Diploma in Practical Project Management

Course details

Course Introduction

The Diploma in Project Management provides a general introduction to project management, ranging from the project planning process, setting up project aims and objectives and budgeting to adoption and structure. It uses a variety of useful project planning tools, including risk analysis and management. It also examines in-depth the role of project manager and project team.

This course is useful to anyone who wants to build their project management skills. It aims to be practical and give you capabilities that you can use immediately in your career.

Course Structure

1. Intro to Project Management

Background to Project Management. What is a project? Why do we need to plan? Common Mistakes. Leadership and structure within the Project. Stakeholder interaction

2. Start Planning and don’t stop until the project is over

Bounding the Goal of the project – Objectives, stakeholders, constraints, assumptions. Determining the SUCCESS criterion. Visualising the goal. Three factors that can be varied to suit your project

3. Objectives and Deliverables

Main Phases and the WBS – work break down structure. What is it and how to build one based on the Objectives

4. Detailed task list

The Granularity required for a successful project. Estimation and Informed guesswork. This is one of several passes through the plan. Checklists and catch-alls (Tollgates)

5. Staffing your project.

Who does what and when. What kind of staff do you have? How to get the best out of them. What to do with troublesome colleagues

6. Contingency – you need it no matter what anyone says

Margin for Error. Types of Contingency. What to do if it all goes wrong

7. Communicating the plan and managing the expectations

Be visible and be brave. Telling the truth and staying “on message”. Giving the Kick-off presentation. Broadcasting your message and making sure everyone is on the same page

8. Your daily and weekly routine as a Project Manager

How often to re-plan? How to deal with the unexpected. How to run meetings

9. Reporting and change management

Be real, be ruthless and be upfront. Need to know and sins of omission. The status report

10. The Post Mortem

Who should be there and when should it be done. What went right. What went wrong.

Lessons Learned and what you can bring with you on your next project

Assessment – Professional Development Project

This module is assessed by a Professional Development Project (PDP). The learning philosophy underpinning this form of assessment is that students learn best from applying the concepts, models etc. they have covered in the classroom and in their directed reading to a practical organisational setting.

In doing this, students develop a greater knowledge and understanding of innovation and design thinking and of how it can be applied in a practical context. The objective of your Professional Development Project is to provide a platform in job interviews and your Performance Reviews at work to demonstrate your aspirations and worth to your organisation.

Methodology

We believe that adult learning is most effective when presented in a relevant context so that the skills, strategy, and knowledge are meaningful to participants and can be applied directly in the training.

Our training methodology is based on the premise that participants/adults have their own experience and we utilise a process of questioning and generating a dialogue before presenting concepts and models. By doing this vs. lecturing, we gain participant involvement and buy-in before we build models and teach learning points. This makes the learning relevant to your experience.