• Delegates will gain an understanding into the Project Management Process by using the tools and techniques in a workshop style course.

• Define a project
• Create a business case and project definition document for approval
• Create a Project Plan 
• Place controls for monitoring the progress, change and issues on the project
• Understand how to close down a Project

Where projects fit within the organization

 

What a project is

• Changes business as usual
• Cross-functional
• Finite life-cycle

 

Projects need a supportive environment

• Is it the right time?
• What supports this initiative?
• PESTLE

 

The sponsor’s role

• Project finance
• Key decision maker
• Mover and shaker

 

How do we know we’re making a good investment? – the Business Case

• Contents
• What it should cover
• Who’s involved

 

Project strategy and plan for its execution

 

How will success be measured?

• Success criteria
• Identifying key stakeholders
• What do they want?

 

Spotting the supporters and the blockers

• Stakeholder maps
• Communication plan

 

Breaking the project up into manageable chunks – the project life-cycle

• Key phases/stages
• Benefits of chunking
• Different chunks for different projects

 

The plan, the plan, the plan!

• Product planning
• Activity planning
• Creating a schedule

 

Managing risk

• What is a risk?
• How do we analyse risks?
• How do we manage risks?

 

Meeting the customer’s requirements

• Capturing the requirements
• Defining acceptance criteria
• Moving smoothly to sign-off

 

Executing the strategy

 

What’s included and what’s not – scope management

• Capturing the requirements
• Documenting the requirements
• Making the requirements provable

 

When can we do it by? – scheduling

• Identifying activities
• Estimating
• Scheduling

 

Have we got the right people?

• Identifying resources
• Acquiring the right people
• Holding on to the right people

 

Setting up the budget

• Ball-park or accurate?
• What is tracked?
• How to track costs

 

Controlling changes to the agreed scope

• Authorising and release
• Change control
• Making it work

 

Reporting and information management

• What reports and when
• Communications

 

Project reviews

• Types
• Purpose

 

Capturing and dealing with issues

• Logging issues
• Examining issues for impact
• Getting approval for new work
• Re-planning

 

Techniques to support the projects work

 

Estimating – is it realistic?

• Top-down
• Bottom up
• Delphi

 

Knowing where the stuff is and that it will work together – configuration management

• Version control
• Protecting the project’s assets

 

Handover and closeout

 

Seamless handover to the business

• Customer acceptance
• Documentation
• Help and support

 

Chance to review success

• End project review
• Who should be involved
• Purpose
• Post project review(s)

 

Learning from our experiences

• What went well
• What went badly
• How can we do it better next time

• Aligning your projects to the organisation's strategy
• Setting up organizational structures for lasting project and programme success
• Assisting in creation of local best practice project and programme processes
• Defining training needs and how the needs can be met
• Delivering training
• Performing project and programme audits
• Supporting the definition of benefits and their subsequent modelling, tracking and realisation