Project Management Fundamentals

This 1 day instructor-led course is a primer on the basics of Project Management. It will provide students with the big picture of how Project Management tools and techniques are used to establish a firm foundation for a project. The student will learn the standard components to a project including key terminology. The class will allow students to create the supporting project artifacts, and manage them through the project lifecycle to its completion. Students will also understand key components of a successful project team including effective communications, behaviors and some advanced project processes including Risk Management.

At Completion:

• Differentiate between projects and non-projects, understand and define the Project Life Cycle, and understand the role of the Project Manager
• Speak to the importance of a Project Charter and its components
• Define project goals and objectives and scope and scale, define a reporting plan, and put elements together
• Learn of the Triple Constraint term and what its purpose is in projects
• Learn of project constraints and assumptions from the project sponsor or stakeholder and how to use these within the project
• Identify common root causes for project issues
• Understand what a work breakdown structure is and how it helps with planning a project
• Learn techniques for sequencing project tasks, and identify subproject relationships
• Include team members in scheduling, understand and read the network diagram, understanding the critical path, define dependencies, identify the critical path, and calculate float
• List elements of a budget, discuss estimating techniques, balance budget and schedule, discuss bringing budgets and schedules into line with reality
• Learn of project quality, what it means to have quality on a project and how to manage and report this
• Learning what a stakeholder is, who are they for a project and how to identify their needs and manage their expectations through the project
• Learn of environmental factors and organizational assets that are available to the project manager or team member(s) and how they can use these to assist them on the project
• Learn elements of project closure including the updating of project files, saving historical information and performing lessons-learned reviews
• Identify what it means to manage the project as a project manager versus being managed by the project
• Use training scenarios to create project artifacts including the Project Charter, Risk Registers.

Exams & Certifications

Project Management Institute (PMI®) Professional Development Units (PDU’s):

Project Management Professionals earn 6 PDUs upon completion of this course.

Introduction:

What is the project management philosophy, a review of the scenario to be used in classroom exercises, a review of project management statistics and facts, common problems on projects, the role of the project manager, what is a project, what is the PMO, a review of essential skills, and review of the triple constraint.

Project Lifecycle & Process Groups:

A review of the traditional five process groups in a project lifecycle, a review of the project costs over time, a review the process group interactions, and differentiate between a phase, project, program and portfolio.

Initiating:

A review of the main tasks and deliverables for this phase including the Project Charter document and the identification of project stakeholders. As an exercise, the class will create a Project Charter.

Planning:

A review of the main tasks and deliverables for this phase including the Project Management Plan and the subordinate plans. A review of requirements and errors that can be caused from poorly defined or understood requirements, a review of the Project Scope Statement, Human Resource planning, Communications planning, Roles & Responsibilities, an understanding of Progressive Elaboration, Environmental Factors, Organizational Assets, company organizational structures and how they can affect the project, project success criteria, historical information, the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), understanding how estimates of work are used to create a project schedule, a review of a network diagram, task relationships, the critical path and its importance, project budgeting, and risk management.

Executing:

A review of the main tasks and deliverables for this phase include the responsibilities of the project manager to direct and manage the project tasks` execution. Understanding how effective communications is important to the project and establishing stakeholder expectations.

Monitoring & Controlling:

A review of the main tasks and deliverables for this phase including the tracking, reviewing and regulating of the project plan(s), budget and schedule. This will also include a review of project quality and inspection, differentiating between quality vs grade, and precision vs accuracy. A review of multiple tools and techniques that will allow for root-cause analysis and determination. An introduction into Earned Value Management (EVM) and how this can be useful to a project team in determining the project`s health. This section will also introduce the student to techniques which can be used to assist in bringing a project that is out-of-control into control. Additionally, the student will understand how to manage stakeholder expectations, conflict management within the team and the skills to address this.

Closing:

A review of the main tasks and deliverables for this phase including updating project files, updating historical information and performing Lessons Learned reviews.

The Art:

The student will be taught the art of effective project management beyond the materialistic components (the science). This includes tips for being an effective project manager or team member, common errors seen on projects and tips specific to the project manager.

Students should have a basic understanding of projects; how they are started, planned, staffed and managed; students should already have experience as a member on a project.

Anyone performing work on a project that follows a project lifecycle methodology.