Managing Successful Projects - Course Content

Session 1: Introduction; why projects succeed or fail

  • Introduction
  • Goals of the seminar
  • What people have done from past seminars
  • General approach to project management
  • Project templates, issues and risk management, collaboration, communications management
  • Why projects fail
  • Why projects succeed

Session 2: Workshop on project problems and issues

Attendees work in small teams to identify problems with their current and past projects.

Session 3: PRINCE2 and the PM Book of Knowledge

This session reviews the two leading project management methodologies in use today- PRINCE2 and the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK). The advantages of PRINCE 2 are discussed. The session also covers how these methods can be applied to small, medium, and large projects.

Session 4: Setting up a project for success

  • Steps in establishing a project
  • The project concept
  • Defining purposes, scope, roles, issues, costs, and schedules
  • Trade-offs involving scope of a project
  • Getting management approval
  • Project review
  • Guidelines from PRINCE2 and the PM Book of Knowledge

Session 5: Workshop on alternative purposes of a project

Attendees work in small teams to identify technical, business, political, and social purposes of a project.

Session 6: Getting the project going

  • Project templates
  • Getting the project leader and the right team members
  • Building the project plan
  • Reviewing the project plan
  • Guidelines from PRINCE2 and the PM Book of Knowledge

Session 7: Tracking, monitoring, and controlling the project

  • Tracking status of work
  • Problems that can arise in project work
  • Single project analysis
  • Multiple project analysis
  • Cost analysis
  • Guidelines from PRINCE2 and the PM Book of Knowledge

Session 8: Risk and issues management

  • Guidelines for detecting, addressing, and managing project risk and issues
  • Risk and issues analysis
  • Guidelines from PRINCE2 and the PM Book of Knowledge

Session 9: Workshop on lessons learned

Attendees work in teams to uncover lessons learned from past and current projects.

Session 10: Human resource management

  • Guidelines for effective management of people resources
  • Team issues
  • Project manager issues
  • Management issues
  • Guidelines from PRINCE2 and the PM Book of Knowledge

Session 11: Communications management

  • Communicating with management
  • Team communications
  • Management issues
  • Communications issues
  • Guidelines from PRINCE2 and the PM Book of Knowledge

Session 12: Workshop on resistance to change from project completion

Attendees work in teams to determine reasons people give for not supporting the project or implementing project results.

Session 13: Change management, change control, integration

  • Project turn-over and completion
  • Guidelines for effective change management, integration
  • Issues in implementing change
  • Guidelines from PRINCE2 and the PM Book of Knowledge

Session 14: Project results and conclusions

  • Measuring project results
  • What is project success?
  • Conclusions
  • Actions to take after the seminar