This course examines leadership roles and project management approaches for organizational efforts that are intended to implement public policy or that have a significant impact on the public. Government and non-profit organizations--like their private sector counterparts--are responding to a rapidly changing economy and society and increasing demands by organizing more and more of their work as project work, i.e. work consisting of unique sets of activities that each have a beginning and end. The tools of project management for public sector initiatives traditionally have been used for engineering work. Today, project leadership and management approaches are valuable for any public policy field, whether they are applied to the implementation of new social services policies, pilot education programs, environmental regulations, or changes in health policy.
The course explores how leadership roles and project management concepts and tools can be used in successful implementation, including project planning, scheduling (using the critical path method), budgeting, controlling, staffing, managing project teams, and using the emerging concepts of "agile" and "extreme" project management in situations of complexity and uncertainty. It examines the organizational context in which a project manager must navigate, discussing the impacts of authority, power, and culture on project success or failure, particularly when unanticipated developments occur. The course also considers the unique challenges a project leader faces in highly visible public projects, in which elected officials have demanding and sometimes conflicting expectations; frequent media coverage places the project leader in a fishbowl; and public sector funds are subject to cuts by political and government leaders and to oversight by auditors.