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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Initiating and Planning Projects by University of California, Irvine

4.7
stars
23,074 ratings

About the Course

The courses in the Introduction to Project Management Principles and Practices Specialization are a recommended precursor to UCI's Applied Project Management Certificate. Successful projects require careful upfront planning. In this course, you’ll learn the key roles and responsibilities of the project manager and project team. You’ll also learn to answer some key questions upfront to help you meet project objectives: What will this project accomplish? Why is this project important? Who benefits from this project? How will we plan for successful outcomes? Upon completing this course, you will be able to: 1. Identify the key characteristics of a project 2. Identify primary project constraints 3. Define the role and responsibilities of the project manager 4. Identify Project Organizational Structures 5. Understand the definition of a Project Stakeholder 6. Identify project stakeholders 7. Identify information needs of the project stakeholders 8. Define responsibility for managing stakeholder and controlling stakeholder engagement 9. Define the purpose of using a project charter 10. Summarize the key elements of a project plan 11. Identify common sources of conflict within a project environment 12. Describe the difference between authority and influence...
Highlights
foundational knowledge

(842 Reviews)

introductory course

(675 Reviews)

Top reviews

SY

Aug 30, 2020

The course is a very great asset to any aspiring project manager. You get to understand the fundamentals and essentials in any given project and the means to ameliorate conflicts amongst stakeholders.

PD

Jan 28, 2020

Thank you to Coursera for such a great platform to improve our skills and literacy.The learning environment offered here is completely a learn at your own pace environment,making it flexible to learn.

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1 - 25 of 4,302 Reviews for Initiating and Planning Projects

By Saurabh D

•

May 30, 2016

Following are the scope of improvement -

1) The flash lessons could have been provided in some kind of downloadable format (preferably PDF)

2) Actual examples of Project Charter and Project Management Plan could have been provided. This would have made it easier to relate theory (of this course) with (actual) practice.

By Imanova V

•

Jul 30, 2018

Very small amount of video lectures, it's a self-learning EDU track, which is okay to a certain extent, but you turn out to be not that involved when there is only 8 mins of video-lecturing per week and everything else is read and study by yourself. More explanations, more real-life examples needed. Also, PMP-book "promotion" was mentioned too often.

But overall course was good.

By Donald O

•

Sep 23, 2019

I have completed the initiating and planning and project management course and I must confess Molony made it simple in the videos by explaining the secrets to decipher the PMBOK in very simple terms

By Arthur J

•

Apr 4, 2020

The course is really interesting but has two main downsides.

First, half of all lessons is about reading a book that we should buy in addition to the course. I already bought the course so it feels just wrong.

Secondly, the slides are quite interesting and complete but the fact that we can't print them to read them offline is odd.

By ONYEMAECHI U U

•

Mar 27, 2018

This is absolutely worth everything that I invested into this course. And I do not mind studying it all over again! I recommend it for anyone who wants to learn project management. Thank you Margaret.

By Michael F

•

Oct 17, 2016

I enjoyed this course, the mix of the video presentations and the powerpoints are well done. The instructor did an excellent job. the 'bonus videos' and 'panelist interviews' are very good as well.

By Danielle B

•

Jul 25, 2019

I found this course to be very helpful to me in understanding what a project and project management is. Though, I may not handles projects for my current employer, the processes discussed here can help me to be more productive and efficient in my work environment. I am able to have a project attitude for non-project assignments. I also enjoyed the mix of videos and reading powerpoints. Plus, everything is at my own pace so that makes it less stressful.

By Mohd R S

•

Jul 28, 2017

It was a very good experience joining in Coursera

By Daria S

•

Nov 19, 2017

It was very helpful for me to understand what the project management is. I am just thinking about starting this new career path and i was feeling comfortable in this field during the learning process.

By Ahmed H

•

Jul 7, 2019

Good course

thank you

By Stephanie C

•

Oct 27, 2015

Well structured course, great presenter, really interesting materials, overall the whole 3 Part course is well worth doing. The bonus videos that the presenter does on real life examples are excellent and I've watched some of them multiple times. The course is useful not only aa good introduction to PM tools and techniques but also to reinforce what the role of the project manager actually is.

