Technical Project Management

Introduction

Project Management is an emerging profession operating in an increasing range of industries. As projects become more complex, and as more organisations move to management by projects, there is an increasing demand for competent project managers. Surprisingly, many small and large projects go wrong. The question is: why do they go wrong? Most of the answer has little to do with project size or degree of complexity, but a lot to do with project planning and control. The cause of project failures can often be traced back to poor project definition, planning or control.

Project success is the key outcome in project management. Actually, there is nothing more important to the success of a project than making ‘good’ informed decisions. This technical skill is certainly crucial, yet few managers have had formal training in decision-making and project management. This course provides you with the training you need to manage your projects more efficiently. The course adopts a managerial perspective with an analytic rather than prescriptive emphasis. It also takes into account both the human and technical sides of management.

This seminar presents insights into:

• Understanding planning
• Development of project goals
• Translating goals into a schedule
• Knowledge of Project Economic Evaluation
• Understanding and handling project risk

Seminar Objectives

Seminar attendees will fully understand:

• Project Evaluation
• Project Estimating and budgeting
• Appropriate knowledge of the concepts of project planning
• Elements of Successful Control Systems
• Techniques for Project Control
• Project Reporting

Training Methodology

The training methodology incorporates both theory and skill training components. This course uses both well-tried and non-traditional techniques, utilises hands-on several mini-case studies and group discussions and provides thorough coverage of concepts, techniques and relevant case studies in project management.

Organisational Impact

The organisation will benefit by:

• Development of a skilled workforce which is capable of planning and managing projects
• Systematic and efficient management of Projects
• Success rate of projects meeting quality, time, and budgetary goals
• Better Utilization of Resources
• More efficient utilization of company resources
• Reduction of wasted time and money

Personal Impact

Attendees will gain by participation in this program through:

• Ability to plan a project balancing competing objectives
• Proactive identification of risk sources and minimisation of their impact
• Understanding the relationship between cost & time
• Knowledge of mathematical techniques used in resource planning and control
• Evaluating project progress and modifying project plans accordingly
• Ability to make decisions and to select choices with greater knowledge of facts to optimise outputs

Who Should Attend?

This seminar is intended for individuals who want to hone their project management skills. So whatever background you have (i.e. engineering, information technology or business), this seminar will cover both fundamental principles and modern tools of project management.

Seminar Outline

Day 1: Overview of Project Management

• Projects in contemporary organisations
• The nature and context of project management
• Benefits of project management
• Possible sources of variance
• Project selection and evaluation techniques
• Benefit/cost analysis
• Break-even analysis
• The project control cycle

Day 2: Project Planning

• Fundamentals of project planning
• Network analysis techniques
• Critical Path Scheduling
• Program Evaluation and Review Technique
• Resource allocation
• Resource levelling
• Compressing schedules
• Monitoring and control using networks

Day 3: Budgetary and Cost Control

• Cost Fundamentals
• Cost estimation: approximate and detailed estimates
• Direct and indirect costs
• Time-cost trade off
• Budgeting
• Cash flow analysis
• The concept of variance
• Earned value management

Day 4: Risk Management in Projects

• Risk vs. uncertainty
• Risk terminology
• Objective and subjective risk assessment
• Risk analysis and management
• Basic techniques for handling risk
• Decision-making and Expected Monetary Value
• Personal attitudes towards risk

Day 5: Managing Project Staff, Information and Quality

• Team life-cycle
• Staff allocation and optimisation
• Principles of quality management
• Data, information, and knowledge management
• Lean project management: concept and applications

Oxford Management Centre
John Eccles House
Robert Robinson Ave
Oxford Science Park
Oxford
OX4 4GP
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 1865 338088

Fax: +44 1865 338100

email info@oxford-management.com