ACC's set of project management courses are designed to give you several entry points, depending on your experience level now. Then they should be taken sequentially to help prepare you for the certification exams. Normally, if you started with little to no project management exposure or experience, there would be a significant time gap between each course, as you accumulate experience hours and prepare to submit your application to the certifying organization (a non-trivial process!).

The program instructor, Bob Futrell, has gathered additional information on this topic which can be viewed here.

ACC Continuing Education's BMGT1009 Applied Project Management foundations course is taught using the full spectrum of generic principles from the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) from PMI (Project Management Institute). To explore the concepts more fully, we use a textbook with a variety of examples, cases, and explanations from several industries, including Information Technology (IT), Healthcare & biotech, business & finance, construction & renovation, oil & gas, education & training, engineering, aerospace, entertainment, government, non-profits, transportation, and others.

Most projects today are usually a mix of intellectual activities (e.g. computers and programming, websites, designs, inventions, research, etc.) and physical activities (e.g. facilities, prototype construction, equipment deployments, software installations, etc. Most people have little trouble understanding the examples and stories in our textbook and applying them to their own industry environments.

Remember that all PM courses anywhere will have to use examples and stories from some kind of domain to illustrate the principles.

The program instructor, Bob Futrell, has gathered additional information on this topic which can be viewed here.

No matter what your profession is, or college major, many of us become "accidental" project managers in our line of work through seniority, or just a lack of trained PM's in the organization.

In a class setting, especially with group course case projects, some students know as much as the prof in topic A, but next to nothing on topic B. Others in your workgroup may be experts at topic B, however, so you help each other fill in weak areas - this is the power of teamwork and diversity.

Approaching your certification education with organized education as a foundation will help fill in your checkerboard of background project management knowledge. And, if you lack experience hours in certain required areas, it will also help you be better positioned to take on work that would get you the needed experience in each knowledge area necessary to qualify for taking a professional certification exam.

The program instructor, Bob Futrell, has gathered additional information on this topic which can be viewed here.

There are no prerequisites for the introductory BMGT-1021 Intro to Managing Projects short course. The BMGT-1021 Intro to Managing Projects short course uses only a custom workbook distributed in class. In the short format, there is no time between class meetings to do much homework, so everything you need is covered during class time.

The prerequisites for the BMGT-1009 Applied Project Management foundation course are fairly liberal, since the general project management principles taught are applicable to a wide variety of projects. It is recommended that students at this course level have some familiarity with working on or leading a few projects, and/or gaining a basic understanding of the profession from an introductory course like BMGT-1021 Introduction to Managing Projects.

Recognize that projects don't exist in a vacuum; they have to occur in some domain (IT, finance, healthcare, construction, etc.). For BMGT-1009 Applied Project Management, a mix of domains is how the principles of project management are studied.

Project Management is mostly about management (the people skills), but the terminology used varies some within the different domains. However most people have at least seen the application of some project management principles in their workplace. See Is BMGT-1009 Applied Project Management Applicable To My Industry? for more information.

There are few requirements for the BMGT-1040 PMP/CAPM Exam Prep course, which is aimed at preparing students for either the PMP or CAPM levels of PMI's certification framework. However, it is recommended that students have 12-36 months working on projects, and/or a 35-40 hour basic foundational course in Project Management (e.g. BMGT-1009 Applied Project Management or comparable), to keep up with the fast pace of the exam preparation activities in this course.

The program instructor, Bob Futrell, has gathered additional information on this topic which can be viewed here.

Your total costs would include the published price of each course you take, and any ancillary fees (like ACC campus parking and insurance), plus any textbooks required. The latest edition texts for BMGT-1009 Applied PM, HITT-2026 Healthcare Implementation Project Management, and BMGT-1040 PMP/CAPM Exam Prep are usually widely available, from the ACC Bookstore.

Additional costs you may want to incur might include PMI® membership (which includes local chapter membership, and a free downloadable softcopy of the PMBOK® Guide, as well as many other standards and references), and maybe a paperback copy of the PMBOK® Guide (some people still like to have a reference book on their shelf).

The program instructor, Bob Futrell, has gathered additional information on this topic which can be viewed here.

ACC's Project Management Program courses normally result in student performance ratings of Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory (a.k.a. "Pass/Fail"). But instructors can provide you with a letter grade (A, B, C, D, etc.) if requested at the beginning of the course.

Successful course completion (per each course syllabus) earns a Certificate of Completion from ACC. For an online proof of completion, students can login to ACC Online Services and select "Current Students" where they can select Unofficial Transcript. Official Transcripts can be ordered from the college through the Admissions Transcripts web site.

For professional certifications (e.g. PMI®, CompTIA®, ITIL®, etc.), you have to qualify for and pass the exams of the certifying organization to receive that organization's certifying credential (PMP®, CAPM®, etc.) These professional exams are usually administered at a commercial testing center (e.g. ProMetric®) by invited appointment.

The program instructor, Bob Futrell, has gathered additional information on this topic which can be viewed here.

ACC is one of the few places that offers the same foundation course BMGT-1009 Applied PM course both onsite and online. But the choice is a matter of a student's preferred learning style, and the student's availability. An onsite course requires an attendance commitment of typically two meetings per week at one of ACC's campuses. The instructor-led online course can be done asynchronously, in that there are no appointed times/days when you must be online or in a conference call, etc. Classwork completion can occur anytime during the unit week, when the student is able to get to it. Interaction is done via asynchronous media (e.g. email, discussion threads) or a phone call appointment if necessary.

In both the onsite and online intermediate course there is a course case lab exercise included to practice synthesizing the knowledge areas into practice for project Execution, as a group. This is rare for exam prep programs! The online version of BMGT-1009 Applied PM uses group team assignments to create project artifacts together - but it can sometimes be a challenge to collaborate with strangers in the online environment.

The program instructor, Bob Futrell, has gathered additional information on this topic which can be viewed here.

• Students with little to no project background should start at the Intro individual short-course level, to be prepared for the 8-week intermediate level team-based course.

• Students with some prior project background may know something about some of the above, so can start at the intermediate level to cover ALL of the above project management areas, filling in gaps in their background.

• Students with significant project management background in many different life cycles can jump right to the 4-Saturday advanced level Exam Prep all-day course.

If you want a way to test yourself for readiness, try doing some of the (free) quizzes by our textbook author for the intermediate-level course, Kathy Schwalbe. Visit her textbook website (IntroPM.com), and do the EXTRA QUIZZES on the 7e Resources tab without any prior study (results go only to you). That should give some indication of how ready you are for professional certification exams. If you find too much unfamiliar vocabulary, then you should probably start at the beginning with the 2-day (or 4-evening) short course BMGT-1021 Introduction to Managing Projects.