Project Management for Business Certificate

Program Overview

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Project Management for Business Certificate

Overview

The Project Management for Business certificate equips you with the skills to engage virtual teams, manage projects efficiently, and implement cost-effective tools and strategies.

Benefits of Project Management for Business Training at Kompass

We don’t use a conventional one-size-fits-all approach. Our students work in different fields and face unique project management challenges.

• Learn online at your own pace
• Bring us your specific project management challenges
• Learn tools and skills that can be adapted to your needs
• Implement what you’ve learned in real time
• Get personalized support and coaching from an expert instructor
• Exchange ideas and solutions with your peers in the course
• Get real results you can continue to build on after training

Career Paths in Project Management

Project managers work in many different industries, from technology and engineering to construction and healthcare.

• Project Leader
• Project Controller
• Project Coordinator
• Project Director
• Project Director
• Program Manager

Course Schedule and Format

Instructor-Supported Format

(Asynchronous)
Instructor-supported courses come with the support of a dedicated instructor but do not follow a set class schedule. Students work at their own pace to complete the course within a set time period. The instructor may offer pre-recorded lectures that are available for students to review or check-in sessions that students can participate in via video conferencing.

(Live Session Office Hours)The Project Management for Business instructor is available the first Wednesday of each month from 6:30 – 7:30 PM EST/EDT) for live discussions via video call. Students will be provided with a link to participate.

Course Modules

• Team Development and Effective Leadership (2-4 weeks) Building and keeping a team engaged and productive is critical for a project manager, who must facilitate meetings and workshops where participants need to be heard and discussions must be focused on resolution and moving the project forward. In this module, learners will understand how to build and develop a cohesive project team, particularly in a virtual environment.
• Workflows: Understanding, Optimizing, Automating (2-4 weeks) Automation can eliminate manual low- to no-value tasks and streamline and speed up many routine processes. In this module, we will define a project workflow, examine the role of process maps, and identify processes that could benefit from automation.
• Low-Budget Project Management Software Solutions (2-4 weeks) Participants will gain a better understanding of the options and functionality of some popular low-budget tools, then apply the tool/technology of their choice to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their project management. Learners will identify key evaluation criteria and develop a weighted scorecard to support their own technology implementation.
• Project Management and Artificial Intelligence (2 weeks) Understanding artificial intelligence and the future of project management with generative AI will be the focus of this module. Different concepts (data, variety, quality, and data governance) associated with generative AI models will be discussed, along with best practices for project management with AI.
• Tools for End-to-End Control (2-4 weeks) In this module, we review and research tools that not only support project management, but all aspects of project execution, including procurement, stakeholder management, quality, and change management.
• Document Management and IP Security (2-4 weeks) Understanding DM and IP security helps the participant determine an appropriate strategy for their organization, whether it be cloud-based storage options, document classifications, or document management systems. Different strategies will be discussed, and participants will create a clear policy outlining their organization’s document management practices and expectations.

Instructors

Kirsten Wells

Instructor, Project Management for Business

Kirsten’s unique background of a MBA, MSc and PMP, are all centered on people management and result in the ability to manage multiple competing projects at once. Kirsten received her PMP designation in 2007 and graduated from Richard Ivey’s Executive MBA program 2009. Furthering her education, completed a master’s degree in Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology from the University of London, England in 2018.

Kirsten’s background is very diverse, holding senior positions in a variety of areas and industries, with a bit of entrepreneurship as well, she owned and operated a senior citizen’s long term care residence.

A career highlight and something Kirsten is particularly proud of, is being the strategic lead in creating from the ground up a new nationwide Public Alerting System that is being used successfully today. Those Amber alerts you get on your phones, to save lives was this initiative.

Program Details

Start Dates

Weekly (Mondays)

Total Program Length

3-6 Months

Delivery

Online (Instructor Supported)

Entrance Requirement

Post-secondary education (degree or diploma) OR experience in a related field

Tuition

• Register for a certificate and automatically receive a $200 scholarship towards tuition!

Project Management for Business Individual Classes

The chart below outlines the cost of Project Management classes if you choose to take them individually. Once you register for three or more classes within a certificate, you will be charged the non-refundable $200 registration fee. Individual classes must be paid in full at time of registration.

• Project Management and Virtual Leadership (2-4 weeks) - $365
• The Project Management Process (2-4 weeks) - $365
• Project Management: Low Budget, Big Results (2-4 weeks) - $332
• Project Management and Artificial Intelligence (2-4 weeks) - $365
• Project Management: End-to-End Control (2-4 weeks) - $365
• Document Management and Internet Protocol Security (2-4 weeks) - $370

Total Cost

$2195CAD + $200 REG.FEE

Scholarship Offer

Register for this certificate and receive a $200 discount automatically on tuition!

Who Should Take the Certificate?

