Project Management

Project Management

Project management skills are fast becoming one of the most important business knowledge sets, and are essential for achieving project success for a wide range of people. Projects are also being used to increase sales, improve customer satisfaction, reduce costs, improve the work environment and in all areas where a change is needed. This Project Managers course has been designed to “fast-track” project management skills to those who have been given responsibility for projects, allowing them to achieve objectives faster, more effectively, on time and with fewer resources. This course features many “hands-on” sessions to enable delegates to immediately initiate and run their projects.

Section 1: Foundations

Defining project management Project complexity Management skills Project management terminology Project management life cycle

 

Section 2: Initiating

Project charter Stakeholder analysis Stakeholder management Boundaries of Initiating stage

 

Section 3: Planning

Balancing constraints Scope statement SMART objectives Work breakdown structure Estimating Network diagramming Cost analysis Risk planning

Section 4: Executing, Monitoring, and Controlling

PDCA cycle in practice Role of project manager Ingredients for success Change controls

 

Section 5: Closing

Actions in the Closing stage
Session 1
  • Introduction to Project Leadership
  • Differentiation between leadership and management
  • Three management styles project managers use
  • Trait Theory
  • Fiedler’s Contingency Model
  • Four different leadership styles used in the Leader’s Window to your current practices
  • Own leadership orientation
  • Assessing employee potential
  • Leading new employees
  • Leading experienced employees
  • Section review questions
  • Describe the Communication Loop
  • List obstacles to effective communication
  • Define the interpersonal gap
  • Show how to be an active listener
  • Section review questions
Session 2
  • Influence Skills
  • Behavioral Scores
  • Influence Styles of Project Managers (Socializers, Directors, Thinkers, Relaters) –Their characteristics and Strategies
  • Power and Project Manager
  • Section review questions
  • Popular motivational theories (Maslow, Herzberg, Mccleland)
  • Identifying your own motivators
  • Proposed directives to motivate team members
  • Design a plan to overcome morale problems based on a case study
  • Vroom Expectancy theory
  • Rewards – Intrinsic and Extrinsic
  • Section review questions
Session 3
  • Identify effective team member roles-Belbin’s Team Roles
  • Examine the strengths and weaknesses of the roles on your team (including your own)
  • Tuckman stages of project team development
  • Team process and functional teams
  • Taking over and first week with a function Team
  • When to coach
  • Effective coaching requirements
  • Section review questions
  • Reasons for change
  • Challenges of change
  • What is change management
  • Identify the project manager’s role as an organizational change agent
  • Influencers of organizational change
  • Rogers’ theory representing change over time
  • Process of organizational change
  • Keys to successful change management
  • Section review questions
  • Common causes of conflict
  • Constructive and destructive conflicts
  • Conflict reactions to avoid
  • Ways to resolve conflict
  • Human reaction in times of conflict
  • Staying calm in conflict situation
  • What is negotiation
  • Attitudes about negotiation
  • Successful Negotiation
  • Formal project negotiation planning
  • Section review questions
  • Define ethics and values
  • Differentiation between personal and business ethics
  • Identifying the four values addressed in the Project Management Institute Code of Ethics and
  • Professional Conduct
  • Section review questions
The challenges of change in the modern era require of managers to apply a holistic approach to change management. Successful change requires an accountability fit – therefore a cadre of managers that own the change process. This course will focus on those competencies required to ensure successful change. This course includes the following topics:
  • Understanding the challenges of managers in change
  • Requirements for successful change
  • The reality of change - a suggested model
  • Understanding the pressure for change – creating a sense of urgency
  • Ensuring buy-in and believe-in at an early stage through effective communication to the leadership team
  • Creating focus in the right areas for successful change
  • Mergers and acquisitions as strategic growth strategy
  • Strategic alignment – key requirement for change
  • Ensuring the leadership team is on-board and aligned
  • Systems analysis – considering the business as a web of interrelated activities
  • Stakeholder analysis and plan
  • Change Risk management and plan
  • Organizational change communication
  • Critical success factors and change objectives
  • Planning change – ensuring resource capacity at all levels
  • Managing the transition toward successful change
  • Dealing with Resistance to Change at various levels