Project Management Fundamentals (3-day class)

What You'll Learn

• Manage a project through each stage of the project management life cycle
• Document the needs and priorities of key stakeholders
• Develop an execution strategy that will fulfill stakeholders' expectations
• Develop a project plan that balances scope, time, cost, and risk
• Assess project complexity and analyze scope to a suitable degree of granularity
• Establish project controls to ensure a successful outcome
• Report status and performance efficiently and effectively
• Collect lessons learned and create a project archive that contributes to an organization's experience base

Audience/Prerequisites

• Project Managers
• IT Project Managers
• Project Coordinators,
• Team Leaders,
• Product Managers,
• Program Managers,
• Project Team Members,
• Subject Matter Experts, Analysts, Stakeholders, and Senior Managers who want to get more out of their project teams.

This course is geared toward those practicing project management from an IT perspective and will contain topics related as such. However, anyone in a leadership role will benefit from this introduction to the art and science of project management.

You should not take this course if you have taken IT Project Management or Applied Project Management. The subjects covered are the same.

Course Outline

Part 1: Foundations
1.    Formal vs. informal project management
2.    Project Management Institute (PMI)® framework
3.    Project management life cycle

Part 2: Initiating
1.    Role of the project manager
2.    Project charter
3.    Stakeholder identification and assessment
4.    Progressive elaboration

Part 3: Planning
1.    Planning around project constraints
2.    SMART objectives
3.    Converting objectives into requirements
4.    Decomposition of requirements into a work breakdown structure
5.    Developing a work breakdown structure dictionary
6.    Principles of estimating time and cost
7.    Analyzing work and estimating duration of work packages
8.    Determining sequence of work packages
9.    Network diagramming and critical path analysis
10.    Budgeting resources and cost control
11.    Ensuring that all management responsibility areas are included in the project plan
12.    Analyzing risks for probability and impact
13.    Mitigating and planning risk contingencies
14.    Preparing baselines for scope, time, and cost
15.    Obtaining stakeholder sign-off

Part 4: Executing, Monitoring, and Controlling
1.    Team-building principles and priorities
2.    Status and performance reporting
3.    Management by exception
4.    Keeping stakeholders informed and involved
5.    Steering performance back to the baseline
6.    Integrated change controls

Part 5:  Closing
1.    Transitioning the product or service
2.    Capturing lessons learned for the organization
3.    Final report to stakeholders

Exercises:
1.    Formal vs. Informal Project Management
2.    Analyze Stakeholders
3.    Convert Vague Objectives into SMART Objectives
4.    Create a Work Breakdown Structure
5.    Estimate Effort and Duration for Work Packages
6.    Perform Network Diagramming and Determine Critical Path
7.    Estimate Resource Costs for Work Packages
8.    Analyze and Plan for Risk
9.    Manage Project Change
10.    Review Lessons Learned