Suitable for participants who have some or no project management knowledge
Course Overview
This course is intended for managers and executives in IT and non-IT technical (e.g. engineering, technical support, consulting) and non-technical work areas (e.g. sales, marketing, business development, customer service), who need to acquire a high competency in project management, project control and documentation tools and processes. The entire course content is compliant with the standard Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) of the Project Management Institute (USA).
One of the objectives of this course is for participants to appreciate and enforce project management as a system of procedures and controls that can regulate and stabilize project controls, through the use of the right project management methodology, tools and techniques. A demonstration of a Project Management Information System (PROMISE) is included, and sufficient information is provided in discussions on how to set up and equip a Project Management Office.
It is clear that leadership is important to the success of a project because leadership is essentially about motivating people. In the planning phases of the project, the project leader conducts the project team and other main project stakeholders through formal and informal decision making in order to achieve agreed goals and objectives. This also calls to form the essential basis for effective team development. To get a project started off right, the project manager must first become a leader, and that the style of leadership does need to change as the project progresses through its life cycle, and as the team matures.
As a participant, everyone will undergo a self-assessment of his/her leadership skills, then master the basics of these leadership competencies: setting direction, aligning people, motivating and inspiring, leading teams, communicating, building relationships, facilitating ethical conduct, negotiating and leading change.
This project management course is carefully designed to provide the best mix of experience, theory and practice in an adult-learning environment. Formal presentations will be brief and used mainly to introduce key concepts and significant elements of project management. Emphasis is on real case studies, and practical applications through “hands-on” action learning. Project management planning using Microsoft Project will be shown to reinforce the learning. Throughout the course will require a high level of participation and team involvement. Maximum opportunities will be given to participants to inject their own examples and issues into the course and continually relate the material to their own contexts.
Participants are encouraged to bring their projects and cases to the session. The use of project management software and techniques will be used to help participants better understand project management concepts. Project management documentation such as templates, forms and checklists are provided in the course material, and are downloadable online; and the participant may freely use or modify them for use in his/her organisation.
Objectives
Instilling Project Management lifecycle, methodology and terminologies, and making it the backbone of any IT/non-IT project organization.
Clarifying the roles of senior management, project manager, team members and suppliers.
Understanding stakeholder influences and resolving conflicts in a project.
Know the delicate task of leading project teams including other project stakeholders.
Know and apply skills in leading a project team, pacing the team through team development and motivating them, effective team communicating, as well making quick decisions.
Conducting systematic and structured project scoping, scheduling and costing.
Understanding why and how project feasibility studies are conducted.
Making accurate task duration and cost estimations when using uncertain information - determining worst-case, best case and most likely case for task/project durations, and costs.
Identifying and determining performance metrics for project tracking in a project.
Tracking project progress and making project reports – using network, milestone and Gantt chart diagramming.
Appreciating MS Project for planning, scheduling and tracking project progress.
To understand the use of problem-solving methodology in understanding, analyzing and problem resolution of issues in daily running of operations and projects.
To be competent in applying problem-solving and decision-making techniques.
Using Earned Value Management technique to analyze schedule and cost management performance of a project.
Establishing a Project Management Office (PMO) and its roles.
Simulating project risks and uncertainties using the Monte-Carlo technique.
At the end of the course, participants will be able to:
Have comprehensive understanding of the various processes of IT project management.
Have comprehensive application knowledge about the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).
Have an advanced set of project management tools and techniques for immediate IT project application at the workplace.
Learn how to empower oneself and other team members through more effective negotiation based on an understanding of the differences between competitive and collaborative negotiation approaches
Gain an appreciation of the importance of a collaborative “win/win” negotiation process.
Gain a clear understanding of why communication is so important—regardless of how a project is organised.
Discover how business and personal ethics can influence the leadership style and personality, and how his/her own individual leadership style and personality can influence the course a project will take.
Participants will have a ready set of working templates, forms and checklists relevant for use in projects at their place of work.
Detailed Course Outline
PROJECT MANAGEMENT BACKGROUND
The need for project management knowledge and standard.
What are projects, phases, and project lifecycles?
The project management life cycle – initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing phases.
Who are my project stakeholders?
Project stakeholder conflicts of interest, and how to resolve them.
Activity: identifying stakeholder conflicts in the client’s organization.
The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) guidelines to project management, systems and processes.
The time-cost-quality triangle of constraints (triple constraints).
Setting project objectives and requirements using the S.M.A.R.T. approach.
Organizational structure influences on projects – functional, matrix and projectized hierarchies.
The project hierarchy, roles and responsibilities among stakeholders – customer, sponsor, performing organization, project manager, team members, etc.
Assembling the team and how to profile/select your project manager and team members.
Leadership and Management
What is leadership?
The difference between leadership and management
Assess your leadership competencies and developmental needs
Articulate your leadership vision, in light of the assessment, and consider the best way(s) to realise it
Processes for establishing direction, aligning people, and motivating people to follow your vision
Identify and utilising different leadership styles
Leading Effective Teams
What is a team?
The stages of team development
Leading and maintaining effective, productive teams
Evaluate team progress and coach team members as necessary
Project team anxieties and how to address them.
