An AEC-flavoured introduction to project management — written for our juniors, set in Ontario, no exam-prep, no copyrighted PMBOK content.
Most juniors learn project management by osmosis — watching a senior PM, picking up phrases, sometimes guessing at what a term means. There are PMP courses, but they are generic, exam-focused, and built for certification, not for week-three at a small Ontario engineering firm. Nobody writes PM material for the work we actually do.
So I wrote one. PM Primer teaches the same body of knowledge, but in plain language, with examples drawn from heritage rehabs, municipal roadwork, school renos, and the OBC — not generic IT projects.
A small Flask web app that teaches PM concepts through four learning modes — lessons, quizzes, flashcards, and AI-graded scenarios — all written in plain language with Ontario AEC examples baked into every page.
Markdown lessons with worked AEC examples and tips for junior staff.
Auto-graded multiple-choice quizzes with explanations.
Spaced-repetition flashcards using the Leitner box system.
Open-ended scenarios graded by Claude against a rubric, with mentor-tone feedback.
Five tracks, all written from scratch in the firm's voice.
Every lesson includes an AEC example admonition like this. The example does the teaching; the abstract definition supports it.
You're a junior PM on a municipal road rehabilitation project. The contractor submits an invoice that includes work not yet completed. A steward flags the discrepancy to the project sponsor rather than rubber-stamping payment — even if it creates an uncomfortable conversation with the contractor.
Plain language. Specific. The kind of moment a junior staffer will actually face in their first year.
Markdown files with YAML front-matter. Principles run 300–600 words; performance domains and disciplines up to ~1000. Every lesson carries:
principle-stewardshipdomain-stakeholdersdiscipline-structuralorientation-ontario-building-codestandards-fire-protectionThree to five auto-graded MCQs per lesson. Each has an explanation. Below is a real item from the Stewardship deck.
A junior engineer notices a discrepancy between the design drawings and the contractor's invoice. What should they do?
Explanation: Stewardship at every level means raising concerns through proper channels.
Notice the symmetry with the previous slide — the same point shows up as a narrative example, then as auto-graded reinforcement. That's how a real lesson is supposed to work.
A simple Leitner box system — five boxes with widening review intervals. Get a card right and it gets promoted; get it wrong and it falls back to box 1.
State lives in the browser (localStorage) for the POC, so a junior can pick up where they left off without an account. The deck UI shows "X cards due today" per lesson.
Open-ended writing prompts grounded in real AEC situations. The user writes a response; Claude (Sonnet 4.6) grades it against a rubric and returns warm, constructive feedback — never demoralizing a junior.
You are coordinating a heritage building rehabilitation in eastern Ontario. The municipal heritage committee wants original window profiles preserved. The owner wants modern triple-glazed units to cut energy costs. The contractor has already ordered the modern units.
Describe how you would engage these stakeholders to resolve the conflict, referencing the Stakeholders performance domain.
Cost-guarded: 1024-token max response, 4000-char input cap. Every grading call logged.
sqlite3)It is not just a learner UI. Three other roles already exist.
Track which juniors have completed which lessons, quizzes, and scenarios. Assign work. Review where someone is stuck.
Draft new lessons in-browser, save as drafts, publish when reviewed. Lessons remain markdown on disk.
User accounts, settings, grading-call log, in-app feedback log, content management.
A long CLAUDE.md design document — goals, non-goals, content model, routes, schema, testing plan — written before any code.
Phase 1: Flask app factory, base template, one lesson, one quiz, one flashcard deck, one Claude-graded scenario — all wired and clickable.
Phase 2: all 42 lessons written, 163 quizzes authored, 306 flashcards, 49 scenarios — in plain language, AEC-flavoured throughout.
Phases 3 & 4: search, print views, manager dashboard, content creator, admin panel, LDAP auth, feedback log.
These are rollout questions, not engineering questions. The product is built; it needs people in it.
Open to direction. Want a walk-through?