lml services catalogue vn 14

Results are promising : Turnedpower on and no smoke detected -- this time...

Elements will be phased ingradually asthe softwarematures:It's late!

Ess

entia

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It's

hal

f don

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We

pred

ict..

. : W

e ho

pe to

God

! S

erio

us b

ut n

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surm

ount

able

pro

blem

s. :

It'll

take

a m

iracl

e...

Bas

ic a

gree

men

t has

bee

n re

ache

d. :

The

@##

$%%

's w

on't

even

talk

to u

s.

Slip: Being first at the bar

Float: Remaining Beer kitty

Milestone: Paul buys a round

Earned Value: The Pay Cheque

Barchart: Price List at the local pub

Critical Path Analysis: Shortest route

between work and the local pub

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. the

courage to change the things I cannot accept, and the wisdom

to hide the bodies of those I had to kill today because they got

on my nerves. And also, help me to be careful of the toes I

step on today as they may be connected to the feet I may

have to kiss tomorrow. Help me to always give 100% at

work...12% on Monday 23% on Tuesday 40% on

Wednesday 2O% on Thursday 5% on Fridays.

And help me to remember...

When I'm having a really bad day, & it seems

that people are trying to wind me up,

that it take 42 muscles to frown, 28 to

smile and only 4 to extend my arm

and smack someone in the mouth!

Task force to review. : Seven

people who are

incompetent at their

regular jobs have been

loaned to the project

Not well defined at this time. :

Nobody's even

thought about it.

Still analysing the

requirements. : See

previous answer.

Not well understood. : Now

that we've thought

about it, we don't want

to think about it

anymore.

A w

oman

in a

hot

air

ballo

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as lo

st.

She

redu

ced

altit

ude

and

spot

ted

a m

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. Sh

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"Exc

use

me,

can

you

hel

p? I

pro

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d a

frien

d I w

ould

mee

t her

an

hour

ago

, but

I do

n't k

now

wher

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m."

The

man

repl

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"You

are

in a

hot

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ballo

on h

over

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appr

oxim

atel

y 30

feet

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f the

Col

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ear

one

of th

e re

mna

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opul

atio

ns a

nd s

paw

ning

gro

unds

of th

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ack

suck

er."

"You

mus

t be

a bi

olog

ist"

said

the

ballo

onis

t.

"I am

," re

plie

d th

e m

an. "

How

did

you

kno

w?"

"Wel

l," a

nsw

ered

the

ballo

onis

t, "e

very

thin

g yo

u to

ld m

e is

tech

nica

lly c

orre

ct, b

ut I

have

no

idea

wha

t to

mak

e of

your

info

rmat

ion,

and

the

fact

is I

am s

till lo

st. F

rank

ly,

you'

ve n

ot b

een

muc

h he

lp s

o fa

r."

The

man

bel

ow re

spon

ded:

"You

mus

t be

a pr

ojec

t man

ager

."

"I am

," re

plie

d th

e ba

lloon

ist,

"but

how

did

you

kno

w?"

"Wel

l, sa

id th

e m

an, "

you

don'

t kno

w w

here

you

are

or w

here

you'

re g

oing

. You

hav

e ris

en to

whe

re y

ou a

re d

ue to

a

larg

e qu

antit

y of

hot

air.

You

mad

e a

prom

ise

to s

omeo

ne

that

you

hav

e no

idea

how

to k

eep,

and

you

exp

ect m

e

to s

olve

you

r pro

blem

. The

fact

is, y

ou a

re in

exa

ctly

the

sam

e po

sitio

n yo

u we

re in

bef

ore

we m

et, b

ut

som

ehow

it's

now

my

faul

t!“

In the beginning was THE PLAN.And then came The Assumptions.And The Plan was without substance.And The Assumptions were without form.And darkness was upon the face of the Workers.

And they spoke among themselves, saying,'It is a crock of s--t, it stinks.'And the workers went unto their Supervisors, and said,'It is a pail of dung, and none may abide the odour thereof.'

