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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Project Initiation: Starting a Successful Project by Google

4.8
stars
21,651 ratings

About the Course

This is the second course in the Google Project Management Certificate program. This course will show you how to set a project up for success in the first phase of the project life cycle: the project initiation phase. In exploring the key components of this phase, you’ll learn how to define and manage project goals, deliverables, scope, and success criteria. You’ll discover how to use tools and templates like stakeholder analysis grids and project charters to help you set project expectations and communicate roles and responsibilities. Current Google project managers will continue to instruct and provide you with hands-on approaches for accomplishing these tasks while showing you the best project management tools and resources for the job at hand. Learners who complete this program should be equipped to apply for introductory-level jobs as project managers. No previous experience is necessary. By the end of this course, you will be able to: - Understand the significance of the project initiation phase of the project life cycle. - Describe the key components of the project initiation phase. - Determine a project’s benefits and costs. - Define and create measurable project goals and deliverables. - Define project scope and differentiate among tasks that are in-scope and out-of-scope. - Understand how to manage scope creep to avoid impacting project goals. - Define and measure a project’s success criteria. - Complete a stakeholder analysis and explain its significance. - Utilize RACI charts to define and communicate project team member responsibilities. - Understand the key components of project charters and develop a project charter for project initiation. - Evaluate various project management tools to meet project needs....

Top reviews

AA

Feb 14, 2022

This has been a good learning experience. I now know the different project management tools available. I have a good understanding of project initiation and how to determine the success of a project.

SP

Jan 23, 2024

Although I took this course first before the foundation of project management I found I have known many terms in my real life so eager to start to learn more in-depth qualities of project management.

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4101 - 4125 of 4,342 Reviews for Project Initiation: Starting a Successful Project

By Lawrence S

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Jul 14, 2022

My rating is more like 3.5 stars, and my concerns are (also) around the peer review portion of this course. I personally "reviewed" several submissions that were clearly plagarized, and in one instance they were given to me back-to-back. Since these same people are responsible for reviewing my work, I am left not entirely sure if I am understanding the course material or just the recipient of a passing grade from someone who is trying to cut as many corners as possible to get to their certificate.

As a whole, I walked away from the course feeling relatively confident that I understood the material presented but if someone asked me whether or not they should take this course, it would come with several caveats.

By Artem B

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Feb 8, 2022

I have mixed impressions about this particular class. It provides a good amount of information, however, I find the presentation of the topis not up to the standards of course 1 and 3. This one is very contrsating. Many definiotins are not clear or insuficient. Sometimes, the definitions change as you progress thought the course, sometimes even within the same video. This causes confusion. I beleive that the eleven question quizes conains a questions that is not covered in the class. I reviwed the vidoe and the transcript three times and I could not find an answer. I did not experience such an issue in courses 1 or 3. This peresentation and organization are not as solid as in corses 1 and 3.

By Morningstar A

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Sep 18, 2022

Peer-reviewed graded assignments portion is flawed. Others and myself included, have had instances, where when submitting the assignment, someone "grades" it, by giving zero scores, but then leaving feedback, such as "great work" or "good project charter", etc., and then you don't pass the course because of this. Clearly there are people out there who either aren't paying attention to what they're clicking when grading, or purposefully sabatoging participant's scores.

Other than the flawed peer-graded assignment, the rest of the course itself was very helpful/insightful, and I thoroughly enjoyed this course.

By Andres V

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Nov 17, 2023

The certificate aside, there's a lot of good stuff in here if you actually want to learn. It does seem that a lot of the participants are making minimum effort to speed run through it when it comes to peer assignments and group discussion which I find really discouraging. It devalues the certificate and makes me feel like perhaps I'm wasting my time. But like I say, if you want to get into the coursework it's really helpful. The only thin part of the course was in familiarity with tools. They basically give you a list of websites and say to check them out in your spare time.

By Marta P

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Apr 15, 2024

I have many feelings about this course. I've learnt much but there were sooo much to learn just to pass modules. In 1 and 2 courses this was normal to find out the reading is kinda in the same topic we've just watched and its purpose was to fundamentalize your knowledge (or slightly expand it) but on that course readings were some completely new topics and then your knowledge of them were checked by quizes. Our instructor feels like she was reading all the time and doesn't have that flow. There were too much material and I think I didn't adopt my knowledge well.

By Kamaludeen i

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May 19, 2022

I have completed all the study materials in advance but it is showing 97% for last 3 days and I could not move to next course. peer reveiw time line is showing as would be completed befor June 6.

I could not complete my course with my first payment as I was not well and made the second time payment. I have selected one month time to complete whereas last 3 days are wasted and still I dont know when 3rd part will enable or ask for next payment.

Courseera will give mail support for this kind of issues to understand where we are having constraints.

By Jenifer E

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Jan 14, 2022

I am doing this certificate in conjunction with my work and I think it is ridiculous that the peer review assignments are required to complete the course. I am not going to do them because they are a waste of my time. I am already a manager and have real-world experience. I don't need some random person evaluating my work. If it keeps me from getting my official certificate, then so be it. So ridiculous. If they continue to be a requirement, I will take my money elsewhere.

Also, the videos in week 1 have terrible sound and should be fixed.

By Angela H

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Oct 29, 2022

I enjoyed the course and it was a bit more challenging. However, I take issue with the peer-reviewed assignment. For example, I lost points for "Success Criteria" even though I submitted 4 measurable outcomes for determination of project success. I also lost point for deliverables even though I exceeded the required amount. Why? I cannot help but wonder if the language is an issue for some overseas reviewers. Also, if points are lost, I believe that specific feedback should be given. Otherwise, how will a student understand the mistake?

