Traditional and Agile IT Project Management

Organisation over 20 weeks

Four 5-week blocks (4 weeks of classes, 1 week of assessment). The two course units are taken unchanged from the original degree: same content, same assessments.

• Blocks 1 and 2 (weeks 1 to 10): PRJ 231 — Traditional Project Management
• Blocks 3 and 4 (weeks 11 to 20): AGI 232 — Agile Methods

PRJ 231 - Traditional Project Management

Enable the learner to scope and plan an IT project using a sequential approach, based on international project management standards.

Learning outcomes

• Scope the project: objectives, scope, organisation, governance.
• Set up a delivery schedule: breakdown, durations, dependencies, milestones.
• Implement project control tools and keep them up to date.
• Analyse the management of a project against ISO 21500:2021 and ISO 21502:2020.

Content

• Standards: ISO 21500:2021, context and concepts of project, programme and portfolio management; ISO 21502:2020, guidance on project management.
• Scoping: opportunity study, project charter, responsibility matrix, building on the scoping note covered in GES 124.
• Governance: project owner and project contractor, steering committee, project committee.
• Sequential approaches: waterfall and V-model; strengths and limitations.
• Planning: work breakdown structure, PERT network, critical path, float, Gantt chart, resource allocation and levelling.
• Monitoring: progress, re-forecasting; principle of the earned value method, with the calculation of the indices covered in EST 242.

Assessment: Continuous assessment (40%): project charter and responsibility matrix. Project (60%): complete schedule produced with open-source project management software, progress monitoring with re-forecasting, and an analytical note on the management of the project against ISO 21500:2021 and ISO 21502:2020, defended on campus or in a virtual classroom.

AGI 232 - Agile Methods

Master agile management, widely used in software development, and be able to choose between a traditional, agile or hybrid approach depending on the context.

Learning outcomes

• Identify the project management methodology to apply, traditional or agile, in the light of the project context.
• Organise a project using the Scrum framework: accountabilities, events, artefacts.
• Build and prioritise a product backlog from user stories.
• Monitor an agile project using flow and progress indicators.

Content

• Agile Manifesto: values and principles; differences from predictive approaches.
• Scrum: accountabilities of the Product Owner, the Scrum Master and the Developers; sprint, sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint review, retrospective; product backlog, sprint backlog, increment, definition of “done”.
• Kanban: visualising the flow, limiting work in progress, cycle time.
• User stories and acceptance criteria; relative estimation in points.
• Monitoring: velocity, burndown chart, sprint dashboard.
• Hybrid approaches; initial questions raised by agility in a fixed-price contract, explored further in CDC 241.

Assessment: Continuous assessment (40%): case study on choosing a method. Project (60%): three sprints carried out, with a prioritised product backlog and monitoring indicators, and a written retrospective.

Career opportunities

Junior IT project manager, assistant project manager, agile team facilitator.

At your own pace: the self-paced pathway

In a class, this certificate takes 20 weeks, on the cohort's dates. On the self-paced pathway, you start whenever you like, online, and progress at your own pace. The price is the same.

Admission

Baccalauréat and experience of IT projects assessed on application, or second year of a Bachelor's degree in computing or management. Admission based on application; detailed requirements set by the school.

The credits you earn are recognised without further assessment if you later join the programme they come from, Professional Bachelor's degree in IT Project Management, within a period set by the certificate regulations.