Professional Certificate in Project Management

What You Will Learn

For a detailed information on what you will learn on this course please download our Project Management Course Prospectus. However for a brief summary of what you will learn please click on one of the following links:

Project Cycle
Scoping the Project
Budgets
Awarding the Project
Implementing & Monitoring of a Project

Project Cycle - Most people look at a project and wonder where to begin, and the larger a project is the more overwhelming it can be. But, no matter how small or large a project is, they all have a natural cycle and a series of easily identifiable stages – recognising these is the key to success. The fundamental skills of project management, lie in the ability to identify the natural stages of each project and understanding how to do this will enable you to approach a project in a manner that is systematic and logical. This is the best way for you to ensure success, so that you can remain objective and achieve your goals without fuss or worry…

Whether your project will take a day or a year to complete, this course will teach you how to recognise each stage and what you need to do before moving onto the next step. Each successfully completed stage, acts as a foundation for the following steps and they also act a milestone to help you monitor your progression. The natural stages of a project also make it easier to accurately price your services for clients and agree a payment schedule, providing you with a wonderful tool so that you can approach any project with peace of mind and inner confidence. Topics covered include:

• Project Cycle - the five stages of a project and what is expected during each phase
• Pros & Cons – understanding the advantages and benefits of working to a cycle, for you and your client
• Project Management and Project Co-ordination – the important differences between these roles
• Establishing Hierarchy – setting up effective communication lines and avoiding misunderstandings
• Choosing your Strategy - the key to successful project manage

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Scoping the Project - Many clients believe that the implementation phase is the most important stage in their project, but successful projects don’t happen by accident; they are skilfully planned and the steps are matched and co-ordinated like the pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle. If you want your project to run as smoothly as possible, then the key to success is to identify each outcome and variable so that you can outline the steps necessary to complete the project on budget and within a reasonable time frame. This is normally the most time consuming and most critical stage of the project, but a good plan can be used like a road map, providing clear directions as to how the project should progress...

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In addition to good planning skills, it is also crucial for a project manager to understand and agree on what the main goals of a project are and to ensure that client expectations are realistic and fair. Different individuals involved in a project can have very different motivations and goals that can lead to conflicting requirements, so it is vital to establish what the key objectives are at the outset. On this course you will learn how to define the scope and objectives of a project, with the purpose of ensuring that the project stays under your control and to ensure that the project goals are understood by all from the beginning. Topics covered include:

• Client Briefs – communicating your ideas effectively to clients
• Effectively Scoping the Project – a strategy for identifying all the important requirements
• Pros & Cons of Planning – how to plan details without getting bogged down unnecessarily
• Specifications – how to create clear instructions for other individuals to execute

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Budgets - Every project has financial constraints, and one of the biggest causes of conflict in project management is overspending and failure to keep to a budget. Not only is it a cause of conflict, but it can result in your reputation being compromised (in any number of ways), and in extreme circumstances projects may even be abandoned mid-way. Fortunately this can largely be avoided by creating a budget...

A budget is simply a financial plan that sets limits on the amount of money that will be spent on each category of expenses in a project. A good budget presents an accurate and realistic view of the various costs involved in a project before committing to it and it can be used to quickly identify what is actually affordable (and what is not), as it clearly itemises all the costs involved to the project manager and the client. Even if maths is not your strong point, a calculator can make up for that and creating a budget is relatively straightforward once you follow the methods described in this course. We also provide you with a series of templates to enable you to prepare accurate budgets no matter what the size of the project is. Step by step instructions will teach you the following...

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• Pros & Cons of Budgeting – the advantages of proper budgeting and how to avoid common pitfalls and danger zones
• Outline Budgets – how to establish a preliminary budget that is reasonably accurate without spending too much time
• Accurate Budgets – how to prepare & format detailed budgets
• Controlling Cost Growth – strategies to prevent cost growth on a project
• Monitoring the Budget – ways to ensure the budget stays on track

Awarding the Project - Planning and preparation is certainly half the battle in completing any project, while the remaining half is largely dependent on selecting the right team to work with. As projects grow in size and complexity, so too does the number of tasks and often the number of people required to execute those tasks, which can take control out of the project manager’s hands. You need only look around to realise that it doesn’t need to be that way, as new products and buildings are released onto the market each day, they provide evidence that anything can be achieved. So then, how do they do it, and more importantly, how can we adopt their approach to ensure success in our own projects…

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Finding the right team members is critical to success, and an objective and methodical approach can help you to find the right people at the right price and drastically reduce your chances of failure. Awarding the project is a process, rather than an event, and one in which the project manager asserts a leadership role. Balancing the needs for quality workmanship, dependability and value, you will learn how to take a systematic and methodical approach to this process and keep control firmly in your own hands. The following topics are among those covered…

• Creating Work Schedules – we show you the simplest way to create schedules that work
• Statement of Work – what to include and what should you avoid and why?
• Pricing Strategies – how to agree a price that’s fair and fixed
• Cross-Referencing Documentation – a formula for making allowances for the inter-dependent relationships between project tasks and team members
• Contracts – the only way to protect both your client and yourself

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Implementing & Monitoring of a Project - Having a good project plan by itself doesn’t mean that the rest is plain sailing. No matter how well you have planned a project, there are invariably small challenges that don’t become apparent until a project is fully under way; unforeseen problems arise, plans may need to be revised and schedules may subsequently need to be changed. While preparing for success is critical, so too is monitoring the implementation phase, to ensure that all the individuals involved are performing the way they are meant to and that the entire project stays on track…

The actual implementation stage is the most exciting phase of any project, as that is when everything comes together in the physical sense. However, it can also be the most stressful phase, and when deadlines are tight and the pressure is on, you need to know how to deal with changes without compromising the rest of the project or knocking it off schedule. The purpose of this course is to provide you with the tools and strategies for controlling the project from start to finish and the things you will learn include the following…

• Meetings – how to make others accountable in a way that is firm and objective
• Handling Changes – a strategy for handling work changes and communicating them successfully to other team members
• Monitoring the Budget – a simple formula for ensuring the budget is adhered to and small changes don’t cause costs to spiral out of contol
• Snagging & Signing Off Work – verifying work meets standards specified & what to do when it doesn’t
• Close-Out – the steps necessary to ensure successful completion of a project

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