Objective: This course focuses on three of the central aspects of project management –Project Governance, Project Planning and Project Controls. It covers benefit management, scope management, estimation, scheduling, budgeting, and communication. Experienced project managers (or those that have completed the Level I  work through numerous exercises, scenarios and detailed case studies, allowing them to practice and improve skills in a focused, performance-driven training environment.

Format: Lecture based with internal and external based case-studies

Audience (Application Level): Project managers who have managed large, complex projects requiring significant customisation and / or project managers who have completed the Foundation Level course.

Benefits: This course will be of benefit to learners who want to apply project management techniques in line with the Best Practice Project Management Process. Learners will be shown how to use techniques that are scalable from small to large projects. This course will provide the ideal preparation for those practitioners that are constantly involved in projects on a daily basis.

Learning Objectives: After taking this course, the learner will be able to:

• use estimation tools and techniques to present expected project costs and durations
• identify and utilise tools and techniques for controlling project performance
• define and realise project benefits through the project lifecycle
• understand the governance models and how quality assurance is delivered through good governance
• explain the significance of the project baselines and how it is used to measure project schedule and budget performance
• explain how to use performance measurement tools and techniques to manage risk, assumptions issues and dependencies
• understand how project can be managed using MS Project.

Course Content: The following topics will be covered

• Topic 1: – The essentials of project governance and demonstrating the need for good governance and quality assurance
• Topic 2: – Stakeholder and Communication Management
• Topic 3: – Defining project benefits and value and how these should be incorporated into projects
• Topic 4: – Planning a Project through Objectives, Metrics and Constraints
• Topic 5: – Identifying, managing and controlling project scope (understanding project success)
• Topic 6: – Cost and Time Estimation Practices
• Topic 7: – Managing a Realistic Schedule
• Topic 8: – Presenting Project Cost, Resources and Financials
• Topic 8: – Risk, issue and dependency management – how to do it effectively
• Topic 10: – Application of Project Control Tools
• Topic 11: – Reporting Project Performance
• Topic 12: – Developing and Managing Project Contracts
• Topic 13: – Project closure – how to guarantee that project are closed
• Topic 14: – MS Project Application

The course follows the best-practice project management process and will incorporate a significant amount of case-study / workshop work.