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 602 Project Human Resource Management
This course examines the various organizational strategies used to effectively manage and allocate personnel to complete projects. Topics include organizational planning, staff acquisition, team development, conflict resolution, and negotiation.

PRM 603 Project Communications
Students explore various methods used to effectively communicate project information, including requirements, project plan, performance, milestone reporting, and project closure. Technical writing and formal presentation techniques are also addressed.

PRM 604 Project Risk and Quality Management (Prerequisite: PRM600)
This course explores the basic principles and practices of risk and quality management. Key concepts in managing uncertainty include developing a risk approach, and identifying, analyzing, monitoring and responding to risks in projects. The course also addresses key concepts in quality management, such as quality planning, quality assurance, and quality control.

PRM 605 Project Procurement and Cost Management (Prerequisite: PRM600 and PRM601)
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 and PRM601)
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.

Required Core Management Courses (15 credit hours)

GM 600 Management Principles
This course provides an overview of the key organizational and behavioral concepts that underlie effective management practice in private and public sector organizations around the world. It examines comparative management systems in terms of global applications, giving special attention to defining and interpreting cross-cultural differences and influences. This course also emphasizes collaboration approaches that address the expectations, needs, and performances of people in organizations, as well as the external, internal, and global cultures that influence organizational structure, behavior and change.

GM 625 Leadership and Decision Making
Students are introduced to selected models and practices in the exploration and understanding of effective leadership and decision making. Skills necessary for effective decision making and problem solving within organizations are emphasized from the perspective of the manager.

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 670 Strategic Management
This course examines both the theory and application of strategic management tasks. Among the tasks considered are developing a mission/vision statement, setting objectives, developing and implementing a strategy, and evaluating performance.

GM 675 Managerial Ethics and Issues
This course examines various theories and methods for resolving organizational dilemmas involving ethical behavior. It emphasizes the application of philosophical principles and managerial techniques to the ambiguous and ethical issues facing today's organizations domestically and abroad. Students will develop the skills necessary to identify, analyze, and develop strategies to engage in ethical decision making.

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 and PRM601)
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. 

MIB 510 International Business Environments
Students receive an introduction to the fundamentals and essential components of international business and the environments in which it is conducted. Coursework examines the theory and practice of elements that comprise the international environment within the global marketplace. The course also emphasizes the inner workings of international business operations through the study of key issues facing international businesses.

MIB 545 International Geopolitical Analysis
This course provides a framework for identifying and analyzing the international political and economic issues that comprise the international business environment. Students examine the international political economy in light of national economies, political and demographic trends, social issues, and the relationship between power and wealth. Ways in which political, economic, cultural, and religious forces and tensions affect international business are also emphasized. The course further identifies political forces that affect the economic choices of states, enterprises, and individuals in international trade, investment, and monetary affairs.   

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.