Course description
In recent years, project management has become increasingly recognized as a corporate discipline in its own right. Organisations have become ‘project focused’ as they realize that the project methodology offers a structured approach to achieving organizational goals and competitive success.
But what exactly is a project? What is project management all about? Project Management is about leading a team of diverse functional specialists towards a defined goal or outcome for which the project exists to deliver. This is however, not as easy as it might sound. Projects must operate within defined parameters, they often reflect a step into the unknown, are subject to a multitude of stakeholder influences and agendas and the environment within which they operate is often rapidly changing. Project management is in itself, therefore a discipline that requires and demands both a vast and varied set of skills for those tasked with the role of Project Manager. This course has been specifically designed to provide the delegate with both a comprehensive and a holistic perspective of project management – to build a solid foundation from which to develop the required core skills to be a successful project manager and ensure delivery within the ‘iron triangle’ of cost; time and quality. This course is an immersive experience with a significant emphasis on open dialogue and participant involvement in a variety of exercises and scenarios.
Learning objectives
Upon completion of this course, delegates will:
- Understand why organisations adopt a project vehicle in order to achieve strategic and operational goals and objectives
- Become familiar with the core vital components of a project and understand how they interact with one another
- Gain an overview of project scheduling and why it is important to projects
- Understand some of the most useful project scheduling techniques such as the Work Breakdown Structure and the role of Work Packages
- Grasp a variety of techniques that are useful for managing resources
- Understand the importance of effective stakeholder identification and management
- Know how to utilize a range of techniques in order to perform an effective due diligence process
- Examine some of the important issues associated with change orders and what they mean to project success
- Become a more effective communicator and be able to demonstrate enhance presentation skills
- Gain a thorough grounding in the key elements essential to the art of commercial negotiations and understand the pivotal impact that these have upon a projects delivery
- Acquire a familiarity with the process of dispute resolution
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Suitability
- Project engineers
- Project managers
- Commercial department staff
- Other organisational members looking to increase their familiarity with the PM process
Content
The Project Methodology
- Exploring the project methodology – what is it and why is it used by organisations?
- The advantages and disadvantages of utilizing a project methodology
- Identifying project risks and opportunities
- Examining and understanding project risk
- The project lifecycle
- The project manager – a specialized set of skills
- Scenario 1: Dealing with the Human Element
- Scenario 2: Cross Functional Dealings
Key Components of a Project
- The Project Business Case
- Scenario 3: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
- The Project Sponsor
- Scenario 4: The power dimension
- The Project Scope – critically important
- Scenario 5: Too wide; too narrow; too little; too late
- An overview of Project Interfaces
- Managing a Project Budget
Project Scheduling
- Overview
- The Concept of Precedence
- The Precedence Table
- A brief overview of Network Diagrams
- The Critical Path Method
- The Gantt Chart
- The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
- The Work Package
Resource Management
- Classifying Resources
- Utilising the Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS)
- Cost/Time/Resources (CTR) and Project Planning
- The Critical Problem of Constraints
- ‘Trade-off’ Decision making
- Project ‘Crashing’ explained
- Project ‘Fast Tracking’ explained
- Lead Time Management
- Managing Remote Teams
- Scenario 6: Time zones and tempers
Stakeholder Mapping and Analysis
- The problem with Stakeholder agendas
- Stakeholder power and influence – a shifting dynamic over a project’s lifecycle?
- Stakeholder Identification and assessment – ‘stakeholder mapping’
- Scenario 7: Dealing with Stakeholder Agendas
- Establishing/re-establishing constructive engagement with stakeholder groupings
- Dealing with local content and Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR)
Performing Due Diligence
- What is the purpose of ‘Due Diligence?’
- The ‘key’ areas of a corporate DD - proprietary technology; access to markets; transparency; corporate image; social and environmental policies; financial strength
Dealing with Change Orders
- Change orders and the Project Scope
- Understanding the reasoning behind a change order – is it applicable or appropriate?
- The 3 common reasons for change orders – client specification changes; poor ‘scoping (errors and omissions);’ changes in the environment
- Establishing the audit trail
- Scenario 8: ‘The dangers of doing someone a favour’
- The importance of Price Escalation clauses
- Change orders and contractual breach – a significant issue?
- Scenario 9: ‘How the hours have flown by’
- Change orders and Liquidated Damage Clauses (LDC’s) – a direct relationship?
- Change orders and Force Majeure
Effective Communication
- Overview – what is effective communication?
- The different forms of communication
- Scenario 10: Understanding non-verbal communication
- Factors that impact upon communication
- The ‘5 Keys’ to being an effective communicator
- Maximising Presentation skills
The essentials of negotiation
- The basic choice in negotiation – compete or co-operate?
- Template: formulating negotiation choice
- Template: 3 key rules for effective negotiation
- Template: Evaluating the negotiation environment
- Template: Setting mission objectives
- Template: The 7 key steps to developing a negotiation plan
- The benefits of planning
- The significance of culture to commercial negotiation
- Technique: The negotiation decision making model
- The cost of conflict in negotiations
- Template: Conflict resolution
- The importance of ‘emotional equilibrium’
- Examination of types of power and what they mean to commercial negotiation
- Scenario 11: In whom do we trust?
- Model: The cycle of emotive handling
- The critical importance of emotional control
- Technique: The Art of Questioning
- Template: Establishing a Trade-off Process
- Model: Tuckman’s Team Formation
- Advantages of team negotiations
- Disadvantages of team negotiations
- Template: Keys to effective team based negotiations
Dispute Resolution – an overview of options
- The rationale for dispute resolution methodologies in commercial contracts
- Drafting dispute resolution clauses – what should they contain to be effective?
- The ‘ladder’ of dispute resolution – negotiation (formal and informal); mediation; adjudication (expert determination); arbitration
- The ‘clash of cultures’ – conflicts in goals and objectives of the parties; different management styles; poor communication across stakeholder interfaces
- The uncertainty of change – a breeding ground for disputes?
During the course, delegates get hands on experience of many aspects through team exercises and simulations.