Adaptive Training - Project Management Delivering Success

Learn to

Produce a project plan with a high expectation of successful delivery
Work with your stakeholders to define and agree viable and worthwhile project objectives
Plan and run your projects using a universal and clear step-by-step project management method
Develop techniques to estimate, plan and deliver projects on time, within budget and at agreed quality levels
Understand the roles, responsibilities and reporting structures that underpin successful project organisation and communications
Successfully manage change and track and communicate progress against plan
Successfully apply risk and opportunity management to minimise costly surprises and increase your confidence in achieving project objectives
Understand and practice the team building and leadership skills needed to run a high performance project

Overview

Key to the success of any organisation is the ability to deliver projects in a predictable and controlled way. This 4 day introductory project management training course provides you with the skills, values, tools and techniques to make an immediate and powerful contribution to managing projects back in your workplace.

Relevant to all project types and sizes, the course covers the decisions, working practices, processes, tools and mindsets so that your projects are clearly defined, realistically planned and effectively managed. It provides all you need to enable you to return to your organisation and successfully deliver projects.

The course features numerous case studies and workshops to enable you to immediately apply what you are learning. Throughout the course the instructor will demonstrate tools such as Microsoft Project, to show you how various techniques can be applied in practice. They will also share tips, tricks and workarounds to help you get the most out of these tools.

Content Overview

This project management course comprehensively covers everything you need to be able to successfully plan and manage projects in your organisation.

Course Outline

Overview of Project Management

Achieving change: projects and planning
The nature and challenges of project management
Role of the project manager
Projects, programmes and portfolios
Project lifecycles
Overview of planning

Business Case

Stakeholder analysis: understanding the project context and key project drivers
Developing the business case: Ensuring we have a viable and worthwhile project

Identifying and evaluation project options

The role of the business case in driving the project forward
Developing project evaluation and acceptance criteria to optimise project decisions
Establishing overall project objectives and approach, and defining the scope of the project

Objectives statement
Balancing priorities: iron triangle, CSFs, KPIs

Communications planning: Using stakeholder analysis to develop the communications plan
Quality

Defining and achieving quality in the context of a project

Establishing Scope

Establishing outcomes, approach and key deliverables
Getting realistic and measurable project success criteria
Determining key project milestones
High level deliverables: external and internal
Creating the work breakdown structure
Rolling wave planning

Estimation

Estimating concepts, accuracy and precision
What are we estimating
Estimating approaches

Analogous, parametric, comparative, expert, bottom-up

The estimating process
Range and 3 point estimates
Practicalities of achieving good estimates

Network Scheduling

Understanding activity relationships and constraints
Using a network diagram to determine the critical path
Translating a network diagram into a Gantt chart

Managing Risk and Uncertainty

A practical and comprehensive risk and opportunity management process
Ensuring risk management is properly integrated into the project
Establishing a risk robust culture
Developing effective strategies to manage risk

Resourcing and Budgeting

Identifying and defining resources

Resource pools and types

Assigning responsibilities

RASCI charts

Project calendars
Developing a resourced and levelled Gantt chart
Developing project budget

Produce a cash flow profile

Resource Histograms
Optimising resource usage
Resource levelling considerations

Finalising the project plan

Assembling the project plan elements
Reviewing and accepting the final plan
Formalising the baseline

Project Monitoring and Control

Establishing controls

Developing key project milestones and deadlines
Determining project stages
Negotiating with managers and teams

Establishing project control systems

The baseline plan
Monitoring the progress of tasks against the baseline plan

Tools to assist in tracking project status

Tracking Gantt, slip charts, introduction to earned value

Identifying, analysing, and correcting variances to plan
Avoiding the 90% complete problem
Identifying information sources to monitor project plan progress
Crashing and fast tracking
Cost management: managing budgets, cost collection and control
Corrective action: identifying and addressing significant variances

Management of Change

Defining 'Change' in the context of project management
Establishing change control procedures
Examining scope and impact analysis of changes
Authorising changes
Planning and implementing changes

Subcontracting and procurement

The procurement process
Subcontractor selection, negotiation and award
Key elements in successful initiation of a subcontract
Monitoring and controlling subcontractors, and dealing with problems
Contract acceptance and closeout

Project Communications

Developing a communications plan : communicating effectively with stakeholders and team members
Project reporting
Project closure

Planning a controlled project close
Documentation
Identifying any lessons learnt

Project Leadership

Personal effectiveness
Understanding your role as the project manager
Developing team member roles
Creating a successful project team
Getting commitment

Successful delegation
Ownership, responsibility and accountability

Managing teams

Course Exam (optional)

Workshops

During the course there are numerous workshops and exercises that proceed step-by-step through a case study project. These enable you apply each technique being discussed and evaluate them for your own needs. Each exercise and workshop is followed by a full feedback and de-brief session to ensure all your questions and concerns are dealt with and continuously reinforce and strengthen your learning.

Exercises on this course are primarily group exercises run as a mini project team to give everyone chance to act in the role of the project manager and to understand the specific concerns the role entails.

Some of the course exercises are listed below.

Workshops Outline

Analysing stakeholders concerns
Establishing project objectives and an outline business case
Analysing the scope of project work using a work breakdown structure
Estimating duration, work content and cost
Planning the sequence in which work should be accomplished
Creating a Gantt chart
Optimising resource usage within imposed constraints
Identifying and understanding uncertainty
Reporting on project progress
Determining actions to bring a project back on track
Getting the most from the project team

Intended Audience

Anyone who is involved in, or aspires to manage projects that successfully deliver business benefits within defined cost and time criteria. Anyone who wishes to learn more about project management.

Pre-requsites

There are no pre-requisites for this course.

Take Aways

Guidelines, forms and checklists to give you a great start managing projects in your workplace. Model examples of many key project deliverables including outline stakeholder analysis, business case, communication plan, and the project schedule (manual and electronic) including network diagrams, resource definition, Gantt charts, risk and issue registers.

Schedule

Currently this course is only available for onsite delivery.

Interested in this course onsite? Call our customer services team on 0845 402 1224 or
email us.

Not sure if this is the right course for you? Got questions? Call our customer services team on 0845 402 1224 or email us.

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