This course provides an overview on the nature of projects as well as project management.
Objectives
Define the terms project and project management
Explain the seven components of a management system
List and describe the five phases of the project life cycle
Describe how the time devoted to a project affects its cost
Explain what causes rework on projects
Describe the factors that contribute to the cost of quality
Explain how to tailor project management to small projects
Describe ways to gain your organization's support of project management
Topics
Definition of project and project management
The project management system
The project life cycle
Project constraints
The costs of quality
Managing small projects
Gaining organizational support
2. Project Management:2 Understanding the Project Manager's Role
Time: 2 hours
This course explains the role of the project manager and the traits and abilities he or she must have to be effective.
Objectives
Describe five key traits that a project manager should have
List the duties and responsibilities of a project manager
Explain why a project manager should have good people skills
Explain the importance of leadership
List the guidelines for running effective meetings
Explain why a project manager should not assume multiple roles
Topics
Traits of a project manager
Responsibilities and duties
The need for good people skills
The importance of leadership
Effective meeting guidelines
Problems in assuming multiple roles
3. Project Management:3 Defining the Problem
Time: 1 hours
This course describes the importance of specifically narrowing down the problem statement. In addition, it explains the detrimental impact that bypassing this step has. It also distinguishes between different types of problems and possible methods for identifying them. Finally, it describes the Project Charter and how to create it.
Objectives
Explain reasons why projects fail
Explain the importance of having stakeholders participate in defining the problem
Explain the elements of the Definition Phase
Describe closed-ended problems and explain the approach to solving them
Describe open-ended problems and explain the approach to solving them
Define what a project charter is and explain why it is important
Topics
The Importance of the Definition Phase
Stakeholders
Aspects of the Definition Phase
Solving Closed-Ended Problems
Defining Open-Ended Problems
The Project Charter
4. Project Management:4 Determining the Strategy
Time: 2 hours
This course defines strategy, describes methods to generate and rank a strategies list, and explains the importance of risk and contingency planning.
Objectives
Define project strategy and explain its importance
List the steps in determining a project's strategy
Explain the approach for developing a list of strategies
Describe the approach for ranking a list of strategies
Define risk as it relates to project management
Explain three ways to manage risk
Explain how to handle resistance from people when developing the project strategy
Topics
Definition of Strategy
Steps to Determine Strategy
Develop the Strategies List
Rank the Strategies List
Identify Risk
Contingency Planning
People Problems
5. Project Management:5 Developing the Work Breakdown Structure
Time: 2 hours
This course describes how to create and organize project tasks by developing the work breakdown structure and a network diagram.
Objectives
Define the work breakdown structure and explain its purpose during the implementation phase
List the components of the work breakdown structure
List the steps for developing the work breakdown structure
List the guidelines to follow when developing the work breakdown structure
Define the network diagram and explain its purpose during the implementation phases
List the steps in developing a network diagram
Explain the AOA and AON methods for network diagramming
Topics
WBS basics
Identifying tasks
WBS procedures
WBS guidelines
Network diagram basics
Network diagram procedures
6. Project Management:6 Estimating and Scheduling Resources
Time: 2 hours
This course explains estimating and scheduling concepts, provides guidelines for estimating and scheduling, and describes the advantage of project management tools such as Microsoft Project.
Objectives
Define estimating
List the questions you need to answer to begin estimating a project
Explain the importance of historical data
List the factors to consider when estimating cost
List the factors to consider when estimating resources
Explain the advantages of scheduling methods such as PERT and CPM
Explain how to take advantage of project management software
This course explains how to perform forward and backward computations to determine the critical path in a project network diagram and shows how an activity-on-node network diagram can be changed to make an activity-on-arrow diagram and a bar chart.
Objectives
List the variables that affect the project schedule as well as the rules for computing project time
Define forward pass computations
Define backward pass computations
Explain the relationship of float to critical path
Explain how network calculations are performed
Describe constrained end date scheduling
Explain how to reduce activity durations
Describe the use of bar charts in project scheduling
Demonstrate how to determine the critical path of project
