Public Affairs 7555: Project Management in the Public Sector

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This is a sample syllabus to provide general information about the course and it's requirements. Course requirements are subject to change. This syllabus does not contain all assignment or course detail and currently enrolled students should reference the syllabus provided by their instructor. For a specific syllabus, please email us a request.

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Course Overview

3 Credit Hours
Modalities Available: Distance Learning 

In an environment of rapid change and constrained resources, public- and private- sector organizations are often engaged in high-risk, high-visibility projects. As a result, organizations are recognizing the linkage between solid project management and organizational success and survival, and managers at all levels are being challenged to manage complex projects. Project management is an increasingly desirable skill set for those aspiring to senior management roles and a necessary skill for almost all in today’s world.

Learning Outcomes

This course exposes students to requirements for effective project management and the many challenges it presents. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

  • Identify standards, methods and approaches for project management;
  • Apply the basic, ancillary, and “soft” skills necessary for successful project management by doing project work throughout the semester;
  • Describe the challenges of project management in the public sector and appreciate the strengths and limitations of project management in a complex organizational environment.

Requirements and Expectations

  • Weekly Quizzes 5%

  • Weekly Discussions 10%

  • Project Plan & Presentations 55%

  • Simulations 20%

  • Short Paper 10%

The weekly quizzes will help students apply their understanding of the material covered in the course readings, narrated lectures, and videos from each week. Each quiz will consist of 4-8 questions that must be answered in 25 minutes. Quizzes are open-book, open-note, and open internet, but students are not permitted to seek help from any individual while taking it.

Throughout the course, students will participate in discussions that focus on specific topics related to project management. Discussions are meant to help students explain and use information critically, as well as discuss topics in a respective manner. Consult Carmen for discussion instructions and due dates.

Each student must identify and submit a brief description (2-4 paragraphs) of a real-life project that has not been completed. The project should be work-related, volunteer-related, or personal (i.e. home improvement) and does need to be substantial enough to allow for consideration of all elements of project management.

The project description should be submitted through Carmen by the designated due date. You may submit your description prior to the due date if you wish. Following receipt of the description, the instructors will provide each student with feedback regarding the project. If the project has potential problems, the student may, at that time, revise the proposal and resubmit.

For the selected project, you will incrementally create a detailed project plan over the course of the semester and have two opportunities to create and deliver a presentation to your project’s executive sponsor. The elements you will create are:

  • Project charter, written - 5%
  • Project charter, verbal presentation - 10%
  • Work breakdown structure - 5%
  • Project schedule and diagram indicating critical path - 5%
  • Stakeholder management plan - 5%
  • Communication plan - 5%
  • Status report, written - 5%
  • Status report, verbal presentation - 10%
  • Lessons learned - 5%

You should receive feedback from your weekly submitted assignments no later than the Sunday following an assignment’s due date. When appropriate, grading rubrics and submission instructions will be provided to the student for clarification.

Throughout the semester there will be simulated events that will require you to think critically and make adjustments to elements of your project plan or develop additional materials. The simulations are meant to give you an opportunity to experience events that can, and typically do, happen during the course of a project’s life cycle. The simulations will be somewhat general so that they can be applied to the variety of projects selected by each student. Consult the class schedule section of the syllabus or Carmen to understand when these activities will occur.

Students will complete a final short paper (approximately 1500-2000 words) at the conclusion of the term. This final paper is designed to be flexible and suitable for individual student interests and expertise. Accordingly, it is largely open-ended. In other words, students will be allowed to choose the topic of their final paper. At its core, this is a reflection and limited research project. The hope is that this paper will allow students to have the flexibility to explore areas of interest in greater detail. Students will first submit a topic proposal by the designated due date. In your topic description (one paragraph in length), you should explain what aspect of project management you propose exploring. Please keep this narrowly focused. For example, you couldn’t realistically accomplish a strong paper examining all elements of the project life cycle – there is simply too much ground to cover. However, you might reasonably be able to examine communication or stakeholder management. Finally, you should include five potential scholarly sources for information pertaining to your topic and provide the relevant citation information for those sources.

To submit the paper proposal, students should upload either a word or .pdf document to Carmen by the designated due date. You may submit to the instructors your proposal prior to the due date if you  wish. Following receipt of the proposal, the instructors will provide each student with feedback regarding the topic. If the topic has potential problems, the student may, at that time, revise the proposal and resubmit. Following approval of a student’s paper proposal, the student will need to work on completing the paper by researching the material necessary. Rubrics will be provided to the students in Carmen.

Weekly Schedule

  1. Introduction and Framework

  2. A Profession in Transition:  How Project Management Professionals Use Multiple Methodologies

  3. The Project Lifecycle

  4. The Project Lifecycle (Continued)

  5. Project Scheduling, Resource Management, and Critical Path

  6. Defining a Budget, Procuring Goods and Services, and Managing Quality

  7. Communication Planning and Risk Management

  8. Executing and Change Management

  9. Monitoring Your Project and Providing Metrics

  10. Status Reporting and Gantt Charts

  11. Closing Out Your Project, Lessons Learned and Retrospectives

  12. Transition to Operations and Course Closing

  13. Topics in Agile Project Management

  14. Final Thoughts and Short Paper

Previous Instructors Have Included