Analyzing Projects and Organizations
This MIT OpenCourseWare course examines why organizations and their programs behave as they do, building skills for evaluating live projects, organizations, and the environments they operate in. Drawing on the sociology of organizations, political science, and public administration, the course mixes theoretical readings with case material from both developing and developed countries. Materials include the syllabus, reading lists, and assignments used in the MIT classroom, allowing self-directed learners to work through the same analytic frameworks students use to assess organizational rationality and program design. The course is aimed at students who want practical tools for diagnosing how institutions actually function rather than how they are formally supposed to function, and it treats organizations as political and social systems shaped by history and context. No enrollment fee or certificate is offered; it is published freely as part of MIT's OpenCourseWare initiative for independent study.