Estimating and Risk Management (PMG220)

In today's fast-paced business environment, accurately estimating project timelines and effectively managing risks are essential skills that can greatly impact the success of your initiatives. This Estimating and Risk Management course is designed to provide your team with the foundational knowledge and practical techniques needed to enhance project estimation and risk handling capabilities. Whether you're training a group or just one employee looking to improve their skills, this course offers valuable insights applicable to your everyday business operations.

This course kicks off with a comprehensive exploration of Definitions and Concepts related to estimating. Here, you'll learn why estimating is necessary, common obstacles to achieving accuracy, and techniques that enable better estimations. The lesson also covers various approaches and metrics commonly used in the estimating process, setting a solid groundwork for you to build upon.

Moving on to Project Sizing, you’ll explore various models such as the Rayleigh Model, along with direct comparison techniques, to determine project scope effectively. You’ll also be introduced to the Life Cycle Resource Distribution and techniques like Function Point and Delphi Technique, which are important tools in managing resource allocation during the project life cycle.

The course then transitions to Estimating Costs, guiding you through processes to accurately forecast financial aspects of project management. Following this, the lesson on Estimating Effort provides crucial insights into evaluating and determining the level of effort needed for project tasks, employing parametric models and function point estimating approaches.

Through the Estimating Duration lesson, you’ll discover how to convert effort into timelines using statistical analysis of project length, incorporating models like beta and normal distributions for more accuracy. You'll learn how to calculate project timelines and understand when each technique is appropriate to apply.

As the course progresses, you will encounter Risk Management, which offers insights into assessing and planning for risk throughout a project. You’ll examine the psychological aspects of how risk is perceived and how it impacts decision-making, alongside practical risk management processes and planning.

In Risk Identification, the course teaches you how to identify potential risks using diverse methods. You'll explore the use of documentation, historical information, and category structures for comprehensive risk assessment.

The lessons on Qualitative and Quantitative Risk Analyses focus on evaluating risks using standardized techniques and extracting valuable outputs from these analyses, which are useful for forming robust risk management plans.

During the Risk Response Planning and Risk Monitoring and Control phases, you learn practical application techniques for responding to identified risks, monitoring ongoing projects for emerging risks, and adjusting your plans as necessary.

Finally, the course covers Infrastructure improvements that facilitate better estimation processes, ensuring your organization is well-prepared to manage risk efficiently. The course concludes with a Summary and Conclusion, emphasizing the development of good estimates and effective risk management strategies.

By the end of this course, your team will have gained the expertise to enhance estimation accuracy and risk management proficiency, paving the way for improved project outcomes. This preparation is invaluable for companies seeking to optimize their operational efficiency and achieve greater success in their projects.