OBGP 3245 - Financial Skills for Project Managers 

***UPDATED for 2022/23***

As organizations become increasingly project based, in a fast changing environment, Project Managers need to be more financially savy. Not only must projects be on time and on budget, but they also need to contribute to both shareholder value and the long-term financial success of the business. Looking at projects as “ventures” will require Project Managers to better understand the company's cash cycle and how each project fits into it. Project selection is about designing and setting up a business plan. Then the analysis that led to project selection should be refined and sometimes reworked as the project planning process uncovers more information. The project plan can then become a better guide for managing the project.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

1. analyse and discuss the financial performance and health of companies

2. identify and discuss the links of a given project with the cash cycle of the company

3. transform project business assumptions into a financial plan

4. calculate project selection criteria and evaluate their feasability

5. build and monitor budgets and forecasts for their projects

Professional Skills

You will develop basic financial skills applied to project management. While working on real case studies you will develop those skills in a professional way, including Excel skills, written and oral communication skills.

Olivier BEGUIN

Séminaire

English

- Online learning activities: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester
- Reading and Preparation for Class: 6 hours a week / 72 hours a semester
- Research and Preparation for Group Work: 24 hours a semester
- Research and Writing for Individual Assessments: 6 hours a semester

No pre-requisites Financial information is usually produced and processed using IT systems, namely ERPs, CRMs, BI, spreadsheets. Actually, most managers will be required to master (at least) the use of the spreadsheet at some stage in their careers, regardless of their functional specialism. So it can be a bright idea to get to know and use Excel before and during the semester.

Autumn and Spring 2022-2023

The assessment will be based on an oral presentation (in group) for 40%, a case study in group (40%) and an individual paper for 20%.

Feedback will be given back to students maximum 2 weeks after submissions. They will receive back their submitted work corrected + comments. Also some oral feedback might be provided (for the presentation). As the course will be online, students will receive help during sessions when practicing applications or case studies (flipped classroom).