This is the second course in the Google Project Management Certificate program. This course will show you how to set a project up for success in the first phase of the project life cycle: the project initiation phase. In exploring the key components of this phase, you’ll learn how to define and manage project goals, deliverables, scope, and success criteria. You’ll discover how to use tools and templates like stakeholder analysis grids and project charters to help you set project expectations and communicate roles and responsibilities. Current Google project managers will continue to instruct and provide you with hands-on approaches for accomplishing these tasks while showing you the best project management tools and resources for the job at hand.
This course is part of the Google Project Management: Professional Certificate
Offered By
About this Course
What you will learn
Understand the significance of the initiation phase of the project life cycle.
Understand the key components of project charters and develop a project charter for project initiation.
Complete a stakeholder analysis and utilize RACI charts to define and communicate project team member responsibilities.
Evaluate various project management tools to meet project needs.
Skills you will gain
- Stakeholder Management
- Strategic Thinking
- Business Writing
- Project Management
- Project Charter
Offered by

Google Career Certificates are part of Grow with Google, an initiative that draws on Google's 20-year history of building products, platforms, and services that help people and businesses grow. Through programs like these, we aim to help everyone– those who make up the workforce of today and the students who will drive the workforce of tomorrow – access the best of Google’s training and tools to grow their skills, careers, and businesses.
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
Fundamentals of project initiation
You will learn how the program is structured, understand the significance of a project’s initiation phase and describe its key components, and understand how to determine a project’s benefits and costs.
Defining project goals, scope, and success criteria
You will learn how to define and create measurable project goals and deliverables; how to define project scope, differentiate among tasks that are in-scope and out-of-scope, and avoid scope creep; and how to define and measure a project’s success criteria.
Working effectively with stakeholders
You will learn how to define project roles and responsibilities, complete a stakeholder analysis, and utilize RACI charts to define and communicate project team member responsibilities.
Utilizing resources and tools for project success
You will learn the typical resources needed to manage a project, recognize the importance of clear and consistent project documentation, understand the key components of project proposals and charters and develop a project charter, and evaluate various project management tools to meet project needs.
Reviews
- 5 stars85.51%
- 4 stars11.96%
- 3 stars1.44%
- 2 stars0.37%
- 1 star0.70%
TOP REVIEWS FROM PROJECT INITIATION: STARTING A SUCCESSFUL PROJECT
Excellent content, wonderful use of multi-media interaces and check points to keep the pace moving and great introduction of different stories and people with real life perspectives and experiences.
Contents are perfect, but I don´t understand why do I have to wait 1 month for my peers to grade my assignment, I can´t dowload my certificate becuase of that and I think that shouldn´t be happening.
Good and well put together course, I particularly enjoy the hands-on activities. I look forward to completing the next courses, thank you Google and Coursera for making this course available.
I appreciate the information presented in course and the way it's presented. I'm however disappointed that my final peer review lost a mark because a reviewer deviated from the rubric.
About the Google Project Management: Professional Certificate
Prepare for a new career in the high-growth field of project management, no experience or degree required. Get professional training designed by Google and get on the fastrack to a competitively paid job. There are 479,000 U.S. job openings in project management with a $73,000 median entry-level salary.¹

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