Do you want to start a new project management career? The Google Project Management Professional Certificate on Coursera is something to think about. You can complete the Certificate in less than six months (under ten hours per week) for around $240 and gain essential project management skills. In real-world scenarios, you will learn the fundamentals of Agile project management, Scrum, and practice communication, problem-solving, and stakeholder management as part of the Google Project Management Certificate.
The Certificate is one of five completely online Google Career Certificates offered by Coursera, an online learning platform. IT support, IT automation, data analytics, and user experience (UX) design are among the others. The Certificate requires no prior experience or a degree, and according to Coursera, 82 percent of Google Career Certificate graduates report a positive career outcome within six months, such as a new job, promotion, or raise.
What is a Google Project Management Certificate?
The Google Project Management Professional Certificate is a Google-created entry-level project management certification that is available through Coursera. It assists students in developing the skills necessary to work as project managers in a variety of industries, with an annual starting salary of more than $59K. If you want to work as a project manager, this Google career certificate is a great place to start. It will also provide you with more than 100 hours of project management education, allowing you to pursue the CAPM certificate, a globally recognized project management certification.
The Google Project Management Professional Certificate on Coursera is thoroughly examined. Is this a good certification to start a project management career with? Project managers are in high demand and should have no trouble finding work. Obtaining this Google professional certification as a certified project manager will give you an advantage when applying for related positions. In this review, you’ll learn everything there is to know about Google Project Management Professional Certificate.
By the end of this article, you’ll better understand what it takes to become a Google Certified Project Manager, how long it takes, how much it costs, and what the learning environment is like. For those who want to work as a project manager, the Google Project Management Professional Certificate is a good option. You can learn the skills you need to start a project management career in just four months for less than $200. The course material is simple to understand, and the instructors are of high quality, making this one of the best entry-level project management certifications available.
Who Should Pay Attention to This Certificate?
This Google Certification is appropriate for anyone interested in pursuing a career as a project manager. There are no prerequisites for this course, and no prior experience is required. You can apply for various entry-level jobs after completing all six courses in this program, including project coordinator, project analyst, technical project manager, and project administrator. You’ll have the skills you need to complete successful projects from start to finish by the end of this certificate. You’ll learn how to make a project plan, keep track of it, and create effective project documentation. In addition, you’ll learn the fundamentals of Agile project management, with a focus on implementing Scrum events, creating Scrum artifacts, and comprehending Scrum roles.
Time and Certification Invested
The Google Project Management Certificate takes a total of 140 hours to complete. You can finish all four courses in four months if you set aside 35 hours per month for studying. To become certified, you must complete all six courses and pass all exams and assignments.
What Is the Price of A Google Project Management Certificate?
The Google Project Management Certificate costs $156 in total. Coursera offers the course as part of their $39 per month Coursera plus subscription. Students take an average of 4 months to complete the course and become certified (4 x $39). Before committing to a paid plan, Coursera offers a 7-day free trial to review the course material.
Contents of the Google Project Management Professional Certificate on Coursera
Six online courses are included in this certificate. Although you are free to take the courses in any order, you are strongly advised to do so in the order listed below.
Course 1: Foundations of Project Management
You will be introduced to the world of project management in the “Foundations of Project Management” course. You’ll learn the fundamentals of project management and understand what a project manager does daily. In week 3, you’ll also learn about various project management methodologies and how to select the most appropriate one for a particular project. The course is divided into four weeks, with a total completion time of approximately 15 hours.
| Topic | Time To Complete | |
| Week 1 | Embarking on a career in project management | 3 hours |
| Week 2 | Becoming an effective project manager | 4 hours |
| Week 3 | The project management life cycle and methodologies | 4 hours |
| Week 4 | Organizational structure and culture | 4 hours |
Course 2: Project Initiation: Starting a Successful Project
In the second course, you’ll learn how to set up a successful project plan, which delves deeper into project management. You’ll learn how to set goals, milestones, deliverables, and what tools to use. You’ll learn how to use Google Sheets for project management, which is one of the most interesting aspects of this course. You’ll have to complete five quizzes and a hands-on assignment as part of the graded work. The “Project Initiation” course takes a total of 18 hours to complete.
| Topic | Time To Complete | |
| Week 1 | Fundamentals of project initiation | 2 hours |
| Week 2 | Defining project goals, scope, and success criteria | 6 hours |
| Week 3 | Working effectively with stakeholders | 5 hours |
| Week 4 | Utilizing resources and tools for project success | 5 hours |
Course 3: Project Planning: Putting it All Together
The “Project Planning” course is the third course on your path to becoming a Google Certified Project Manager. This course will teach you how to accurately set timeframes and milestones and the key components of a project plan. In weeks 3 and 4, you’ll also understand how project budgeting works, what risks are involved, and how to manage those risks effectively. This five-week course will take approximately 25 hours to complete.
