Master of Agribusiness (MAB) Program

Agribusiness Teaching Center/ Agribusiness Department

Joint program with Texas A&M University, ICARE, and ANAU

Course title Agribusiness Project Management: AGBU 515

ECTS Credits 6 Code AGBU 515 Classroom B
Lecture Monday, 18:30-21:15
Friday, 18:30-21:15
Instructor Mikayel Nshanyan
E-mail address mnshanyan@yahoo.com(please use "AGBU 515" as the subject of the e-mail)
Telephone 077-06-06-12
Teaching Assistant Mary Melkonyan
E-mail address melkonyanmary@gmail.com(please use "AGBU 515" as the subject of the e-mail)
Office Hours Saturday, 13:00-14:30
E-mail Hours Saturday, 18:30-19:30
Moodle Account You will need a Moodle account, since class material, grades, and news on
upcoming events will be posted on your Moodle course site. Moodle can be
accessed at moodle.icare.am.

Course Objectives The objectives of this course are

to teach graduate students the basic concepts, practical methods, techniques
and tools of project management as an effective method for realization of
strategic goals of organizations,
to teach graduate students how to apply the learned theoretical knowledge
to practical cases and projects in agriculture.

Student Learning Outcomes After completing the course, graduate students will have knowledge about project
management methods and techniques, including both hard and soft skills as
well as processes and tools.
The students will obtain skills for:
developing project charter, identifying project stakeholders,
developingproject management plan including scope, time and cost baseline
plans;
monitoring and controlling project performance and work progress by use
of Earned Value method;
identifying, analyzing and assessing project risks, preparing and managing
risk mitigation plans and actions;
analyzing project status and forecasting its perspectives;
application of software tools, includingMS Project 2013, for monitoring,
controlling and reporting project work status and progress.

Course Content Advanced technological developments and increased competition have made the
project management today one of the most demanding and the most effective
management tool.
This courseexplores the theoretical, practical and strategic developments in the
management ofmodern projects. Among other things, it discusses management
styles, managementstrategies and various functional areas in project management.

Main topics of the course:

Introduction, review of syllabus and course structure.
Relationshipsbetweenproject management, program management, portfolio
management and organizational project management; relationships between

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 Master of Agribusiness (MAB) Program
Agribusiness Teaching Center/ Agribusiness Department
Joint program with Texas A&M University, ICARE, and ANAU

project management, operations management and organizational strategy.

Organizational influence on project management, project stakeholders and
governance, project team, project life cycle and phases.
Project management processes, groups of processes, knowledge areas.
Application of software tools, including Microsoft Project 2013, for
controlling and analyzing project status and progress compared with project
baseline plan.

Teaching Methods A combination of structured lectures, quizzes,classroom participation, and

individual homework assignmentswill be used.Students willbe provided with ample
opportunities to develop and practice analytical skills.In order to make the course an
enjoyable learning experience, itis essential that you readassignedchaptersbefore
class,attend classesregularly,prepareyourselffor the discussionsandraise
yourviewpointsduringclass.Each studentisexpected to contribute regularlyto
classdiscussion throughthoughtful,timelyandconstructiveparticipation,as
calleduponby the instructor and on avoluntarybasis.

Class Sessions: Lectures and practice

ForeachchaptertheinstructorwillmakeaPowerPoint-based
lecture discussingprimarymodelsand concepts forthesession.The lecture is designed
to review, supplement, enhance and emphasize the text reading.
The lecture will make up only the half of each session. The second half of the
session will be dedicated to practical activities: case studies, exercise solution,
project documents composition and evaluation.

Attendance
The course instructor expects all of you to attend the classes in a proper manner and
stay for the duration of the class. Attendance will be taken every class meeting. To
avoid penalty, students must present an excuse to miss a scheduled class no later
than three days prior to the date of the absence. An absence is considered excused if
you provide a doctors note or have the prior approval of the instructor. Students are
responsible for assignments and material covered in the class in case of an excused
absence.

