How My MSOL Degree and the Project Management Course are Helping My Career

Good morning,

About a year ago, I began my journey towards a master's degree in organizational leadership.  When I applied to the program, I knew it was the right degree for me and the coursework I have taken since then has continually solidified my reasons for selecting this degree.

The timing of each course has fit in so nicely with my actual workload and has enhanced my performance at work tenfold.  I am looking forward to completing my degree and spending the extra time on implementing more of the concepts learned form this program into my everyday workday.

Along the way, however, I have used much of what I had learned but at this present time, project management, has been the most timely and most effective tool.  I am in the middle of hiring a senior director of strategic and digital communications while drafting a digital communications plan and I am using everything I am learning in this course to help me not only manage the hiring process but also draft the digital communications plan. Project planning concepts have helped me to focus on exactly what the scope of these projects need to be and the application of the WBS, RACI and mind-mapping techniques have been invaluable.

Diane

Project Management Office, SMART Goals, Project Charter, Product Requirements Document

I learned a great deal this week. Here are some of the key concepts:

• Conflict and Negotiation
• Project Management Office
• Projectized Organization
• Functionally Organized Projects
• Matrixed Organization
• Enterprise Project Management
• Communication Requirements in all Phases of any Projects
• SMART Goals
• Creating Smart Goals through Tree Diagrams
• Project Charter
• Product Requirements
• Product Requirements Document
• Objective 
• Purpose
• Profiles, Goals and Tasks
• Product Principles
• Prototypes and Testing
• Identify and Question Assumptions
• Write it Down
• Prioritize and Rank
• Test Completeness
• Manage the Product

Project Management

Project Management is the one course that I have been looking forward to taking.  I feel as though my career has brought me to this point and I have so many examples of projects I have participated in, led and want to start.  However, what I really want at this point in my career, is to assign individuals to be the project managers on specific projects.

So far, I have worked on a massive college-wide initiative called Molloy 2020: A Vision for the Future that began with a listening tour in Fall of 2014.  The president and I listened to over 500 employees and created 25 task forces to find out how to best move forward with the 25 themes identified by the employees of the College as priorities for the College going forward.

This process opened up new relationships as well as trust among employees.  It also began our strategic planning process for our 2020 Strategic Plan.  Five years later, we are still working on priorities that were suggested by our employees.  However, what we need now is better planning and processes to bring things to implementation.

I am looking forward to taking this course so I can chart the path for how we will move forward with some of these key priorities for the College.

Here, take a look:  Molloy 2020