And the Supervisors went unto their Managers, saying'It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong, such that none may abide it.'

And the Managers went unto their Directors, saying,'It is a vessel of fertiliser, and none may abide its strength.'

And the Directors spoke among themselves saying one to another,'It contains that which aids plant growth, and it is very strong.'

And the Directors went to the Vice-Presidents, saying unto them,'It promotes growth, and it is very powerful.'

And the Vice-Presidents went to the President, saying unto him,'This new plan will actively promote the growth andvigour of the company, with powerful effects.'

And the President looked upon The Plan, and saw thatit was good.And The Plan became policy.And that is how S--t happens.

What does a Project Manager DO?

Project Managers are a fortunate lot,

for, as everyone knows, a project manager

has nothing to do; that is, except...

To decide what is to be done; to tell somebody to

do it; to listen to reasons why it should not be done,

why it should be done by somebody else, or why it should be

done in a different way; and to prepare arguments in rebuttal that

shall be convincing and conclusive.

And then:To follow up to see if the thing has been done; to discover that it has not been

done; to enquire why it has not been done; to listen to excuses from the person

who did not do it; and to think up arguments to overcome the excuses.

And then:To follow up a second time to see if the thing has been done;

to discover that is has been done incorrectly; to point out how it shall be done;

to conclude that as long as it has been done it might as well be left as it is;

to wonder if it is not time to get rid of the person who cannot do a thing correctly;

to reflect that in all probability any successor would be just as bad, or worse.

And finally:To consider how much more simply and better the thing would have been done

had he done it himself in the first place; to reflect satisfactorily that if he had done it

himself he would have been able to do it right in 20 minutes and that as things

turned out, he himself spent two days trying to find out why it is that it has taken

somebody else three weeks to do it wrong.

To realise that such an idea would have a very demoralising effect on the project

team, because it would strike at the very foundation of the belief of all employees

that a project manager has nothing to do.

Good, but…perhaps a

little more detail here ?

Logical Model Ltd: S

ervice Offerings

Simon Harris, PMP, CGEIT

Logic

al Mo

del L

td ©2

009

Project

Skills

Series

LogicalModel Ltd © 2009, Format: Catalogue FCover, Vn6

©Lo

gica

lMod

el L

td 2

004

www.logicalmodel.net 0845 2 57 57 07

Summary of Offerings PRINCE2®

certification training is mostly a waste

of money for organisation

Lastly (!) we offer PRINCE2® exam certification courses. We believe that PRINCE2® certification training is mostly a waste of time and money*. We will provide it if that is your want. We hold the authorisations – but sadly - In an exam-cram course people are taught to pass an exam and rarely appreciate before they start that PRINCE2® sits on top of an assumed competency in project management. Exam-crammers knowledge quickly fades and rarely do they know how to transfer skills to the work-place where the exam’s topics will happen in parallel, iteratively, partially and with political dimensions. Our passion is to add lasting and memorable “how” to “what”. We dwell upon effective transfer of class-room knowledge to real-world skills. For example our materials use sophisticated techniques to aid future recall and our services include post-class follow-through.

[*For individuals certification is vital for invites to interviews. For organisations it is probably the wrong target for the reasons above]. While destroying myths we draw little distinction between project and programme – there are differences but not as much as the hype suggest –both are simply mechanisms to create change within benefits realisation – the real topic.

[email protected]

Services The Classroom is 40% of the effort

to extract ROI from training. We also support the

60% Back@Work effort so you

generate bang-for-the-buck

Firstly we offer training, mentoring and consultancy in how to manage ‘enabling benefits’. If you want your people returning ROI on training we suggest that the training is 40% of your initiative’s effort: the other 60% is alignment to goals and support from line management. We sell our insights in either a PRINCE2® or non PRINCE2® wrapper from novice to advanced levels, in broad overviews or topic focussed master-classes.

