Course Description
Learn how to respond to some of today’s top challenges in project management and how to avoid the most common mistakes when executing and controlling a project. Practice advanced tools for project execution and control, and develop a big-picture, process-oriented perspective on project initiation, closure and learning. The workshop will use realistic case studies to examine and try out the tools and techniques learned. There will be opportunity to discuss your own project management problems, concerns, issues and successes.

Features
• Our facilitators bring real-world experience to every workshop.
• You will be led, not lectured, through a hands-on case study.
• As a team, you will work through scenarios providing an experimental environment where you can take risks and make adjustments.

Discover how to
• Identify key stakeholders, assess project feasibility, and solicit authorization.
• Communicate weekly tasks that are scheduled for completion with a focus on critical tasks.
• Collect actual work performed on projects.
• Update plan components, manage team and stakeholder expectations, and communicate progress and status consistently and predictably.
• Manage project risk and maintain a schedule and budget with consistent predictive power.
• Manage cost, scope, time, risk, quality, and project change according to a set of processes.
• Influence future project activities to meet project goals.
• Use project metrics and process documentation to learn how to manage projects better.
• Analyze projects and the project management process continually.

Competencies covered in this workshop
• Initiation
• Scope Verification
• Quality Control
• Project Plan Execution
• Scope Change Control
• Performance Reporting
• Quality Assurance
• Schedule Control
• Risk Monitoring and Control
• Information Distribution
• Cost Control
• Administrative Closure
• Integrated Change Control

Condensed Outline
Project Selection and Initiation
• Initiating projects.
• When do projects start? Defining the project life cycle.
• Tips for defining the start of a project.
• Considerations for initiating projects.
• Key elements of the initiating process.
• Guidelines for project initiation.

Project Execution Methodology
• Starting project work.
• Getting work done.
• Capturing progress and status.
• Forecasting future work.

Project Variance and Control
• Performance metrics.
• Understanding what causes variance.
• Taking corrective action to overcome variance.
• Managing change, quality, and risk.

Project Closure and Learning
• The challenge of project closure.
• When and how to learn from projects.
• Project closure reporting and archiving process.