Project Management Certificate - Course Descriptions
Foundations of Project Management
Have you ever been overwhelmed completing a detailed project? Are you frustrated getting cooperation from many departments? In Foundations of Project Management you will learn the success secrets borrowed from career project managers, and then crafted for you into an easy-to-follow step-by-step winning recipe. Project management is a proven process that helps you break down complex projects into simple work elements and efficiently manage time, money and resources. It's like an anti-gravity device that keeps all those balls in the air so you can juggle a multitude of tasks with ease.
You will learn:
- Quarterback projects without being sacked
- Finish on time and on budget
- Get it done right first and save time
- Confidently estimate costs and schedules
- Calculate risks and avoid problems
- Accurately track and prioritize project components
- Motivate various departments to achieve project goals
Top executives to team members who oversee the planning and execution of any multi-step project in any field or supervise someone who does.
- Practical applications
- Communication planning
- Select and manage resources
- Project scheduling
- Project control and reporting
- Managing changes in scope
MS Project 2007 Fundamentals
This one-day, hands-on course provides an overview of MS-Project and its functionality. Conducted in a PC Lab environment, students will get a opportunity to work with the tool while receiving support from an experienced and knowledgeable instructor/coach.
Students will have a opportunity to develop a project schedule from scratch, get comfortable with entering information into MS-Project, then using the base schedule to understand a manage resource allocations, task assignments, and the project labor budget. MS-Project also offers a depth of reporting functionality and students will learn how to create and modify reports for their project communication needs.
Learning objectives:
- Understand the capabilities of MS-Project
- Enter task information
- Develop a project schedule by setting task dependencies, work efforts, resource allocations, and task assignments
- Identify and display the schedule's critical path
- Use reports to communicate the budget, resource usage and utilization
Target audience: Any project manager, program manager, or project administrator that is unfamiliar with MS-Project, needs a "refresher", or is new to MS-Project 2007.
Course outline:
- Introductions and Definitions
- Overview of MS-Project Functionality and Layout
- Setting the Project Profile
- Entering Tasks
- Work Break Down Structure
- Exercise #1
- Entering Dependencies
- Types of dependencies
- Options
- Exercise #2
- Entering Work Effort
- Exercise #3
- Using Resources
- Setting up resources
- Applying resources to tasks
- Resource leveling
- Exercise #4
- View and Display Optimization
- Managing and Manipulating the Plan
- Tools available for analysis
- Exercise #5
- Reports
- Tips and Tricks
- Wrap-up
Developing Effective Project Teams
Developing an effective project team is an essential factor of project success. Project managers must be able to lead teams without positional authority and effectively capitalize on the unique resources each team member brings to the project, all while facing the usual challenges that come with bringing a project in on time and within budget. Explore your role as a leader and gain greater understanding of team dynamics in this powerful day-long session. This course will uncover tools and strategies you can employ to build a more effective project team. Better understand your own behaviors and values, while learning skills and practicing tools that allow for clear communication among team members and stakeholders, enhance the group decision making process, and assist in overcoming obstacles to project success.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand your style when interacting with others
- Build a toolbox of effective communication skills to share with team members
- Facilitate more efficient AND effective project meetings
- Integrate project phases with the stages of team development
Target Audience: Project managers, program managers, and other managers who want to build their capacity to effectively develop and lead cross functional project teams.
Planning, Scheduling, Controlling
Successful project management can be attributed to the project manager' s effective use of the tools and techniques, coupled with his or her ability to skillfully apply knowledge gained from best practices. The tools and techniques you employ are critical to planning, implementing and completing projects on time and within budget. Through a variety of presentation methods and learning strategies, participants in this course will uncover how to define project scope and acceptance criteria, learn how to use network diagrams, status reporting, and appropriate project communication processes to ensure project success. This course is designed for project managers looking to improve their understanding and application of best practices in project management planning, scheduling and controlling.
Learning Objectives:
- Define deliverable based milestones
- Apply resource leveling
- Create a network diagram
- Describe the risk management process
- Apply Earned Value calculations
- Define Issue Management and Scope / Change Management procedures
- Create a Communication Plan
Target Audience:
Project managers looking to improve their understanding and application of best practices in project management planning, scheduling and controlling.
Course Outline:
Foundational Project Knowledge:
- Project life-cycle
- Triple constraints
Project Planning:
- Planning Overview:
- Goals
- Scope; Tactical Scope, Defining Scope
- Acceptance Criteria ; Requirement Prioritization, Requirement Detailing
Risk Management:
-
Definitions
-
Risk identification, assessment and management
-
Risk prioritization
-
Risk contingency
-
Mitigation strategies
-
Contingency plans
-
Decision tree
Project Scheduling:
- WBS creation
- Estimating
- Contingency
- Deliverable based milestones
- Leveling resources
- Short-interval scheduling
- Establish baselines
Network diagrams; Critical path, Critical chain, Buffers
Project Control:
- Tracking calculations:
- Earned Value
- Earned Value Indicator
- Cost Performance Index
- Estimate To Completion
- Estimate At Completion
Status reporting
The communication process
- Standard communications structures
- Communication channels
- Feedback loops
- Creating a Communication Plan
Issue Management
Scope / Change Management