PM 509 Business Fundamentals for Project Managers

Organizations are complex with a multitude of business activities being executed every day. Under-girded by the notion of general systems theory, this course provides business fundamentals for project managers. Students learn about business strategy, marketing, voice-of-the-customer, operations, and human resource management. Additionally, students will learn the basics of business analysis as it relates to customer requirements. Understanding these fundamentals allows project managers to better deploy tools and techniques of the discipline and bridge the divide between customer needs, business goals, and project planning, designing, developing, and implementing. Further, students will be exposed to procurement management, specifically the effective use and management of vendors, partners, and contractors and their implications relative to decision-making, legal, and ethical concerns.

Credits

3

Outcomes

1. This course will prepare students to:
2. Effectively communicate purpose and process of building a comprehensive business case and the role of the project manager relative to the business case.
3. Evaluate the relevance of identified tools and techniques to elicit and document requirements.
4. Construct a procurement management plan that reflects the project’s procurement needs.
5. Analyze different types of contracts and the risks associated with each type of contract and determine contract incentives.
6. Evaluate and recommend best practices for vendor management and contract‐procurement monitoring.