Motivating
Motivation theories
How to be more influential by understanding motivational patterns
Using an understanding of individual differences to help you manage conflict more effectively
Ethics and Leadership
Define ethics and the link between ethics and trust
The role of ethical behaviour and leadership
The difference between personal and organisational ethics
Negotiating Conflict
Major sources of conflict on project teams
The five modes of handling conflict
Conflict scenarios and strategies for initiating conflict resolution
Power bases used in typical organizations
How to plan and conduct collaborative negotiation
Why and how do general and IT projects fail?
What are the key areas and influence to increase general and IT project success?
About Project Management Office (PMO), setting up, and its roles and responsibilities.
INITIATING PHASE
Defining project needs, functional and technical requirements (using the S.M.A.R.T.)
Defining measurable objectives to meet project requirements (scoping).
Developing the Project Charter, and using a project kickoff checklist.
Activity: creating a Project Charter.
Project feasibility (technical) and cost-benefit analysis (financial) - Benefit-Cost ratio, Present Value, Net Present Value, Payback Period, and Return On Investment.
These learning units are applicable for people from IT Project Domains: General and IT cost dynamics and cost compounding, estimating general and IT resource cost components with a checklist, and IT project cost recovery.
Process flow for project cost preparation.
Project selection methodology (for limited resources but many projects).
PLANNING PHASE
Developing a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) from the project scope requirements.
Activity: constructing a WBS.
Develop a Task List from the WBS.
Activity: constructing a Task List.
Detailing resources and cost listings – human, material, facility, equipment, etc.; resource effort, quantities and costs.
Activity: creating a Resource Requirements list.
Task sequencing using network diagramming technique.
Assigning task duration and predecessors, and work estimating.
Network logic analysis – earliest start and end times, latest start and end times, and float.
Activity: calculating start and end times, and float of a hypothetical project.
Identifying controllable costs – direct and indirect costs.
Scheduling the project using the Milestone diagram and Gantt chart.
Fine-tuning the Gantt chart with leading and lagging, and various project duration reduction strategies.
Understanding the critical tasks, non-critical tasks, and their role in the Critical Path Method (CPM).
Using bottom-up estimates for scheduling and cost control.
Time-phased distribution of expenditures – cumulative cost curve (S-curve).
Assigning responsibilities to the Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM).
Planning for project risks – risk identification, assessment, and responses.
Activity: risk management planning.
Risk management simulation using Monte-Carlo technique.
Planning for risk with contingency (risk management plan and risk management strategies).
Identifying critical resources influencing project duration and costs – using Monte-Carlo simulation and Tornado Diagramming technique.
Quality planning tools and techniques: monitoring and tracking quality using charts (control charts and pareto charts), problem-solving and decision-making.
Executing the project plan, and tracking project schedule progress using the Gantt Chart. Activity: Using project management software to track project progress. Activity: Gantt charting and measuring project progress.
Tracking schedule and cost (expenditures) using Earned Value Management (EVM) technique. Activity: EVM Game.
Performance reporting using EVM technique. Activity: EVM reporting.
Problem-Solving And Decision-Making Techniques
The Six-Step Problem-Solving Model
Brainstorming, Nominal Group Technique, Delphi, And Crawford Slip Techniques
Affinity Technique
Decision Tree Diagramming (Using Event Probabilities)
Cause And Effect Diagramming
Verifying project scope deliverables and stage sign-offs.
Responding to project risks (executing risk responses, monitor and control the execution of the responses).
Work-around risk responses (for risks unidentified in risk management plan).
Risk monitoring. Activity: Risk response activation and rules.
Quality assurance and audit.
MONITORING & CONTROLLING PHASE
The change control system – change request, change control board, change impact assessment approve/disapprove, change implementation schedule, and updating configuration documents.
Control schedule and cost variances against baselines by using EVM technique.
Quality control tools and techniques.
The quality cost categories.
CLOSING PHASE
Administrative close-out checklist - product verification (formal acceptance and handover sign-offs), closing project books, post-mortem, documenting lessons learned, archiving project documents, disbanding, rewarding and thanking the team.
Contract close-out administration checklist - final scope verification of supplier deliverables (as per contract), document lessons learned, closing the contract, and thanking the supplier.
What is Next? Post-project contracts, enhancement or upgrade project(s), and solving outstanding project issues.
Other Project Case Studies
1. Real Cases (Stories) on Challenges: System deployment and change management, change of user groups and effect on project, a new project manager facing difficulties to get team support and loyalty, project managers being treated like project administrators by the CEO, and many others.
2. Situational project cases.
Softwares Used In This Workshop:
Microsoft Project 2003
Microsoft Office Suite v2000 or above (Word, Excel & Powerpoint)
Internet Explorer v5.5 or above
WBS Chart Pro 4.4 or above for WBS charting
Earned Value charting and tracking
@Risk for Project and Excel simulation softwares
Who Can Benefit
Managers and executives who are directly involved in planning and implementation of any kind of general and IT projects, or setting up a Project Management Office, and those requiring an advance set of tools to assist in cost estimation, cost tracking, procurement, contract, risk assessment and management, quality control and scope verification