By Vijayakumar M N

•

Aug 7, 2015

Doing this course 'Initiating and Planning Projects' gives learners, practical skills on Project management based on PMBOK methodology which is framed by PMI based on contributions from experienced professionals in the field. Prof Margaret Meloni is a great teacher. Students will enjoy her crisp, clear and lucid style of communicating ideas. Slides are well designed. Video quality and sound quality is also great. You will encounter lots of good quality reading materials. Quizzes will help you to test your knowledge as you progress. Overall, an excellent course fit for project managers and project team members who work for construction projects. Also good for the aspiring project managers. Thanks to Prof Margaret and UC Irvine for the great course.

By Mahmudul H

•

Jun 25, 2020

This course provides some practical situation which enriches my acknowledgment about being a responsible in any project and it also helps me to understand the planning process management proficiently!

By Pholile D

•

Jan 29, 2020

Thank you to Coursera for such a great platform to improve our skills and literacy.The learning environment offered here is completely a learn at your own pace environment,making it flexible to learn.

By Ali A

•

Jul 7, 2019

I like the way how this course is structured and easy to follow in addition to the way it directs your attention to things that you really need to be aware of in your career

By Anna W

•

Jun 18, 2017

I think there is a major thing that wasn't planned good. There has never been an available option of downloading the lessons of the Introduction to Project Management in a PowePoint/PDF document.

Printing these lessons page by page takes a lot of time and moreover is a terrible waste of paper and trees!!!

Even if I would like to save it in a electronic version I would have to save it page by page, for which I don't have time!

This is ridiculous, sorry

Sincerely, Anna Wolska, MSc, PhD

By Sebastian S

•

Jan 13, 2016

There is a LOT of material in this course. The videos go a little too fast at times, so a 10 minute video would usually take me like 20 so I could get some notes from it. The presentations are perfectly structured, but they are a bit long, so again plan on spending a good 20 minutes per presentation if you plan on taking notes and all.

Finally, the role of the PMBOK Guide as complimentary material to this class is strongly under-emphasized in the introduction. However, all optional reading is from this guide and another book also mentioned in the introduction. Maybe mention this in the intro so people can make a more informed decision as to buying those books or not.

By Antonio P C

•

Jul 8, 2019

Excelente curso!!!

By Manjinder S

•

May 1, 2019

Great course

By R C

•

Jul 12, 2019

Bastante entendible y bueno para empezar en lo relacionado a proyectos.

By Paulo C A L d S

•

Jul 11, 2019

Amazing overview of the project pipeline

By Liu C

•

May 2, 2020

First of all, a big THANK YOU for offering MOOC. It enables me to gather knowledge on subjects I am interested in and to help boost my career development.

About the moduls/lectures taught here: there is no doubt that there are lot of definitions and sequences of processes in Project Management that need to be learnt by heart. I have borrowed the PMBOK and after taking a brief look at the contents I felt confused and do not know where to start.

Thanks to the brilliant Margaret Meloni, she showed me the way out of this labyrinth. By her easy-to -understand lectures I am able to grasp the overall picture of Project Management. The bonus videos aber her experiences as a project manager habe been wittily narrated and very essential as they give us a glimpse into the practises in the real world.

Thank you all for your efforts!

By Jimmie A

•

Oct 23, 2019

I have never been so glad to take an online class before. The instructor did a phenomenal job in choosing which parts of the lessons to elaborate on and just how deep she should go into the particular she chose to focus on. This is not to say that she didn't give a balanced and complete overview because there can be no doubt that she did. What was especially impressive with the class is that it was the perfect amount of information covering all the basics plus a few optional additions that adequately and efficiently introduces on to the world of Project Management. I highly recommend this course especially as taught by this particular instructor. 5 big stars without qualification. Thanks from Oceania.

By LaNette J

•

Mar 18, 2018

Very good course to cover the basics of Project Management. If you have been on projects already, this course can provide insight as to why somethings went wrong and brings you back to the intent of the PM role. I have been encouraged that the process of becoming a PM can be daunting, through daily work, I have been exposed to much of this and can now assign industry terminology and methodology to what I am doing. If you have never done any PM work, this will give you a glimpse of what is involved. The format is so direct and simple (in the best way :) ) I think that people currently in some type of this role will appreciate the content more than someone who has never done any project work.

By Stephen B

•

May 2, 2019

Very useful to start project management role with the right tools