Class Overview
Project management skills are essential in a wide variety of professional roles, and can even be a wonderful asset in your personal life. Learn how to become a skilled project manager in this class. Discover how to reach the goals of a project successfully, while competently leading the work of a team.
Gain basic knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques that you can apply to a wide variety of projects, even though each project is unique. Focus on managing a single, stand-alone project as the basis for your learning during this class. In each session we will work through aspects of the project lifecycle, from planning to executing, to closing, and everything in between. You will be able to follow the same steps for managing future real-life projects.
During this course, explore the following aspects of project management:
- Project lifecycles from initiation through planning, executing, controlling, and closing
- Scope management
- Cost management
- Project charters
- Creating a work breakdown structure
- Network diagramming
- Finalizing the project plan
- Stakeholder identification
- Scheduling and schedule management
- Earned value measurement
- Change control
This course's curriculum is based on the Project Management Institute's Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge and provides the foundation for your training to become certified as a Project Management Professional.
Learning Objectives
- Be able to list a typical set of deliverables needed to effectively manage a small, stand-alone project
- Write a project charter for a small project
- Create a project plan for a stand-alone project
- Know how to develop a work breakdown structure
- Be familiar with the estimating process
- Be able to develop a project schedule, including estimating, PDM network diagramming, critical path method, and developing a Gantt chart
- Understand the importance of risk management and be able to facilitate risk management planning for a small project
- Identify key project management activities that go on during the execution phase of a project
- Understand project scope creep and describe the change control process
- Know what activities are associated with the project performance control and be able to define operating metrics and control thresholds
- Identify key project closing activities
- Understand the importance of lessons learned and their impact on future projects
- Use MS Project to effectively plan, schedule, analyze resource utilization, and track project performance.
Who Might Enjoy This Class
Prerequisites: An understanding and experience with MS Windows and Office products; two or more years of experience in a project management environment is helpful, but not required.
- Product or program managers, coordinators, staff or supervisors
- Anyone interested in understanding project management
- Journey-level project managers seeking to deepen their expertise and understanding
- Subject matter experts
- Financial analysts
- Team leaders, stakeholders, and senior leadership