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Projects and Special Assignments
How to Design and Conduct Projects that Produce Practical Results
This is an intensive one-day workshop that teaches participants how to tackle projects of any size by learning how to plan, organize and sequence the correct activities, coordinate its many tasks and resources and achieve project objectives by bringing all this together in a successful conclusion on-time and on budget. This course is directed primarily at: those who conduct standard organizational projects of intermediate length and complexity; those who command either modest staffs and budgets or none at all; and those who need very practical techniques for achieving results quickly and reliably, even when they often get very little help along the way.
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Topic
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What Participants Learn
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| Getting a Handle |
Defining a project with precision as to its scope, effort and desired outcomes.
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| Gathering Data |
Getting key information quickly, test assumptions and probe for the interests of the project’s sponsors.
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| Making a Contract |
Writing an agreement with project sponsors on the terms and conditions of the project, the resources required to do it and their expectations of the results it will produce.
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| Planning the Project |
Exploring the advantages and utility of using timelines, Gantt charts, PERT and other CPM techniques, as well as other methods for setting up and laying out a project so that all parties can see its direction and resource requirements.
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| Executing the Project |
Mastering an eight-point model for analyzing and allocating the work of the project, coordinating its various activities and managing the performance of project team members.
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| Tracking the Project |
Learning how to establish milestones, monitor progress, make adjustments and (periodically) take corrective action to redirect effort when it becomes necessary.
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| Dealing with Problems |
When a project gets into trouble, identifying what’s wrong and then resolving the problem with a five-point problem-solving model. Three types of problems get special attention: 1) competing priorities; 2) operating in a crisis management environment; and 3) getting the attention of and buy-in from busy project sponsors.
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| Gaining Acceptance |
Using smart communication techniques to get and retain support for project outcomes.
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| Closing the Project |
Bringing the project to an end in such a way that project sponsors feel they got a completed package, and project team members feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.
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Expected Outcomes
- They know how to make a start on the project, and they do that immediately. (Most people with low project experience don’t even know where to begin before this course.)
- They have learned how to conduct professional fact-finding interviews to get good information from SME’s.
- They make solid first guesses about the general direction and dimensions of the project, and they are sensibly guided by this in its early stages.
- Unlike most experienced project managers who never took a course on this subject, they always write up a scope document for the project, which they ask the project sponsor to sign off on. (This eliminates a host of misunderstandings later in the project).
- They do a better job of forecasting and then monitoring the project’s timelines. They tend to use pencil-and-paper Gantt charts for this purpose, rather than project management software.
- They know how to write crisp project progress reports on a regular basis, and do a good job of keeping things on track.
- They follow the model presented above closely and bring in their projects successfully.
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Moving Forward