Page 1 of 101

You provide the venue and the

attendees

If you know your needs you can pick+mix the topics below otherwise we can determine the required skills transfer and provide any mix of process/ QMS development, support of class-

room to work-place translation, and mentoring to support training: you choose. Contact details See Booking Courses & Consultancy page 4 You provide the attendees and the venue (we could if you wish), we provide the quality end-result via provision of all necessary materials and the speaker and whatever pre-event and post-event support and follow-up that you wish to discuss. We will provide

the knowledge transfer & follow-

up to achieve skills development

We are a two-person company linked to a network of others: Thus our overheads are lower, our approach more flexible, more responsive and our concern for your needs sharper. Advantages that you may feel are linked with disadvantages. If you prefer the bigger players chances are they sub-contracted to us, give no follow through after training and you get less lasting ROI!

PRINCE2® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries


[email protected] Page 2 of 101

Table of Contents Summary of Offerings ......................................................................................................................................... 1 Services .............................................................................................................................................................. 1 Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................................... 2 Recent Quotes .................................................................................................................................................... 3 Booking Courses & Consultancy ........................................................................................................................ 4 The Philosophy Embedded In Our Project Approach ......................................................................................... 4 Simon Harris, PMP ............................................................................................................................................. 5

Five Courses in Benefits Realisation, Sponsorship & Project Governance: Courses for those with accountability for Project Oversight (& see under Non-certificated PRINCE2® courses) .............................. 6

Isochron® Dimension Four® Tools & Techniques of Benefits Realisation ........................................................ 7 Projects: A Sponsor’s Survival Guide ................................................................................................................ 9 Harvesting Benefits: Reaping the Return on Project Investment ..................................................................... 11 Business Case Master-Class ............................................................................................................................ 13 Project Governance: Everything You’ll Ever Need To Know To Be a Project Steering Committee Member ............................................................................................................................................................. 16

Five Foundation Skills Courses in Best Practice Project Management Real-world Treatment of Project Management Tools and Techniques drawn from the Best of the Best............................................. 18

Delivering Results to Plan: Structured Project Management from the Ground Up ........................................... 19 Turning “What the Customer Wants” into “What they Get”: Core Competencies for Managing Project Scope (and Quality) .............................................................................................................................. 22 When & @ What Cost: Core Competencies For Building & Managing Project Schedule and Budget ............. 25 The PM Tool Bag: The Tools and Techniques of Project Management .......................................................... 27 Tools & Techniques for the Management of Projects: A 2 day INTENSIVE course ........................................ 29

Six Advanced Topics: PMO Set-Up and Operation, Managing Project Managers, Delivering Complex Projects, Managing Programmes and Recovery of Challenged Projects ...................................... 32

PMO Set-up and Operation: Overseeing & Supporting the Work of Project in The Enterprise ........................ 33 Project Rescue: Diagnosing & Rescuing Troubled Projects ............................................................................ 35 Delivering Complex Projects: Leading and Controlling Where ‘Managing’ Doesn’t Work ................................ 38 Herding Cats: Managing Project Managers, Programmes and Portfolios ........................................................ 40 Changing the Business: Programme Management .......................................................................................... 43 Management of Change and Change Management Creating the will to embrace, & the ability to control change .................................................................................................................................................. 46

Eight Master-Classes from: Reviews to EVM, LfE to Configuration Management! ☺ ................................. 48 Gate Reviews: Roles, Tools and Techniques That Ensure We Know If We Are On Course Or Not ................. 49 Truly Tracking Project Progress: Measuring Accomplishment Using Earned Value Management .................. 51 Learning from Experience: The Master-Class in Lessons Learned as a Valuable Reality ............................... 52 “How Much ?!*@$#~?”: The Master-Class in Estimating ................................................................................. 54 Good Enough?: The Master-Class in Managing Project Quality ...................................................................... 57 Threat & Opportunity: The Master-Class in Risk Management ........................................................................ 60 Where are We?: The Master-Class in Project Tracking & Control ................................................................... 64 “Which Version Do I Need?”: Configuration Management ............................................................................... 66