By Jenna S

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Feb 28, 2022

The portion on tools, how to use them, which tool is good for what type of project etc was incredibly rushed and one of the areas I was most looking forward to. I hope future iterations of this training flesh that part out a bit more. The training also relies on the presumption that everyone understands more complicated business titles and their nuances (e.g. web developer vs web designer), some more universal examples would be helpful for the graded assignments, or more explicit explanations about who does what.

By Rachel M

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Apr 24, 2024

The course material doesn't seem to follow best practices. When I was using Coursera AI to help me study for the Module 2 quiz, I had a question about project launch and landing. What I responded to AI was what the course said, AI told me that wasn't correct. When I took the quiz, I responded to one of the questions based on what AI told me and got the question wrong. I am trying to study to take the PMI-PMP. I thought this course would help but now I'm questioning its commitment to PMI best practices.

By Luke T

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May 19, 2022

While this course does give basic info on how to get started, it is woefully inadequate on the details. What details it did go into, like Google Sheets, really aren't mission critical. I feel barely familiar with the basics, so my only recourse to spend more time on my own figuring it out. Maybe that’s part of their intent, but the course seemed built with the assumption it was giving a well rounded set of skills when it just just barley gave me enough to learn what questions to ask. 

By chevy p

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Nov 28, 2022

Overall content was alright. What was frustrating was grading the project charter assignment, and receiving the grade from other students. There wasn't an "answer key" from which to reference so everyone graded on what they thought was the correct answer. And, my reviewer left scant feedback on why they thought my answer was incorrect.

Perhaps you can provide a higher grade for those giving meaningful feedback and have an answer key with full instruciton on how to give grades.

By Frank M I

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Feb 12, 2023

I think the content is very good but I dont like the peer reviewed aspect of the program. I understand that there arent enough people at Google to check over all of our work, but I dont like the idea that I pay for this program to have non-professionals like myself review my work and determine if I pass the course. The peer reviewed feedback and scores shouldn’t determine if you pass and get credit, it should only be to give you a sense of what others think of your work.

By Angela D

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Mar 13, 2022

The information the instructor gave was conflicting at times where the information provided in the videos did not match up to the correct answers on the quizzes. For instance, the instructor's explanation of engagement and adoption did not correlate to the correct answer on the quiz regarding their distinction. I also felt that their explanation of success criteria was too vague and broad whereas the questions on the quizzes regarding success criteria were specific.

By Janelle P

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Mar 22, 2023

This course was really long and some of the concepts overlap a lot. That's not to say that the concepts shouldn't be separated, but testing on these differences is difficult because the tests are looking for one right answer when there could be multiple. For example, SMART goals and measurements of success in the project charter can definitely be the same answer and end up being repetitive. Other than that, learned a lot :)

By Musa M

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Feb 6, 2022

The course is very good but I am dissapointed beacuse I have not yet recieeved my certificate of completetion because there is no one who wants to grade my peer graded assignment. I have tried to resubmit my work and share link on the students forum but this has also not helped in any way. I suggest that each student should review at least 4 assignments so that you will be able to recieve your certificate.

By Daniel H (

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Aug 8, 2023

I feel the information is good but it isn't presented in a structured way. maybe an overview of the phases for the initiation project management phase should be presented first. After this the Phases can then be broken down in to the processes (or subtasks) that should be completed. For me i just found it difficult to follow along in a succinct manner.

By Frank D

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Dec 1, 2021

This is one of two courses out of the six for project management where I have had to extend my deadlines multiple times after submitting a peer-graded assignment ahead of time. Great info in the course otherwise for someone looking to either solidify the basics of project management, or get started from scratch.

By Ashley C

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Jun 16, 2022

Everything was great aside from the peer reviews. My course wouldn't show as completed until peers reviewed those and that held me back a lot + was out of my control. I also feel like others don't really care to read through each other's to be totally honest. Would rate this 5 stars if it wasn't for that.

By Selin A

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Nov 29, 2021

instructer's motivation was not enough and it was so hard to keep your focus on what she says. Her voice was so low and it was really hard to keep your focus. I believe she is really great project manager and her knowledge is quite high but It was really hard for me to finish this course.

By Carsten

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Dec 17, 2024

Grafische zusammenfassung fehlt, viele Textfehler in der deutschen Uebersetzung, Do and donts in Projektinitiierung fehlen usw.. Bitte darum mehr graifische Elemente zu addieren. Zuviel Text zuwenig grafik. ansosnten war es ein toller Kurs mit vielen wichtigen Elementen... Thank you

By Marcelino G

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Oct 12, 2021

Everything was great and very informative! The issue I am having is being able to get my assignments reveiwed. I submitted it 3 weeks before due date, reviewed several others, posted on 5 different times on thread, but no luck.

I have not been able to complete my course due to this

By Mary T

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Mar 17, 2024

There was too much in a short amount of time. The assignment of writing a project charter was very difficult. Asked to write an executive summary when that had never been discussed. I had to do my own searching on the internet to figure out how to write the executive summary.

By Diana M

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May 28, 2023

I managed to finish Course 2 but I could not watch the videos because Coursera was down for maintenance. I was not notified this would happen. It would be nice to get an email stating that Coursera would be down for maintenance issues so I can change my due date for the exam.

By Nandini J

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Jun 12, 2023

My feedback for Coursera and the Course instructor is that there can be a better way to have assignments reviewed instead of a peer review. I barely got peers reviewing my work. The UI can be made better. There has to also be an easier way to see your assignment submission.