Project Management Basics: A Hands-on Workshop for Today's "Instant" Project Managers

What's Different about the Session

It's CUSTOMIZED -- Our up-front planning session with your senior management team lets us build in your organization's issues, processes, and concerns!

It's IMMEDIATELY USEFUL -- Attendees are invited to bring their own project concepts and work in teams to develop "high resolution" project plans to take back to the job!

It RESPECTS THE WAY YOU DO PROJECTS -- "First do no harm" is the approach... we build on what you are doing well and gently overlay "best practices" to help you develop more disciplined, effective PM approaches. Unlike many consultants, we do NOT try to impose a particular project life cycle, set of project steps, or one-size fits all PM methodology!

It has a TRACK RECORD of success in many different industries -- For more than 20 years we've been getting great results with clients whose project teams were struggling to produce web sites, software products, financial products, blood products, native-driven ecotourism businesses, computer systems, security systems, deep space research, printing systems, medical products and services, baggage expediting systems, and much more! (See client list.)

Detailed Description

Project Management Basics is a two-day workshop developed and presented by Michael Greer to meet the training needs of the new "instant" project managers. Presented on-site for your organization, this workshop includes an up-front planning session with the author to partially customize the presentation to meet your unique needs. What's more, the optional Customization Session (end of Day 2) can help your group synthesize your own set of organization-specific project management tools and practices. This is not another one-size-fits-all PM workshop!

New! One-day version and powerful, two-hour Executive Session are now available!

Contact Michael Greer for more information.

Why You Need This Workshop

Today, organizations are becoming more lean, trimming layers of middle managers and requiring specialists from marketing, engineering, accounting, and other departments to work together in ad-hoc project teams. Having no full-time, dedicated managers, these teams are often led by one of these specialists who may excel at his or her specialty, but does not necessarily have management experience. Typically, such team leaders must simultaneously make project contributions in their specialty while they try to manage the project.

These "instant" project managers need help defining the project; initiating, planning, executing, and controlling project events; and figuring out how to bring project events to a timely conclusion. And they can't stop working for the many weeks it would take to acquire extensive management training.

This fast-paced, hands-on workshop is specially designed to meet the "instant" project manager's needs. It provides:

	Basic project management (PM) principles and terms, reinforced with a self-check quiz
	An easy-to-use set of tools (The Project Manager's Partner) to help new managers, step-by-step, plan and implement their projects
	Hands-on experience using these tools to plan a case study project or (optionally) an actual project as assigned by your organization
	The opportunity for participants to create tangible PM work products which are immediately usable to support their projects

Who Should Attend

	*Project managers* who want specific tools and a proven strategy for planning and managing projects
	*Task specialists* from any department who want to contribute more effectively as project team members
	*Supervisors of project managers* who want to help their organizations develop a consistent, proven method for planning and managing projects

What You Can Expect

This is an intensive, hands-on session to help you develop basic project management background knowledge and specific project planning skills. By using case study situations or one of your organization's preliminary project concepts, you will apply reference tools to define specific project activities by using a work breakdown structure (WBS), sequence those activities in the form of a network diagram, create a schedule and cost estimate, and detailed project budgets. You will also learn how to build a budget and spending plan, create a formal project communications plan, get organized to acquire staff, and identify potential risks to the project plan, along with ways of minimizing these risks.

Workshop Objectives

Day 1

You will learn to:

	Describe the origins of the field of project management and the role of today's part-time project manager.
	Define basic project management terms.
	Distinguish projects from ongoing operations and programs.
	Explain how different organization structures can support or impede PM efforts.
	Describe some of the socioeconomic influences that affect projects.
	Explain the benefits of organizing project activities into phases.
	Describe the Generic Project Life Cycle.
	List the five project management processes and explain the activities associated with each.
	Explain how we might improve our current project management processes.
	Explain the relationship between the five project management processes and the project life cycle.
	Describe how *The Project Manager's Partner* is organized and how it supports key project manager actions.
	Describe how project managers in your organization typically demonstrate project need and feasibility and obtain project authorization.

Given a case study project or one of your organization's preliminary project concepts, you will use this input to:

	Describe project scope.
	Define and sequence project activities.
	Estimate durations for activities and resources required.

Day 2

Continue working on the case study project or your organization's preliminary project concept and:

	Estimate durations for activities and resources required.
	Develop a project schedule.
	Estimate costs.
	Build a budget and spending plan.
	Describe elements of a good project communications plan.
	Organize to acquire staff.
	Identify risks and plan to respond.
	Organize a comprehensive project plan including all of the preceding planning outputs.

(Optional Customization Session)

Create your own, organization-specific PM processes to implement following the workshop:

	Teams critically evaluate the generic PM processes and project life cycle, then compare these to their current practices.
	Teams synthesize a unique, team-specific PM life cycle (PM model) and processes.
	Teams create post-workshop To-Do lists to guide follow-up activities.

6 Reasons to Consider this Session for Your Entire Organization

Your organization's project management practices can be transformed overnight as everyone in your group learns to use the same tools and techniques at the same time.
Our up-front consulting can custom-tailor the workshop to help your organization meet specific challenges.
Group participation in the "neutral territory" of the classroom can allow important management issues to be discussed and resolved.
Everyone in your group can develop a new set of project management values resulting in everyone "singing from the same songbook."
An on-site workshop can eliminate the time and expense of travel.
Your supervisors, project sponsors, and key contributors (SMEs, media people, etc.) will enjoy seeing a "single face" as your organization begins to use a consistent set of management practices and terminology.

How Will You Benefit?

	You can immediately use the tools and techniques from this workshop to begin planning your next projects.
	You will learn to more accurately estimate project scope by using detailed guidelines and worksheets.
	You will learn by doing -- by working on case-study exercises and pair practice activities.
	You will discover how to identify critical project team members and determine their specific roles and responsibilities.
	You will take home a powerful textbook (*The Project Manager's Partner*) that is loaded with management job aids that will continue to serve you on the job.

About the Presenter

Michael Greer has many years experience as a project manager and as a trainer. With his company I.D. Network, he has developed full-scale curriculums of sales and technical courses for Epson America, Xerox, and others, completing projects on time, within budget, and with award-winning results. In addition, he has helped Xerox, Apple Computer, and others develop custom project management tools and techniques.

He has presented PM workshops to many organizations, including Apple Computer, American Airlines, Southern California Edison, Hewlett-Packard, Tandem, National Education Centers, the US Office of Personnel Management, International Network Services and many others.

For More Information

For more information about this powerful workshop and a discussion of how the workshop might be customized to meet your specific needs, contact Michael Greer at greers_pm@yahoo.com.

Or check out this web document: How to Schedule an Onsite Workshop.