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

4.7
stars
23,159 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.

MH

Jun 24, 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!

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4151 - 4175 of 4,314 Reviews for Initiating and Planning Projects

By Charu L S

•

Sep 26, 2015

The course, as intended probably, is theoretical and gives a good snapshot of project management. Following the PMBOK guide and covering all the relevant portions in the limited time deserves an applause. The only area of improvement, I felt, was the case study.It could have been a little more detailed and has scope of increased level of difficulty. A good course overall and beneficial in almost all walks of work :) Thank you !

By Jesus M

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Mar 2, 2016

A bit confusing in term of structure. We jumped from some sections of the project life cycle to others missing some others. It gave a good general picture of what project management is about. But I'm not quite sure which is the order I should follow when dealing with a project. However I have to say I didn't do the optional readings. At least not yet!

Anyway, I think is an overall good course for not initiated people like me

By Amy O

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Aug 5, 2020

I have often wondered if it would be worth it to get a PMP certificate but after taking this class I am thinking not so much. Not a criticism of the curriculum, but as someone who has 20+ years in the creative field it's not apples to apples. The terminology is similar enough but still quite different. For a new person starting out in a non-creative environment this is good introduction to the general concepts on PM.

By John P

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Feb 4, 2016

I watched the entire set of week one lectures, and sadly I do not think this is up to scratch with the rest of the material on Coursera. The presentation is not consistent: there are slides, web cam videos, animations, and it just feels like the course is a mish mash. The University of Adelaide is running a similar course on a well known competitor site, so I have signed up to that.

By Kacie S

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Nov 30, 2015

Material is very detailed which is both a positive and negative. It gets a little redundant and some things are just common sense. You can tell the instructor is trying to be upbeat but is very clearly reading off of "cue cards" so it's a little flat. For a free course you get a lot of information and it is very easy to get a 100 on every quiz.

By C. C

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Jul 8, 2016

I like the materials, but I don't like that you need to pay to take the quizzes. I think that it is against the spirit of Coursera because it limits the experience of user who are willing to learn but don't have enough money to pay for the course. Many other courses allow you to take quizzes and do projects whitout paying

By Mahmoud E L

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Jan 17, 2018

I think extra knowledge is needed cause while studying from the PMBOK, i found that 10% of the topic is being lectured and the other 90% are to be self-studied and technically 30% of not self-explained so more time is wasted in looking up for info that were not in the lecture if you know what i mean.

By Mario Z

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Mar 18, 2019

I wish the course had more examples taken from real project. It would be useful to consider more meaningful case studies and to analyze their actual documents and deliverables.

One last thing, reading the slides through the website instead that having pdf to download and read was really annoying.

By Saleh M A

•

Nov 7, 2019

I learn more from this course such as how mange project, how I understood concepts key elements of project, the performance cost work. Finally, Thank very much to all instructors or anyone contributes in preparing this course to content all these information that really gain more to background

By Carlos E P V

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Aug 12, 2017

the processes explained in the PMBOK Guide are very dense and neither white or black but grey. It is important so ilustrate with little examples in order to be able to understand the processes, documentation, deliverables and tools of each of the 10 knowledge areas of Project Management

By Tomas M

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Oct 14, 2015

The course is great resource of information. The biggest drawback is the need of using Flash to view most of the lecture. This limited my ability to went through the course on time - I "attend" Coursera courses using my iPhone while commuting and it is not possible for this course.

By Mona H

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Apr 26, 2020

I really liked the case studys, the bonus videos and the panelist interview at the end of the course. This course is a good opportunity to gain basic knowledge about project management but I think the videos were too short and the majority of the course consists of reading.

By Alexis N

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Apr 17, 2020

I thought this course had a lot of great information, but I didn't like the order it was shared in. I felt like it jumped around a bit and did not give a clear picture of the correct timeline and steps I should be taking, when initiating and starting a project.

By Erah

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Apr 28, 2016

Really nice but a little complex for people who just want to learn the basics. This would be very helpful for current college students as the course includes optional readings that are very informative and helpful for a deeper understanding.

By Nikita D

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Jan 28, 2020

Too much PMBok & PMI methodology promotion - it is indeed well structured, however looks artificially overcomplicated. Final exam is almost 100% consists from quizzes; additional reading only available through books you need to buy

By Kiong M Y

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Sep 7, 2020

The speed of speaker is really fast which may not be suitable for those whose English is not their native language. I had to listen at least twice to understand what was taught. The course is otherwise well structured and clear

By Huỳnh V T A

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Aug 11, 2020

The course went through too many concepts too fast without providing enough scenarios for better grasp of application. I also expected templates for various artefacts mentioned in the course, but they did not include any.

By Sjir H

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Sep 10, 2020

Some useful stuff in there, but a lot of unnecessary jargon, and the way of testing does not stimulate learning: it's often literally copy-pasting things from the readings, rather than testing underlying understanding.

By Turki A

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Jun 24, 2018

It gives a good overview of the subject but still can be much better adding more subjects to the content and case studies for review. A forum would add value to the course by discussing with others about the subject.

By ilia v

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Apr 24, 2017

I would like to see the more practical information. The course is 90% built on PMBOK. I can read this guide on my own outside the course. In the course, I prefer to see how the practice corresponds with the theory.

By Daria N

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May 29, 2020

I wish there were more practical cases than just PMBook in online version. I doubt that anyone of an entry level needs all those endless theory lessons to get the grasp of what project management is about.

By Clinton M

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Jun 2, 2019

The content balance of the course feels very stretched thin over the 5 weeks. Regular, concentrated study could see an average student complete this course in a matter of days if not less.

By Nadine R

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Mar 19, 2021

There is a mistake in the first week's reading. It's the wrong reading. It seems to be pretty foundational. I reported it weeks ago and received no response. That's why my rating is low.

By Paula C

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Mar 5, 2021

Good information but the "lesson" format is not very engaging. If I wanted to spend all my time reading, I would buy the book. There should be more activities, case studies and videos.

By Dimosthenis S

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May 13, 2016

The course contained some valuable information, but the lack of projects even small ones didn't help much. I would prefer a small project/assignment during the last week of the course.