Successful project leaders integrate the science and art of project management.

Learn the proven techniques required to lead projects by experience in a rigorous simulation reflecting typical organization constraints. Teams encounter scope changes, communication breakdowns, unexpected stakeholder inputs and other realistic variables as they define, plan, execute, control and close out a project.

This challenging, hands-on course builds confidence as it builds skills to take a project from inception to a successful completion, while producing deliverables and meeting deadlines every step of the way.

Who should attend
This course requires participants to be familiar with the fundamentals of project planning and control. Professionals with prior project management training or experience will want to attend to see how all the pieces of the project management discipline fit together. New project teams may want to attend this program together to experience a full project lifecycle and transfer the lessons directly to their project.

Prerequisite:
Project Management experience is a prerequisite for this course.

What you will achieve

• Use planning techniques to manage budgets, monitor a project’s scope and keep on schedule.
• Assess and quantify risk, plus implement strategies that reduce risk without compromising the return.
• Determine the project scope and plan for requirements management.
• Involve sub-contractors and manage them effectively.
• Increase proficiency at estimating the business case with easy-to-use techniques.
• Improve communication with the customer.
• Perform project status reporting, including calculation of earned value.
• React to project changes with a flexible mindset that keeps the project moving forward.

Benefits

• Experiential learning ties together all project management topics.
• Realistic variables in simulation prepare participants for problems on the job.
• Teams internalize the value of planning, risk management, and scope control.
• Learn to build realistic project plans that foster high performance.
• Recognize and avoid problems before they occur.
• Accurately assess progress and plan course corrections.
• Optimize cost, schedule, and quality in a competitive environment.

Simulation Format
Bidding the project/Business case development
Post-award Planning
Control Stage 1 – Build the product, manage the project, produce status reports, update the plan
Control Stage 2 – Continue to manage the project
Control Stage 3 – Complete the project
Post-project reporting – Cost and schedule performance, lessons learned

Course Outline

1. Project Success Factors
2. Project Lifecycle Overview

• Propose project
• Contract award
• Plan
• Control and close-out

3. Business Case or Bid?

• Purpose of business case and bid
• Risk factors for business case and bid

4. Requirements Management

• Functional (business) requirements
• Technical requirements (specifications)
• Requirements and the triple constraint
• Principles of change control

5. Estimating Strategies

• Parametric
• Top-down
• Bottom-up

6. Planning

• Detailed planning techniques (review)
• Detailed planning exercise

7. Risk Management

• Risk identification
• Risk response development
• Risk control

8. Creating a Management Plan
9. Organization Structure
10. Balance: Optimizing Productivity and Risk
11. Project Control

• Earned value analysis
• Creating a learning environment
• Updating the management plan

12. Sub-Contractor Management
13. Continuous Improvement:

• Capturing Lessons Learned

Download PDF:
Project Management Simulation