Textbook Information
- ISBN: 978-1606495964, Johnson and Parente, Project Strategy and Strategic Portfolio Analysis, 2013
- There will be a Harvard Coursepack that will be required for this course.
Published Remarks
- The textbook will also be readily available through the Penn State Libraries E-Book program at no cost to the student. Students do not need to purchase a physical copy of the book. Instructions for accessing the E-Book will be provided in the course.
Hardware Requirements
- None
Software Requirements
- None
Proctored Exams
- None
Course Description
MANGT 540, Project Strategy places projects in the context of corporate and business strategies, to illustrate their interdependencies, and to show the importance of developing an effective project execution strategy.
Increasingly, organizations are adopting project management techniques and structures within their business framework. Project management offers the twin advantages of allowing organizations to create products and processes efficiently, through optimal use of resources, and rapidly, in order to respond to rapid time-to-market demands.
This course provides a conceptual grounding in the role that projects play in furthering an organization's strategic goals. Projects are, in effect, the building blocks of strategy because they typically operationalize the strategic plans. The role of the instructor in this course is to promote student learning of a wide variety of knowledge and skills required for successful project management. These include understanding the complex, widely diverse nature of the skills and knowledge required of modern project managers.
Course Objectives
- To understand project strategy in the context of both business and corporate level strategy.
- To formulate effective analyses of project strategies for implementation within organizations.
- To understand how corporate strategy is accomplished through projects and how projects must contribute to corporate strategy if they are to be successful.
Library Resources
Many of Penn State’s library resources can be utilized from a distance. Through the University Libraries website, you can
- access magazine, journal, and newspaper articles online using library databases;
- borrow materials and have them delivered to your doorstep…or even your desktop;
- get research help via e-mail, chat, or phone using the Ask a Librarian service; and much more.
You must have an active Penn State Access Account and be registered with the University Libraries in order to take full advantage of the Libraries’ resources and services. The Off-Campus Users page. has additional information about these free services.
Many of the University Library resources can be utilized from a distance. Through the Libraries website, you can
- access magazine, journal, and newspaper articles online using library databases;
- borrow materials and have them delivered to your doorstep — or even your desktop;
- get research help via e-mail, chat, or phone using the Ask a Librarian service;
- and much more.
You can view the Online Students’ Library Guide for more information.
You must have an active Penn State Access Account to take full advantage of the Libraries’ resources and services. Once you have a Penn State account, you will automatically be registered with the library within 24–48 hours. If you would like to determine whether your registration has been completed, visit the Libraries home page, click on Library Accounts, and then click on My Library Account.
Course Requirements and Grading
Strategic Analysis Focus Project
This project will allow you to utilize many of the concepts from the course on real-life projects in your working life and hopefully will be of use in your workplace. You will have one focus project and four related projects called a Working Set. You will build a strategic analysis primarily around your team’s focus project and, secondarily including your remaining working set or additional projects somewhat affiliated with your focus project. The majority of the plan is based on the focus project.
This project is called ‘continuing because it consists of four deliverables spaced out across the course schedule (Part 1, Part 2A, Part 2B, and Part 3). By the end, all four deliverables together will result in a strategic plan for your focus project. In addition, there is an overall evaluation that illustrates the professionalism of the overall analysis and report. It includes transitions from section to section, grammar, spelling, use of outline view, tables of contents and figures, APA citations, and general professionalism.
The continuing project will be completed as a group exercise. Students with work experience and an ideal focus project will be paired as a team with other students. The student providing the project will benefit from the overall analysis of the team and the other ‘analyst’ students benefit from practicing on real data. Most projects do not require data that would be considered confidential but consideration will be made for such projects and confidential agreements can be part of the team guidelines. There will be a peer evaluation component to the grading in which a student’s grade may be increased, while another student’s grade may be decreased, to compensate for major differences in contribution to the assignment completion.
The objective of this assignment is for you to learn how to do the analyses, not to punish you with a poor grade. Thus, you will be able to regain 75% of the missed points on each section with no partial points. As an example, if a section has a total possible points of 10, and your team gains 6 on the initial submission, when reworking, you may be able to gain 75% of the 4 points you missed (or 3 points) for a final total of 9. If you earned 5 points on the initial submission, you would be able to gain 75% of the 5 points missed (75% of 5 = 3.75 which would become 3 points (no partial points).
Other Assignments:
- Individual Organigraph: An individual organigraph of your project organization accompanied by an explanation of your representation of your project. Note that this will be a maximum of 3 pages – so be concise.
- Zoom Meetings: Links to Zoom sessions will be provided to you in the course.
This link will be used throughout the semester.
| Assignment | Total Points Possible |
|---|---|
| *Introduce yourself | 45 |
| *MCDM | 25 |
| ! Guidelines | 100 |
| !Strategic Analysis Focus Project- Part 1 | 100 |
| !Strategic Analysis Focus Project- Part 2A | 120 |
| !Strategic Analysis Focus Project- Part 2B | 60 |
| !Strategic Analysis Focus Project- Part 3 | 100 |
| !Strategic Analysis Focus Project Final Assessment | 50 |
| *Individual Organigraph | 150 |
| *Peer Evaluation | 150 |
| *Participation – Instructor’s Discretion | 100 |
| Total | 1000 |
* = Individual-based assignments (approximately 50%)
! = Group assignments (approximately 50%)
Grading
Each component of a student’s grade is evaluated as noted on each of the grading sheets provided online. Grading is done electronically. You will submit deliverable documents via dropboxes in electronic format.
| Letter Grade | Range |
|---|---|
| A | ≥ 93 |
| A- | 90.0 to< 93.0 |
| B+ | > 86.0 to 89.9 |
| B | > 84.0 to 85.9 |
| B- | 80.0 to< 83.9 |
| C+ | > 76.0 to 79.9 |
| C | 70.0 to< 75.9 |
| D | 65.0 to 69.9 |
| F | < 65.0 |
All assignments and preparation will be due at the end of the day on Sundays at 11:59 PM of the week specified in the course schedule. Exceptions may be made only with prior request by the team and “may” be applied to all teams. Late assignments that do not have prior approval or are not applied to the entire class will be assessed a 1-Letter grade penalty (10%) for the first five days but must be submitted before the next assignment due date.
Please refer to the University Grading Policy for Graduate Courses for additional information about University grading policies. If, for reasons beyond the student’s control, a student is prevented from completing a course within the prescribed time, the grade in that course may be deferred with the concurrence of the instructor. The symbol DF appears on the student’s transcript until the course has been completed. Non-emergency permission for filing a deferred grade must be requested by the student before the beginning of the final examination period. In an emergency situation, an instructor can approve a deferred grade after the final exam period has started. Under emergency conditions during which the instructor is unavailable, authorization is required from one of the following: the dean of the college in which the candidate is enrolled; the executive director of the Division of Undergraduate Studies if the student is enrolled in that division or is a provisional student; or the campus chancellor of the student’s associated Penn State campus. For additional information please refer to the Deferring a Grade page.