How can an organization transfer corporate strategy into meaningful project strategy?
PROJ 587 Advanced Program Management

Week 1 Discussion

DQ1 FROM CORPORATE STRATEGY TO PROJECT STRATEGY

How can an organization transfer corporate strategy into meaningful project strategy? What is the relationship between corporate strategy and project strategy?

DQ2 PORTFOLIOS, PROGRAMS, AND PROJECTS

Portfolio, program, and projects: What are they, how do they differ, and what is their relationship to the corporate strategy?

PROJ 587 Advanced Program Management

Week 2 Discussion

DQ1 PROJECT PORTFOLIO SELECTION

An effective project portfolio does not just happen. There is a process that must be developed and then followed to help ensure a successful portfolio. Let’s start this discussion by examining what decisions must be made before a project is actually looked at or considered. So where do you start in the preprocess stage? Be sure to justify your answer.

DQ2 PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Define the process groups and knowledge areas included in the portfolio management process and explain what happens in each area. How do these areas interact with one another as a group?

PROJ 587 Advanced Program Management

Week 3 Discussion

DQ1 PM, PGM, AND PPM

Project management, program management, and project portfolio management all sound alike. They are different names for possibly the same thing. These are very different topics. Compare and contrast project management, program management, and project portfolio management.

DQ2 PROJECT COST

Whether you are a project manager or a program manager, you will be concerned with project cost. Below is a list of terms that you would see and use when working with project cost. Choose only one, explain it, and give some examples of how it works.

Planned Value (PV)

Actual Cost (AC)

Earned Value (EV)

Budget at Completion (BAC)

Cost Variance (CV)

Schedule Variance (SV)

Cost Performance Index (CPI)

Schedule Performance Index (SPI)

Estimate at Completion (EAC)

Estimate to Complete (ETC)

Variance At Completion (VAC)

Probability (P)

Impact (I)

Expected Monetary Value (EMV)

Expected Activity Duration (EAD)

Standard Deviation (SD)

Late Start, Early Start, Late Finish, Early Finish (LS, ES, LF, EF)

Point of Total Assumption (PTA)

To Complete Performance Index [TCPI]

PROJ 587 Advanced Program Management

Week 4 Discussion

DQ1 CHANGE MANAGEMENT

You have just been hired to manage a new project that will involve not only the installation of a new company-wide computer system but also the implementation of new processes. As project manager, you must create a project plan and a change management plan. Where do you begin? What should be your first task and why?

Who should be part of the planning process? What problems could arise due to the changes? How will you measure the success of the change management plan?

DQ2 CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

Every organization and project has its share of conflict. What matters is how that conflict is handled. Let’s start this discussion by addressing the causes of conflict in an organization or on a project. Whenever possible, share your personal experiences.

PROJ 587 Advanced Program Management

Week 5 Discussion

DQ1 HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEAMS

What characteristics differentiate a high-performance team from the normal or average team?

DQ2 LEADING HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEAMS

In your own words, write a description of an effective leader. List and explain five qualities that you believe are found in effective leaders. (Try to choose qualities that have not already been described.)

PROJ 587 Advanced Program Management

Week 6 Discussion

DQ1 ETHICAL BEHAVIOR

Review the PMP Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct located in the Files section. Let’s start with addressing the two scenarios below.

While working on an external project, your customer asks you to perform some additional tasks that are not included in the formal contract. What should you do?

You are managing an internal R & D project. The initial test results are very poor. You are afraid your management might cancel the project, and this could reflect poorly upon you. Verification testing could be done quickly and inexpensively. What should you do?

Pick a question to answer or comment on your classmates’ comments. These questions generate a great deal of discussion in the classroom. I’ll be interested to see how we do here!

DQ2 COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT

Chapter 7 of our PMI Standard Portfolio text looks at the communication management knowledge area and the processes to develop the plans required to align the company with the strategic, governance, performance, and risk management processes.

What are the components required to complete a communications plan? How do you go about identifying the stakeholders for communications? Why is it important to align these processes with other portfolio processes?

PROJ 587 Advanced Program Management

PROJ587 All Weeks Assignment

PROJ587 All Weeks Assignment

Week 7 Discussion

DQ1 OPTIMIZING RESOURCES

Chapter 15 in the Bender text discusses resource optimization. Bender describes two types of work estimates: effort and duration. Compare and contrast these estimation types and discuss how these can impact the overall project portfolio.

DQ2 TRENDS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The lesson this week mentioned several trends in project management. Using the Internet, choose a trend to discuss and include how it could influence or change the profession.

Here are some areas to get you started. You may choose to discuss a trend that is not listed.

Agile

SCRUM

PgM

Lean

Organizational demands/requirements of PM

PM/BA

CCM

ALM

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.