| Topic | Time To Complete | |
| Week 1 | Beginning the planning phase | 5 hours |
| Week 2 | Building a project plan | 5 hours |
| Week 3 | Managing budgeting and procurement | 5 hours |
| Week 4 | Managing risks effectively | 4 hours |
| Week 5 | Organizing communication and documentation | 6 hours |
Course 4: Project Execution: Running the Project
The “Project Execution” course will teach you how to manage a project from start to finish. While the previous courses focused on the planning side of a project, this one delves deeper into project management. You’ll learn how to determine which aspects of a project to track, analyze the data, and communicate your findings to stakeholders and the project team using various tools. The lessons are spread out over six weeks, and the course takes around 28 hours to complete.
| Topic | Time To Complete | |
| Week 1 | Introduction to project execution | 6 hours |
| Week 2 | Quality management and continuous improvement | 4 hours |
| Week 3 | Data-informed decision-making | 4 hours |
| Week 4 | Leadership and influencing skills | 3 hours |
| Week 5 | Effective project communication | 4 hours |
| Week 6 | Closing a project | 3 hours |
Course 5: Agile Project Management
The Google Project Management Certificate program’s fifth course is “Agile Project Management.” You’ll learn about agile project management, including the Scrum framework, in this course. You’ll discover what a scrum framework is and how to apply it to real-world problems. You’ll also learn how to conduct an Agile job search and how to prepare for a successful interview in week 4. The “Agile Project Management” course takes a total of 21 hours to complete.
| Topic | Time To Complete | |
| Week 1 | The fundamentals of Agile | 4 hours |
| Week 2 | Scrum 101 | 3 hours |
| Week 3 | Implementing Scrum | 9 hours |
| Week 4 | Applying Agile in the organization | 7 hours |
Course 6: Capstone: Applying Project Management in the Real World
The “Applying Project Management in the Real World” course is the sixth and final course in becoming a Google Certified Project Manager. This course will put all of the project management skills you’ve learned in the previous five courses to the test. The course includes a variety of hands-on activities that simulate project management. You’ll be expected to review documents, identify requirements, and develop a project plan. You’ll receive your Google Project Management certification and be able to apply for entry-level project management jobs after completing this course. This course takes a total of 33 hours to complete.
| Topic | Time To Complete | |
| Week 1 | Initiating a project | 8 hours |
| Week 2 | Building out a project plan | 9 hours |
| Week 3 | Maintaining quality | 7 hours |
| Week 4 | Effective stakeholder communication | 9 hours |
Exams for the Google Project Management Certificate
To complete the Google Project Management Certificate, you must complete all lessons and submit all required assignments. At the end of each week, exams appear in the form of quizzes and assignments. Some of the quizzes are simple multiple-choice questions, but most of them are written assignments that you must complete and submit via the platform. You’ll be asked to put what you’ve learned in the lessons into practice in the assignments. You’ll need to make Gantt charts, risk assessment plans, project documentation, and so on. Below are some sample exam questions to give you an idea of what the exams will be like.
How Difficult Is the Google Project Management Professional Certificate on Coursera?
It is not difficult to obtain the Google Project Management Certificate. It’s an entry-level certification for people who have no prior project management experience. Other than having basic computer skills, there are no prerequisites. The structure of the certificate makes it simple to follow for newcomers. The first course is an introduction to project management, and the remaining courses build on your knowledge and skills over time. The exams are hands-on, based on real-life scenarios and concepts learned in class. Even if you fail an exam, you have no restrictions or limitations on retaking it. In general, if you’re new to project management, this is a simple certification to obtain.
Is it Worth It to Get the Google Project Management Professional Certificate on Coursera?
The Google Project Management Certificate is well worth your time and money. It will assist you in developing job-ready skills to begin a career as a project manager. The course is designed by Google project managers and is accepted as valid certification for project management entry-level positions in the industry. This is a good certification to pursue because the cost of certification is less than $200, and the total time investment is around four months. Furthermore, the ACE recognizes this certificate, and you will receive 9 college credits (equivalent to three college courses at the bachelor’s degree level). Finally, the Google Project Manager Certificate qualifies you for more than 100 hours of project management training, which will help you prepare for PMI certifications.
Additional Google Certifications
The Google Project Management Certificate is one of four certifications available through the Google Career program. If project management isn’t your cup of tea, check out our review of the other Google certificates and find a career that suits your needs.
- Google IT Support Professional Certificate Review
- Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate Review
- Google UX Design Professional Certificate Review
- Google IT Automation with Python Certificate Review
Google Project Management Quick Facts: Professional Certificate
- Google Project Management Professional Certificate on Coursera is estimated to take 27 weeks, but you can complete it sooner if you watch the video at a faster speed or read through the materials.
- The monthly cost is $39 (which explains why the estimated duration is 27 weeks).
- There are a lot of individual and peer-reviewed assignments; we recommend completing them all.
- Google will encourage you to create a LinkedIn profile and register for their talent portal as part of the course.
- The review process for some assignments can be lengthy, but completing a chapter requires it.
