This is a survey course introducing project management as a profession and an academic field of study. It provides the foundation for more advanced project management courses. It is a prerequisite to other courses in the degree program unless permission is granted. The student is introduced to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK Guide), as well as other international standards. Students will examine key tools and methodologies in use to manage large, complex projects and explore how these tools and techniques can be used to assess the project's overall status, its variance from the project plan and evaluate alternative recovery scenarios. Students will be introduced to the roles of project and program managers in today's enterprise and the tradeoffs they make among triple constraints of scope, time and cost.

A sound quality management strategy and plan are critical in today's complex business organizations and projects. Students in this course will review the history of quality efforts from Deming, Juran and Crosby in the setting of the original quality efforts, international competition, and the concept of Six-Sigma as initiated by the Motorola Corporation in response to that competition. The use of the Baldrige Excellence Framework for designing, implementing, and improving project and organizational practices that influence quality will be explored. Students will examine multiple specific process improvement approaches they could apply within their organizational / project quality plans, approaches such as preventions over Inspection and continuous Improvement of processes.

This course examines U.S. foreign relations since WWII with a particular focus on the late twentieth century through modern day. Students will explore patterns of U.S. policy in a volatile environment marked by fundamental changes to the international system of states since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Students trace the transformation in international relations that has led to the creation of world trade and globalized institutions, the proliferation of regional ethnic and religious conflicts, and most challenging of all, the emergence of transnational terrorism. Students will have the opportunity to analyze the international system and relevant political theories, develop competence in defining both transient and enduring national interests, and build confidence in appraising the policy responses of national actors to those challenges.

A) American Politics; B) Comparative Politics; C) International Politics; D) Political Thought; E) Public Administration; F) Public Policy. The graduate student engages in independent study under the direction of one of the faculty members of the department.