Three Miscellaneous Topics: Cobit™, Incident Management and BCP ....................................................... 70 CobiT™: Using the Framework for IT Governance .......................................................................................... 71 HELP! Incident Management for Help Desk Staff ............................................................................................. 74 Business Survival! Creating the Capability for Business Continuity .................................................................. 77

Seven Non-Certification Courses on PRINCE2® Skills in Real-World Usage ............................................. 80 Foundation Skills for Would Be PRINCE2® Practitioners: What the PRINCE2® Manual Assumes You Already Know ............................................................................................................................................ 81

www.logicalmodel.net 0845 2 57 57 07 Real-world and Practical PRINCE2®: Fluency in Actually USING PRINCE2® ............................................... 84 Fulfilling The Project Board Member Roles in PRINCE2® The Master-Class for Senior Managers ................. 86 The Board’s Eyes and Ears: Fulfilling the PRINCE2® Project Assurance Roles ............................................. 88 Driving a Project using PRINCE2®: Filling the Senior Roles ........................................................................... 90 Delivering Results using PRINCE2®: Awareness of PRINCE2® Use For Managers And Participants ....................................................................................................................................................... 92 Product Development in a PRINCE2® Project: Understanding MP: Managing Product Delivery .................... 94

Two PRINCE2® Certification Courses and multiple options on how they are scheduled ............................ 96 Achieving PRINCE2® Practitioner Qualification ............................................................................................... 97 Accelerated PRINCE2®: Qualification in a Weekend .................................................................................... 100

Recent Quotes


The subject matter delivered [project Scope & Quality] is by no means easy to convey to a room of [30] candidates over 3 days and maintain everyone’s enthusiasm. To this end Simon did so perfectly – Thoroughly enjoyable course – well done

None – Fantastic training delivered exceptional well by a very knowledgeable tutor. Simon made quality a subject that could be taught with some enthusiasm

Open, informative and fluent presentation coupled with regular check on class understanding of topics covered to date


Booking Courses & Consultancy Please contact Simon on +0845 2 57 57 07 and email [email protected]

The Philosophy Embedded In Our Project Approach Our observations start with the earth at that stage where it is a spinning ball of hot rock devoid of oxygen. Lots of millions of years ago the oceans contained enough bacteria manufacturing oxygen that they managed to poison themselves (after 300 million years of flourishing). If they had had newspapers and sentience they may have recognised the onset of their own equivalent to ‘global warming’.

[email protected]

The mechanisms that have shaped

the earth’s population over

the last half billion years are still in

play (in our projects)

Somewhere in the ensuing years came dinosaurs from whom we inherit a primitive brain stem but eventually “us”. Amongst the many fascinating illustrations of how the world has changed

and the bacteria have given way to the human is the story of the coyote. Less than 200 years ago the coyote was a small, dumb dog with a limited foot-print in North America. Following years of persecution by farmers the (surviving) coyotes are now bigger, stronger, smarter and able to claim residency in 50 of the 52 state of the USA. The mechanisms that shaped the Earth’s population so profoundly over the last half-billion years are still in play. In play in our projects! To ignore them when formulating theories and explanations of how to make projects succeed is at best missing an opportunity, at worst it subjects any set of ideas to fatal flaw.

While you read the previous paragraphs you were breathing. An action carried out by that part of your brain largely shared with reptiles, and certainly not the result of thinking “in-breath, out-breath, in-…” Next time you say something in a project context of which you are less than entirely certian try not to touch your nose. It is possible (as a result of thinking about it), it is not necessarily easy. Earlier in this paragraph was a typo: did you read it for what was intended?, did you fail to notice? Was your reaction to demote or dismiss the vale of all the words that came before or will come afterwards? Projects are the creation of people and people the creation of natural forces. Natural forces have given us all attitudes that shape how we interact with the world around us, and one overriding programmed imperative: prosper our genes, causing two truths to drive our universe. The world is driven by sex and death. Their manifestation in the business world maybe by metaphors such as personal promotion or increased share-price, a nicer car in the garage, more leisure time and sleeping more soundly at night. The drivers are there in our tribal behaviours as we form teams, embrace goals and seek recognition of a job well done.

