Deeply Practical Project Management (16 PDUs)

How to apply the PMI project management processes in the simplest, most practical way, with a professional 44M example.

Created by: William Stewart PhD, PMP, DPPM
Project management made practical

What Will I Learn?

• "Finally an online course that teaches the 'how' of project management from an experienced veteran." – Karin Brame
• One comprehensive course that covers the entire PM process, with a professional $44M example.
• Earn a Practical Project Manager (PPM) certification from the IFPPM.
• Get the practical background needed to pass the PMI PMP exam, and earn 16 Professional Development Units (PDU’s).
• How to get stakeholder and senior management support at the beginning of your project, and maintain it throughout.
• The most important project manager skills, including communication, team management, negotiation, and leadership.
• How to plan your project efficiently and effectively, so everyone has realistic expectations before you start.
• How to avoid the top three causes of project failure, and manage the top three drivers of project success.
• How to initiate your project so all stakeholders are supportive and planning will be maximally productive.
• The three best common ways to build a business case that demonstrates your project is worth pursuing.
• The key techniques to gathering good project requirements, with best practices for documentation, review, and approval.
• Real-life examples and advice for building your work breakdown structure (WBS), and when to break it down further.
• Why your precedence diagram is the key to good project management, even more important than the Gantt schedule.
• Five techniques for estimating, how to estimate within +/- 10%, and how to handle estimating error.
• An animated example of how to calculate the critical path, and why schedule is actually more important than budget.
• How to decide whether to build or buy, the best type of contract structure, and the best way to make the award.
• How to prepare a good project plan, brief management, communicate options, stay truthful, and protect your career.
• The essentials of building the best project team, and how to delegate, motivate, and resolve personnel conflicts.
• How to manage scope so you can find the things inevitably missed, while avoiding scope creep.
• How to use the critical path to focus on the most important items, reallocate resources, and make the PM’s job easy.
• How to track the budget and manage its key drivers to obtain the best cost performance possible.
• How to identify the risks up front, mitigate them early, and manage your project to stay within the risk budget.
• The most effective things you can do to manage quality and ensure the customer is happy with the project result.
• How to use earned value management (EVM) to objectively estimate future cost and schedule performance.
• How to ask the stakeholders for help when your project is in trouble in the most productive and constructive way.
• How to use scenarios to sign off requirements and make sure the customer loves the result at the same time.
• How to gather lessons learned to find both what went well and what can be improved, and easily gather them as you go.
• How to close your project, write a good final report, and hold a project celebration so everyone can transition to their next challenge.
• Includes a complete example of professional project management documentation for the $44M “Magical Devices Version 3” project.
• Includes the book “How To Plan Your Project With Microsoft Office” describing how to document scope, schedule, and budget.
• Many short quizzes, nine project management document templates, a 250 page reference manual, and six summary checklists.
• Gain a deeply practical understanding of the PMI process for those that wish to write an exam and obtain a certification.

Requirements

• Comprehensive coverage of the PM best practices, with a wealth of practical tips and tricks for new project managers and experienced veterans alike.

Target audience

• Project managers that want a practical description of how to apply project management in real life.
• Anyone working on projects that wants to understand the practical essentials of the project management best practices.
• Managers and leaders: Includes a mini course on communications, team management, negotiation, and leadership.