Program overview

The Project Management MicroMasters® program from RIT is a graduate level series of courses designed to provide you with the in-depth knowledge and skills needed to be a successful project manager in any industry. This online sequence is a semester’s worth of work from RIT’s Master’s degree and consists of three courses and a final capstone exam.

By earning the MicroMasters® program certificate you will develop the leadership skills needed to effectively manage a team that will meet the expectations of your customers and business goals. Build on your MicroMasters® program certificate by applying to RIT’s School of Individualized Study for a customized master’s degree.

What you will learn

  • The tools and techniques to manage the comprehensive project management life cycle for a project – from initiation through closing.
  • To balance the critical tradeoffs of time, cost and scope to meet customer expectations.
  • The ability to apply best practices across a variety of industries and businesses.
  • Lead a project to success, and how to capitalize on the leadership and behavioral facets to do so.
  • To navigate the social and cultural aspects, legal and regulatory practices, technology and infrastructure that influence projects’ success in the global market.

Program Class List

1
Project Management Life Cycle

Course Details
Project Management is one of the most in-demand skills in all industries -- from healthcare to technology and business. Take this one course, or the entire program, to prove your skills to employers.

2
Best Practices for Project Management Success

Course Details
Learn how to create an organizational environment that supports project success.

3
International Project Management

Course Details
Learn what makes global projects uniquely challenging and how to successfully manage projects based in different industries and countries.

4
Project Management MicroMasters® Capstone Exam

Course Details
Demonstrate the knowledge and skills acquired in the Project Management MicroMasters program, and prepare for graduate level program options at RIT.

Meet Your Instructors

Celine Gullace

Celine is an Instructor of Project Management at the School of Individualized Study at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Celine has over 20 years of experience in business management and teaching. She has a keen interest in influencing business decisions and leading high visibility projects. She is an experienced project management instructor and award winning teacher in mathematics. Celine was born and raised in the South of France and came to the US in 1993 to continue her education. For more information, please contact ritonline@rit.edu.

Leonie Fernandes

Leonie is an Instructor of Project Management at the School of Individualized Study at the Rochester Institute of Technology. She is a certified Project Management Professional with over 25 years of project management experience in large, global corporations in the high tech, manufacturing, healthcare and automotive industries. Leonie has extensive coaching and mentoring in leading projects within the United States and in the global arena. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and master’s degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology. For more information, please contact ritonline@rit.edu.

Program overview

Are you an IT professional new to project management or a manager who wants to develop more robust project management skills? Perhaps you are looking to forge a career as a full-time project manager (PM). This program will introduce you to the fundamentals of project management, specifically as they apply to the field of information technology (IT).

This program will help you select project management techniques and strategies that best fit your IT project or organization. You’ll also explore how project management offices are organized and how they develop a project portfolio. Throughout the program, you’ll come to understand some of the challenges of the field, including management of diverse teams and projects that are potentially based anywhere in the world. By the end, you’ll determine your own competencies as an IT project manager and will have developed core skills required for this role.

 

What will you learn

  • Why IT organizations use project management to deliver business value and how organizational culture can influence the role of the PM and individual projects;
  • How to describe and distinguish among the major project management methodologies and project lifecycles as applied to IT and to identify strategies for managing distributed teams;
  • The purpose of a Project Management Office (PMO), high-level strategies to set up, maintain, and close a PMO, and how it can work within your organization;
  • Techniques to intake, prioritize, and select projects and programs so that they align with an organization’s overall business strategy; and
  • Which personal and performance competencies are necessary for project management in IT, and strategies for developing those skills.

Program Class List

1
Strategic Applications of IT Project & Program Management

Course Details
In this course you will learn project management standards and frameworks that increase efficiency and deliver tangible business benefits.

2
Portfolio Management, Governance, & the PMO

Course Details
Learn how a Project Management Office (PMO) works, discover techniques to monitor and control projects and find out how to keep your project portfolio healthy.

3
Leadership and Management for PM Practitioners in IT

Course Details
Learn how to develop effective project management and leadership skills that are essential for successfully guiding diverse or distributed teams and projects.

Meet Your Instructors

Debra Hildebrand

Instructor of Project Management at University of Washington
Debra Hildebrand has over 15 years’ experience in project management consulting and training for private firms and public agencies (federal, state and local level). Her specialties include strategic planning and implementation, organizational redesign and restructure, project management, and quality assurance oversight. Certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute, Debra is an instructor at the University of Washington, Stanford University, and City University of Seattle. She has an MBA from the Columbia Business School and is the principal of Hildebrand Solutions, a project management training and consultation firm.

Luke Panezich

Instructor of Project Management at University of Washington
Luke Panezich is a senior-level PPM practitioner and an active PMP, PMI-ACP and CSM. He’s implemented predictive, iterative and adaptive frameworks, helping organizations realize business benefits by turning strategies into IT products and services. As a project management coach and practitioner, he has led and managed teams through all stages of the project management and systems development life cycles. Certificated as a trainer and curriculum designer in Agile and other project management methodologies, Luke is an instructor for the University of Washington and serves on the board for PMI’s Puget Sound chapter. He is a veteran of the U.S. Army and has a Master's of Engineering Management from St. Martin's University.