- The curriculum is divided into six sections: 1. Project Management Foundations, 2. Project Initiation, 3. Project Execution, 4. Project Planning, 5. Agile Project Management, 6. Project Management in Practice
Quality of the Materials
As previously stated, there are six chapters to complete to receive the certificate. Each one is explained in a video featuring Google employees who share their (often inspiring) stories about how they came to work at Google, some of the challenges they faced, and what they liked about their jobs. The videos are well-made and have excellent content. Written resources, summaries, and glossaries accompany the video content. Tests and practical assignments, such as writing an escalation email or creating a Gantt chart, are used to assess knowledge adoption. After that, the assignments are peer-reviewed. Several documents are created during the course that project managers can use as templates in their future work. In addition, the suggested additional reading is excellent.
Who can Google Project Management Professional Certificate?
The course was completed by several members of the project management team. Junior project managers, as expected, benefited the most from the course. While the course itself isn’t groundbreaking, it does provide an excellent overview of the project manager’s role in modern IT firms. It also provides an overview of other Agile frameworks and how they relate to traditional project management.
Senior project managers will have their own work practices and processes validated, even if they aren’t as formal as Google’s, such as creating a stakeholder map. Seniors will also appreciate that the course recognizes the shift toward a project manager’s diversity of roles, which range from the more formal ones of scrum master, product owner, and delivery manager to the more flexible ones of mediator, facilitator, and motivator.
Is the Google Project Management Professional Certificate on Coursera worth it?
While most of the content is based on today’s most popular frameworks and practices, some of the content, such as parts of the theory, naming, and definitions are unique to Google. This is to be expected, given that they are primarily grooming the talent they seek to hire. There’s also information about Google’s agile-up-to-a-point work organizations, a trend we’ve seen in many companies in recent years. Overall, many topics are mentioned, but only a few are discussed in-depth – primarily those that are relevant to Google’s way of working.
However, because the course is advertised as a breakdown, it would be unreasonable to expect more depth from a $39 course, especially compared to the PMP or PMI-ACP courses mentioned in Google’s course. Still, I was hoping for a stronger focus on Agile and perhaps a new perspective on the fundamentals of project management. Finally, call me biased, but the biggest content flaw was Google’s horribly inaccurate description of a rugby scrum: “Scrum refers to a formation in rugby where all of the players on the team lean forward, lock their heads together, and then work as one unit to try and gain valuable yards towards the scoring line.”
Here’s a better way to put it: rugby and project management have a lot in common. I would recommend the course to both new and experienced project managers. It’s an interesting mix of theoretical and practical examples from Google for juniors, touching on everything that matters in our work. From a more senior perspective, I appreciated the emphasis on the team, project communication, and proper documentation – all of which are important to remember every now and then.
Conclusion
If you’re a complete beginner with no prior project management experience, I believe the Google Project Management Professional certificate is well worth your time. The Coursera website is simple to use, and you can take screenshots of lecture notes and rewatch the material before completing assessments. Each module is designed to help you better understand the project life cycle, industry best practices, and key methodologies over time. By the end of the course, you’ll have a portfolio of project management artifacts to show off your new abilities, such as managing stakeholders and teams, organizing plans, and communicating project details.
Frequently Asked Questions
This Certificate was extremely beneficial and useful. The final [of six] courses ask you to create a project from the ground up, including the planning, execution, and completion phases. This feature was crucial because it allowed me to refer to all of the documents and create a portfolio from the ground up.
If you don’t have any theoretical knowledge of project management, I would recommend taking this course. The Certificate is beginner level, but it is very difficult to complete, as there are more than 80 assignments to complete with an average of at least 80%. Many of the tasks are peer-graded, which I found to be extremely beneficial and a fantastic learning opportunity.
Without a doubt. Anyone who wants to do it part-time should expect it to take about 3-6 months, depending on how much effort you put in. It’s excellent for beginners who want to learn the differences between traditional methodologies such as Waterfall and more recent methodologies such as Agile and Scrum. The course will teach you how to manage each project management methodology and how to combine methods if necessary. It may aid you in obtaining a job interview in the future.
It may not be a good fit for those with prior Project Management experience, but they aren’t the intended audience. The goal of these courses is to assist people in changing or starting a career. Of course, it won’t be able to replace a traditional bachelor’s or master’s degree, but I am confident in recommending it.
For those who want to plan, organize, and manage projects, the Google Project Management Professional Certificate is for you. Project managers, program managers, scrum masters, and project analysts are all examples of this. Estimating time and budgets, managing stakeholders, and identifying and managing risks are all skills you’ll need.
Is It Worth It to Get a Google IT Support Professional Certificate? The Google IT Support Professional Certificate will help you get not only an entry-level desk job but also a variety of other IT jobs. This is a comprehensive course that is extremely useful and highly recommended by many IT professionals.
The Google Project Management: Professional Certificate offered by Coursera is our winner for the best overall Google certification course. It takes the top spot because it allows a learner with no degree or experience to gain the skills needed for an entry-level project management job in just six months.
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