Quizzes
There will be short quizzes throughout the semester covering material from the
current class period. Their goal is to encourage students to read the class material
before coming to class.

Class Participation
I will regularly pose questions to students in the class. Each correct answer will earn
students points.I will give full credit for class participation to a student with
maximum points at the end of the semester. The rest of students class participation
will be evaluated relative to the full-credit students total points.

Homework Assignments
Homework assignments are given regularly (almost every
week).Asaformofexperiential learning, homework assignments helpstudents
sharpentheir analyticalskills. Homework assignments must be turned in at the
beginning of the class. No late homework assignment will be accepted and you will

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 Master of Agribusiness (MAB) Program
Agribusiness Teaching Center/ Agribusiness Department
Joint program with Texas A&M University, ICARE, and ANAU

be given a 0 for that homework assignment. Nonetheless, you still have to submit
the missed homework assignment completed 100% to qualify for taking the
upcoming exam. All homework assignments must be done on your own. You can
seek help only from the instructor or the teaching assistant. One lab session is
scheduled each week to reinforce the materials presented in class and to help
students with homework problems. Lab sessions will be conducted by the instructor
or teaching assistant.

Exams
There will be one mid-term exam and one cumulative final exam. The exams will
have problem-solving, interpretive, and short-essay questions designed to evaluate
the comprehension of concepts reviewed in lectures and textbook.
You must bring your own calculator. No sharing of calculators is allowed. The use
of cellphones as calculators is not allowed.

Bibliography 1) Project management. The Managerial Processby Eric W. Larson, Clifford

F. Gray, Fifth Edition, McGraw-Hill/Irwin; 2011.
http://www.mhieu.info/download/UNSW/GSOE9820/Project%20Management%2
05th%20Edition.pdf

2)A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge,PMI.

http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~cagatay/cs413/PMBOK.pdf

3) Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and

Controlling by Harold Kerzner,Tenth Edition, John Wiley & Sons, 2009.

4) MSProject 2010. For Dummies by Nancy C. Muir, John Wiley Publishing

Inc., 2010.
http://www.wou.edu/~hardenbe/Keyboard%20Hot%20Keys%20And%20Office%20
Pointers/Word%202010/Microsoft%20Project%202010.%20For%20Dummies.pdf
5) Sustainability in Project Management by Gilbert Silvius, Ron Schipper, Julia
Planko, Jasper van den Brink and Adri Khler; Gower, 2012.

Other sources:
Independent research: texts, books, journals, papers and the Internet (will be
recommended during the course).

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 Master of Agribusiness (MAB) Program
Agribusiness Teaching Center/ Agribusiness Department
Joint program with Texas A&M University, ICARE, and ANAU

Grading System Course grading is done according to the following scale:

Accumulated points ECTS and Course

Evaluation
(%) ATC Grade GP
90-100 A 4.0
80-89 B 3.5
Pass 70-79 C 3.0
60-69 D 2.0
50-59 E 1.0
40-49 F* 0
Fail
0-39 F 0
*Failing with some additional work required to pass students will be given a
chance to pass, if as a result of excused absence (such as illness, medical treatment,
family member loss, etc.) students missed exams, quizzes, and/or any other work
required to pass the course with written permission from ATC administration.

Grading Policy Attendance: 10%

Class Participation: 5%
Quiz: 5%
Homework Assignments: 20%
Mid-term Exam: 25%
Final Exam: 35%
THERE WILL BE NO CURVING OR ADJUSTMENT OF GRADES

Course Policy You must appeal your grade on an assignment a week after you received it.
Ifyouknowthatyouwillbelateor absent or not
preparedfora particularclass,pleasenotifytheinstructor inadvance.
You areurgedtocontactthe instructor aheadoftimeforpossible delays in
meetingany assignment deadlines. Students who hand in their assignments late
without any legitimate excuse might be penalized.
Allstudents must sit for the exams on the scheduled dates. No makeup exams will
be given except under highly extenuating circumstance and with the prior approval
of the instructor.
We may sometimes need to make shifts in assignments or schedules. Students will
be responsible for all assignments whether or not they were in class when
assignments or changes were announced.
Students are requested to turn all cellphones off before the classbegins.