To run a project successfully requires command of tools, for example to express

scope such as the family of breakdown structures, but also the appreciation

of the more elemental forces of evolution,

human behaviour and motivation.

To run a project successfully requires command of tools, for example to express scope such as the family of breakdown structures, but also the appreciation of the more elemental forces of evolution, human behaviour and motivation.

Page 4 of 101


[email protected]

The mechanics of running a project are so simple that this page still contains space to set them out in full. Yet the rest of the catalogue is insufficient to fully cover everything needed in every context.

Simon Harris, PMP Simon is a qualified PMP (Project Management Professional) and CGEIT (Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT), a certified MOR and PRINCE2 practitioner, P2 trainer & retired P2 examiner. Simon is a member of the Isochron Project Management Think Tank. He has 30 years in projects, the last 19 years as either project manager or programme management team member in projects up to £100m revenue expense.

A project starts with an idea. The idea germinates in the mind that sees opportunity to pursue or a problem to overcome. In many contexts the idea competes with other ideas for allocation of resources (like the coyote?). Means such as NPV, IRR or strategic fit vie with politics & power-broking, stakeholder whims and serendipity. When the idea is selected effort is expended to define scope. Often by establishing goals and deliverables, or “End-Points” perhaps measured by KPIs, and KGIs to be used during Benefits Realisation. We test: do deliverables meet the goal, resolve (totally?) satisfy the need of the (sufficiently significant?) stakeholders.

Experience ranges from corporate restructuring through software developments and service improvement projects in defence, financial, utility and local government sector organisations. Once deliverables are defined the tasks to create

them and the time, skills and resources that will be consumed can be calculated, plotted and requested. All such requests will (should) include allowance for uncertainty, allowance for change of intention, allowance for failure of capability versus aspiration and for every other way in which either the half-billion year forces or the reptilian and higher minds can confuse and confound purpose. In this jumble of uncertainties is the reason the rest of the catalogue is insufficient to cover everything.

Recent assignments include:

• Consulting on the implementation of IT Governance to a UN agency.

• Workshops using the COBIT & ITIL frameworks for IT governance to Deloitte & Touche’s managers of corporate risk practices.

• Programme office manager for a £100m development. Subsequent creation of programme and governance structures for a variety of large-scale programmes in enterprise contexts.

• Member team restructuring a US$6bn subsidiary of GE.

• Project execution and training for many blue-chip organisations BAE, Rolls-Royce, Novartis, BP, Royal Bank of Scotland, Motorola, AOL, Bank of Ireland, Barclays, Axa et. al..

Simon’s background started with 11 years at the London Stock Exchange followed by contract assignments since then to date. Simon was born in London in 1958 and now lives in Edinburgh with his wife and two teenage children.

Once planned and base-lined the project is executed. If we possess the quality control insights and scope verification techniques to gauge progress then and only then can results can be compared to aspirations. Variances from plan identified. Advances & advantages consolidated, problems responded to and the sequence of plan (aspire), execute (perspire?), measure, re-plan/ react, execute (expire?), and re-measure cycles repeatedly until all deliverables (physical or not) are produced, participant needs satisfied and the project closed. Closure is really only the beginning – for who ever did a project for its own sake? Projects are just a necessary evil to enable some benefit (the metaphor for sex) or avoid some problem (death).

