Business and Management

View Spring 2012 timetable here 

Project Management is of growing importance to organisations because it deals effectively with the management of change. Organisations are beginning to realise that the traditional form of management cannot deal with the dynamics and resulting chaos of the modern economic, social and business environment. Project management is a method for organisations to achieve profitability targets, but just as significantly; it is a ‘culture’ that will assist most people to improve their personal performance.

Programme Aims and Objectives

Project management can provide a varied and rewarding career path and has become the favoured management technique for accomplishing specialised missions or work, when the normal organisational structure or methods of assignment are not sufficiently responsive, flexible, or efficient. This Diploma in Project Management programme will explore the social, organisational, behavioural, and systems issues of project management and the course will ultimately provide a framework for managing projects. Project management is continuing to evolve from a set of skills to a profession and the pace of this evolution is increasing.  

Students who complete this course should be able to:

• Explain the characteristics of organisational approaches to project management
• Understand the core competencies required to make an effective project manager including communication, leadership, motivation, negotiation and team building skills
• Understand the concepts of stakeholders, success criteria and critical success factors in the context of projects
• Evaluate the importance of effective management of the project life cycle
• Be able to apply methods, tools and techniques for planning, monitoring and controlling projects and for managing risk
• Create a project plan
• Understand the various roles and the importance of the project office.

Course Content

As projects become more obscure, greater competencies are required to manage their complexity. This syllabus is designed to examine project management roles and environments, the project life cycle, and various tools and techniques of project initiation, planning, execution, control, and close-out to successfully achieve project objectives.

Initiation
This is the process of defining that something needs to be done and committing the organisation and its resources to do it. It includes defining the project, in strategic terms especially in terms of its business value and seeking authorisation to proceed.

Planning
This stage involves the devising of a project plan capable of achieving the project objectives, continuously refining requirements, creating a WBS (Work Breakdown Structure), establishing project controls and seeking approval for the plan.

Execution
The execution stage includes progressive elaboration of the project’s plan whilst co-ordinating people, materials and processes to accomplish the planned objectives.

Controlling
This is the process of ensuring that project objectives are met by monitoring and measuring progress regularly, using earned value to identify variances from plan, responding to risk triggers and taking corrective action as necessary.

Close-out
The final stage includes the formalised acceptance of the project or phase, the documenting of lessons learned, record archiving as well as contract review and audit.

Assessment

To be awarded the Diploma in Project Management, a student will be required to complete an individual assignment (40%) and end of course examination (60%).

Career Progression Opportunities

Project management provides a diverse range of interesting and rewarding career options. It encompasses a highly versatile and valued skill set that can be applied across all major economic sectors from the arts, financial services, engineering, ICT, life sciences to construction.

Student Profile

The Diploma attracts a diverse range of students from a varied background. The typical student will have a limited amount of project experience and is looking to develop their formal skill set and career prospects as project managers.

“I looked at multiple colleges and universities before deciding on DBS for an Evening Diploma. The course content was concise and challenging and the lecturer was extremely engaging and knowledgeable. The class discussions added multiple views to specific areas and I finished the course with a much more in-depth understanding of the core project management principles and methodologies than I expected to get from the Diploma course. I feel much more confident in my chosen career now that I have such a solid education in the sector behind me, and will certainly continue to study with DBS in the future.”
Ashley Duffy
Diploma in Project Management