Project Management Skills for Everyone

Course overview

What this programme is about

Managers are increasingly finding themselves managing a variety of projects in addition to the day-to-day process they have traditionally supervised. As organisations strive to introduce new products, policies and procedures in order to maintain or achieve competitive advantage an enormous amount of responsibility falls on the managers whose task it is to make that change happen.

To be given responsibility for such a project can seem a daunting prospect. There is no reason why this should be so. Project management is the application of good management practice in a structured manner. This course will help demystify the topic and introduce the key, easy to use techniques that will help you manage your projects successfully.

Who should attend?

Managers, team leaders and specialist staff who may not be full time project managers but who nevertheless need to manage projects as part of their wider responsibilities.

Why this course is essential for your development

This programme will provide participants with the fundamental skills of managing project teams to ensure that their projects are completed on time, within budget and to technical specification whilst using the most commonly 'used tools of the trade'. It introduces a systematic method for agreeing and producing a project plan; scheduling its activities; calculating time and managing and monitoring its progress. It also introduces the skills needed to ensure successful progress and completion.

By the end of the course participants will be able to:

• Establish the components of the project life cycle
• Identify the phases and characteristics of a project
• Identify a work breakdown structure, estimate time required for tasks and allocate activities to key personnel
• Produce an implementation plan and apply a range of project planning techniques
• Set up systems to monitor, control and co-ordinate project activity
• Identify potential risks and implement a plan to manage and review them
• Create and manage an effective project team
• Communicate effectively with all who are involved in the project
• Apply the leadership and interpersonal skills required to effectively manage a project team
• Practise project management skills through a variety of exercises
• Deliver an action plan for their continued development as project managers

Pre-course work: Belbin's 'Interplace' Team Roles questionnaire – to be completed and returned before the course. Each participant will be issued with their own 'expert system' report and given the opportunity to discuss the results with the training consultant.

Programme - Day 1

Day one

Welcome and introduction

• Welcome, aims and objective
• Introductory activities
• Clarifying participant expectations

What is a project?

• Features of a typical project
• What is a project – agreeing on a definition
• Differentiate project, programmes and processes – exercise
• Why do projects fail? (and what to do about it)
• Project management health check (1)
• Identifying the project governance level (introduction to PRINCE2 templates)

How is a project initiated?

• Why do we have projects? – aligning projects with strategy
• Identifying the key benefits
• Making a business case
• Drawing up a project brief
• Identifying project stakeholders – exercise
• Preparing a communication plan

How to set up a project team

• The project board – defining the appropriate authority
• Project manager's role and responsibilities
• Identifying other key roles
• Key skills of project managers – small group exercise
• Effective project management styles – self assessment and action planning

How to plan a project

• How to produce a plan – the core ingredients
• Introduction to project planning techniques e.g. Work Breakdown Structures, Gantt (Bar) charts and (small group exercise)
• Precedence networks identifying (and managing) the critical path (paper based exercise) – participants draw up a simple network and identify critical path from information provided

Risk management

• Benefits of risk management
• Risk management model
• Conducting a risk assessment – small group exercise on current project
• Reviewing the risk register
• Producing a PID (Project Initiation Document)

Programme - Day 2

Day two

How to manage a project team

• What is a project team
• Ingredients of a successful project team
• What to look for in project groups
• Review of Belbin Team Types (confidential expert report)
• Decision-making in project meetings
• Mini project exercise
  • Teams have 30 minutes to devise and 10 minutes to execute their project plan

Monitoring and control systems

• Features of effective systems
• Type and frequency of reports
• Set-up meetings
• Developing a budget plan
• Monitoring key tolerances – time, cost and benefits
• Get your project back on track
• Project Management Health check (2)

Major project management exercise – 2.5 hours

Working in small groups participants have to design a project to a tight deadline, maximise the use of their resources, stay within budget and manage the risks

How is a project closed

• Projects and the learning cycle
• Submitting a project completed report
• Post project reviews
• Key point summary
• Course review activity