Applied project management

The principles of project management are generic and therefore can be applied to all projects regardless of business sector. Many organisations are now utilising these project management principles to standardise and improve their approach to managing activities and business change.
The aim of this course is to provide participants from any business sector with an easy to understand pragmatic approach to project management, which in conjunction with other accredited courses, will develop participants to a level of understanding sufficient to take the APMP examination.
This module focuses largely on the ''hard skills'' of project management and is intended to provide participants with the knowledge and practical skills to structure a project using established tools, techniques and processes.
This course helps learners to:

• Have a greater awareness of the skills and project tools required to help manage client expectations
• Competently apply project management tools to help plan and deliver projects within realistic timeframes
• Confidently coordinate multiple contributors within projects
• Be able to apply a single methodology to project planning and management
• Have the knowledge required to record best practice and variances to improve efficiencies in the future
• Be able to create suitable materials for future Project Managers

The course tutor introduces the programme, outlining the learning objectives, programme content and domestic issues. Participants then take part in an introductory exercise that will prepare them to learn from each other during the day.
Thereafter, the sessions will include:

• Project lifecycle - Subjects covered include the purpose of the project life cycle; the importance of phases and gateways on projects; key tasks, reports and documentation accompanying each phase; and project life cycles and programme management
• Stakeholder analysis - This session will get delegates completing a stakeholder analysis for a case-study project and forming the framework for the ensuing communication strategy and plan. They will consider: identification of project stakeholders; assessment of the attitude and impact of individual stakeholders; tactical use of stakeholders to contribute to project success and; introducing the areas within a communication strategy and plan
• Project plan and key milestones - This session identifies the core elements of a sound project plan and how that differs from other project documents. The session also emphasizes that whilst the plan is an important baseline, it is the planning process that is of the greatest importance
• Work breakdown and deliverable planning - This session will introduce a number of planning ''breakdown'' tools and ask the delegates to apply them to a familiar project scenario to show how a broad project brief can relatively quickly be made into a detailed series of associated tasks and deliverables
• Work breakdown and deliverable planning - This session teaches Project Managers the ''hard wiring'' that goes before a Gantt chart to ensure that any ensuing project schedule stands up to scrutiny and can be considered reliable
• Estimating and managing sponsor expectations - This session covers two widely applied techniques aimed at putting some science into the fiction of project estimating, including PERT which was originally created (and successfully applied) to control overspend on the Polaris submarine project
• Present project plans - Delegates present a summary of the report they have produced since the first half of the course. Peers and facilitators are looking for lessons they can learn about their own approach and offering constructive feedback on the presentations they receive. This raises numerous project planning issues and gives the delegates an opportunity to present which is a core requirement of most Project Managers
• Responsibility matrices - Key topics covered include assigning accountability, responsibility, consult and inform status to contributors; gaining "buy-in" to the responsibility matrix; clarifying roles and responsibilities across the project; establishing clear deadlines and communication points (e.g. meetings and reports) and; Identifying resource / competency gaps
• Risk management - The tools applied in this session are simple to use and work by forcing project teams to gain "hindsight up front". Most risk can be radically reduced through a creative approach to problem solving and encouraging this not only reduces risk, but the money and time spent mitigating major risks
• Project team management - This section uses the Belbin self-perception inventory at its core. Completed in advance, the facilitator reviews the feedback and collectively the group assess the relative merits and risks implied if they were a Project Team. The learning is further expanded to consider implications for leadership and motivation issues to forge great teams
• Conflict management - This section uses a respected psychometric test to identify delegate''s preferred styles for conflict management. The results can then be used to consider the implications of these styles and where they are more and less effective. The conclusion will also be stressed that levels of conflict are directly, inversely related to the amount of effort put into the planning stage of the project
• Negotiating and influencing - This session uses specially constructed case studies to test the delegates'' powers of questioning, calm and creativity in trying to forge a "win-win" solution with the other project party. Peers and the facilitator will wrap up with some observations and implications for greater negotiating success following the course

Want this course tailored to meet your exact needs? Or maybe your organisations own project management methodology?
If so, then contact us for a bespoke detailed course outline, or no obligation meeting.