ACC Project Management Program Description

Our Project Management program in the Continuing Education part of ACC has several entry points, depending on your experience and readiness for professional certification exams. Our three courses can help prepare you to get started in leading projects, build a solid foundation for PMI^®’s PMBOK^® Guide-based processes, and lead to a successful application for either (or both) of PMI^®’s most popular certification exams, plus others that are based on PMI^®’s PMBOK^® Guide (e.g. CompTIA Project+).

Your starting point depends a lot on your personal goals, and your current experience and range of background as illustrated below:

ACC PM Program Map

All our courses teach the (generic) principles of project management founded on the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) from the Project Management Institute (PMI®). But to convey examples and follow case studies, our instructors and textbooks use a variety of domains, as highlighted below.

Project Management Curriculum Course	Contact Hours	Level	Applicability	Framework Basis	Textbook	Domain Examples From
BMGT1040 – PMP/CAPM Exam Prep	40	Advanced	a focused PMBOK^® Guide course prior to PMI exams, for intermediate-expert PM’s with significant background and experience	PMBOK^® Guide, ALL Knowledge Areas	Mulcahy: PMP Exam Prep	Variety
BMGT 1009 – Applied Project Management	48	Intermediate	the foundational course covering all areas, for beginner-intermediate PM’s with some background already	PMBOK^® Guide, ALL Knowledge Areas	Schwalbe: Intro to Project Mgmt	Various industries
BMGT 1021 – Introduction to Managing Projects	12	Introductory	a simple starting point for non-project managers beginning a project management career path	PMBOK^® Guide, CORE ONLY Knowledge Areas	Custom Workbook (with course materials)	Event Planning, others; variety

The BMGT 1021 Intro course is a starting point for beginners, especially those with no prior project work experience. After the Intro course, a few months or years of applying the basics learned on work projects are usually expected to earn some documentable project hours before entering the intermediate and advanced courses (BMGT 1009 Applied PM, followed by BMGT 1040 Exam Prep), and attempting a professional certification exam. However you build your foundation in project management, the last course BMGT 1040 Exam Prep is designed to be taken immediately before sitting for a certification exam appointment, to prepare you for the details expected in the (then current) certification exam.

Each of the intermediate and advanced courses surpass the minimum education-hour PMI requirements to submit a PMP application, but most people need a lot more than the minimums to pass the exams…

There is some overlap of content in these courses, because it is expected that a student would go deeper on the topics and use the knowledge gained in each to apply and acculumate documented work experience hours between these courses in sequence.

BMGT 1021 Intro to Managing touches (quickly) on just some core areas.
BMGT 1009 Applied PM is a full-spectrum course covering all areas thoroughly (Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, Closing – Integration, Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, HR, Communications, Stakeholder, Risk, and Procurement), with some practice applying them, as a foundational education.
BMGT 1040 PMP/CAPM Exam Prep is a full-spectrum course that reviews all areas thoroughly (Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, Closing – Integration, Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, HR, Communications, Stakeholder, Risk, and Procurement), with some practice exams, as an intense tuning up for the current testing center exams.

This summary chart of the program illustrates the possible entry points, depending on your readiness.

Each of the courses in the project management program covers some portion of the vast amount of accumulated knowledge in the profession of project management.

Inverted Triangle of management, from general management, through project management, to Domain PM, and life cycle PM.

The emphasis in the Intro course is on introducing the profession and career possibilities, and specific project terminology, and some of the basic tools and techniques for starting and running simple projects. The intermediate courses expand on this to develop a full foundation education in project management, to prepare you to excel in the advance course for exam prep. The figure below indicates how the focus of each of ACC’s three project management courses overlaps the entirety of the management spectrum.

Inverted Triangle of management, from general management, through project management, to Domain PM, and life cycle PM, with boxes highlighting the parts covered by ACC courses.

ACC Continuing Education’s full-spectrum intermediate courses (BMGT 1009 Applied Project Management and HITT 2026 Healthcare Implementation Project Management) are foundational courses that apply the generic principles of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) framework from PMI® (Project Management Institute) to specialized domains, using the generic principles of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) from PMI® (Project Management Institute). Most students have little trouble understanding the examples and stories in our textbooks, but you may want to read the FAQ:

Is BMGT 1009 Applied PM Applicable To My Industry ?

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

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