12. Advanced Project Management¶
At a glance
- Module: 12 of 13 · Part IV — Control & Advanced Practice
- Sessions: S25–S29 (Weeks 13–15)
- Level: Advanced
- Estimated time: ~6 hours
- Prerequisites: Modules 03, 04, and 11
Overview¶
The earlier modules address a project in relative isolation. Real software work is rarely that tidy. This module extends the material to the situations that experienced practitioners actually face: many teams working on one product, teams that are not in the same place or the same time zone, work delivered partly by third parties, and portfolios of projects competing for the same people and budget.
Learning outcomes¶
By the end of this module you should be able to:
- Explain why single-team practices do not scale directly, and what changes at scale.
- Describe coordination mechanisms for multiple teams and the trade-offs between them.
- Identify the additional coordination costs of distributed and asynchronous work.
- Explain the project manager's role in procurement, contracts, and vendor management.
- Reason about hybrid delivery, where predictive and adaptive practices are combined.
- Place a project in its portfolio context: prioritisation, capacity, and value.
Lesson plan¶
| # | Lesson | Session | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Procurement and Vendor Considerations | S25 | Available |
| 02 | Project Documentation, Closure, and Lessons Learned | S26 | Available |
| 03 | Distributed and Remote Teams | S27 | Available |
| 04 | Ethical and Responsible Project Management | S28 | Available |
| 05 | Advanced Project Management and Governance | S29 | Available |
Scaling, coordination across multiple teams, hybrid delivery, portfolio alignment, and governance are all covered in Lesson 5, which is the module's advanced-practice session.
Lab¶
- Lab 24 — Managing a Distributed Team — design a working agreement for two sites and quantify what it costs in hours.
- Lab 25 — Project Recovery Scenario — assess a project in trouble, evaluate three recovery options, and re-baseline honestly.
Lab 19 — Evaluating a Change Request exercises the procurement and governance material from Lessons 1 and 5.
Case study¶
A case on scaling and the coordination problems that appear as a product grows is planned. See the Case Studies overview.
Self-assessment¶
A module quiz is planned. See the Self-Assessment overview.
Key terms¶
Scaling · Coordination · Conway's law · Distributed team · Procurement · Statement of work · Hybrid delivery · Portfolio management · Capacity planning — see the Glossary.