Project Management Partners: Mastering Modern Project Management

Project Management Partners-Improving organizational performance through better project management

Mastering Modern Project Management

Overview

This three-day program is designed to help you develop project management skills that will be immediately useful, usable, and used back on the job. How do we do this? We use actual projects provided by the participants in each class as the basis for all of the key exercises. This allows you to practice in a realistic environment that is not black and white, but shades of gray - just like the real world.

This program will help you develop the skills needed to build and execute a realistic and robust project plan. You will learn how to balance product constraints, cost constraints, and schedule constraints in order to maximize stakeholder satisfaction. You will also learn how to build a stronger team and how to measure project performance - objectively.

Approximately 70% of class time is devoted to casework and experiential learning. During hands-on exercises, you will work as part of a team to develop a project definition document, a work breakdown structure, range estimates, a network logic diagram, and a risk response analysis.

Key Learning Objectives

Upon completion, you will be able to:

Prepare an effective project definition document
Develop and document project success criteria
Construct a work breakdown structure that adds value
Improve the accuracy of project estimates
Sequence project activities
Calculate an activity-based critical path
Understand team behaviors better
Assess the need for cost and schedule reserves
Use earned value to guide corrective action

Detailed Topical Outline

Day 1	Introduction Review of your project management challenges Organizational Competence in Project Management™ (OCiPM) Identifying the project's stakeholders and their interests Product scope vs. project scope: what they are, how they are related The Project Planning Process Why so many project teams are reluctant to plan appropriately Dealing with the "fuzzy-front end" Project management processes and product-oriented processes A non-traditional view of the triple constraint Project Definition Document Writing a powerful project justification Understanding what your real deliverables are Constraints, assumptions, and exclusions Project Success Criteria Two major dimensions of project success Getting the stakeholders involved Influencing success criteria that are beyond your control

Day 2	Developing a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) - the Right Way Purpose of the WBS Using your WBS to discover missing work items Integrating the WBS with the project life cycle Estimating Funding estimates vs. control estimates Using range estimates to deal with uncertainty Converting estimates into budgets Calculating an appropriate cost reserve Getting your budget approved Team Working Why you should invest in building a stronger team Using an Accountability Matrix as a communications tool Understanding power: getting things done through others How to create a high performance team

Day 3	Project Scheduling Duration estimating and sequencing Critical path and merge bias Preliminary schedules vs. schedule baselines Estimating an appropriate schedule reserve Formal Risk Management Differentiating risks, problems, issues, and responses Techniques for identifying project risks The most effective way to write a risk statement Prioritizing and responding to risks Measuring Project Progress Change management and corrective action Objectives of progress measurement Different approaches to progress measurement Milestones: the Game of Projects Recap and Review Getting the most from what you've learned: less is more Mapping the tools and techniques to your project challenges

After this program, you'll say "I can do that!"

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