Take My Liberty BUSI 681 Class

Gray and Larson's chapters nine through sixteen are read one per week. Week one deals with shortening a project, from crashing activities at the lowest added cost to fast-tracking work in parallel.

Week two covers what makes an effective project manager, including managing stakeholders, building influence without formal authority and handling ethical pressure.

Week three covers managing project teams, from forming a new team to keeping a virtual or dispersed one productive.

Week four covers outsourcing and the management of relationships with contractors and partners.

In week five the subject is tracking progress, chiefly through earned value, comparing the work planned, the work done and its real cost to see whether a project is ahead, behind or over budget.

Week six covers project closure, audits and lessons learned. Week seven covers agile project management, and week eight closes with international projects.

Every week carries a recorded presentation and a quiz. Discussions open in odd weeks and close in even weeks, the project topic is submitted in week two, Part 1 is due in week six and Part 2 in week eight.

BUSI 681 is planned around the project model, because both parts describe one project of your choosing and Part 2 is built directly from Part 1's documents.

The project is chosen for a realistic size: a few months long, with clear deliverables and identifiable stakeholders. Opening a new clinic location, moving a small firm onto new accounting software or running a church building renovation all work well.

Part 1 assembles four documents. The proposal explains why the project exists, what it will and will not include and who sponsors it. A roles chart pins each deliverable to named people. A risk table weighs each threat by probability and consequence and sets a response. A communication schedule maps every audience to its messages, channels and timing.

Part 2 then builds the plan in Microsoft Project: a description of the project, its principal deliverables and a breakdown of every task with dates, costs and resources, linked so the software calculates the critical path and total budget.

Individual discussion posts apply the week's chapter with journal research and Scripture, and your group share responds critically to teammates. You post and submit each piece, and the quizzes are yours.

BUSI 681 work goes to a project manager who holds the PMP and schedules projects in Microsoft Project as part of the job.

That experience shows in Part 2, where the file uses summary tasks that mirror the work breakdown structure, realistic durations, finish-to-start links and named resources with costs, so the schedule and budget hold together.

It also shows in Part 1, where the risk matrix names risks a real project of that type would face and the communication plan fits the stakeholders the proposal identifies.

The discussions draw on the same practice. A post on earned value can explain what a cost index below one means for a sponsor and what a project manager does next.

A second credentialed project manager reads each piece before release, and the same writer carries the course from the topic note to the final schedule file.

The topic note in week two is short but important, because the instructor's reply to it sets the boundaries for both parts.

Microsoft Project is the first obstacle. Students who have never used it find that tasks, links, resources and costs interact in ways that are hard to fix once the file grows.

Earned value is the second. The week-five chapter brings formulas and indices that feed straight into the quiz and into any discussion on performance.

The weekly quiz is the third, taking time from writing every week of the term.

Group responses are the fourth, since they depend on teammates posting on time and must still be collaborative and critical.

Choosing the project is the fifth. A topic that is too large makes Part 2 unmanageable; one that is too small leaves the documents thin.

Each issue eases with practice, but eight weeks leaves little room for it.

The project topic is due in week two, so the course is best handed over before it starts.

Individual posts come to you early in odd weeks, and your group share early in even weeks so your team can combine it.

Part 1 reaches you several days before week six closes with all four documents.

Part 2 reaches you early in week eight as a Microsoft Project file with a PDF of the Gantt view and the required description and deliverables.

The quote prices each discussion, Part 1 and Part 2 on separate rows, and the two project parts are the largest.

A student starting late is quoted from the next open item.

Students who have finished BUSI 680 often order the same writer for this course, which keeps the style familiar.