Page 5 of 101



Five Courses in Benefits Realisation, Sponsorship & Project Governance: Courses for those with accountability

for Project Oversight (& see under Non-certificated PRINCE2® courses)

Five Courses in Benefits Realisation, Sponsorship & Project Governance: Courses for those with accountability for Project Oversight (& see under Non-certificated PRINCE2® courses) .............................. 6

Isochron® Dimension Four® Tools & Techniques of Benefits Realisation ........................................................ 7 Projects: A Sponsor’s Survival Guide ................................................................................................................ 9 Harvesting Benefits: Reaping the Return on Project Investment ..................................................................... 11 Business Case Master-Class ............................................................................................................................ 13 Project Governance: Everything You’ll Ever Need To Know To Be a Project Steering Committee Member ............................................................................................................................................................. 16



Isochron® Dimension Four® Tools & Techniques of Benefits Realisation

Dimension Four® is Isochron®’s proprietary Benefits Realisation Methodology. D4 has revolutionised the specification of project outcomes in many major projects and programmes by linking SMART “Show-Me” Recognition Events® and Value Flashpoints® to shareholder value (and public sector service commitments). Logical Model is Isochron’s training and examining partner, preparing candidates for the certification level of qualification that is pre-requisite to methods usage. After several months of usage certified apprentices may seek accreditation from Isochon® as Journeymen

You Will Learn To Apply the Dimension Four® methodology to projects in your organisation. Use the Dimension Four® tools and techniques to radically improve delivery of change with clearer benefits and reduced cost

Duration • Standard Full Course 4 Days

0900 to 1630 formal class hours (1630 onward informal/ optional time for discussion of “topics raised on the day” and demonstration of relevant software tools if wanted), 1530 finish on last day.

Course Benefits Certification in Dimension Four® Certainty of benefits delivery from change projects and programmes

Who Should Attend Business managers in organisations contemplating change Dimension Four® facilitators in organisations yet to embed Dimension Four® into business as usual skill sets Project and Programme Offices supporting changes in their organisations Benefits Delivery Authorities.

Content & Workshops

Introduction and Overview Logistics, Introductions, Course Objectives, Course Contents, Exercise: Personal Goals.



Dimension Four® Concepts and Vocabulary

Method Overview

Triggering and Sustaining Change

Recognition Events® and Transfiguration

Value Drivers, Value Flashpoints®, Monte Carlo Boxed Estimating and The Value Case

Back-Casting, Costs, Affordability and The Business Case

The Benefits Control Process

Course Summary The course is based on a case-study and group exercises in which participants create all the Dimension Four® deliverables. Each set of Dimension Four® techniques are examined during the course. Subsequently d4 journeymen may apply for examination (written and oral) for confirmation as Dimension Four® Crafts-people



Projects: A Sponsor’s Survival Guide

An introduction and explanation of the sponsor’s role and responsibilities for project definition, delivery and return on investment.

You Will Learn To Fulfil the role of sponsor or Senior Responsible Project Executive. Create and/ or Critique a project justification, its business case, estimates and risks at project start-up and on-going basis. Ask yourself & your project manager the right questions at the right time to establish the minimum necessary level of involvement for the necessary level of control. Understand life-cycles and related gated decision making structures. Establish post-project activities for benefits realisation.

Duration Available in a variety of formats to suit organisational maturity and commitment.

• Lightning introduction and awareness session 2hrs. • Standard awareness session ½ day. • Awareness and introduction to tools 1 day. • Awareness and application of tools and techniques 2 days.

Course Benefits Know the Critical Success Factors that improve business outcomes enabled by projects. Sponsors understand what is expected of them and their role in project success (and in project failures) and onwards into successful return-on-investment (or not). Project sponsors and project managers share a common view of the project landscape and the responsibilities of each role.

Who Should Attend Management staff interfacing with projects as either project owner, project sponsor, resource owner or impacted stakeholder. Programme office staff with responsibility for supporting senior managers with visibility into projects and/ or for supporting project managers plan, execute and deliver project results. Audit staff and all staff members with oversight & reporting responsibilities (eg is a Sarbanes Oxley capacity).

Content • Projects start and end with the business case. • After the project comes benefits realisation. • Ask yourself & your project manager the right questions at the right time. • How to critique a business case, an estimate, a risk, a progress report, a quality

review, etc.



