Advanced Introduction to Project Management

Intensive and highly interactive 40 hours of training based on the latest project management standards and certification requirements.

This course is designed to cover all key aspects of modern project management. It’s dedicated for project managers and PMO specialists who want to broaden their perspective and learn about the latest developments in this discipline.

The content is based on the latest PM standards, such as the PMBOK Guide (6th and 7th Edition), Disciplined Agile, IPMA ICB and IPMA PEB. It also includes tons of practical examples as we strictly follow “no theory – just practice” approach. All this makes this course ideal for practitioners who want to apply this knowledge in their projects and/or prepare for various certifications, for example CAPM or PMP.

Treat yourself with carefully selected and well delivered content, full of real-life examples!

This training is designed as an integrated “helicopter view” journey throughout all the key knowledge areas of project management. It immediately redefines how participants understand these areas and lets them easily integrate various aspects of the project into a complete management system. As you will also learn a lot about tailoring, you will know how to get the best value of methods without overloading your projects.

The concept for this training started from one of the most valued and effective PMP exam prep courses in Poland. It has been developed for over 13 years and had over 97% exam pass ratio. As most participants valued the practical aspect of this course, I have evolved the program to be even more practical and far less focused on certification. Still, as it covers most of the content from the PMBOK Guide, 6th and 7th Edition, it’s still an ideal course to start your preparations for the PMP exam. Of course, we will guide you in all other aspects of getting ready to pass.

The training is led by an internationally recognized expert in project management, who can illustrate every tool and technique with real-life examples from various industries and answer all kinds of practical questions. He is also a contributor to several international standards, having in depth understanding of the key concepts behind. This powerful combination helps you to get the latest knowledge and immediately understand how to apply it.

There is no space for “pure theory” during this course. Every topic is illustrated with real-life practical examples from various industries and shown in a way that enables participants to use the new knowledge for the benefit of their projects. No questions are left unanswered!

Quotes from surveys after the workshop

The course consists of 10 half-day sessions full of knowledge, practical examples and discussion.

• Introduction and leading concepts in modern project management
• The business context and value delivery
• Starting your project step-by-step

• Introduction to project stakeholders
• Project manager as a leader

• Getting started as a team
• Managing your team

• Project lifecycles
• Design and integration of project management Processes

• Requirements management and product design
• Project and product scope management

• Project schedule management
• Management of project resources

• Project cost management
• Earned Value Management in project monitoring

• Tailoring and planning risk management
• From risk identification to implementation of responses

• Planning procurement management
• Understanding contracts and related risks

• Quality management in projects
• Foundations of project governance
• Communication in projects
• Course summary

• Formal requirements for PMP candidates
• PMP application process
• PMP exam tips & tricks
• How to prepare for the exam?
• Where to find the best (and often free) resources?

Even though the program doesn’t focus on certification, it’s designed to be ideal for PMP and CAPM candidates. It will also be great for those who want to understand all the key areas of project management in a nutshell.

• Key trends in modern project management
• Leading standards worth knowing
• Key certifications on the market
• Key principles of project management according to PMI

• Interactions between strategy, portfolios, programs and projects
• The concept of value delivery and ways to deliver it
• Product lifecycles in the context of value delivery
• The role of a modern project manager
• The role of a project sponsor
• Business cases and ways to develop them
• Most popular tools for development of business models (e.g. business model canvas)
• PMO and its potential roles in the organization
• Impact of various organizational structures on the project
• Managing organizational change

• Key steps of starting the project or phase
• The role of a project charter
• Key questions to answer in the beginning
• Identification of the key project constraints (and reasons why the “iron triangle” is an outdated concept)
• Identification of the environmental factors and their impact on planning and execution
• Managing compliance

• Who are your stakeholders?
• Stakeholder identification
• Stakeholder analysis techniques
• The concept of stakeholders engagement in practice
• Tools for building stakeholder engagement
• Planning stakeholder strategies
• Key PM competences for managing stakeholders engagement
• Stakeholders in the context of change

• The concept of Emotional Intelligence
  • Dealing with self
  • Dealing with others
• Competences of a successful Project Manager
  • PMI Talent Triangle
  • IPMA Individual Competence Baseline (IPMA ICB)
• Power and influence
  • Sources of power in the project and related risks
  • Management vs. Leadership
  • Leadership styles

• The concept of integrated teams
• The specifics of co-located, virtual and hybrid teams
• The role of shared understanding
• Team development
  • The role of ground rules
  • Team development – the Tuckman’s model
• Competence and capacity management
  • Typical mistakes in competence assessment and in recruitment
  • Project as an environment for personal development
  • Building empowerment
  • RACI matrix

• Conflict management approaches and their effectiveness
• Key motivation theories in practice:
  • Herzberg
  • Maslow
  • McClelland
  • McGregor
• Measuring and managing the team’s performance

