I recently completed an exciting new offering by Google, a series of career development courses on Coursera. I decided to give their Project Management Certificate a try. Here’s my review:
I was thoroughly impressed with the Project Management Certificate and learned a significant amount of material in less than a month. The certificate entails six courses, each on a different aspect of program management. Each course is structured similarly. They all entail a series of videos, readings, discussions, assignments, and quizzes. To pass the course, you must pass each assignment and quiz at the end of the week. The certificate is designed to be completed in six to nine months but it is possible to complete in one month if you commit to it full time.
The first, Foundations of Project Management, gives a brief overview of the product lifecycle, career demands, and advice for navigating the job search. I found this course to be a sufficient summary of the certificate and would recommend the course to anyone unsure if they would like to follow through with the program or wanting a brief overview of the career.
The second, third, and fourth courses, Project Initiation, Project Planning, and Project Execution, respectively, detail the product lifecycle and walk students through how a project manager appropriately manages stakeholders and a team of contributors. I found these courses to be the most informative as they walk you through each step of building a product. In particular, the certificate uses a example project called Plant Pals at a fake company called Office Green. It is through this project that students are able to understand the work expected from a project manager. For example, project charters, RACI charts, retrospectives, and much more. I would recommend these series of courses to anyone more serious about breaking in to product management. I learned a lot in these courses and had a great time.
The fifth course, Agile Project Management, walks you through Agile methodologies which is a framework used by project managers. I enjoyed that this course discussed not only Scrum, but Lean, Kanban, Extreme Programming and others. While the majority of this course focused on Scrum, I think it was valuable to hear the other types of frameworks out there. In this course, you learn about the product cycle from a Scrum lens. This includes learning about the different positions including product owner and scrum master, the different stages like sprint reviews, and the different tools like Kanban boards and product backlogs. This course is more intensive than the others but definitely worthwhile because Agile, particularly Scrum, is used by many companies today. If you’re interested in a general overview in Agile methodologies, this course is for you.
Lastly, the sixth course, Project Capstone, puts all the you have learned together in a series of assignments, from planning to execution. I found this course to be the most challenging because of the amount of assignments (two per week). But the course does give you a significant opportunity to apply all that you have learned and the chance to showcase your work in a portfolio. If you’re serious about breaking into project management, I would say this is the most crucial course to complete.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience completing this certificate. While it was not a walk in the park, I learned a lot about project management and can now proudly share that I have the skills necessary to run a team. Especially as a student on a quarter leave, it was nice to replace the structure that school provides while still maintaining the flexibility from home. I will say this course is for those who want an accessible introduction to the career, not those who are looking for a serious career certification. If those apply, I would highly recommend the course to you!
Warmly, Hawi