Course

Managing Project Costs, Quality, Risks and Procurements

Faculty
Commerce & Business Administration
Department
Business
Course code
BUSN 3630
Credits
3.00
Semester length
15 weeks
Max class size
35
Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Seminar
Course designation
None
Industry designation
CAPM
Typically offered
To be determined

Overview

Course description
This course will look at cost planning and management throughout a project. The class will learn about: estimating techniques; creating a scope baseline; and determining the project budget and managing costs through earned value management (EVM). This course will also cover tools and techniques common to managing and planning quality and risk in a project. Tools such as cost-benefit analysis, cause and effect diagrams, flowcharts, check sheets, Pareto diagrams, histograms, and other similar tools will be explored. In addition, the class will learn about project procurement topics including: creating a vendor list, selecting a vendor, creating procurement contracts and managing procurements throughout the project. These topics will be presented using a combination of real world examples, case studies, exercises and theory.
Course content
  1. Planning and managing costs throughout a project: estimating techniques, cost-benefit analysis, creating a scope baseline, determining the project budget and managing costs through EVM
  2. Planning and managing project quality: definition; standards; cost of quality; sampling; statistics; qualitative and quantitative quality management; organizational maturity models; flowcharts; check sheets; Pareto diagrams; histograms and other tools will be explored
  3. Planning and managing project risks: definition, identifying risks, analyzing risks, planning and carrying out risk responses; the risk register
  4. Planning and managing project procurement: the build/buy decision, creating a vendor list, selecting a vendor, creating procurement contracts and managing procurements throughout the project
  5. Integrating cost, risk, quality and procurement management into the overall project management framework to ensure overall project success
Learning activities

Lecture, seminar, case studies, exercises, group discussions

 

Means of assessment

Tests *

20% - 40%

Assignments/Term Project(s) (min 2)

20% - 40%

Participation

  5% - 10%

Final Examination

20% - 30%

Total 

       100%

 *A combination of quizzes and/or midterms, with no single assessment in this group worth more than 25% of the final grade.

Notes: 

1) Students must achieve a grade of at least 50% on the combined examination components to pass the course.

2) Students may conduct research as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with College policies on ethical conduct for research involving humans, which can require obtaining Informed Consent from participants and getting the approval of the Douglas College Research Ethics Board prior to conducting the research.

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete the course will be able to:

  1. define project costing, project quality management, project risk management and project procurement management;
  2. manage project costs throughout a project using tools such as estimating, budgeting, measuring, cash-flow management and EVM;
  3. manage project quality including setting standards, determining the cost of quality management, measuring quality, qualitative and quantitative methods for managing the quality of project processes, and the quality of project results;
  4. manage project risks, from explaining the vital importance of this process to identifying, analyzing, planning and carrying out risk responses;
  5. manage project procurement: identify procurement requirements; the tendering process; Request for Proposal (RFP), Request for Quote (RFQ), legal issues, contracts, change management processes; allocation of risk; payment options; the relationship between the contractor and the purchaser of project supplies or services; identifying deficiencies and closing a contract; and;
  6. integrate the knowledge learned in each knowledge area into the overall management of a complex project.
Textbook materials

Required Textbooks:

Wilson, Randal. Mastering Risk and Procurement in Project Management: A Guide to Planning, Controlling, and Resolving Unexpected Problems. Latest Edition. (Pearson)

AND

Wilson, Randal. Mastering Project Time Management, Cost Control and Quality Management: Proven Methods for Controlling the Three Elements that Define Project Deliverables. Latest Edition. (Pearson)

or equivalent materials approved by the Business Department.

Optional:

Project Management Institute.A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). Latest Edition. (optional but recommended)

Requisites

Prerequisites

BUSN 3600 Project Management Essentials
or COBA 3200 Project Management

Corequisites

None

Equivalencies

None

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

(Current)

Course Transfers

These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see https://www.bctransferguide.ca

Institution Transfer details for BUSN 3630
Athabasca University (AU) AU ADMN 3XX (3)
Capilano University (CAPU) CAPU BADM 3XX (3)
College of the Rockies (COTR) COTR MGMT 3XX (3)
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) KPU SOBU 2XXX (3)
Northern Lights College (NLC) NLC MGMT 2XX (3)
Simon Fraser University (SFU) No credit
Thompson Rivers University (TRU) TRU MNGT 3XXX (3)
University Canada West (UCW) UCW BUSI 3XX (3)
University of Northern BC (UNBC) DOUG BUSN 3610 (3) & DOUG BUSN 3620 (3) & DOUG BUSN 3630 (3) & DOUG BUSN 4640 (3) = UNBC COMM 451 (3)
University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) UFV BUS 3XX (3)
University of Victoria (UVIC) UVIC COM 3XX (1.5)
Vancouver Community College (VCC) VCC PGMT 1XXX (3)

Course Offerings

Winter 2025

CRN Days Instructor Status
Maximum seats
35
Currently enrolled
30
Remaining seats:
5
On waitlist
0
Building
Anvil Office Tower
Room
709
Times:
Start Time
18:30
-
End Time
21:20
Section notes

BUSN 3630 050 - This section is restricted to Business Management Diplomas, BBA Management, BSc Health Info Management, PDD Project Management, and PBD Advanced Supply Chain Management until Monday, December 02, 2024, at 9:00 am.

CRN Days Instructor Status
Maximum seats
35
Currently enrolled
23
Remaining seats:
12
On waitlist
0
Building
Anvil Office Tower
Room
709
Times:
Start Time
11:30
-
End Time
14:20
Section notes

BUSN 3630 001 - This section is restricted to Business Management Diplomas, BBA Management, BSc Health Info Management, PDD Project Management, and PBD Advanced Supply Chain Management until Monday, December 02, 2024, at 9:00 am.