Course Certified By:

Introduction

This three weeks program is designed to help you develop project management skills that will be immediately useful, usable, and used back on the job. How do we do this? We use actual projects provided by the participants in each class as the basis for all of the key exercises. This allows you to practice in a realistic environment that is not black and white, but shades of gray — just like the real world.

The first week of the program will help you develop the skills needed to build and execute a realistic and robust project plan. You will learn how to balance product constraints, cost constraints, and schedule constraints in order to maximize stakeholder satisfaction. You will also learn how to measure project performance objectively. The program also includes extensive treatment of qualitative risk management — how to find and respond to the real risks on your project, the ones that are most likely to cause you to fail. You will also learn how to write useful risk statements and how to recognize the conceptual biases that can interfere with good project risk management.

The second week of the program is devoted to building the skills you will need to craft constructive, win-win agreements within the project team as well as between the project team and the other stakeholders. Exercises will help you master basic concepts such as positions vs. interests, how to prepare for a negotiation, and how to behave during the negotiation. The material is equally applicable to internal negotiations and contract negotiations.

The third week of this program covers a variety of advanced topics that will help you improve your ability to satisfy your stakeholders’ success criteria. You will learn how to evaluate your own performance as a project manager, how to identify organizational weaknesses that interfere with benefits realization, and how to recognize and compensate for weaknesses in Critical Path analysis. In addition, you will learn a structured approach to identifying, selecting, and managing contracts; how to use project dynamics to address intractable problems; and how to analyze and understand cultural differences that so often cause problems in multinational projects.

Approximately 50% of class time is devoted to casework and experiential learning. During hands-on exercises, you will work as part of a team to develop a business case, a work breakdown structure, range estimates, a network logic diagram, and a risk response plan.

Objectives

Upon completion, you will be able to:

• Prepare an effective business case.
• Develop and document project success criteria.
• Construct a work breakdown structure that adds value.
• Improve the accuracy of project estimates.
• Recognize common activity sequencing errors.
• Calculate an activity-based critical path.
• Use earned value to guide corrective action.
• Write risk statements that produce results.
• Determine which project risks require a response.
• Define the characteristics of an effective leader
• Create a motivating work environment
• Provide useful feedback to team members
• Communicate more effectively with your team
• Surface and deal with conflict
• Describe the four types of negotiations
• Describe the five styles for negotiating
• Prepare for your negotiations using a structured negotiating plan
• Craft win-win agreements that preserve your relationship with your counterpart
• Evaluate your own performance as a Project Manager against objective criteria
• Appraise your organization’s overall project management competence
• Explain why critical path analysis almost always underestimates the project duration
• Identify the basic elements of a contract
• List the eight factors that cause most contract disputes
• Differentiate common contract types
• Assess corrective action using systems thinking concepts
• Address cultural differences within your project team

Who Should Attend?

These programs are designed for individuals who have or expect to have responsibility for leading or managing a project, subproject, or project phase. Newcomers will learn new skills. More experienced managers will enhance their ability to apply what they already know.

Training Method

• Pre-assessment
• Live group instruction
• Use of real-world examples, case studies and exercises
• Interactive participation and discussion
• Power point presentation, LCD and flip chart
• Group activities and tests
• Each participant receives a 7” Tablet containing a copy of the presentation, slides and handouts
• Post-assessment

Program Support

This program is supported by:
* Interactive discussions
* Role-play
* Case studies and highlight the techniques available to the participants.

Course Agenda

The course agenda will be as follows:
• Technical Session 08.30-10.00 am
• Coffee Break 10.00-10.15 am
• Technical Session 10.15-12.15 noon
• Coffee Break 12.15-12.45 pm
• Technical Session 12.45-02.30 pm
• Course Ends 02.30 pm