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Organisations typically have the resources, skills, processes and
structures in place to manage the day to day challenges of running
and supporting the business.
However, the introduction of a sizeable project tends to introduce
substantial strain, during and post the project. These projects
get into difficulty early on and the focus of the organisation turns
to getting the project completed, rather than delivering the "capability"
that the organisation sought when it initiated the project.
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As the project gets further into difficulty, budgets tend to become
the key focus, and ability to deliver longer term capability suffers
further.
So the first thing to understand is what we mean by capability.
If the organisations have adequate resources as well as plenty of
experience and skills, why do they continually fail to deliver projects
on time and within budget. Much of this is due to poor structures
and support mechanisms, lack of process and controls, and a need to
inject more conviction and energy into the projects – in short
capability to deliver.
The Azimuth Organisation Capability series of courses aims to help
the organisation maximise their existing capability, by reorganising,
re-skilling, repositioning and restructuring resources and by providing
support and tools that improve overall effectiveness.
This module "Understanding Projects" is one in a series
of modules that aims to improve the organisations capability to successfully
delivery medium to large scale projects.
The course is primarily aimed at existing team lead and project management
resources. The basic premise is that most organisations have the resources
and have invested in adequate training in project methods and tools
and that these resources have been through the mill many times on
projects in the past. In order to successfully run future projects
the project managers must be capable of applying the experience they
have gained to date in a pragmatic and common sense manner.
This course does not use a standard classroom approach or teach the
usual project management tools and methods. The class will be limited
to four persons. It is run over four and a half days (the last half
day being used as an opportunity to recap). The course aims to get
the knowledge out of the heads of the participants and help them leverage
the information and ability they already have.
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| The course is split into four modules |
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| » Day 1 - Project Initiation |
From understanding the impact of, and accounting
for, the environment in which the project must operate, to the
setting of
- Clear project objectives
- Project scoping
- Setting project structure
- Definition of roles and responsibilities
- Stakeholder and boundary management along with the importance
of a professional approach to the overall running of the project. |
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| » Day 2 - Project
Planning |
| From identification of skills, resource usage patterns Vs
budget, use of contingency (implicit and explicit), understanding
project and resource lifecycles and allowing for them, and turning
a detailed plan into a detailed budget. |
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| » Day 3 - Project
Control |
| Managing budget Vs actual, risk management, monitoring progress
and re-planning, managing stakeholders, communication, and regular
project maintenance. |
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| » Day 4 - Project
Review and Closure |
| Ensuring the project continues to operate at pre-defined levels
of quality and standards, taking time out to review what might
need re-planning or re-organisation, audit-ability and change
control, looking for lessons learned and putting time aside
to apply change, and the importance of setting a proper close
date and procedure. |
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The course will be run off-site and set in a unique environment that
will enable the participants to work closely with the instructor and
the other course participants. This will facilitate the common-sense
approach through challenging yet memorable exercises aimed at getting
the participants to maximise their own personal project management
knowledge and capability. Each day will be split in two.
In the morning, the participants will carry out non-project related
common sense exercises that bring project methodology and theory to
life through classroom exercises.
In the afternoon the course concentrates on real life project management
activities and exercises using project examples and supported by a
set of Azimuth Project Templates and Tools.
Day five will be used
to review lessons learned, and to touch on some of the subjects covered
by other courses such as the importance of proper documentation, agreed
and repeatable process, and leadership qualities in a project manager.
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