From Next Executive
By M. Filtz

For many managers, project management can be tricky. Mid-level executives may find themselves unexpectedly thrust into running projects, and not be adequately prepared for the challenges. In fact, even an otherwise experienced manager with an MBA might find himself a bit lost.

“Project management, in most business schools, isn’t a big part of the curriculum, but it’s a very important subject on the non-degree side,” says Dan Stotz, senior director of executive education at Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business.

Indeed, some motivated project managers may gloss over a lot of the prep work, such as project planning, in order to get right down to business. Many times, Stotz says, “what happens is a project manager will agree to a deadline without doing the proper analysis to determine exactly how long it will take.”

“So they’ll tell the CEO of the business, ‘that can be done this year,’” when in practice, the project will actually take much longer.

This is where executive education programs in project management come in: they can provide a framework for planning and managing projects so that managers can efficiently execute them. Often, these courses attract people who already have some project management experience, but need to skill-up before jumping into a big project.  Read More

To learn more about Texas Executive Education‘s Project Management courses, click here.