Project Management Fundamentals

Expected Duration:  3 Days (9:00 AM-4:00PM) (6hrs. per day, 1 hr. lunch)

Contact Hours/PDUs:  18

General Description:
Structured around the popular workplace reference book Improving Your Project Management Skills, this 3-day instructor-led course presents up-to-date, repeatable project management tools that attendees can implement throughout their departments and organizations to improve processes, streamline productivity, and drastically reduce costs.  From defining scope and gathering requirements, to planning and budgeting, to utilizing scheduling and control tools, attendees return to work with the basic project management help they need to get their projects—and their careers—off the ground and running.

The PM fundamentals course presents best-practice content, proven techniques, and representative case studies to help the attendee deliver basic project management solutions with higher quality, greater value and better accountability.  Participants will also benefit from our PMP® certified instructor’s extensive experience spanning multiple industries, and private and public sectors, to help them learn t
• Set practical goals for their projects—goals they can achieve regardless of “hitches”
• Develop a project plan—and get that plan implemented
• Stay on top of schedules, workloads and “people problems”
• Save time and energy by “building in flexibility” rather than “putting out fires”
• Utilize basic project management skills to cope with budget and time constraints
• Delegate in a fair and practical way within the project team, and
• Build their credibility with top management.

Target Audience:
This course is for individuals from nontechnical fields who are new to project management, as well as anyone looking for formal basic project management training, or those who want to gain exposure to the overall framework and terms contained in the Project Management Institute’s international standard publication A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) Third Edition.  It is an essential foundational course for people who require more specialized Project Management training, and those who want to become CAPM® or PMP® certified.

Learning Objectives:
Up front, participants will be presented with the key concepts and benefits of project management, the characteristics of a well-defined project, and the essential project tasks and the path they follow.  PM Fundamentals participants will learn to define project scope in terms of business, technical and operational objectives, to evaluate and negotiate time-cost-scope tradeoffs, and to gather and document requirements and maintain project metrics.  They will also learn the critical skills associated with project leadership, the imperative of effective communications, and the role of the project manager as motivator and problem solver.

Attendees will learn the value of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and its detailed work packages, and will acquire ways to match project objectives and methodology using guides and templates, and checklists.  They will also learn project scheduling techniques, how to construct a network diagram, precedence diagram, or arrow diagram, and be able to define and evaluate the project’s critical path.

The student will learn ways to create realistic and achievable estimates, to communicate and maintain the project schedule and the Integrated Project Plan, including resource utilization and milestones.  The primary sources of change to project scope will be presented along with ways to conduct a net impact assessment and take advantage of change control boards.  Attendees will also receive an overview on Earned Value techniques, and be prepared to create useful and concise final reports, document lessons learned, and secure final approvals and buy-ins.

At the completion of this course, students will be able to set practical goals for their projects, create realistic and achievable schedules, develop project plans and know how to implement them.  They will also learn to manage their workloads, and save time and energy by “building in flexibility” rather than “putting out fires”.  Attendees will be armed with the basic project management skills they need to cope with budget and time constraints, to delegate work within the project team, and enhance their management credibility.

Course Outline:
1.0 Foundations for Success: The Core Concepts
   1.1 Terminology
   1.2 The Need for Project Management
   1.3 The Six Functions of Management
   1.4 A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMPBOK® Guide), Third Edition
   1.5 Generic Life-Cycle Processes
   1.6 The Nine Knowledge Areas

2.0 How to Lead and Direct Project Teams
   2.1 Describe the Functions of Leadership
   2.2 Lead Others by Communicating, Motivating, and Solving Problems
   2.3 Give Direction to Others
   2.4 Supervise Work
   2.5 Reward and Correct Behavior

3.0 How to Define Project Scope and Requirements
   3.1 Document the Scope of Your Project in Terms of "As Is" and "To Be" Conditions
   3.2 Establish Critical Success Factors and Critical Success Measures
   3.3 Distinguish Between In-Scope and Out-of-Scope Conditions
   3.4 Use the Right Tools and Processes to Define Project Scope

4.0 How to Develop the Project Work Plan—The Work Breakdown Structure
   4.1  Define and Document the Project Work
   4.2  Develop Project Templates
   4.3  Define Appropriate Levels of Work for Groups
   4.4  Determine Skills Needed to Achieve the Work

5.0 How to Define Task Dependencies and Create Network Logic Diagrams
   5.1  Describe Logical Dependencies
   5.2  Create a Logic Network
   5.3  Calculate Forward and Backward Pass
   5.4  Calculate Free and Total Float
   5.5  Determine the Critical Path

6.0 How to Estimate Work
   6.1  Estimate Duration for Project Tasks
   6.2  Estimate Labor Content for Project Tasks
   6.3  Price Out the WBS
   6.4  Complete an Estimate Network
 

7.0 How to Produce an Integrated Project Plan
   7.1  Create and Document an IPP
   7.2  Communicate the Plan to Others
   7.3  Secure Necessary Buy-Ins, Commitments, and Approvals

8.0 How to Monitor and Control Projects
   8.1  Determine the Status of All Plan Parameters
   8.2  Detect Current and Future Variances
   8.3  Prepare Reports
   8.4  Develop Alternative Plans for Corrective Action
   8.5  Secure Approvals
   8.6  Communicate Revisions to the Approved Plans

9.0 How to Close a Project
   9.1 Close Out a Project (According to Predefined Criteria) in Its Technical, Administrative, Contractual, and Financial Dimensions
   9.2  Prepare a Final Report for the Project
   9.3  Document "Lessons Learned"—Prevention, Detection, and Recovery
   9.4 Assess the Performance of Team Members and Prepare Them for Their Next Assignments

Course Text:
Improving Your Project Management Skills by Larry Richman (©2006 American Management Association) 

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