Comments on: Guide my program management education direction!

Question: Guide my program management education direction!

phearlez — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 10:20:18 -0800

I'm in the Dulles area of Virginia outside of DC. Where do I go for a project management certificate? Or a similar quality experience?

I'm being ~~offered~~ ordered into a promotion, and overall I'm positive about it. The exception is in my project management skills, where I feel I need work. My experience managing others has been on small/small-ish (3 wks) rapid-response tasks or within the context of a single large, ongoing project where schedules, deadlines, and deliverables were set long before it fell to me to crack the whip and parcel out sections. That part I'm fine with, but more formal procedures for generating and managing schedules? That's voodoo, man - I studied comp sci and english lit (back when dinos roamed the earth, compared to some of my cow orkers). I'll write you a sonnet about the O(n^2) of a selection sort but Microsoft Project scares me.

So, I'd like to make accepting the gig contingent on sending me to project management training. This likely won't be a problem - we have an ill-managed and executed but reasonably well-funded continuing education benefit . The problem is... which one? Being the DC area there's no shortage of programs and schools but I don't know which are any good. UVA's certificate program? George Mason's? Some other one that's great but I don't know exists?

So - where do I go? Where have you gone, your friends gone, what have you heard about where? The certificate programs appeal because nobody ever suffered from having another bell&whistle on their resume and I am loathe to go through all the hoops to get in a formal grad program, but I can certainly be talked into other options. Quality of lernin' is more important than resume fodder.

By: mdpc98

mdpc98 — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:43:34 -0800

check out PMI for registerred education providers in your area. their PMP certification seems like it is of some value.

By: sperose

sperose — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 18:38:16 -0800

This might not be the kind of answer you are after, but Trinity University in DC has a graduate program (so it is not a certificate) for project management.
(disclosure: I'm currently in said graduate program, for federal project management.)

It's cheap, kinda sorta near where you are, and seems to be of a pretty decent quality. Night classes and online classes is the majority of it, and you can finish in about 18 months (on average, for people working full time).

By: jules1651

jules1651 — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 20:26:15 -0800

I don't have the PMP certification, but I have taken a class offered by PMI (it was a two day in Orlando) and thought it was definitely worthwhile, so I second mdpc98. The local DC chapter would be a good start.