Discussion Board Standards
Students are expected to participate in the Discussion Boards and other on-line segments of the class no matter their assigned role for the week. Discussion boards are graded against the rubric found in the course.
Initial posts are due no later than Thursday at 11:59 p.m. to allow other students time to read and respond to your posts.
Follow up responses are due throughout the week until Sunday 11:59 p.m.
The focus of the discussion boards should be clear and concise communication and quality over quantity. Verbose, rambling postings, or postings that fail to clearly make a point will not receive full credit. In addition, postings should follow APA 7th general principles (i.e. use headings, properly cite references, etc.). In general, primary posts should be no longer than 300 words and secondary posts should be no longer than 150 (Each). Be concise.
To receive a high-ranking online grade, Discussion Board posts must have the following attributes:
Comments skillfully apply ideas and facts from readings, lectures, and student’s own organizational experience.
Comments are pertinent and demonstrate critical understanding of the topic by expanding the issue, bringing in additional perspectives, and promoting additional discussion with other students in a respectful way.
Week 1 Discussion – Your PM Chosen Topic
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Please note that there are no extensions for discussion board participation. To earn full credit, you must post by the deadlines. Please pay careful attention to the grading rubrics for the discussion forum.
Your insights from the literature readings are essential, and we would like you to share them with the class as much as possible.
Discussion postings should be approximately 150-300 words. Communicate in complete sentences, concise, focused paragraphs, and precise language. Excessively wordy postings are not an advantage, but overly brief postings have little to contribute to the discussion. Provide adequate support for your postings; simply agreeing or disagreeing with your colleague is not appropriate. Be detailed and support your response with evidence.
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1. Primary Post: Post at least one primary response no later than Thursday at 11:59 p.m., to allow other students time to respond to your post.
Choose a topic that interests you from the list of general topics provided below for this course to investigate. This will be the main topic you will focus on and research about for the rest of this course, so choose wisely. Please remember that you will have to submit a final paper in Week 6. The final paper is based on your weekly discussions, and it should be your cumulative work from week 1 to week 6. Please refer to the final paper assignment link for more details and examples.
For this week’s discussion, at a minimum, your post should provide:
A brief description of the topic you chose to help the reader understand what you are talking about (assume the readers do not understand the topic).
Why did you choose this topic?
Why is it important to investigate?
What is the practical importance/implication of this topic you chose to the general project management practices?
Provide specific question/s you want to have an answer for by the end of your investigation/research.
2. Secondary Responses: Post at least two of your secondary responses to other students’ discussions no later than Sunday evening by 11:59 p.m. of the same week.
For any two of your classmates’ primary posts, please provide your feedback on their topics by asking questions and professionally critiquing the investigation questions.
Course topics to investigate:
Estimating Project Schedule
Estimating Activity Durations
Estimating Costs
Sequencing Activities
Developing Schedules
Estimating Activity Resources
Determining Budget
Procuring Resources
Controlling Schedules
Controlling Costs
Other related topics with instructor approval
Databases to use:
Web of Science
Scopus
ScienceDirect
Emerald
ProQuest
Other peer-reviewed journals
Note: These and others are accessible from the NU Library: https://library.northeastern.edu/research/resources/a-to-z-indexLinks to an external site.
Sample of PM journals:
Project Management Journal
International Journal of Managing Projects in Business
International Journal of Project Management
International Journal of Project Organisation and Management
Journal of Engineering, Project, and Production Management
Journal of Engineering and Technology Management
Other useful sources:
https://libanswers.snhu.edu/faq/8772Links to an external site.
https://library.sacredheart.edu/c.php?g=29803
Mike
The course topic that I will be investigating will be estimating costs. The estimation of costs is a way to predetermine or estimate how much different variables throughout the project will cost. These costs are linked to a project’s resources and are the backbone of a project. Without the estimation of proper costs, a project can be severely under or over budget thus impacting the quality of the finished project.
This topic is important to investigate because estimating costs overall is a broad term. There are a few different types of costs including direct costs, direct project overhead costs and overhead costs (Gray & Larson, 2018). These kinds of costs all have different implications and impacts on sections of the project as well as the overall project.
Throughout my research of this topic, I hope to explore the direct relationship between costs and project quality. Subsequently, I would like to explore if there is a way to lower costs as much as possible while keeping the quality of a project as high as possible. If there was a way to effectively do this, it could help better allocate resources to other areas of a project as well as just lowering overall costs.
References:
Gray, C. F., & Larson, E. W. (2018). Project Management: The managerial process. McGraw-Hill Education.
Hiloni
The topic I chose is Estimating Project Schedule. The total ability of a project aims to complete the project within the specified period and it determines the success once we reach the goal with very limited risk. It is critical that the project runs smoothly and efficiently without any delays. This technique of estimating the project timeline is required for a project to be completed within the major limitations of time, cost, and resources. This procedure must be completed at the start of the project and must take into account the project’s scope, timeframes, and hazards. This is the theme on which all of the projects are built.
It is critical to conduct research on the subject because time estimation is crucial in the project planning process. It guards against delays that could result in cost overruns and poor stakeholder views, threatening the project’s long-term viability.
When a project is assessed and the total estimate exceeds the total budget, we have an issue that is not uncommon. Understanding and fixing this problem necessitates objectively isolating the components that drive project expense. As the facts become clear, a classic misunderstanding of project risk is often at the root of the misalignment. Choosing this topic will help me to understand, how to handle the Estimates That Exceed Budgets,” we’ll go over how to tackle this situation as efficiently as feasible (John, 2008).
It’s crucial to learn more about this issue because there are several methods for estimating the project timetable. To achieve the commitments made to the people participating in this project, it appears that accurate estimating is required (Software, 2021).
The following are the questions that must be addressed by the end of this study:
What are the various ways for calculating the duration of a project?
What are the differences in the strategies for estimating the schedule?
What role does a project schedule estimate play in a successful project management process?
References:
John, S. (2008). Five keys to estimating. counter free hit unique web. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://fan.football.sony.net/b/download/T4Y1J5/project-estimating-and-cost-management-project-management-essential-library_pdfLinks to an external site.
Software, S. (2021, May 28). What is Project Scheduling, and Why is it Important? Resources Library. https://www.saviom.com/blog/what-is-project-scheduling-and-why-is-it-important/