Managing Successful Projects stresses all of the elements critical to conducting successful projects, including:

• Efficient use of time
• Up-front planning
• Consensus development
• Delineation of clear and specific activities and tasks
• Development of realistic and feasible timelines
• Analysis of resource requirements task.

As you work through each step of the project management process, you will learn strategies to carry out each step of the process and learn to use work tools and job aids, including:

• Planning Aids
• Project monitoring tools
• Report formats
• Measurement/assessment tools.

You will also learn to apply a simple, but powerful communication strategy, based on principle that various recipients of project information require different information in different forms at different times. You learn to analyze the varying information need of project constituents and plan communications accordingly.
 

Program Benefits

Distinguish between projects and ongoing corporate operations

Define the purpose of a project and a project’s scope and boundaries, goals and objectives

Identify key constituents of a project including project sponsor, customers and project team members

Develop consensus early in the project among project constituents about key project specification, including:

• Project goals and objectives
• Tangible and intangible benefits
• Financial and non-financial requirements
• Potential risks
• Key deadlines
• Cost/benefit tradeoffs

Develop cost benefit analysis that go beyond just the numbers but also evaluate financial and non-financial benefits and resources as well as cost/benefit tradeoffs

Analyze communication needs and plan appropriate communication strategies throughout the project lifespan

• The No.1 factor in project success

Develop detailed project plan which incorporates:

• Major project activities
• Task and sub-tasks for each major activity
• Timelines for activities, tasks and sub-tasks
• Project budget including personnel and non-personnel resources

Identify and limit risks to a project using a variety of problem-solving strategies at the individual and team level

Plan effective and efficient project team meetings

Employ monitoring strategies for the project and anticipate necessary adjustments through analysis of:

• Timeline updates
• Task/person relationships
• Resource expenditure rate
• Task completion reports

Evaluate project success and ensuring smooth transfer of responsibility for support and maintenance of project outcomes.

Inexperienced project managers and teams benefit by learning a step-by-step framework for successful project management

Experienced project managers and teams add to their knowledge by gaining the latest perspective on project management

Project managers who depend on project management software balance their skills by learning how to think about human factors that impact project success.

Certificate of Participation will be awarded.
 

YOU WILL RECEIVE POWERFUL RESOURCES

• PROJECT MANAGEMENT HANDBOOK

detailing descriptions and samples of the strategies used to carry out each step of the project management process for use back on-the job
• WORK TOOLS AND JOB AIDS

including planning aids, project monitoring tools, report formats and measurement / assessment tools
• PARTICIPANTS WORKBOOK AND CASE STUDY

which includes all the worksheets and other materials that are used during workshop activities to stimulate a "real world" project situation
• INTRODUCTION TO MICROSOFT PROJECT HANDBOOK

an invaluable resource to help with project software
• HANDOUTS

related to the program and industry issues relevant at the time of this program

GATHER INFORMATION

• Specifying project purpose
• Identifying project constituents and attending to their needs
• Identifying key constituent concerns
• Collecting information and developing consensus

DEFINE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

• Relationship of customer expectations to goals and objectives
• Criteria for effective project goals and objectives
• Procedure for translating expectations into goals & objectives
• Criteria for set of project goals and objectives

ESTIMATE BENEFIT AND RESOURCES

• Estimating and quantifying tangible and intangible benefits
• On-budget and off-budget costs
• Development and operational costs
• Incremental costs
• Non-financial costs

DOCUMENT PROJECT SPECIFICATIONS

• Goal/objective statements
• Summary of resource requirements
• Risk identification
• Key deadlines
• Comparison of benefits and resource requirements

ANALYZE AND PLAN COMMUNICATIONS

• Differing concerns of constituents
• Selecting information based on constituent concerns
• Selecting a communication approach

DEFINE MAJOR ACTIVITIES

• Definition of major activities, tasks and sub-tasks
• Process for defining major activities
• Evaluating major activities

DEFINE TASKS AND SUB-TASKS

• Criteria for specification of tasks and sub-tasks
• Numbering of tasks and sub-tasks
• Creating timelines for tasks and sub-tasks

BUDGET RESOURCES

• On-budget versus off-budget costs
• Specifying individuals versus staff positions
• Managing by time and dollars
• Assessing non-personnel costs

DOCUMENT THE PROJECT PLAN

• Project timeline chart
• Person-by-task chart
• Updating project specifications
• Presenting the plan

ANALYZE AND PLAN COMMUNICATIONS

IDENTIFY AND LIMIT RISKS

• Importance of early problem identification
• Team ownership of problems
• Convergent and divergent thinking
• Brainstorming techniques
• Prioritization techniques

CONDUCT EFFECTIVE MEETINGS

• Characteristics of effective meetings
• Strategies for planning effective meetings
• Key elements of an agenda
• Meeting management
• Evaluating meeting effectiveness
• Informal meetings

MONITOR PROGRESS

• Responding to change
• Information collection activities
• Monitoring progress by timeline
• Monitoring progress by task/person
• Monitoring resource expenditure rate
• Monitoring by task description

ANALYZE AND PLAN COMMUNICATIONS

EVALUATE PROJECT SUCCESS

• Focus on evaluation users
• Information collection
• Information analysis
• Information reporting

COMPLETE PROJECT CHECKLIST

• Documenting project activities and resource expenditures
• Developing manuals and training programs/materials required for post-project operations
• Providing feedback to team members
• Debriefing the project team

ANALYZE AND PLAN COMMUNICATIONS