Master’s in Project Management: Classes and Course Descriptions

The online Master of Science in Project Management program requires a total of 42 graduate-level credit hours:
 

• 21 hours in project management classes
• 15 hours in management coursework
• 3-hour capstone course
  
• 3-hour elective course

Students entering the online project management degree program must have at least one formal or informal experience as a project manager or as a member of a project team.

Because the Master’s in Project Management program at Saint Mary’s is accredited by the Project Management Institute Global Accreditation Center, completion of the program counts for 1,500 of the 4,500 hours of project management experience required to sit for the Project Management Professional (PMP) examination.

Required Core Project Management Classes (21 credit hours)

PRM 600 Fundamentals of Project Management
This foundation course examines the project management framework, including key terminology, project management context, and project management processes. Topics include project management knowledge areas, life cycles, and organizational designs.

PRM 601 Project Planning and Estimating
This course examines activities related to project planning and estimating, including the use of various planning techniques in managing budgets, schedules, and human/material resource allocations. Planning activities associated with quality, communications, risk and procurement are also addressed.
   

PRM 605 Project Procurement and Cost Management (Prerequisite: PRM600)
Students examine the principles and concepts essential to successfully managing project budgets as they relate to procurement, costs, and value. Project procurement topics include planning purchases and acquisitions, requesting seller responses, selecting sellers, and planning, administering and closing contracts. Project cost management topics include cost estimating, cost budgeting, and cost control. Special attention is given to project value and earned value analyses.

PRM 606 Global Project Management (Prerequisite: PRM600)
This course focuses on the various issues project managers must consider for successful global projects. It addresses differing political climates and stages of economic development, and examines social and cultural differences for their impact on project processes.

PRM 612 Project Human Resource and Communications Management (Prerequisite: PRM 600)
This course examines the various organizational designs used to effectively complete projects. Topics include organizational planning, staff acquisition, team development, conflict resolution, and negotiation.

PRM 613 Project Integration and Quality Management (Prerequisite: PRM 600)
This course examines various methods used to ensure the project meets the stakeholder needs for which it was undertaken, including quality planning, quality assurance, and quality control. Coursework examines the integration of project information: gathering requirements, integrating the project plan, reporting performance, and project closure.

PRM 614 Project Risk Management (Prerequisite: PRM 600)
This course explores the basic principles and practices of risk management. Key concepts in managing uncertainty include developing a risk approach, identifying, analyzing, responding to and monitoring risks in projects, programs, and portfolios.

Required Core Management Courses (15 credit hours)

GM 600 Management Principles
This course provides an overview of key organizational and behavioral concepts underlying effective management practice in private and public sector organizations. Comparative management systems are examined. Special attention is given to defining and interpreting
cross-cultural differences and influences. Students will also consider the external and internal forces that influence organizational structure, behavior, and change. 

GM 630 Quantitative Methods
This course focuses on the statistical analysis of data for professional applications or research with an emphasis on quantitative methodologies. It covers populations, sample selection, descriptive and inferential statistics, significance, chi square, correlations, analysis of variance and simple regression. Concepts of reliability, validity, and measurement levels are also addressed.

GM 660 Financial Management
Students discuss and analyze financial issues facing profit, not-for-profit, and governmental organizations in today's domestic and global business environment. The course provides the general manager with an ethical financial manager's perspective through the examination of various financial areas, including types of organizations, sources of capital, investment in the US and in foreign countries, asset management, time value of money, international payments and foreign exchange rates, trade theory and policy, and financial statement analysis.

GM 675 Managerial Ethics and Issues
This course examines philosophical theories and ethical practices that can be used to resolve organizational dilemmas. The course emphasizes the role of managers to strengthen the ethical culture of the organization. Application of ethical principles and models to deal with complex ethical issues facing domestic and global organizations are studied. Students develop skills in values-based decision making built upon integrity and accountability.

GM 680 Leadership and Strategic Management
This course introduces selected models and practices of effective leadership, including understanding one’s own leadership style. Students examine both the theory and application of strategic management tasks including developing a mission/vision statement, setting objectives, developing and implementing a strategy, and evaluating performance.

Required Capstone Course:  (3 credit hours)

PRM 689 Project Management Capstone (Must be taken in a student’s final semester)
This course focuses on integrating the project management knowledge, skills, and tools developed in previous courses. It emphasizes critical analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of the theories and application of project management. It includes either a major research paper or the simulation of all phases of a project of interest, with results being formally presented.

Elective Courses (choose one; 3 credit hours)

PRM 607 Project Management Portfolio and Program Management (Prerequisite: PRM600)
This course examines the program and portfolio framework in which successful projects take place. It examines program and portfolio management foundational knowledge areas, processes, tools and practices, and how they are integrated into successful business and organizational contexts. The course also covers the documented set of processes that represent generally recognized worldwide best practices in program and portfolio management.
   

GM 667 Information Technology
This course provides an overview of planning, managing, and using technology and information in organizations. It addresses present and future issues regarding IT and its impact on management and operations.

Find out more about the curriculum of Saint Mary’s University’s online MS in Project Management. Call us today at 877-308-9954  to speak with an enrollment counselor, or request more information.