The Project Management for Business certificate is designed for anyone working in a project management role, including:

• Business project managers
• Team leaders
• Marketing project managers
• Human resources professionals
• Engineering project managers
• IT project directors
• Trades project managers

Admission Requirements

• Post-secondary university degree or college diploma; OR
• Relevant professional experience

Kompass Alumni and Corporate Training Discounts

Students who successfully complete a certificate with Kompass are eligible for 20% off future certificates and classes. Group and employer discounts and custom corporate training options are available for three or more students.

Program Outline

Outline:

• Virtual Leadership, Real Accountability: Getting the Results you Need (2-4 weeks)
This module helps participants pivot to a new approach that enables them to hold distributed teams more accountable for the quality and timeliness of their work. Participants will learn how to structure, organize, and execute with a deliverables-based methodology that better aligns with the realities of distributed teams. Learners will understand the key enablers and barriers to improved organizational accountability and performance. Using a current project or initiative, participants will apply strategies to gain clarity and commitment through the development of responsibility matrices and process maps.
• Collaboration: Creating a High-Performance Virtual Team Culture (2-4 weeks)
How do you get a team that is not even on the same playing field to work together, collectively collaboratively to achieve the objectives of your project? Creating a High-Performance Virtual Team Culture shows that it’s a lot like everything else when going virtual…you need to be more systematic, more process driven, and less reliant on your ability to improvise, hoping you do the right thing as you go. This module will outline the key areas of focus and consideration when building a high-performance team, from what characteristics and traits we need in new recruits; to onboarding to ensure the project team sets the bar high for the new team members; to aligning teams on purpose and responsibilities and celebrating our victories; to the final stage of transitioning to the new owner.
• Online Facilitation: Maintaining Engagement and Getting Results (2-4 weeks)
As teams and organizations begin to transition to working online, the need for well-designed and effectively facilitated meetings and workshops rises. Unstructured or poorly run face-to-face meetings can seem frustrating, but just wait until that same approach is online! Keeping your virtual team engaged and productive is critical to the online project manager who must facilitate meetings and workshops where participants need to be heard and discussions must be focused on resolution and moving the project forward. Participants will better understand the benefits and challenges of online facilitation, gain tips to prepare and run an online meeting or workshop, and apply their learning to their own team meeting that they must share and critique.
• Project Management Portal 1: Low Budget, Big Results (2-4 weeks)
The easiest and quickest solutions for many organizations’ transition to virtual project management are free or close to it. Participants will gain a better understanding of the options and functionality of some popular low-budget tools, then apply the tool/technology of their choice to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their virtual project management team. This module begins with participants identifying an issue, task, or process that they will focus on improving through the application of a new tool or technology. Learners will identify key evaluation criteria and develop a weighted scorecard to support their own technology implementation. Product demos, group discussions, and shared research assignments create a rich learning environment where each learner has the ability to apply their learning to their own need, creating immediate impact while sharing and supporting the learning of their peers.
• Project Management Portal 2: End-to-End Control (2-4 weeks)
Cloud-based collaborative contract administration technology platforms abound. They can provide transparency and up-to-date real-time access to project documents, streamlining their creation, review and approvals. But they are not for the faint of heart or those implementing off the side of their desk. Participants will evaluate three to five solutions in areas such as tracking, notifications, document access, and reporting analytics. Learners will also consider the integration of tools that may already exist within their organizations, such as Tableau, Power BI, Bluebeam, Procore, and PlanGrid. The key assignment is to create a business case for a tool of choice that will solve an immediate need for their project team. Participants are free to focus on any aspect of their project and will be expected to recommend a solution that can improve planning, execution, or control processes of their distributed project team.
• Document Management and IP Security: Managing Your Most Important Assets (2-4 weeks)
How do organizations balance the need of each project team member to be able to easily access the information they need from wherever they are with the company’s need to protect their privacy and intellectual capital? Are cloud-based storage systems secure? Can you access them from the field? DM & IP Security helps the participant determine an appropriate solution for their organization, including cloud-based storage options, document classifications, and document management systems. Participants will also create a clear policy outlining their organization’s document management practices and expectations.
• Workflows: Understanding, Optimizing, Automating (2-4 weeks)
Tools abound for organizations to incorporate workflows to reduce lead times, eliminate waste, ferment innovation, or provide dashboard data in real time. But not having a clear focus on what you want to achieve and what you need to achieve it can be an expensive and time-consuming endeavour. Workflows: UOA takes learners on a high-level overview of where workflows can have significant project impact on your bottom line before diving into the basic structure that must be developed before a workflow can even be considered. Participants map and analyze an existing organization or team process, including baseline metrics, then re-engineer it to improve overall performance using debottlenecking, streamlining, and automation.

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Teaching:

• Instructor-Supported Format (Asynchronous)
Instructor-supported courses come with the support of a dedicated instructor but do not follow a set class schedule. Students work at their own pace to complete the course within a set time period. The instructor may offer pre-recorded lectures that are available for students to review or check-in sessions that students can participate in via video conferencing.

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Careers:

• Project Leader
• Project Controller
• Project Coordinator
• Project Director
• Program Manager