Fall 2026

Project Management

OTM 452 teaches project management concepts, tools, and quantitative methods to develop successful project managers.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 Tom Burkard3.5/5Enno Siemsen

Summary

1 / 6

Burkard is described as hard and tough, with intense cold-calling and exam scheduling that some students found problematic enough to involve the Dean.

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
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AB
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
OTM 452

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Fall 2026
/5Adjusted rating
/5RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.00/5 from 9 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 3.5/5 raw quality · 2.5/5 difficulty · 4 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Tom Burkard is described as funny, realistic, and intense, with cold-calling that prepares students for professional pressure. Reviewers note he is tough but valuable if approached with the right mindset.

Other reviewers criticize his teaching methods, claiming he treats students like employees and schedules exams poorly. One student reported needing to involve the Dean due to his handling of finals.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.70 GPA, 84.3% A/AB (n=89 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.80 GPA, 97.8% A/AB (n=45 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.78 GPA, 90.4% A/AB (n=83 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Current instructors Enno Siemsen and Tom Burkard lack direct reviews, but historical feedback highlights varied experiences with past faculty. Peter Commons faced criticism for fast lectures, vague assignments, and harsh grading, while Amir Bahreini and Tariq Mughal received high praise for engaging teaching and student support.

AMIR FARD BAHREINI is recorded teaching in Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

PETER COMMONS is recorded teaching in Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

TARIQ MUGHAL is recorded teaching in Spring 2024, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

TOM BURKARD is recorded teaching in Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

XIUJUAN ZHANG is recorded teaching in Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Fall 2026

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction45 / 454
LEC 002Classroom Instruction43 / 450
LEC 003Classroom Instruction26 / 300

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Tom Burkard is an intense instructor who uses pressure to simulate professional environments, with some students finding the course valuable and others finding the approach intimidating.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.71 GPA, 84.8% A/AB (n=112 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.73 GPA, 93.1% A/AB (n=116 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.76 GPA, 89.1% A/AB (n=101 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Burkard is described as hard and tough, with intense cold-calling and exam scheduling that some students found problematic enough to involve the Dean.

Students who adopt the right mindset find the course valuable for learning to handle pressure, while others find the intense style intimidating.

Topics

  • Project Initiation
  • Scheduling
  • Resource Management
  • Monitoring
  • Valuation
  • Rework
  • Agile Project Management
  • Project Management Analytics and Contracting

Skills

  • Project management concepts and tools
  • Quantitative project management analysis
  • Project lifecycle management and analytics

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Fall 2026.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1283 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
OTM 452 · Fall 2026

Project Management

Recorded 2026-09-07
Raw records
[
  {
    "run_id": "20260907T155543-ce3781c4",
    "semester": "1272",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1272:238:025092",
    "course_id": "OTM 452",
    "course_uid": "course_384e1df5801ad031fc0f7908",
    "term_id": "1272",
    "source_course_id": "025092",
    "source_subject_id": "238",
    "title": "Project Management",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-09-07

Download the original dataset
Model outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance
{
  "model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
  "model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
  "task_version": "14",
  "output_id": "c15555f74d2ae17a05a22cedc9384dca8ee98bf5ee96397df8387157ab5cc4ba",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}