Material Detail

The concepts taught in the textbook are reinforced using traditional questions, essay assignments, and discussion questions. For instructors who want to teach computer skills that are related to the concepts and to reinforce the concepts with current articles and Web-based student activity, the FWK Web site contains a rich variety of online exercises and activities that are designed by Preston to improve understanding, retention, and ability to transfer knowledge to less familiar situations and new projects.

Examples of these activities are as follows:

• Step-by-step instructions on how to use software to accomplish project management tasks:

  • Using collapsible outlines in MS Word 2003 and 2007 and MS Word for Mac 2008 to create a work breakdown structure
  • Using Excel and OpenOffice Calc to create an activity list with precedents, durations, and a Gantt chart
  • Using Google Docs and Office Live to prepare project scope statements and work breakdown structure documents in an online shared work environment where team members each do a portion of the task
  • Using OpenProject (a free, open source project management software that is similar to MS Project) or Microsoft Project trial software to create an activity list with durations and precedents to create a PERT (program evaluation and review technique) chart and identify the critical path and project float
  • Using Project On Demand to work with a team to create a similar activity list in an online environment where each team member is responsible for a portion of the activities

• Project management resources located online—URLs of online resources, such as the following:

  • Project management definitions
  • Pronunciations of key terms
  • Project management forms used by government agencies
• Screen captures to record visits to sites for grading purposes
• A bookmark folder for project management sites that can be added to, to develop a resource library of Web addresses

• Exploration and reporting

  • Instructions on how to use advanced search features in Google to limit results using keywords, phrases, recent pages, domain names, and exclusion terms
  • Searches for information on issues and events in project management that can be reported upon in class or in online discussions

• Team activities

  • Determining international time zones and dates
  • Dialing international calls
  • Using Internet-based voice and video conferencing software

Other Online Activities

• Self-assessment, in which students rate their grasp of each learning objective at the beginning of their study of the chapter and at the end to demonstrate that learning has occurred on these objectives and to provide the instructor with quantitative data to prove learning has occurred for assessment purposes
• Audio interviews with project management experts, including Russ Darnall, in which they relate insights to managing real projects
• Case studies depicting examples of the concepts in the text that are drawn primarily from the authors’ consulting experience and supplemented with links to sites online where current project cases are described