Project Management Certificate Courses | Northwestern SPS - Northwestern School of Professional Studies

Program Courses

To earn a project management certificate, students must successfully complete the following courses depending on which track of study they choose:

1. Applied Project Management Certificate: complete the Core Course (PROJ_PMI 402-0 or PROJ_PMI 402-DL) only
2. Essentials of Project Management Certificate: complete the Core Course (PROJ_PMI 401-0 or PROJ_PMI 401-DL) and two Electives
3. Certificate in Agile Practices: complete the Core Course (PROJ_PMI 403-0) and two Electives

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PDP courses are offered online, remotely, and on-campus. Please refer to the Schedule Notes for course delivery information.

IMPORTANT: The registration process for all professional development courses requires you to (A) register for your course, (B) complete an acknowledgment of Northwestern University's Student Expectations and COVID-19 Code of Conduct in CAESAR, AND (C) update your emergency contact information . Current students with an active NetID must complete their student acknowledgment in CAESAR before registering for courses. New students must complete their student acknowledgment in CAESAR within 48 hours of enrollment before official registration can be finalized.
Please contact pdp@northwestern.edu for assistance.

PROJ_PMI 360-0 : Agile Estimating and Planning

Description

As Agile methods and tools continue to grow in popularity, people are interested in how to leverage Agile to improve their projects. Contrary to what some people think, planning in Agile projects is more rigorous and disciplined than it is in traditional projects. The purpose of this course is to provide project managers, Scrum Masters, product owners, functional managers and Agile team members with an in-depth understanding of how to plan for Agile projects.

Agile estimating and planning helps to get a project off on solid footing. Working together in teams, participants will select a product to use for their case study and will apply the planning and estimation techniques for the course on that product.

Planning for Agile projects starts with the big picture of product roadmaps and release plans, and drills down into the work that an Agile team will do within an iteration. Participants will learn how to plan for iterative and incremental solution development, and how to address change in a plan.

The course also looks at the two types of estimates used on Agile projects, relative estimates in story points and absolute estimates in ideal days. Participants will learn when to use each of these, and how to include the entire team for more accurate estimates that team members will support.

Please note: This course will be helpful to those who are familiar with estimating and planning traditional projects or who have an agile background but want additional detail on how to effectively plan agile projects. This course is not recommended as an elective for those in the Essentials of Project Management track

This course qualifies as education contact hours for the Project Management Institute’s Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) exam. Note that in order to sit for the PMI-ACP® exam, students must meet additional requirements set forth by PMI that can be found on their website.

Total Professional Development Units (PDUs): 14 (Technical: 14)

Registered students can access their online course site here. An activated NetID and password is required for login. *Please note: It may take up to 24-hours for registered students to be added to the online course platform.

Additional Information:

This course is graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.