Masterclasses? Refreshers? Introductions?
It depends what you're looking for and where you want to pitch them, but here are six tried-and-tested highly focused sessions that organisations can take individually or as a series, to help develop their teams' project management capabilities one topic at a time.
Objectives for each individual session are set out below, as part of the session outlines.
Taken together, as a series, however, these modules are an ideal opportunity to develop your team's levels of project management capability maturity, whether that's by introducing them to the basic principles, refreshing them on best practice, or giving them the opportunity to really drill down into a specific area of challenge in your particular operating environment.
Session outlines
1 Stakeholder management
Session objectives
This session will help participants:
Understand why stakeholders matter to projects
Be able to identify and engage stakeholders
Be able to categorise stakeholders by their significance
1 Key principles
What does 'stakeholder' mean - in theory?
What does this mean in practice?
Why stakeholders matter
Consequences of missing stakeholders
The stakeholder management process:IdentifyAssessPlanEngage
2 Identifying stakeholders
Rapid listing
CPIG analysis
PESTLE analysis
Drawing on the knowledge and experience of others
Other ways to identify stakeholders
3 Assessing stakeholders
Which stakeholders are significant?
Stakeholder radar
Power-interest maps
Power-attitude maps
4 Planning
The adoption curve
Dealing with obstacles
Who should engage which stakeholder?
How should the project's organisation be structured?
How will communication happen?
5 Engaging
Seven principles of stakeholder engagement
2 Requirements and prioritisation
Session objectives
This session will help participants:
Understand how clarity of requirements contributes to project success
Use different techniques for prioritising requirements
Agree requirements with stakeholders
Manage changes to requirements
1 Understanding and managing stakeholder needs and expectations
What are 'requirements'?
What is 'requirements management'?
Sources of requirements - and the role of stakeholders
Are stakeholders sufficiently expert to specify their needs?
Do they understand the detail of what they want, or do they need help to tease that out?
What do stakeholders want to achieve?
Working within constraints
Prioritising requirements - three techniques
2 MoSCoW prioritisation
'Must have', should have', 'could have, 'won't have this time'
When to use MoSCoW
3 The Kano Model
Customer satisfaction - 'attractive' and 'must-be' qualities
When to use Kano
4 Value-based prioritisation
Understanding risk v value
Using risk v value to prioritise features and schedules
5 Agreeing requirements
Perfect v 'good enough'
Establishing acceptance criteria
Requirements traceability
Agreeing project scope
6 Changing requirements
Why requirements change
Why change control matters
Impact on projects
A formal change control process
Paying for change - managing change for different types of project
3 Estimating
Session objectives
This session will help participants:
Understand the different purposes estimates satisfy
Be able to use different estimating techniques
Understand how to achieve different levels of accuracy
1 Key principles
What's an estimate? Informed guesswork
What needs to be estimated? Costs, resources, effort, duration
Tolerances
Precision v accuracy
2 Estimating through the lifecycle
Start
Plan
Do
3 Early estimates
Comparative ('analogous') estimating
Parametric estimating
Using multiple estimating techniques
4 Bottom-up estimating
Bottom-up ('analytical') estimating
Pros
Cons
5 Three-point estimating
Three-point ('PERT': Programme Evaluation and Review Technique) estimating
Uncertainty and the range of estimates
Calculating a weighted average
Three-point with bottom-up
4 Scheduling
Session objectives
This session will help participants:
Understand how to create a viable schedule
Be able to use different forms of schedule
Understand the concept of the critical path
1 Key principles
The planning horizon
Rolling wave planning
Release planning
2 Viable scheduling
Creating a viable schedule
Define the scope
Sequence the work
Identify the risks and build in mitigations
Identify the resources
Estimate the effort and durations
Check resource availability
Refine until a workable schedule is produced
3 Critical path analysis
The critical path
Network diagrams
Sequence logic
Practical application:Network diagram with estimated durationsThe 'forward pass'The 'backward pass'Calculating total floatIdentifying the critical pathCalculating free float
Gantt charts
5 Risk and issue management
Session objectives
This session will help participants:
Understand the difference between risks and issues
Be able to identify and assess risks
Understand ways of mitigating risks
Manage issues
1 Key principles
Understanding risk
Threats and opportunities
The risk management processPreparation - proactive risk managementThe process - identify, assess, plan, implementStakeholder communication
Roles and responsibilities
Risk management strategy
The risk register
Risk appetite
2 Risk identification
Brainstorming
Interviews
Assumption analysis
Checklists
3 Risk assessment and prioritisation
Probability, impact and proximity
Triggers
Qualitative risk assessment
Qualitative impact assessment
Qualitative probability assessment
Probability / impact grid
Bubble charts
Risk tolerance
4 Planning countermeasures
To mitigate or not to mitigate?
Categories of risk response
Avoid and exploit
Reduce and enhance
Transfer
Share
Accept
Contingency
Secondary risks
5 Issue management
What is an issue?
Tolerances
Issues and tolerances
The PRINCE2 view of issues
Ownership of issues
An issue management process
Issue register
6 Budgeting and cost control
Session objectives
This session will help participants:
Understand what to include in a budget - and why
Choose - and use - the appropriate estimating technique
Align the budget with the schedule
Understand how to monitor spend and control costs
Trouble-shoot effectively to get projects back within budget
Session format
Flexible. The session can be tailored to the participants' average level of project management maturity - a 60-minute session (delivered virtually) is an effective introduction. A 90-minute session allows for more in-depth treatment. A half-day session (face-to-face or virtual) gives time for a more challenging workshop, particularly to discuss specific cost control issues with any of the participants' current projects.
1 Where is the money coming from?
Can we pay from revenue? Do we need to borrow? How long will the project take to pay back?
The lifecycle of the budget
Through-life costs
Stakeholder involvement
2 Estimating costs
Reminder: the relationship between estimates
Reminder: possible estimating techniques
What do we need to estimate?PeopleEquipmentMaterialsFacilities and operating costsWork package estimateEstimated project costs
Estimating agile projects
3 Aligning budget and schedule
Scheduling and financial periods
Spreading the budget
4 Reserves and agreeing the budget
Contingency reserve
Management reserve
Agreeing the budget
5 Cost control
Planned spend over time
Actual spend over time
Work completed over time
Evaluating different scenarios: delivery v spend
6 Trouble-shooting
Why are we where we are?
What has caused the project to spend at the rate it is?
Why is it delivering at the rate it is?
What are the root causes?
What can we do about it?