Overview

This course offers a two-for-one learning opportunity. It examines two significant project management knowledge areas: risk management and quality management. While these are topics that are vitally important for project success, they often get little treatment in standard project management texts and courses.

Effective risk management is part science and art. This course reflects this dichotomy by examining both the science of risk management (e.g., understanding the underlying statistics of risk; creating simulations of different scenarios) and the art (e.g., dealing with political risk, gaining strong project sponsorship). It reviews most the pertinent tools and techniques employed in risk management today.

Projects are also concerned with quality issues. To achieve quality deliverables, organizations must establish processes that lead to consistent performance and deal flexibly with customer needs and wants. This course examines key quality initiatives (e.g., Baldridge Award, Deming Prize, ISO 9000, CMM) and reviews total quality management (TQM) tools and techniques that are relevant to project work.

Course Credit: Students who successfully completed semester courses can apply credit gained toward UMT's Master of Science in Management, MBA, Master of Science in Computer Science, or Master of Science in Information Technology programs.

Instruction

Method: Readings, case study analyses, homework, final examination

Materials: On-line workbook; case studies; textbook, A Guide to the PMBOK

[Note: Students must purchase all textbooks for semester-length PDU courses.]

Objectives

To offer participants insights into the key perspectives, tools and techniques employed by high performing organizations to manage risk and quality; to help participants to gain hands-on experience in working with some key tools and techniques.

PMBOK Knowledge Areas

• Project Time Management
• Project Scope Management
• Project Quality Management
• Project Cost Management
• Project Risk Management

What You Will Learn

• Knowledge of the risk management life-cycle
• An understanding of different types of risk that can arise on projects
• Insights into key risk management tools and concepts
• How to handle risk at different phases of the project life-cycle
• Basic precepts of Total Quality Management (TQM)
• How to use core quality management techniques
• Features of well-known quality initiatives
• An understanding of the quality-customer link

Topics Covered

• Risk management life-cycle
• Special features of different kinds of risk: project risk, business risk, operational risk, technical risk, and political risk
• Use of probability distributions, expected value, simulations
• Qualitative factors: building a strong WBS, achieving consensus on risk likelihood and impact, implementing good processes
• Construction and use of risk scoring sheets, impact-likelihood matrices, risk-oriented WBSs
• Key risk-handling strategies: risk transfer, risk mitigation, risk avoidance, risk acceptance
• Establishing contingency reserves and management reserve
• Basic TQM precepts, from zero defects to Pareto’s rule
• TQM tools, including run charts, control charts, Pareto diagrams, PDCA cycle
• Working with customers to understand their needs and requirements
• Comparison of various quality initiatives

Take a Course

The 45-PDU semester courses in PDU Suite do not require any formal application to the university. Each course costs $1,170. You may pay for a course at any time on our Online Payment page.

All 45-PDU semester courses are offered based on sufficient enrollment. UMT decides whether to offer a particular course two weeks prior to the beginning of a semester or when there is sufficient enrollment, whichever comes first.

Please fill out the course registration form below if you are interested in taking this course. This will help us to estimate the enrollment as early as possible and let everyone know whether the course will be offered next semester.