Course Description
Increase project success and stakeholder satisfaction by learning best practices for planning projects, gathering requirements, managing scope, increasing communication, budgeting and more.
Research by the Project Management Institute (PMI) shows that less than two-thirds of projects meet their goals and business intent. That is simply unacceptable. That is why the last decade has seen a push for standardization and best practice identification for managing projects.
The Triple Constraint or Project Management Triangle shows how scope, time and cost all affect project quality. Gaining an understanding of this relationship will help you improve project quality, increase the likelihood of project success and help you deliver more projects on-time and within budget.
This course is designed to give you a fundamental understanding of how to manage a project with proven concepts, tools, templates and best practices. Starting from the beginning, you will first learn to properly define a project, and then move into understanding the different project methodologies, including Waterfall, Agile and Iterative project management.
Once you understand the project management life cycle, exercises will give you hands-on experience with:
Stakeholder analysis
Understanding the elements of a Project Charter
Gathering high-level requirements
Defining project scope to avoid scope creep
Creating a Project Schedule
Estimating activity, budgets and costs
Managing risk and the critical path to your project’s delivery
This course is purposely designed for both people new to the project management role, as well as seasoned PMs. Hands-on group exercises will encourage collaboration between these different experience levels furthering the learning experience through peer collaboration.
Substitution & Cancellation Policy:
You may cancel or reschedule up to 21 days prior to the start date of the class at no penalty. For any cancellation or reschedule requests within 21 days, the full course tuition is still due and not eligible for refund. Any paid tuition will be credited towards a future class and must be used within 12 months.
*Partner delivered courses may be subject to different cancellation terms
Agenda
I. What is Project Management?
- What is a Project?
- The Process Groups
- The Project Management Life Cycle
- The Triple Constraints Triangle
- Project Manager Skills
- The Project Life Cycle
- Different Project Methodologies
II. Starting the Project
- Elements of a Project Charter
- Sharing a Common Vision
- Requirements Gathering
- The Three Levels of Project Requirements
- Sources of Requirements
Practice Exercise 1: Identify High Level Requirements
III. Communications Management
- Stakeholder Analysis
- Power/Interest Grid
Practice Exercise 2: Stakeholder Analysis
IV. Planning the Work
- Develop the Project Management Plan
- Subsidiary Management Plans
- Scope Baseline
- Schedule Baseline
- Cost Baseline
- Collect Requirements
- Project Scope Statement
- Decomposition
- Work Breakdown Structure
Practice Exercise 3: Create a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
V. Define Activities
- Decomposition or Work Packages
- Decomposition of Tasks
Practice Exercise 4: Decompose Work Packages to Activities
VI. Dependencies
- Project Schedule Network Diagram (Dependency Network)
- Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)
- Dependency Determination
Practice Exercise 5: Develop a Dependency Network
VII. Estimating
- Estimating Activity Resources
- Estimating Activity
- Analogous Estimating
- Parametric Estimating
- Compensation
- Work-Related Inefficiencies
- Non-Work-Related Inefficiencies
- Three-Point Estimates
- Develop Schedule
- Definitions of Critical Path
- Critical Path Method
- Schedule Compression
Practice Exercise 6: Analogous/Parametric Estimating with Compensation
Practice Exercise 7: Crashing
VIII. Project Schedule & Subsidiary Management Plans
- Network Diagram
- Bar Chart
- Milestone Chart
- Important Subsidiary Management Plans
- Human Resource Management Plan
- Organizational Charts
- Position Descriptions
- Matrix-Based Responsibility Chart
- Roles and Responsibilities
- Communications Management Plan
Practice Exercise 8: Active Listening
IX. Risk
- Risk Management Plan
- Risk Planning
- Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis
- Risk Probability and Impact Assessment
- Probability & Impact Matrix
Practice Exercise 9: Qualitative Risk Analysis
X. Expected Monetary Value
Practice Exercise 10: Calculate EMV for a Group of Activities
XI. Strategies, Calculations & Forecasting
- Strategies for Negative Risk or Threats
- Control Costs
- Earned Value Management
- Planned Value
- Actual Cost
- Cost & Schedule Performance Index
- Forecasting
- Estimates at Completion (EAC)
- To-Complete Performance Index
Practice Exercise 11: Perform Earned Value Calculations
XII. Closing the Project
- Lessons Learned
- Project Sign-off
- Final Product/Service Transfer