Advanced Project Management

Managing budgets, meeting deadlines, and delivering higher quality at lower costs is no easy task for a project manager. Achieving these goals requires a structured approach. To reach the project objectives and deadlines, one must be able to plan, organize, lead, and monitor the project effectively. This demands not only effort but also insight and tailored techniques. This course delves deeper into some fundamental techniques while also introducing advanced methods such as earned value analysis and performance indicators. Essential success factors, like team management and leadership, are thoroughly explored. To enhance the practicality of this course, several useful tips from real-world experience are also provided.

Contents

‘Advanced Project Management’ contains the following subjects:

  • Self-awareness in project management
  • Delving deeper into project management concepts
  • Utilization of a framework for developing project management competencies
  • Practical models for planning, controlling, and decision-making in projects
  • Management and adjustment of ongoing projects
  • Financial analysis and forecasting
  • Measuring project performance
  • Handling changes
  • Forces and interests surrounding projects
  • Conflict management
  • Providing insight into the various communication channels associated with a project.

You are provided with tools, techniques and templates to use tomorrow. The course mixes useful guidelines and theory with practical cases and exercises together with vivid field experience from the trainer. Cases are preferably derived from your own working environment.

Topics

  • Context
    • What is a project?
    • Responsibilities of a PM
  • Life cycles
  • Deming Wheel
  • Classical perspective
  • Problem Solving Cycle
  • Project Management Life Cycle
  • Pre-requisites
    • Requirements & Deliverables
    • WBS/OBS/RAM & Milestones
    • Cost structure
    • Schedule
  • Baseline & Metrics
  • Earned Value Management (EVM)
    • Planned Value (PV)
    • Actual Cost (AC)
    • Earned Value (EV)
    • S-Curve
    • Cost & Schedule variances
  • Performance indicators
    • Schedule Performance Index
    • Cost Performance Index
  • Forecasting
    • EAC: Estimate At Completion
    • ETC: Estimate To Complete
  • Trade-Off
    • Steps in Trade-Off Analysis
    • Balance between quality, money, and time
  • Quality control in projects
    • Quality Planning
    • Cost/Benefit analysis
    • Benchmark
    • Cause & Effect
    • Flow Charting
    • Experiments
    • Cost of conformance  Cost of nonconformance
    • Quality Management Plan
  • Perform Quality Assurance
  • Performing Quality Control
  • Configuration Management
    • Configuration Identification
    • Configuration Control
    • Configuration status accounting
    • Configuration auditing
  • Change Control
    • Definition
    • Scope creep
    • Process
  • Issue Management
    • Definition
    • Process
  • Forces and interests in and around projects
    • Environmental analysis
    • Organizational structures (line-matrix-project)
    • Force field analysis
    • Influence analysis
    • SWOT
  • Resistance, conflicts, and setbacks

Learning Objectives

The objectives include enhancing crucial project management and leadership abilities, such as communication, negotiation, leadership styles, and personal effectiveness. Participants will also focus on developing skills to analyze stakeholder interests, navigate political dynamics in projects, and implement effective communication strategies.

Training Results

After completing this course, participants will acquire new insights and skills, such as:

  • the ability to apply enhanced project management skills;
  • understanding reference frameworks for project management such as IPMA, PRINCE2, and PMI;
  • the ability to better define their own training needs in relation to these reference frameworks;
  • the insight that quality is an integral part of the project and must be included from the outset;
  • recognizing the various forces surrounding a project and how to deal with them;
  • insights into setting up effective communication structures;
  • the ability to identify conflicts and manage and/or resolve them using appropriate techniques;
  • the technique to represent project progress and report on the financial status of a project.

Who

Project leaders and anyone else seeking to expand their knowledge and skills in project planning and project management.

Duration

2 days.

Venue

In House training only.

Numbers of Participants

Minimal 6, maximal 12.

Approach

  • Proposals of the theoretical framework;
  • Discussion-based learning;
  • Translation to personal practice;
  • Cases and practical examples;
  • Exercises.

Follow Up

As an additional service for practical application, participants are given the option to submit their project plan or assignment for review up to 3 months following the training. The submitter will then receive written feedback on it.