"Fundamentals of Project Planning and Management will introduce basic concepts from project planning, critical path method, network analysis, and simulation for project risk analysis. You will gain an appreciation for what is required in planning and executing large-scale projects and gain an understanding of Agile Project Management principles. Together, we will develop an awareness of some behavioral biases that come to play in project settings and identify how these impact the planning and execution of a project."
For me the class was helpful in learning how to articulate the struggles that teams face in completing projects. The professor goes into detail about the faults of multi-tasking and the tendencies of student's syndrome and Parkinson's law. I've used some of the examples presented in this class with teams that I work with to try and mitigate some of these risks.
The review of project management practices and risk analysis was interesting, but did not have much application to those practicing iterative software development. When the professor did finally get to Agile Project Management Principles, it was much more of a broad overview. Sort of a list of definitions and not much else.
I recommend Fundamentals of Project Planning and Management for those just entering the arena of traditional project management. If your company practices any specific niche of project management (anything other than waterfall), then a class like Intro to Software Product Management by the University of Alberta may be more your style.
