Project Management Certificate

Loyola's Project Management course will provide you with the formal, industry-standard tools to successfully manage any type of project, regardless of scope or industry. Participants do not need to be seeking certification in order to benefit from this course. This course focuses heavily on real-life applications of project management techniques that you can apply immediately.

In this 5-day course, you will:

• Understand key project management concepts
• Discover insights for successful team leadership and relationship management
• Learn how to effectively initiate, plan, and execute a project
• Explore project selection methods
• Practice cost, quality, and procurement management
• Identify techniques for risk management, estimation, conflict management, and negotiation

Key Benefits

• Fundamental project management tools
• Strengthened concepts of efficient organizational structures and processes
• Understanding of the initiation, planning, control and closeout phases
• Enhanced knowledge of management and communication styles
• Team-based project simulation
• Management style self-assessment

Curriculum

Days 1–2

The first two days of the program identify key factors that lead to a project’s success and describes the Project Management Institute’s five Project Management Processes and each activity that occurs within each process. Participants will facilitate a work breakdown structure (WBS) on a real world project, describe techniques to influence project stakeholders (even when they don’t have formal authority), and identify techniques to provide better estimates for projects. Teams will describe strategies for managing changes that inevitably occur within projects, learn about critical paths, and how to use them successfully to manage any project.

Topics for Days 1–2

Key Project Management Concepts

• What is a project?
• Why do projects fail?
• Rolling wave planning
• The triple constraint

People and Projects

• Key insights into leading teams, and managing stakeholder relationships

Initiating a Project

• Aligning projects to business needs
• Developing a project charter
• Understanding project stakeholders

Planning a Project

• The payback of planning (without going into analysis-paralysis)
• Developing a scope statement
• Defining success criteria

Work Breakdown Structure

• Why develop a WBS?
• Practical techniques for facilitating WBS sessions

Estimation Techniques

• Concepts to improve estimating
• Overview of estimation techniques

Critical Path

• What it is and why it matters
• Practical examples of how to use critical path to deliver

Risk Management

• Risks and projects
• Practical techniques to identify and plan for risks

Control Planning & Closing

• Planning for quality
• Planning for effective communication
• Closing a project and drawing out lessons learned

Day 3–5

The second half of the program covers advanced techniques designed to map participants toward earning credentials in Project Management. Participants will analyze which projects should be selected over others, helping to ensure project selection is accurate and efficient and that stakeholder expectations are managed. The course will touch on cost management and earned value analysis plus cover practices to build quality management and project procurement management into projects. Participants will learn to identify appropriate conflict handling styles for any situation in order to better manage project conflict, and to describe methods to improve accountability and influence skills among project team members.

Topics Day 3–5

Project Selection Methods

• Project lifecycle vs. Product lifecycle
• Benefit measurements methods, such as Weighted Scoring Model, Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR), and Cash Flow Analysis Techniques
• Hands-on exercises to develop skills with each technique

Stakeholder Analysis

• The importance of thoroughly identifying stakeholders
• Approaches to analyzing stakeholders in order to better manage their expectations
• Dealing with stakeholders who are obstacles

Cost Management

• Techniques to estimate project costs.
• Best practices for project cost budgeting
• Earned value management principles and formulas
• Hands-on exercises to develop skills with earned value principles

Quality Management

• The importance of prevention over inspection and other key quality lessons
• Influential voices in quality management
• How to plan quality into projects
• Quality assurance and quality control

Procurement Management

• Best practices for project procurement management
• Applying those practices in your organization
• Contract types and concepts

Managing Conflict

• Sources of conflict on projects
• Conflict handling modes & techniques

Accountability & Influence

• Techniques to improve accountability and influence on teams

Negotiating Skills

• Stages of negotiating
• Hands-on negotiating exercise