Project Management Fundamentals

Description

The Project Management Fundamentals module (QUAL11013) provides a comprehensive introduction to the fundamental principles, concepts and theories of project management for postgraduate students. 

Coverage is informed by the Association for Project Management (APM) project management body of knowledge and includes: project definition and stakeholder management, business strategy and investment appraisal, work breakdown, effort estimation techniques and biases, risk management, network analysis, time and resource-limited scheduling, monitoring and schedule compression techniques, earned value analysis and theories of organisational behaviour, motivation, teamwork, job design and using project management software.  This works both as an introductory module for students taking the MSc in Project Management and as a summary of the topic for students on other degree courses. 

Worked examples will be provided and exercises will be undertaken throughout to enable students to develop critical thinking and also practical skills using key numerical and analytical techniques. 

Students will be assessed by means of a class test and a collaborative project planning coursework. 

Undertaking this module should develop a range of graduate attributes.  Students will be encouraged to further develop their research and critical faculties by researching topics of interest.  As part of the coursework, students will also have an opportunity to work together to solve problems and build on their communication skills. 

On successful completion of this module the student will be able to:

  • Demonstrate an understanding of the background, body of knowledge, and current developments within project management
  • Define a project and determine the project scope, stakeholders, feasibility, and risk ownership
  • Develop a critical understanding of the project life-cycle, its phases, processes, tools, and techniques
  • Give a critical evaluation of the human, motivational and organizational issues of project management
  • Identify project risks and procurement routes to manage them

This is an SCQF Level 11 module and upon successful completion, participants will be awarded 20 credits.

To view the module descriptor, please visit Programme Specifications and Module Descriptors 

 

Delivery

We currently anticipate that this CPD module will next commence from September 2026.

Timetable to be confirmed. 

 

Course presenter

This module will be delivered by Dr Andy Durrant.

 

NOTE: This is a university module and upon approval of your application, you will be invited to register and then supported to complete enrolment. To enrol on the university system, the first step involves security set-up using the Microsoft Authenticator app; you will need to ensure that you have a compatible smartphone.

Further enrolment information is available at the Student Information Portal.

To access this module via the CPD route, individuals should be ordinarily resident in Scotland.  

 

Further study

In addition to being available on a CPD basis, this module is part of our MSc Project Management.

 

You may also be interested in...