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University System of Maryland

Designing Project Information Hubs for Program and Project Performance

University System of Maryland and University of Maryland, College Park via edX

Overview

Communication complexity rapidly increases even with a few program or project team members and stakeholders. Project managers are the “hub” of their project communication. Program managers are the “hub” of their organization communication to meet strategic goals. Managing these networks is essential whether you manage traditional programs or projects. Or agile programs and projects.

Program managers have two additional challenges. First, they must empower their project managers with skills, processes, and assets for information management. Second they must sense and integrate the key performance data to ensure strategic objectives are met, and project processes are improved across the program.

As you learned from the Project Management Institute, Inc.'s (PMI)"A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge" (PMBOK) when preparing for the PMP exam, the number of communication channels grows geometrically with team size. If there are “n” communicators, then the number of communication channels is n*(n-1)/2. That means five team members have 10 channels, but 10 team members have 45 channels to manage. That’s over four times as many channels for doubling the size of a small team!

If you imagine each communication channel as a radio station, you can see how quickly the program or project manager can be overwhelmed with all the information coming in. As you gain more program or project management experience, what you learned for the PMP certification or similar professional certification is not sufficient. This course will help you go beyond the knowledge you needed to become a certified project manager.

This applies to all project leaders. Whether you are a just getting started as a Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM), or a seasoned Project Management Professional (PMP), you need to manage a lot of information transfer and exchange. And this challenge is even greater for agilists, like certified scrum masters (CSMs) and PMI-ACP holders. No matter the scaling methods, having timely information is critical for agile teams at scale, who need to move fast without driving up overhead in team-to-team communication as technical scope changes.

In this program and project management training course, you will learn effective and efficient project management tools to receive and transmit program and project-level information. Program managers and project managers need to ensure that information flows freely and where the information can do the most benefit. This online course will teach you how to build communication networks for your program or project’s success. Gain 10 professional development units (PDUs) while sharpening your program or project management skills.

Syllabus

Week One - Program/Project Communication Networks

Module One - What Are Communication Networks?

Module Two - How to Build a Communication Network for a Program or Project - Part One

Module Three - How to Build a Communication Network for a Program or Project - Part Two

Module Four - Scaling Up the Program or Project Communication Network

Module Five - Putting It All Together and Preview of the Next Module

Week Two - Managing Information in a Program or a Project

Module One - The Types of Information in a Program/Project

Module Two - How Information Moves in a Program/Project

Module Three - Knowledge Management in Programs and Projects - Part One

Module Four - Knowledge Management in Programs and Projects - Part Two

Module Five - Putting It All Together and Preview of the Next Module

Week Three - Program/Project Management Information Templates

Module One - The Program/Project Communication Plan

Module Two - Reporting Program/Project Status

Module Three - Effective Meeting Practices

Module Four - Communicating Program/Project Status to Stakeholders

Week Four - Troubleshooting Program and Project Communication Network Challenges

Module One - The Network is Growing Too Big

Module Two - Information is Getting Lost in the Network

Module Three - Information Only Goes One Way

Module Four - How To Tell If Information is Being Transmitted Accurately

Module Five - Teaching Your Program Or Project Team Good Information Management Habits

Taught by

Bill Brantley

Reviews

4.8 rating, based on 44 Class Central reviews

4.7 rating at edX based on 6 ratings

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  • Very well thought of and designed course. It grabs one's attention all though the course. The way it is structured and the notes that follow the videos which although mentioned as summary in fact contain the whole material covered in the video. Going through both the video and the summary write up helps the matter stay in the minds making your learning remain in the long-term memory.
  • Anonymous
    The course outlined frameworks for storytelling and then provided examples and templates of how to use them for creating stories in various scenarios. Understanding these topics makes it more likely I will be able to use it in practice.
  • Anonymous
    Great course, great real life examples, the professor did a great job turning theory into real world examples to help easily understand Information lifecycles.
  • Millicent
    It was an interesting course and l learnt a lot on information hubs and how to ensure data is created, store ,validated and protected.

    Thank you very much
  • HAYA M. S. FERWANA
    Thank you for this informative course. It benefits all students who want to improve their skills in that area.
  • Anonymous
    This course did an amazing job of breaking down the intricacies to develop a perfect story and data based presentation
  • Anonymous
    good class and I have learned a lot from this course in terms of project management and how to report work.
  • Anonymous
    I loved the use of examples as a guide to learning. As a storyteller and psychology teacher, I loved the multiple references of both art and psychology subjects
  • Anonymous
    Basics of storytelling and risk management are included in this course. It's a great starting point that doesn't require previous program or project management knowledge. However, don't expect too many AHA-moments from this course as most of the content is somewhat inherent.
  • Anonymous
    Very well-designed course. Provides lots of practical examples so you can grasp new information easily. I enjoyed the content and appreciated the videos. It is a lot tho, so if you really want to use it, I suggest taking notes and study.
  • Anonymous
    Really informative course, I got a lot to take away about project management including skills, methodologies, tips. Course was well designed and easy to navigate, would recommend for anyone who's going to be working on projects/programmes.
  • Anonymous
    This was a useful course. I found myself employing skills from the modules I had already completed as early as week three. Uses its own principles - repetition helps cement learning.
  • Anonymous
    Very interesting, i like the link beteween storytelling and specifically project and program management.

    The teachter is very good at presenting/teaching!
  • Anonymous
    This class is a great way to learn, I liked the videos and the scripting on them soo I could hear and see what was being taught.
  • Achsah John
    Its was very meaningful content and notes were quite helpful ! The flexible timing made my life easy to finish the course on time . The reference are very content oriented . I liked the pace and systematic handling even in an online platform.
  • Anonymous
    I'm very grateful to learn this course by financial aid.I have been learning in many flatforms and I think this course is well crafted and it covers so many things.
  • Anonymous
    It looks like a very simple tool viz., story telling. But finally we realise how effective it is. The entire team could be easily aligned, grouped and motivated through story telling I.e., knowledge sharing to execute even complex projects or tasks. Thanks,
  • Anonymous
    It is really useful, you can apply ICCARI framework to almost everything, although I was not really convinced at the beggining, after spending time on this and then starting to apply the frameworks I saw how much I learned in just a few weeks.
  • Anonymous
    A detailed review of one of the most important skills in academic research: information seeking. In particular, I enjoyed the tutorials on Mendeley and reference management tools. Highly recommended!

  • Anonymous
    This is a great course on Story telling, I love this course especially for its flexibility to complete on my own pace without rushing it to complete it. Its a great resources and wonderful content.

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