CVR/IT Project Management Workshops

People are the ultimate source of project success and failure. This has been documented over and again in the CHAOS Study by the Standish Group. People, through unrealistic expectations, poor communication, lack of executive support, inadequate customer involvement and many other means are the usual cause of project failure. If we are to make our projects reproducibly successful, we must find solutions to these problems.

This workshop moves beyond the standard project management curriculum by speaking directly to these issues. Every topic that we cover gives you insight and specific actions you can take to turn a potential weakness into a source of strength. Attend this workshop and you will learn specific strategies and actions that you can use to leverage the intentions and skills of your stakeholders, energize your team and move your project onto the fast track.

This workshop leads participants through a series of exercises, each of which contributes to a Personal Action Plan. Participants leave with concrete, actionable plans that they can use to overcome obstacles, energize their work environment, and leverage the skills and aspirations of everyone involved in their project.

• Learn the factors that can make or break a project or program
• Bring a Business Perspective into your projects
• Understand the true value in each project role
• Discover how to make meetings effective in your organization
• Learn how everyone can win the Estimation Game
• Gain a deeper appreciation of what it means to deal with Resistance to Change
• Discover how to make Opportunities appear in a sea of Risk
• Find out how to turn Lessons Recorded into Lessons Learned
• Learn what you can do to create a Culture of Success

Who should attend

Project Managers, Managers of Project Mangers, Functional Managers and Executives with project responsibility, Project Management Office staff

Prerequesites

This course assumes familiarity with basic project management concepts as well as some experience in the planning and execution of projects.

Course Outline

Introduction

• Sources of project success
• Human Factors at work
• Why people are the source of project success and failure
• Critical role of the Project Manager
• Leveraging the power of each project role
• How to survive in a dysfunctional organizational culture

Project Initiation

• Human Factors approach to defining a project
• Distinguishing Business Goals from Project Objectives
• Surviving the lunacy of project estimation
• Managing expectations
• The Project Charter – essential tool for gaining consensus

Project Planning

• Objectives, Best Practices and Roles
• A Human Factors view of project planning
• Enhanced Stakeholder Analysis
• Good Meetings Practice
• The Leader / Manager in each of us
• The Energized Project Team
• Client Rapport
• Impact of organizational culture on project planning

Project Execution & Control

• Objectives, Best Practices and Roles
• A Human Factors view of project execution and control
• Effective Project Status
• Finding Opportunity in a Sea of Risk
• Leading people to embrace change
• Getting decisions when you need them
• Impact of culture on project execution and control

Project Close

• Why Lessons Learned Aren’t and what we can do
• Getting credit for work well done
• The Art of Celebration
• Impact of culture on project close

• A highly experienced instructor will use interactive lecture format, numerous hands-on exercises, team activities, group discussions, individual discovery and other techniques to drive home the essential points of this material
• We will build on your prior experience in this topic, while providing you with a structure and vocabulary to use in future organizational change engagements.
• If you have modest project management knowledge, you will find that the clarity of the material and direct presentation style of the instructor will make the subject matter easy to understand.
• You will receive a Student Guide which will help you follow the material, take notes and retain what you learned so that you can apply it on your job.

• This course will help you help you, your project teams and your stakeholders to resolve numerous difficult issues.
• People in Projects delves into areas of project management that, although seldom discussed, are nonetheless central to project success. Take home a whole new set of tools and techniques.
• Take this course and learn what you can do to ensure that your projects get off to a great start and stays there all the way to the finish line.

This workshop was presented in April, 2008, at the PMI Region 5 Symposium at Adelphi, MD. Students at the workshop had the following to say in their evaluations:

• "Great instructor. Shared experiences to help the class gain better insight into risks, opportunity and culture."
• "Excellent, knowledgeable, engaging, energized speaker! Great! Loved the video – I realized I need to look for opportunities. Thanks!"
• "Very good class – connecting people to the processes is of vital importance to project success. I think this gets minimized in organizations. So, it is always good to put the spotlight on “the people” periodically."
• "The subject topic was extremely relevant and applicable in all facets of project management. The Speaker’s passion in the subject was evident – Very Good Course!"

Contact us to learn more about our Training Services.