Project Management: Beyond the Basics Course - The Open University

Build your existing project management knowledge and develop the skills to manage teams and deliver effective projects.

Learn how to lead project teams with success

Digital transformation and the rise of large scale infrastructure projects has created a growing demand for more project-oriented jobs worldwide. In this course, you will go beyond the fundamentals of project management and improve your knowledge so you’re better prepared to lead projects in the future.

You will focus on ensuring your projects deliver the intended benefits to stakeholders whilst being on time and within budget. You will learn how to choose the best approach to projects and develop the leadership and management skills needed to grow effective project teams.

What topics will you cover?

Week 1

• The skills a project manager needs to master
• Demands placed on a project manager
• Identifying and evaluating stakeholders
• Lines of communication
• Ethics in projects

Week 2

• Managing in situations of volatility and uncertainty
• Managing complexity and ambiguity
• Linear, iterative and hybrid project lifecycles
• Selecting the right approach
• Developing project agility

Week 3

• Forming and developing project teams
• Launching projects
• Conditions for success
• The power of social, identity and cognitive diversity
• Developing and safeguarding project teams

Week 4

• Managing quality in a project
• The costs of quality
• Preparing a quality plan
• Managing resources
• Looking at the critical chain
• Dealing with conflict

When would you like to start?

Most FutureLearn courses run multiple times. Every run of a course has a set start date but you can join it and work through it after it starts.

• Available now

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to:

• Reflect on your current knowledge of project management and go beyond the basics of project management in your own professional practice.
• Improve your awareness of the professional skills required to be a project manager.
• Improve your ability to give and receive feedback from all project stakeholders.
• Develop an awareness of the ethical aspects of project management.
• Identify the appropriate methods and techniques best suited for specific project management scenarios.
• Identify the appropriate methods and techniques best suited for specific project management scenarios.
• Apply appropriate communication tools and techniques to engage with project stakeholders.

Who is the course for?

This course is for people working on and leading projects in their work but who may not see themselves as professional project managers. It also offers the opportunity for people to explore project management as a career.

Who will you learn with?

Who developed the course?

The Open University

The Open University (OU) is the largest academic institution in the UK and a world leader in flexible distance learning, with a mission to be open to people, places, methods and ideas.

Join this course