What are the course objectives?

The course starts by focusing your attention on what success looks like. The purpose of planning is to achieve these outcomes and nothing else. At this level, project management is often as much about power and politics as about plans and process. Consequently stakeholder management is a critical skill and is thoroughly explored. Once the nature of success is understood, the role of project disciplines in achieving that success is examined. It is the advanced application of the key project management disciplines that is at issue, and so the emphasis is on the appropriate use of management control techniques in complex projects. Finally, it is the integrating of all the factors and disciplines together into a coherent project strategy and a set of consistent actions that distinguishes good project managers from great ones. A major cross- functional project is provided – and the problem is to successfully construct and deliver the project. By its end, not only will you be more confident about the techniques, you will be confident about how to apply them in typically complex project environments.

What are the key topics?

• Project success factors
• Organising for projects
• Scoping the projects
• Stakeholder management
• Advanced project disciplines
• Business strategy
• Investment appraisal
• Resource management

What are the course objectives?

By attending this programme you will learn more about how projects are run, how project techniques and approaches can add value to your current role (be it in HR, finance, marketing, operations, etc.) and what factors make project management different from other types of management.

The course highlights the fundamental management, process and resource disciplines that make projects different from business as usual. It introduces the disciplines required in projects, particularly the need to schedule time, measure progress, communicate and handle variations to the plan caused by productivity variations, rework and process performance.

What content is covered?

The basic principles of project management are described and discussed. This is mainly in the context of how and where they differ from line management approaches. Differences between plans and schedules, the iterative planning process, the approaches to adopt when creating estimates for pieces of work, and the need for effective communication and reporting progress are all important topics covered. We also address roles and responsibilities in projects, project organisation and the value of method and its impacts. Product breakdown structures and activity networks are created on the course. Practical exercises will help to make points about scheduled activity, the need for structure, organisation and project control in highly constrained management environments, and what constitutes good project behaviour.

What are the key topics?

• Identifying projects
• Defining the project objectives
• Planning
• Communication
• Monitoring and control
• Team dynamics
• Creating work packages
• Creating an activity network
• Estimating
• Health checks