Academic Honesty Any unauthorized help is considered cheating and will result in a 0 grade for the
homework assignment and/or quiz and exam for BOTH help giver and receiver for
the first assault. The second assault will result in a FAIL for the entire course,
irrespective of the students academic standing, family, financial or social situation,
religion, race, sex, etc. For more information on academic honesty, please, refer to
the Agribusiness Teaching Center Academic Honesty Policy.

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 Master of Agribusiness (MAB) Program
Agribusiness Teaching Center/ Agribusiness Department
Joint program with Texas A&M University, ICARE, and ANAU

Agribusiness Project Management AGBU 515 Course Sessions

Weekly Schedule
Session Date Description
No.
1 Course outline, Organization strategy and project management
Project success criteria, basic causes of projects realization problems and
failures.
Difference between project and operational activities.
Definition of project and project management; classification of the
projects.
Relationship between project, program and portfolio hierarchy.
Organizational project management, role of projects and programs in
realization of strategic goals of the organization.
Types of organizational structures and their impact on the project
management efficiency; the way of minimization of conflict of interests
in matrix structure.
Project stakeholders, major roles and interests.
Customer of the project, role and major functions.
Project manager, responsibilities, authorities and functions.
Project sponsor, objectives and functions of the sponsor.
Project team and project management team.
Project life cycle, product life cycle, project phases.
Project management process groups
Relationship between project management processes and project life
cycle.
Ten knowledge areas of project management.
Project Charter development, relevant tools and techniques.
Project Stakeholder management: their identification, engagement
planning, executing and controlling by use of relevant tools and
techniques.
Case studies on project success and failure.
Case study and exercise on Project Charter development based on real
life project management template.
Case study and exercise on Project Stakeholder Register development
based on real life project management template.
Case study on Project Stakeholder analysis
Quizzes on project management framework, project initiation and
stakeholder management

Literature:
[1]. Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3
[2]. Chapter 1, Chapter 2
2 Project Scope and Structural Planning
Project requirements collection, relevant tools and techniques.
Project scope definition, project scope statement.
Project product breakdown structure; the purpose and composition
method.
Project Works Breakdown Structure (WBS); development principles,
level of detailing; decomposition completeness definition.

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 Master of Agribusiness (MAB) Program
Agribusiness Teaching Center/ Agribusiness Department
Joint program with Texas A&M University, ICARE, and ANAU

Project milestones, identification and definition principles.

Project roles, functions, authorities, responsibilities, required
competences.
Assignment of project team members. Responsibilities matrix
development.
Case study and exercises on project requirements collection and
development of Requirements Traceability Matrix.
Case study and exercise on project scope statement development.
Case study and exercises on projectWorks Breakdown Structure (WBS)
development.
Case study and exercises on project milestone plan development.
Case study on responsibilities matrix development.
Quizzes on project scope management.
Homework on project milestone planning, RACI matrix development.
Project WBS development with use of MS Project software tool.

Literature:
[1]. Chapter 4
[2]. Chapter 5
3 Project Schedule Planning and Controlling
Project activities definition, activities sequencing, duration
estimation.
Project network diagrams, their role and composition methods.
Project schedule development principles and techniques.
Critical Path Method (CPM) and PERT method. Project time
reserve analysis.
Case study and exercises of network diagrams composition.
Case study and exercises on CPM definition.
Homework on project network diagrams composition.
Literature:
[1]. Chapter 5, Chapter 8, Chapter 9
[2]. Chapter 6
4 Project Schedule Planning and Controlling (continuation)
Project schedule compression and optimization methods.
Resource conflicts and their resolution methods.
Critical Chain Project Management method.
Case study and exercise on project schedule optimization.
Case study and exercise on project schedule development and
analysis with MS Project software tool.
Quizzes on project time management.
Homework on project schedule compression and optimization.
Project schedule development with use of MS Project software tool.

