Advanced Project Management

The aim of this course is to help participants take their project experience and knowledge to a higher level. If you have already completed a basic project management course or have two or more years’ experience of working on projects, this course is for you.

You will be enabled to place your experience within a framework of tools and best practices that are aligned to the knowledge areas of PMBOK. The course will challenge you to become aware of the strengths of your current practices and examine how you can deepen your knowledge of and skills in using project management methodology and tools. The course also equips you to deal with medium to large projects across different sectors (private, government or NGO).

The facilitator will enable you to focus on an actual project that you are currently working on or will be working on in the near future and apply the tools and methodology to that project. Each person will be expected to produce and present a scope statement, Gantt chart, stakeholder management plan, Work breakdown structure, budget and risk plan to the rest of the group. The facilitator will provide an introduction to the use of MS Project and you will be shown how to apply this software in designing project management tools as a presentation for the group.

Upon completing this course, the participants should:

• Be familiar with project management terminology, concepts, and definitions.
• Be able to select a work-based project for an organisation or business unit.
• Be able to scope a work-based project.
• Develop a project plan.
• Develop tools to measure key performance parameters such as time, quality and cost.
• Know the key skills and processes to manage project teams.
• Be able to refine the project scope statement.

Upon completing this course, the participants should:

• Determine the approach for decomposing the work of the project to the required level of detail.
• Be able to apply key project management tools and formulate a Gantt chart, workbreakdown structure and budget.
• Be able to write project proposals and reports.

Chapter 1: Advanced project management Methodology and Definitions

• The application of the appropriate project management processes to complete the project.
• A solid plan and execution of this solid plan to meet project and product requirements.
• A method to satisfy stakeholder expectations.
• An approach to keep the project’s time, cost, quality, scope, resources, and risk in balance.
• What is project Management- The Project life cycle.
• The importance of ethics in project management.
• Project methodology and definitions.
• PMBOK’S Project Management Knowledge Areas.

Chapter 2: Organisational Structures

• The Traditional Organisation.
• The Line - Staff Organisation.
• The Pure Project Organisation.
• The Matrix Organisation.
• Organisation structure and the technical project team.
• Project failure and success factors.
• Twelve Steps to Project Management Success.

Chapter 3: Phase 1 – Concept/Initiation

• Steps in Planning a Project – project feasibility, project business case, project proposal, and project estimates.
• The Project Charter – conclusion of the Initiation Phase.

Chapter 4: Phase 2 - Design and Planning

• Scope statement.
• Defining project activities/ the Work Breakdown Structure.
• Planning the project schedule – Sequencing, durations and resources, network diagram, and Gantt chart.
• Project Stakeholder management.
• Project Risk.
• Project Budget and cashflow.
• Contingencies, escalation and retention.
• Project procurement.
• Project quality.

Chapter 5: Phase 3 - Execution/Implementation and Project Control

• Project monitoring.
• Project scope control – avoiding scope creep.
• Integrated Project Control – Earned Value. 

Chapter 6: Project Teams and Human Dynamics

• Conflict management.
• Monitoring Time.
• DISC analysis.

Chapter 7: Project Communication

• Monitoring progress through reports