Project Management for IS Projects and ISEB Foundation Examination

Prerequisites:

There are no formal entry requirements for the course or the examination, but it is assumed that delegates will have a basic level of knowledge of IT.

Course Description:

This course is intended for anyone involved in an IT project and individuals who are new to the project management discipline. The Foundation Certificate provides visible evidence that the individual concerned understands the basics of IT project management.

Candidates who pass the Foundation Certificate should be able to demonstrate an understanding of the principles of project management including those that relate to project planning, monitoring and control, change control and configuration management, effort estimation, quality and risk management and communications between stakeholders.

This course will enable delegates to:

• Explain the difference between projects and Business As Usual.
• Specify terms of reference for a project.
• Identify the typical activities in a system development life-cycle.
• Explain the purpose and content of a Business Case.
• Participate in the project planning process.
• Explain and differentiate between the product and activity based approaches to planning.
• Produce an Activity on Node (AoN) network diagram, identify the critical path and calculate the earliest and latest start and end dates of activities and the resulting float.
• Explain the project control life-cycle.
• Identify methods of collecting progress information and presenting that information.
• Explain the difference between tolerance and contingency.
• Explain the reasons for change and configuration management and define a suitable process for managing change.
• Explain common quality management terms and the principles of ISO 9001:2000.
• Apply common estimating techniques.
• Define the term 'risk' and take part in the risk management process.
• Identify stakeholders and their concerns.
• Describe the roles and responsibilities of the Project Board, Project Manager, Team Leader and Project Support Office.

This course includes the following modules:

Projects and Project Work

• Projects and Project Management
• System and project life cycles
• Implementation strategies
• Purpose and content of business case reports
• The use and significance of discounted cash flows
• Post implementation review

Project Planning

• Project deliverables and intermediate products
• Work and product breakdowns
• Product definitions
• Check points and milestones
• Activity networks
• Resource allocation, smoothing and leveling, including the use of resource histograms
• Work schedules and Gantt charts

Monitoring and Control

• The project control life cycle
• Collecting progress information
• Presenting progress information
• Content of progress reports
• Use of earned value analysis
• The reporting cycle
• Reporting structures in projects
• Tolerance and contingency
• Exception reports and plans

Change Control and Configuration management

• Reasons for change and configuration management
• Change control procedures
• Role of change control boards
• Configuration management
• Configuration items and product baselines

Quality

• Quality control versus quality assurance
• Detection of defects during the project life cycle
• Quality procedures
• Types of testing
• The inspection process, peer reviews
• Principles of IS0 9001:2000 quality management systems

Estimating

• Effects of over and under-estimating
• Effort versus duration; relationship between effort and cost
• Use of expert judgement
• The Delphi approach
• Top-down and bottom up approaches to estimating
• Use of analogy in estimating

Risk

• Definitions
• The risk management process
• Risk responses and actions
• Typical risks associated with information systems development
• Assessment of the costs/benefits of risk reduction activities
• Maintenance of risk registers and risk logs

Project Communications and Project Organisation

• Identifying stakeholders and their concerns
• The project sponsor
• Establishment of the project authority
• Reporting structures and responsibilities
• Desirable characteristics of project manager
• Role of the project support office
• The project team and matrix management
• Management styles and communication
• Team building and team dynamics

Review of ISEB Syllabus

• Examination Technique and Sample Examination