Project management programs teach students to lead organizations and groups while researching, planning for, creating and executing projects. All industries need project managers or professionals with project management experience, but this term is used more often with the engineering field. Students learn group dynamics, organizational behavior, communication skills, decision-making skills, conflict resolution, and the ability to evaluate a situation in order to come up with the most appropriate and/or profitable solution. These courses, including Operations Management, System and Project Management, and Management in Engineering, cover a range of topics within the field. A combination of politics, society trends, management strategies, business principles, and psychology is presented to students and professionals needing to discover ways to deal with unpredictable situations, monitor employee performance and achieve project results. Assignments challenge students to do case write-ups, create Systems Dynamics models, plan for and carry through a model project, analyze failed projects and more, all helping them gain relevant experience.

In addition to learning theories and traditional management skills, project management students also learn more scientific methods that help the project succeed. In these courses, students will study charts and systems to gain an understanding of these methods. After graduating or completing qualifying coursework, students looking for project manager positions may find jobs in industries like construction, engineering, finance, health care, information technology, the corporate world, the automotive industry and aerospace engineering.

• System and Project Management [MIT] – Advanced project management students will learn how to deal with unpredictable situations in the workplace.
• Operations Management [MIT] – Learn about organizing, planning and executing projects in the manufacturing and service industries through this course.
• Management in Engineering [MIT] – Engineers and engineering students learn how to be project managers in this course.
• Analyzing Projects and Organizations: How Organizations Behave [MIT] – Students gain an understanding of how organizations work based on political and social settings. Topics covered include project management, environment analysis and more.
• Optimization Methods in Management Science [MIT] – This course covers decision trees, logistics, algorithms and other scientific methods for management.