Course Description

Take this course stand-alone or as part of others:

This exclusive course provides project managers and project team members with essential tools needed to deliver successful projects. The course covers the complete project lifecycle – from project initiation and definition, through project implementation, and finally to the often neglected project completion phase. With hundreds of in-house client deliveries and hundreds of public sessions (delivered in association with Universities and Colleges across Canada), the Project Management Essentials course is firmly established as one of the most popular fundamental project management courses available.
Who Should Attend

• Project Managers — both new to project management and experience project managers who have not had formal project management training
• Project team members
• Account managers
• Anyone wishing to be more competitive in today’s job market

When delivered in-house, Project Management Essentials is very effective in “jump-starting” a team embarking on a medium to large-scale project.

Course Materials

• Course workbook containing presentation slides, course reference book, case study, exercises and sample solutions
• Sample project management templates (e.g., project charters, communication plans, etc.)
• Reference files containing course specific and general project management materials
• Certificate of completion (framed for participants of in-house workshops)

Learning Outcomes

Through project simulation, group exercises, and discussion, participants completing this workshop will be able to…

• Identify key contributors to project failure and apply specific project management techniques to reduce those causes
• Identify options for structuring a project team, and select the most appropriate option for a given situation
• Plan specific actions to overcome key challenges of working within a Matrix Organization
• Use specific project management tools, designed to obtain high level buy-in among key project stakeholders before investing large amounts of time in detailed planning
• Identify key areas of project risk, assess their impact and identify options for responding
• Develop a work breakdown structure to break a project down into discrete, manageable activities complete with measurable deliverables
• Model the flow and timing of a project during the planning stages, and test different “what-if” scenarios to both optimize and ensure that a project is “doable” before starting
• Identify “critical path activities” in order to reduce unnecessary project delays and undertake high priority tasks first
• Recognize appropriate uses of contingency to:
• Minimize the negative effects of unknowns on the schedule
• Allow resources time within the schedule to complete non-project activities without impacting project deliverables
• Given several ways of using contingency, assess the pros and cons of each
• Assess project resource requirements, recognize resource assumptions, and evaluate resource conflicts and potential solutions
• Apply specific techniques for developing and negotiating realistic project budgets
• Apply techniques to reduce scope creep during project planning, monitoring, and control
• Use specific project management tools and techniques to improve communication with project stakeholders
• Apply specific project management tools and techniques to create and maintain a productive project team environment
• Compare current project status to an original plan to identify potential problems and make proactive decisions based on accurate data
• Recognize elements of a properly closed out project, and avoid the syndrome of the “project that never dies”

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course.