. Delineate, evaluate (and even possibly alter) assumptions about the project along the way
  6. See project through to the end, discussing outcomes and giving a final assessment
  7. Present all the above in a comprehensive and detailed report/paper

Project Risk and Quality Management

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Project risk management includes the processes of conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis, response planning, response implementation and monitoring risk on a project.

Project quality management includes the processes for incorporating the organization’s quality policy regarding planning, managing, and controlling project and product quality management in order to meet stakeholders’ objectives.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: At the conclusion of this course, students will:

  1. Understand the management and deliverables of the project.
  2. Distinguish between quality and grade in a project.
  3. Understand the advantage of prevention over inspection.
  4. Learn basic sampling concepts and techniques.
  5. Be able to establish tolerance and control limits.
  6. Plan and implement quality and risk plans
  7. Incorporate quality into project planning and design.
  8. Distinguish between individual and overall project risk.
  9. Project risk management requires an interactive process to compensate for the emergence of risks during the life of the project.
  10. Learn what level of risk is acceptable for each project.

Ethics in Project Management

COURSE DESCRIPTION: In the business world, ethics plays a significant role in fair decision making and improving business relationships. The course ‘Ethics in Project Management’ familiarizes the students with different ethical issues that project managers face, and which have a key role in determining the success of the project. The course examines the ethical principles in managing the projects which are aligned with the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct identified by the Project Management Institute (PMI). This course explores the various tools used for decision making based on the ethical standards set by PMI. The course describes the ethical dilemmas in project management and demonstrates the methodology to apply ethical standards in project management. The course also covers the legal enforcements and accountability Acts by U.S. federal and State governments.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: At the conclusion of this course, students will:

  1. Understand the sources of ethics: parents, schools, religious systems, and the legal systems.
  2. Learn that conforming to social values is the moral imperative that legitimizes projects.
  3. Understand that businesses engage in ethical practices for two reasons: to do the right thing or to diminish exposure to legal consequences.
  4. Examine the concept of “Line of Impunity:” the idea that certain ranks or positions in the social hierarchy entitle prerogatives or advantages, and that the power granted to those levels transcends the limits of control or law enforcement.
  5. Ensure that the project manager is capable of handling ethical issues within the project by addressing ethical staffing and avoidance of conflicts of interest.

Procurement and Supply Chain Management and Legal Aspects

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Procurement and Supply Chain Management is the key for success of many projects as the procured goods and services in a project are a major part of the expenses of the project and requires proper appraisal and management. This course provides an insight into the procurement strategy and skills required to get the best value for expenditure incurred on the project. The course provides an understanding of the effective procurement strategy and the benefits of strategic procurement management to the business/ organization.

The course also covers the legal aspects involved in contract management by introducing the law of contract and legal principles which underlie the contracts.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: At the conclusion of this course, students will:

  1. Understand the strategic scope and role of procurement.
  2. Develop an understanding of strategic management in business and procurement and evaluate alternative strategies.
  3. Understand logistics and supply chains and procurement positioning within supply chain management.
  4. Understand the different organizational and supply chain structures with a focus on decentralized and centralized procurement.
  5. Learn about procurement policies and procedures
  6. Learn about supplier relationship management.
  7. Understand the legal and contractual management: formation of a contract and the contract laws.