Project Management in Practice Course (Module 2)

Don’t get left behind…

Build on your existing knowledge and take your Project Management skills to the next level. With the best practice principles of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK^® Guide) Knowledge Areas and Processes as its foundation, it builds upon participants’ existing skills and knowledge by way of a ‘guided tour’ through a series of rigorous and real-life scenarios, problems and issues faced by Project Managers across the board, led by an expert, senior level facilitator possessing a wealth of project management knowledge and long-term hands-on experience at both the project and programme levels.

What you gain from the course

• Hands-on, business ready expertise that you can immediately apply
• Comprehensive Project Management in Practice program materials and case studies
• Sought-after, industry-leading certification from Australia’s most highly accredited PM and PMO partner

As organisations mature, they develop a fundamental understanding of the bottom-line value of effective project management in assuring project success, and to achieve this, they also appreciate the value of employing and / or developing competent and effective Project Managers. Yet still we find that Project Managers trained only to the most basic level of competence are a ‘dime-a-dozen’. They can write a simple Scope of Work, build a satisfactory Work Breakdown Structure and even develop a risk management plan…

This is all perfectly adequate given an idyllic project environment/situation in which all stakeholder objectives/expectations are fully aligned, all key players are speaking the same language and the threat of risk or change is absent – from either a project or an organisational perspective. In our experience though – and that of our clients – this situation is extremely rare, if it exists at all.

What distinguishes the truly successful project managers from the mostly average performers (i.e. the ‘run-of-the-mill ‘co-ordinators’), is how Project Managers think and behave in the face of the multitude of ‘less-than-ideal’ situations that they are destined to face almost every day of their project management lives. This is simply the nature of Project Management.

The best of breed Project Manager accepts full responsibility for a project’s outcomes and assumes intrinsically, the requisite authority to match – without external prompting. The mark of this Project Manager is his/her ability to strike a delicate balance of the following: analytical and critical thinking skills, superior communication, leadership, negotiation and facilitation skills, combined with a problem-solving, results-oriented focus.

Our Project Management in Practice Course has been designed with all of the above in mind. With the best practice principles of the PMBOK^® Guide Knowledge Areas and Processes as its foundation, it builds upon participants’ existing skills and knowledge by way of a ‘guided tour’ through a series of rigorous and real-life scenarios, problems and issues faced by Project Managers across the board, led by an expert, senior level facilitator possessing a wealth of project management knowledge and long-term hands-on experience at both the project and programme levels.

Course Content Summary

Introduction

• Course overview
• What the PMBOK^® Guide says about Projects, Programs, Portfolios and their respective management
• Project Management Knowledge Areas of the PMBOK^® Guide and their inter-relationship with the Project Life Cycle

Project Integration Management

• What the PMBOK^® Guide says about Project Integration Management and its associated processes
• The crucial role of the Project Manager in Project Integration Management

Project Scope Management

• What the PMBOK^® Guide says about Project Scope Management and its associated processes
• What the Project Manager does to Manage Project Scope
• Effective questioning techniques for scoping a project
• A facilitation method for scoping projects

Project Communications & Stakeholder Management

• What the PMBOK^® Guide, Fifth Edition says about Project Communications Management and its associated processes
• How the Project Manager communicates with stakeholders
• Building an effective Stakeholder Management Plan
• Achieving Stakeholder buy-in
• Negotiating skills for Project Managers

Project Time Management

• What the PMBOK^® Guide says about Project Time Management and its associated processes
• Balancing the schedule against the competing demands of cost, risk and quality
• Calculating the Critical Path and understanding where and how to use it to manage time constraints effectively

Project Cost Management

• What the PMBOK^® Guide says about Project Cost Management and its associated processes
• Cost budgeting with limited information and the ‘human subjectivity’ affecting estimates
• Methods for tracking and controlling costs within a project
• Measuring cost performance through task and project tracking and Earned Value Management – making sense of project cost and progress reporting

Project Quality Management

• What the PMBOK^® Guide says about Project Quality Management and its associated processes
• Balancing Product, Project and People management from a Quality perspective
• Quality Management Tools and Techniques
• Quality Assurance, Quality Control, Project Quality Improvements
• The inter-relationship between cost and Quality
• A process for taking action when Quality goes ‘off the rails’: problem analysis and devising the Remedial Action Plan

Project Procurement Management

• What the PMBOK^® Guide says about Project Procurement Management and its associated processes
• The Vendor/Procurement Management Plan
• Procurement processes
• Applying the ‘Weighted Decision Matrix’ to the vendor selection process
• Overview of contract types

Project Human Resource Management

• What the PMBOK^® Guide says about Project Human Resource Management and its associated processes
• Developing a Project Resource Management Plan
• Planning your team structure – identifying what and whom you need
• Recruitment and selection of team members – evaluating resumes, Interviewing, selection criteria
• Conducting existing team skill levels assessments
• Creating a Performance Management Plan
• Providing feedback, praise and criticism, and managing individual and team performance issues

Project Risk Management

• What the PMBOK^® Guide says about Project Risk Management and its associated processes
• Selling the value of Risk Management
• Managing the non-rational risk management factors affecting stakeholders’ perceptions

Project Management in Review

• Reviewing Project Integration and the role of the Project Manager

What the course IS about:

• Critical analysis and problem-solving within a project; based on typical and real-life case study scenarios.
• Arming participants with an extra set of real-life skills for facing the unavoidable challenges they’ll be faced with when managing projects.
• Exploring project management from the perspective of the 10 Knowledge Areas as established in the PMBOK^® Guide – Fifth Edition.
• Building upon fundamental project management concepts and a baseline of project management experience.
• Applying effective interpersonal, leadership and communications skills to appropriately engage and manage stakeholders throughout the life of a project.
• Collaborating and sharing experiences and knowledge with other project managers.
• Challenging participants’ views regarding project management planning and control.

What the workshop IS NOT about:

• Establishing fundamental project management principles or concepts – this is assumed knowledge from either prior training or requisite experience.
• A theoretical approach to the ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ of project management.
• Preparing candidates to undertake the PMI/PMP examination