Project Management Essentials is designed for business professionals faced with getting projects done on-time, within budget and to the customer’s satisfaction.  It provides interactive training that will benefit both first-time and experienced project leaders and team members. Participants will develop skills through hands-on exercises that allow them to practice the processes to organize, define, plan, track, and manage any project successfully.

What are the objectives?

• An overview of the knowledge areas and process groups in the PMBOK^® Guide
• Roles and expectations for project managers, sponsors and team members
• How competing projects demands may require trade-offs
• The importance of a change control process
• How to create a project charter
• The process for stakeholder analysis
• How to create a Work Breakdown Structure
• How to create a network diagram
• How to use the Critical Path Technique to identify critical path and float
• The importance of a resource assignment matrix
• How to create and analyze a project schedule
• How to create a time-phased budget
• Earned Value Management terms and formulas 
• Quality principles and tools related to project management
• Risk identification & analysis and contingency reserves
• Procurement processes and risks
• Project meeting guidelines
• Developing and managing the project team

What will you learn?

 

Overview and framework

• What is project management and why do it?
• Projects and strategic planning
• Roles and expectations
• Accountability
• Project Management Institute, Inc., project management process groups & knowledge areas

 

Getting started

• Managing competing demands of project requirements
• Creating a project charter
• Stakeholder engagement

Managing scope

• Creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• Managing scope creep

 

Managing schedule

• Sequencing tasks with a network diagram
• Estimating resources and durations
• Critical Path Method (CPM)
• Schedule development

 

Managing cost

• Creating a time-phased budget
• Earned Value Management

 

Managing quality

• Standards/performance criteria

 

Managing risk

• Risk identification
• Qualitative and quantitative analysis
• Risk response planning
• Risk register

 

Procurement management

• Planning and executing
• Impact on the competing demands

 

Project communications

• Project reporting
• Meeting guidelines

 

Project resource management

• Team development
• Conflict management
• Influence without authority

 

Integration

• Putting it all together
• What to put in the project plan
• Executing, monitoring and controlling
• Managing changes

 

Closing a project

• Post project review
• Lessons learned

 

Anyone involved with projects – both experienced and new project managers and their team members will benefit greatly from this course – as will supervisors, managers, directors, bankers, health professionals, scientists, project engineers, program staffers and anyone else who works on or with projects.

The common terminology and tools from the Project Management Institute, Inc. and the PMBOK® Guide will set a course for success when everyone knows the terms, and use the tools that progress a project to successful completion.

Description of the workshop:

Cost management and a well-constructed schedule are the backbone of any successful project. A project’s schedule brings the entire picture of the project life-cycle into focus, giving clear and concise expectations of project milestones and completion date. Managing costs is more than tracking expenses; it considers how much work was done for the amount spent. Hands-on exercises are used to help you understand the PMI processes for project scheduling and cost management and the principles and techniques they use. This two-day program will equip you with the critical, working knowledge you need to put together winning projects that meet the constraints of your time and budget.

Learning Points:

• Understand the importance of a good work breakdown structure in managing cost and schedule.
• Use precedence diagramming method to develop a network diagram.
• Practice estimating techniques that can help you create a realistic schedule and budget.
• Use critical path method to calculate project duration and flexibility.
• Understand the importance of a time-phased budget and how to create it.
• Understand techniques for collecting actual performance data and the impact on reports.
• Calculate earned value variance and performance index for schedule and cost.
• Use these calculations to forecast end of project performance.
• Understand the trade-offs between schedule, cost and scope.

What you will learn:

Overview of project management basics

PMI^® and the PMBOK^® Guide processes

The project charter and stakeholder expectations

Competing demands – scope, schedule, cost

Project scheduling

Create a schedule management plan

Create a network diagram

Precedence diagramming method

Dependencies

Lead time and lag time

Estimating techniques

PERT, analogous, parametric, Delphi, bottom up, top down

Range estimates and confidence levels

Reserves

Estimate resources and durations

labor, equipment, materials, supplies

Resource assignment matrix

Effort, availability and commitment

Create a baseline schedule

Critical path method

Critical chain method

Project duration and float

Schedule analysis and compression techniques

Cost management

Create a cost management plan

Estimate costs

Create a time-phased budget

Controlling schedule and cost

Compare actual performance to planned

Collect actuals

Earned value management

Forecast and trend analysis

Manage changes