Course 1 — Foundations of Project Management
The first course in the Google PM Certificate. Introduces what project management is and the landscape of project-adjacent roles a PM can grow into or from.
Source coverage note: The ingested source document’s treatment of this course is minimal — effectively only the role listings below. Topics like “what is a project”, “the value a PM brings”, and “the project life cycle” are covered only implicitly. The role content is complete; higher-level framing is sparse.
The project lifecycle (five phases)
The course uses the classic five-phase model, which recurs throughout every later course:
- Initiating — define the project, stakeholders, goals, and the business case. Output: project-charter.
- Planning — build the schedule, budget, risk plan, communication plan, and the full project plan. Covered in course-3-project-planning.
- Executing — do the work, track progress, manage changes. Covered in course-4-project-execution.
- Monitoring & controlling — typically folded into execution in this curriculum.
- Closing — formally finish, retrospectives, impact reports.
Traditional PM roles
- Project Manager — initiates, plans, executes, monitors, and closes a project. Includes industry-specific titles (IT PM, construction PM, engineering PM).
- Project Analyst — moves projects along with data analysis, information sharing, and support.
- Project Leader / Director — drives core decision-making and sets direction; usually knowledgeable about the product.
- Project Controller — primarily project planning; common in engineering/construction.
- Technical Project Manager — ensures technical projects meet requirements within time and budget.
- PMO Analyst — manages progress on complex projects to ensure timely execution.
Program and portfolio roles
- Project — one single-focused endeavor.
- Program — a collection of related projects. At Google, PMs are called program managers because they run multiple projects simultaneously.
- Portfolio — a collection of projects and programs across the entire organization, often for one client or business unit.
Career ladder: Project Manager → Program Manager → Senior Program Manager → Portfolio Manager.
- Program managers — coordinate related projects, facilitate communication between individual PMs, manage long-term goals.
- Portfolio managers — manage a group of programs, coordinate across them, and prioritize work against strategic initiatives.
Operational management roles
- Operations Analyst — researches workflows, creates business procedures, recommends improvements.
- Operations Manager — strategic decision-making; rolls out plans based on financial, schedule, and resource reporting.
- COO — oversees day-to-day administrative and operational functions of the business.
Agile roles (introduced here, deepened in Course 5)
- Scrum Master — coordinates and guides the Scrum team; teaches Scrum values and principles. See scrum-framework.
- Product Owner — drives the direction of product development and backlog priority.
Connections
- course-2-project-initiation — the next course in the curriculum
- scrum-framework — deep dive on Agile roles
- course-5-agile-project-management — full Agile track
Open Questions
- The source is thin on Course 1’s conceptual framing (what defines a project, PM value proposition). If a later source fills these, this page should be revised.
Source References
- google-project-management-course — role listings and career progression