• Key approaches to project lifecycle
  • Predictive
  • Iterative
  • Incremental
  • Adaptive
• Continuous delivery as an alternative lifecycle
• Product development vs project management
  • Sample product development strategies vs project lifecycles
  • The role of the project roadmap
• Project gates – origins, purpose and practical implementation
• Transition of project results to secure value delivery

• Developing a project specific project management approach
  • Importance of the right methods selection and tailoring
  • Adaptation of methods to the needs of the project and its key stakeholders
  • The use and development of organization’s process assets (e.g. internal methods and tools)
• Project management plans
  • The role and content of management plans
  • Key baselines
  • Other documents (e.g. registers)
• Integrated change management
  • The concept of integrated change management
  • Change Control Boards (CCB) – how they work and how to design them
  • Change management processes in practice
• Configuration management in practice
• Interconnections between change management and planning, execution and monitoring processes
• Closing the project step by step

• The difference between requirements and scope
• Collecting requirements
  • ”Classic” techniques (e.g. interview) and their limitations
  • Collaborative approaches (e.g. Design Thinking)
• Dealing with uncertainty of requirements
• Tracing requirements
• Approaches to product design and verification
• Ways to manage design and development of complex products

• Project scope vs product scope and why it matters
• Overall approaches to scope planning and management
  • Fixed scope
  • Rolling-wave planning and iterative methods
  • Agile / adaptive approach
• Work packages, activities, epics, user stories – definitions and practical tips
• Scope management in predictive projects
  • Foundations of WBS design and role in managing scope
  • The purpose and interconnections between WBS, network diagram and Gantt chart
• Scope management in iterative and incremental projects
  • The concept of MVP
  • Value driven decomposition of scope
  • Release planning
• Scope management in agile / adaptive projects
  • Dealing with evolving scope
  • The role of product and iteration (sprint) backlogs
  • Time- and cost-boxing as methods to control scope
• Getting approvals for project deliverables
• Scope monitoring and typical problems that should be avoided (scope creep, gold plating)

• Approaches to scheduling in predictive, iterative/incremental, adaptive (agile) and hybrid projects
• Time estimation
  • Effort vs duration
  • Techniques for effort estimation
  • Typical cognitive biases during estimation
  • Estimation in complex projects
• Key concepts of scheduling in predictive projects
  • The process of scheduling
  • The role of network diagram in planning
  • Gantt chart as the main tool for scheduling
  • Critical path
  • Brief introduction to critical chain
• Key concepts of scheduling in iterative/incremental and adaptive (agile) projects
  • Release planning
  • Iteration (sprint) planning
• Hybrid approaches to scheduling
• Schedule optimization techniques and related risks
• Schedule monitoring approaches

• Planning the resource management
• The Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS) and its role in planning
• Resource estimation techniques
• Management of bottlenecks and scarce resources
• Strategies for unpredictable resource availability
• Monitoring the team and other resources performance

• Key economic indicators behind the business case
• Foundations of cost estimation
• Precision of estimates at various project stages
• The process of developing the project budget
• Financing a project – coordination of cash availability with expenses
• Project reserves – types and role

• Foundations of the method
• Key indicators (SPI, SV, CPI, CV) and their interpretation
• Forecasting using EVM (EAC, VAC, TCPI)

• Key strategies for dealing with uncertainty, ambiguity and complexity
• Risk appetite and tolerance
• Risk management in the context of uncertainty
• Risk management lifecycle
• The role of the Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS)

• Risk identification tools and techniques
• Qualitative and quantitative risk analysis
• Risk metalanguage and its impact on the ability to influence risk
• Responses to threats
• Secondary and residual risks
• Practical approach to managing opportunities
• Communicating risk
• Integration of risk management processes with other knowledge areas

• Most popular procurement strategies
• Processes and key documents related to procurement in projects

• Contract types
  • Fixed Price
  • Cost Plus
  • Time & Materials
• Contract Incentives and Adjustments
  • Incentive Fee
  • Award Fee
  • Economic Price Adjustment
• Contract related risks for the project and its suppliers
• Monitoring procurements

• Quality vs Grade – differences and their consequences in a project
• Accuracy vs Precision – typical mistakes and their consequences
• Philosophy of quality management – key principles
• Cost of quality
• Typical risks of test-based quality approach
• Quality management (assurance) vs quality control
• Key tools of quality management
• Continuous improvement of project management processes

• What is project governance and why you need to think about it?
• Key roles in the context of governance
• The role of policies
• Effective project reporting and supervision

• The anatomy of communication and key risks at various stages
• Communication management plan
  • The role and sample content
  • Effective communication channels
  • Taking care of optimal communication structure

• Formal requirements for PMP candidates
• PMP application process
• PMP exam tips & tricks
• How to prepare for the exam?
• Where to find the best (and often free) resources?