Project Management Skills (2 days)

This course will provide you with many tools and techniques that can be quickly applied and mastered to ensure that your Project Management is efficient and effective. This course is aimed at Project Team members or Project Managers who have worked or are currently working in a Project environment.

COURSE AIM:

Delegates will gain an understanding into the Project Management Process by using the tools and techniques in a workshop style course.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

By the end of the course you will be able to:

* Define a project
* Create a business case and project definition document for approval
* Create a Project Plan
* Place controls for monitoring the progress, change and issues on the project
* Understand how to close down a Project

CONTENT:

Where projects fit within the organization

What a project is:
* Changes business as usual
* Cross-functional
* Finite life-cycle

Projects need a supportive environment:
* Is it the right time?
* What supports this initiative?
* PESTLE

The sponsor’s role:
* Project finance
* Key decision maker
* Mover and shaker

How do we know we’re making a good investment? – the Business Case:
* Contents
* What it should cover
* Who’s involved

Project strategy and plan for its execution

How will success be measured?
* Success criteria
* Identifying key stakeholders
What do they want?
*
Spotting the supporters and the blockers:
* Stakeholder maps
* Communication plan

Breaking the project up into manageable chunks – the project life-cycle
* Key phases/stages
* Benefits of chunking
* Different chunks for different projects

The plan, the plan, the plan!
* Product planning
* Activity planning
* Creating a schedule

Managing risk:
* What is a risk?
* How do we analyse risks?
* How do we manage risks?

Meeting the customer’s requirements:
* Capturing the requirements
* Defining acceptance criteria
* Moving smoothly to sign-off

Executing the strategy

What’s included and what’s not – scope management:
* Capturing the requirements
* Documenting the requirements
* Making the requirements provable

When can we do it by? – scheduling:
* Identifying activities
* Estimating
* Scheduling

Have we got the right people?
* Identifying resources
* Acquiring the right people
* Holding on to the right people

Setting up the budget:
* Ball-park or accurate?
* What is tracked?
* How to track costs

Controlling changes to the agreed scope:
* Authorising and release
* Change control
* Making it work

Reporting and information management:
* What reports and when
* Communications

Project reviews:
* Types
* Purpose

Capturing and dealing with issues:
* Logging issues
* Examining issues for impact
* Getting approval for new work
* Re-planning

Techniques to support the projects work

Estimating – is it realistic?
* Top-down
* Bottom up
* Delphi

Knowing where the stuff is and that it will work together – configuration management:
* Version control
* Protecting the project’s assets

Handover and closeout

Seamless handover to the business:
* Customer acceptance
* Documentation
* Help and support

Chance to review success:
* End project review
* Who should be involved
* Purpose
* Post project review(s)

Learning from our experiences:
* What went well
* What went badly
* How can we do it better next time

COURSE INCLUDES:

Lunch/refreshments and course materials.


Project Management Services

We provide support to our clients in the following areas:

* Aligning your projects to the organisation's strategy
* Setting up organizational structures for lasting project and programme success
* Assisting in creation of local best practice project and programme processes
* Defining training needs and how the needs can be met
* Delivering training
* Performing project and programme audits
* Supporting the definition of benefits and their subsequent modelling, tracking and realisation