Literature:
[1]. Chapter 5, Chapter 8, Chapter 9
[2]. Chapter 6

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 Master of Agribusiness (MAB) Program
Agribusiness Teaching Center/ Agribusiness Department
Joint program with Texas A&M University, ICARE, and ANAU

5 Project Cost Management

Basic principles of cost management.
Project management processes.
Cost estimation principles and methods. Analogous estimation.
Parametric estimation.
Cost estimation accuracy.
Project budget development principles and methods.
Project budget controlling methods.
Exercises on project activities cost estimation.
Quizzes on project cost management.

Literature:
[1]. Chapter 5, Chapter 8, Chapter 9
[2]. Chapter 7
6 Project Performance Controlling and Forecasting by use of EVM
Earned Value Method (EVM) application to project performance,
including time and schedule, monitoring and controlling.
Case Study and exercises on EVM application to project performance
analysis and forecast.
Exercise on project performance analysis by use of EVM and MS Project
software tool.
Quizzes on project cost management.

Literature:
[1]. Chapter 13
[2]. Chapter 7

7 MIDTERM EXAM
Written examination on the passed topics.
8 Project Risk Identification, Qualitative and Quantitative Risk Analysis
Risk factors and project success factors.
Project risk sources and reasons.
Active and passive risk management.
Threats and opportunities, relevant response strategies.
Risk cost at different phases of the project.
Risk identification tools and techniques, risk register development.
Combination of brainstorming with other methods of risk identification:
Delphi, Ishikawa, Interviewing.
Risk manager and risk owner, functions and responsibilities.
Risk qualitative and quantitative analysis, risk probability and impact
assessment.
Risk probability and impact matrix, risk charts
Risk categorization, risk urgency assessment
Risk threshold and risk tolerance
Risk audit. Secondary risks. Residual risks.

Case study and exercises on project risk identification and risk register
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 Master of Agribusiness (MAB) Program
Agribusiness Teaching Center/ Agribusiness Department
Joint program with Texas A&M University, ICARE, and ANAU

development.
Case study and exercises on project risk probability and impact matrix
composition.
Case Study and exercises on risk response plan development.
Case Study and exercises on risk decision tree diagramming method.
Quizzes on project risk management.

Literature:
[1]. Chapter 7
[2]. Chapter 11
9 Project Quality Management
Definition of quality. Quality vs. grade, precision vs. accuracy.
Cost of quality, benefits of quality.
Project and product quality.
Quality Model Plan, Do, Check, Act.
Quality requirements. Elicit and prioritize quality requirements
Define acceptance criteria
Define quality assurance activities
Audit vs. inspection
Checklists. Statistical sampling
Attribute vs. variable measurements
Quality tools. Graphs, histograms, Pareto chart, scatter diagrams, control
chart, cause-and-effect diagram
Case studies and exercises on use of quality tools
Homework on quality toolsapplication.

Literature:
[2]. Chapter 8
10 Project Human Resources and Communications Management
Leadership styles - the foundation for team effectiveness
Project organization planning.
Responsibility matrix. Competency matrix.
Project team motivation.
Project team role structure.
Project team conflicts management.
Project communications management plan and communications matrix.
Project communications management plan development algorithm
Case Study and exercises on project organization panning.
Case Study and exercises on project team conflict resolution.
Case Study on project communications management plan development
Case Study on project kick-off meeting organization management
Case studies on project performance reporting, presentations, meetings
documentations development.

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 Master of Agribusiness (MAB) Program
Agribusiness Teaching Center/ Agribusiness Department
Joint program with Texas A&M University, ICARE, and ANAU

Literature:
[1]. Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12
[2]. Chapter 9, Chapter 10
11 Project Procurements Management
Vendors Selection Methods
Contracts Selection Methods
Supply Chain Management and Procurement Options
Contract Administration and Project Closure
Case study on project contracting, exercises on different types contracts
selection
Literature:
[2]. Chapter 12
12 FINAL EXAM
Written examination on all topics of the course.

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