Advanced Project Management (PMG310)

This Advanced Project Management course serves as an essential resource for organizations looking to enhance their project management practices. Whether you are a team leader managing multiple projects or the sole project manager in your company, this course provides you with advanced strategies and methodologies to ensure project success, from initiation through completion. By integrating project management theory with practical application, it aims to elevate your understanding and execution of project management to new heights.

We start with an exploration of Project Selection and Initiation, highlighting techniques for effectively delineating the project life cycle. Here you'll gain insights into strategic planning and prioritizing projects, ensuring your team selects the right initiatives to pursue. Key elements such as defining the start of a project and guidelines for smooth initiation are also covered, ensuring a robust foundation for all your future projects.

The course then navigates the intricacies of Project Execution Methodology. Learn about the methodologies that underpin successful project execution and discover how to start project work effectively. This section covers stakeholder commitment, resource allocation, and handling inhibitors to future success, empowering you to manage projects with precision. Additionally, you will explore communication strategies, manage issues, and maintain progress visibility through adept forecasting and status updates, all while capturing and utilizing key learning points.

Following this, we dive into Project Variance and Control, offering a detailed framework for performance metrics and reporting. You’ll explore different types of metrics and their interactions, learning how to measure project performance and interpret key data. Gain an understanding of project variance, identify its root contributors, and employ actionable strategies to maintain control. Advanced techniques for managing change, quality, and risk are also integrated into this section to help navigate the dynamic aspects of project management.

In the Project Closure and Learning section, you will acquire strategies for efficient project closure, understanding when and how to glean valuable insights from completed projects. The detailed breakdown of the closure process includes formal acceptance, documenting project events, generating lessons learned, and celebrating successes. Emphasis is placed on analyzing metrics and evaluating processes to ensure both current and future project improvements.

Finally, our journey concludes with a reflective Summary and Conclusion that encompasses everything covered throughout the course. We’ll guide you in evaluating your path forward and identifying opportunities for further growth. By completing this course, you’ll be equipped with the skills to optimize project performance, enhance team collaboration, and strategically guide your organization toward achieving its project management goals.

1. Project Selection and Initiation
   1. Initiating Projects
   2. When Do Projects Start? Defining the Project Life Cycle
   3. Tips for Defining the Start of a Project
   4. Considerations for Initiating Projects
   5. Strategic Planning
   6. Prioritizing Projects
   7. Selecting Projects
   8. Key Elements of the Initiating Process
   9. Guidelines for Project Initiation
2. Project Execution Methodology
   1. Project Execution Methodology
   2. Starting Project Work
   3. The Value of a Good Start
   4. Ensuring a Successful Start to Project Work
   5. Stakeholder Commitment and Team Resources
   6. Inhibitors to Future Success and How to Deal with Them
   7. The Process for Commencing Project Work
   8. Getting Work Done
   9. Facilitating Project Work
   10. Communicating Work Expectations
   11. Managing Issues and Action Items
   12. Key Learning Points
   13. Progress, Status, and Forecasting
   14. Capturing Progress
   15. Updating the Schedule
   16. Forecasting - Predicting Future Project Work
   17. Recognize Process Groups
3. Project Variance and Control
   1. Project Variance and Control
   2. Performance Metrics
   3. A Framework for Performance Reporting
   4. Understanding Different Types of Metrics
   5. How Metrics Interact
   6. Measuring Projects and Generating Metrics Reports
   7. Interpreting Project Metrics
   8. Baseline Metrics
   9. Earned Value Analysis Metrics
   10. Understanding the Causes of Variance
   11. Defining Project Variance
   12. Understanding Different Types of Project Variance
   13. Root Contributors to Variance
   14. Methods for Identifying Root Contributors
   15. Taking Corrective Action to Overcome Variance
   16. Definition/Intention of Corrective Action
   17. Understanding Points of Leverage
   18. Managing Change, Quality, and Risk
   19. Responding to the Dynamic Nature of Projects
   20. Using Process to Create Transparency
   21. Control Processes for Project Change
   22. Quality Control
   23. Quality Assurance
   24. Risk Monitoring and Control Process
4. Project Closure and Learning
   1. The Closing Process
   2. The Challenge of Project Closure
   3. When and How to Learn from Projects
   4. Initial Sizing
   5. Detailed Estimating
   6. Unforeseen Events
   7. Project Closure Reporting and Archiving Processes
   8. Step 1 - Obtain Formal Acceptance
   9. Step 2 - Shut Down the Work Engine
   10. Step 3 - Analyze Metrics, Baseline, and Change Data
   11. Step 4 - Evaluate Processes and Documentation
   12. Step 5 - Documenting Project Events and Circumstances
   13. Step 6 - Generating Lessons Learned
   14. Step 7 - Finalize and Share the Project Closure Report
   15. Step 8 - Celebrating the End of the Project
   16. Step 9 - Archive the Project Records
   17. Step 10 - Conduct Follow-Up Surveys as Negotiated
5. Summary and Conclusion
   1. Where We've Been
   2. Where to Go Next

Each student receives a comprehensive set of materials, including course notes and all class examples.