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Module 2

IT Project & Product Management

Learn to become a more effective leader by mastering the contemporary concepts, tools, and techniques of IT project and product management.

We’ve designed this module to align with the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) espoused by the Project Management Institute. Throughout this module, you’ll conduct a project retrospective and a set of organizational reviews.

Topics Covered:
  • IT project management: infamous failures, classic mistakes, and best practices
  • Project success
  • Project estimation
  • Project risk management
  • Change management
  • Revenue recognition for a services company
  • Cost classifications and activity-based costing
  • Lean and Kanban
  • Scrum
  • Scaling agile
  • Continuous improvement with Scrum and Kanban
  • Project review meta-analysis
  • Transforming from project to product management
  • CMIT: the build trap
  • CMIT: data monetization
  • Intro to product management and the role of a product manager
  • Business experimentation
  • Jobs to be done, customer journey maps, and KPIs/OKRs
  • Intro to user experience and customer experience (UX/CX)
  • Design sprint workshop
  • Product management tools
  • Google design sprint
  • Product management simulation
  • DevOps in practice and key enabling technologies
  • IT service management (ITSM) and modern DevOps
  • Budget preparation and analysis
  • Capital-budgeting evaluation
  • Budgeting and the budgeting process
  • Project-budgeting techniques
  • From process to narrative: telling the story of your product design sprint
  • Writing with generative AI

GCOM 7830: IT Project Management (2 credits)

The primary objective of this course is to provide a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical skills necessary for the effective management of IT projects. To this end, the course consists of seminars, workshops, and tutorials on contemporary tools and techniques. Students work in teams to apply the concepts and tools covered in class by conducting a project retrospective.

GCOM 7831: IT Product Management (5 credits)

The primary objective of this course is to provide a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical skills necessary for the effective management of IT products. To this end, the course consists of seminars, workshops, and tutorials on contemporary tools and techniques. Students apply the concepts and tools covered in class by completing a set of individual assignments and by working as a team to conduct a product design sprint.

GCOM 7832: IT International Project Management (2 credits)

The primary objective of this course is to provide a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical skills necessary for the effective management of IT projects. Through class discussions and readings, students cover tools and techniques central to IT project management. Next, in teams, students apply these tools and techniques to a real-world context by conducting a retrospective of an IT project in a foreign country.

The information contained on this website is for informational purposes only. The Undergraduate Record and Graduate Record represent the official repository for academic program requirements.

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Project Retrospective

You and your group will collaborate with a real company to examine a recently completed IT project. Applying the lessons from Module 2, you’ll conduct a historical reconstruction, identify the positive aspects, and make recommendations for future improvements.

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Mendoza, Argentina

During this module, 10-15 M.S. in MIT students opt to travel to Andes wine country in Mendoza, Argentina, for a global project retrospective experience. Students have the unique opportunity to develop cross-cultural competencies as they work with local Argentinian companies on a historical reconstruction on a recent IT project. In the past, students have collaborated with businesses that include wineries, ad agencies, and the department of transportation.

Explore the immersion experience

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 “While having the experience of international consulting was truly awesome, what I’ll remember most from that trip are the questions my peers asked that dived us deeper into a topic I didn’t even think to discuss. After a week of reviewing their entire business, from security to data handling to financials, we were able to provide and present dozens of recommendations to the customer.”

Alexandra Dimas (M.S. in MIT ’23)

Connect With Us

We look forward to connecting with you about your interest in our Graduate Programs and encourage you to be in touch with any questions you may have.

Contact Information
msmit@virginia.edu
+1 434-982-6800