Introduction - Video Tutorials & Practice Problems
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Video transcript
<v ->Hello.</v> My name is Dr. Jeffrey Pinto, and I've been a professor of project management at Penn State University for over 25 years. As a researcher, consultant, and teacher, I've published over 25 books and a few hundred articles on project management themes over the years. I even have a project management textbook with Pearson, now in its 5th edition. Managing projects is one of the biggest challenges we face today because projects are so central to the way we operate our organizations. And whether you work in the executive suite of a Fortune 500 company or on the ground floor of a local nonprofit, odds are that you are being called on to manage a lot of projects. There are good reasons for the expanded use of projects in modern organizations. In the broadest sense, projects are the means by which we create change. Now, we all know that change is critical to our future. We can't continue doing the same things tomorrow that we were doing last year and expect to stay on top of our industries. We have to be creative, willing to embrace opportunities, and constantly looking for new and better. But at the same time, managing change is tough. Creativity can quickly become another word for chaos. Opportunities can lose our companies a lot of money if we're not careful. In short, we know that change is good. Indeed, it's a sign of health, but we also know that it has to be controlled and managed rationally. And that's where project management comes in. The very first sentence of my textbook stated that projects are the principle means by which we change our world. I still firmly believe this to be true. Projects give us the ability to make the big changes necessary, to find new opportunities, and introduce new products or services while providing a structure and systematic way to get things done. In this course, you'll be introduced to the critical elements of the project management process. You'll learn why projects matter for your organization and your own personal success. You'll learn how to carefully plan projects, how to assess risks, and how to engage in critical scheduling processes. In other words, you'll learn how to set the stage for project success. Additionally, we'll take a look at the best ways to monitor and control the projects you are undertaking. We'll examine how to close out a project. One of the truly unique aspects of project management is that while we are running something, we're doing it with a defined start and end in mind. Learning the effective steps in project closeout and termination will allow us to end the project just as we started it, in a planned and controlled manner, ensuring that our company gets the best value for their investment. We have some additional topics that are highly relevant to your experiences with projects, Agile project management and the behavioral side of scheduling. Now, many of us have heard of Agile and perhaps have been exposed to it, while others may not be as familiar with the concept. We will explore this methodology in detail. Finally, we'll conclude these lessons with a somewhat right but highly important perspective on the manner in which project schedules are subject to the foibles and behaviors of key project team members and project managers. I promise you that we'll shed a useful light on some common experiences we share as we develop workable plans and schedules. Project management isn't easy. For every company that makes millions with new product introductions, there are others that are steadily losing millions through inattention to critical details, recurring mistakes, and predictably disappointing results. We can do better. The good news is that this video is one step in the right direction. Let's work together to fix the problems and find a better path forward to managing projects successfully. I hope you'll find these lessons as enlightening and useful to your work as possible. Use them and me as an ongoing resource. If you have questions at the end, please don't hesitate to contact me directly through my email account. I would love to hear from you. And I'd love to learn more about the ways you were using projects to further the goals of your organization. So with this in mind, let's begin.