Managing Projects

All throughout your life, whether at work, rest or play, you’ll need to organise and manage projects.

Whether it’s completing some course work for your studies, a new implementation at work or even if you’re organising a holiday! In order to be successful you’ll need to be well organised and you need to be able to manage resources, time and costs.

In this textbook you’ll will learn skills and the techniques to manage projects more effectively. Just what makes up a successful project? There are many factors and you are going to learn them all within this textbook.

Preface

All throughout your life, whether at work, rest or play, you’ll need to organise and manage projects.

Whether it’s completing some course work for your studies, a new implementation at work or even if you’re organising a holiday! In order to be successful you’ll need to be well organised and you need to be able to manage resources, time and costs.

In this textbook you’ll will learn skills and the techniques to manage projects more effectively. Just what makes up a successful project? There are many factors and you are going to learn them all within this textbook.

Sean McPheat, the Founder and Managing Director of management development specialists, MTD Training is the author of this publication. Sean has been featured on CNN, BBC, ITV, on numerous radio stations and has contributed to many newspapers. He’s been featured in over 250 different publications as a thought leader within the management development and training industry.

MTD has been working with a wide variety of clients (both large and small) in the UK and internationally for several years.

MTD specialise in providing:

• In-house, tailor made management training courses (1-5 days duration)

• Open courses (Delivered throughout the UK at various locations)

• Management & leadership development programmes (From 5 days to 2 years)

• Corporate and executive coaching (With senior or middle managers)

MTD provide a wide range of management training courses and programmes that enable new and experienced managers to maximise their potential by gaining or refining their management and leadership skills.

Our team of highly skilled and experienced trainers and consultants have all had distinguished careers in senior management roles and bring with them a wealth of practical experience to each course. At MTD Training we will design and deliver a solution that suits your specific needs addressing the issues and requirements from your training brief that best fits your culture, learning style and ways of working.

Our programmes are delivered when and where you need them! We believe that training should be fun, highly interactive and provide “real world” practical techniques and methods that you can use back in the office – and that’s exactly what we provide.

Content

Preface

1. Introduction
1.1 The Benefits of Project Management
1.2 What Do We Mean by a Project?
1.3 Basic Project Management Systems and Tools

2. Project Definition
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Background
2.3 Objectives
2.3.1 Key Success Criteria (KSC)
2.3.3 Deliverables
2.4 Scope
2.5 Constraints
2.5.1 Resources
2.5.2 Performance Criteria
2.5.3 Time
2.5.4 Risk
2.6 Assumptions
2.7 Reporting
2.8 Dependencies
2.9 Estimates
2.10 Timescales

3. Planning the Project
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Milestones and Phases
3.3 Project Timeframe and Cost
3.3 Choosing Your Team
3.4 Planning for Contingencies

4. Common Project Management Tools
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Brainstorming
4.3 Fishbone Diagrams
4.4 Project Critical Path Analysis (CPA) Chart
4.5 Gantt Charts

5. Working with Your Team
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing
5.2.1 Introduction
5.2.2 Forming
5.2.3 Storming
5.2.4 Norming
5.2.5 Performing
5.2.6 Adjouring or Mourning
5.3 Communicating with Your Team
5.4 Delegating to Others
5.4.1 Introduction
5.4.2 Why People Resist Delegating
5.4.3 When Delegating Does and Doesn’t Work
5.4.4 To Whom?
5.4.5 How to Delegate Successfully

6. Resources