• Control a project with the minimum necessary level of involvement, Tolerance, Stages, Lifecycles and gates.

• Assess project status data and audit outputs. • Select projects to authorise and cancelling projects when appropriate. • Conclusions and Wrap-up.

Workshops The course uses a variety of exercises and workshop sessions depending on the format selected. In general: tools and techniques are introduced and practiced via multiple exercises. Concepts and application is clarified through application to a case-study.



Harvesting Benefits: Reaping the Return on Project Investment

Projects do not generate benefits, they enable them. Project mangers do not deliver benefits, they prepare the way. So who does generate the benefit and how do you ensure a return on the project investment?.

You Will Learn To Secure the Return on Investment imagined before the funds were spent. Set-up the pre-project and the post-project activity required to describe, benchmark, achieve, measure and tune benefits realisation.

Duration • Lightening Management Overview ½ Day • Standard Full Course 3 Days


Course Benefits You will know the steps required to improve the likelihood of expected returns from projects, who needs to be involved, doing what and when.

Who Should Attend Anyone and everyone responsible for assessing project proposals, creating proposals, delivering benefits or auditing/ overseeing the delivery of benefits versus project justifications.

Content & Workshops

Benefits Realisation • Route-Map, Benefits Management Tasks.

What is Benefits Realisation • Benefits v. Investment, Benefits management vs Benefits Realisation, Benefits

management is…, Steps in benefits management, Identifying needs, Describing goals, Measuring the status quo Back@Work Exercise: Challenges.

Why • Growing need for BR, Are there any “Black-spots” ?, Benefits only enabled in projects,

Will, not understanding, lacking, BM Business Case, Incentivisations, Governance, Back@Work Exercise: BM Benefits & Who gets them.

Who • Who, Project v. Business Responsibility, Roles, Responsibilities.



What When & How • Benefits Management Lifecycle, Benefit types, BM activity by phase, Transition,

Scoping & Approval, Initiation & Planning, Execution & Control, Review, Exploitation, Stakeholder Expectations, Benefits Realisation, Back@Work Exercise: Why is it an Issue ?,Solving the BM Process challenge, Pre-Approval Lifecycle, Source of Benefits, What & when = how, Selection on Alignment, Post-Approval responsibilities.

• Expressing benefits, Benefits Map, Benefits interest/ involvement matrix, Boston Squares, RAGging, Benefits Flow chart, Attractiveness.

• Benefits Management Planning, Process improvements ? Translating Strategy into action What is Balanced Scorecard?, Balanced Scorecard Four Indicators, Improved productivity.

• Measurement tools, Tangible, Intangible, Objective, Subjective, Financials, Customer satisfaction, Regulator, Shareholder, Assign measures and targets to benefits, Establish the benefits tracking regime, Assign responsibilities for realisation, Collect information, Change forces, Project or programme, Benefits Management Tasks, Back@Work Exercise: Implementing your benefits from today.



Business Case Master-Class

Making best use of the organisations limited resources is management’s raison-d’être. The request for commitment of resources is normally based on a business case template. Insightful creation of Business Cases and their subsequent assessment is a competitive must-have for the business as a whole and a key skill for involved managers.

You Will Learn To Assess and reject or accept and commit to a business case. Produce complete, well structured cases for presentation & approval. Develop well balanced justifications using best practices within a structured 6 step process. Gather, analyse and organise inputs to the Business Case development process. Implement appraisal techniques for financial, commercial and strategic evaluation of any Business Cases. Create excellence in the Business cases assessment process leading to authorisation, amendment or rejection. Employ best-practices in post-change benefits harvesting.

Duration • Management Overview ½ Day • Full course 3 Days


Course Benefits Preparation of sound business cases is a fundamental input to sound selection of the right projects. Right projects are fundamental to correctly charting the strategic direction of the business. This course teaches you everything required to gather, assemble and present the business case plus everything you need to review the submissions in an approvals forum.

Who Should Attend Project Managers and Business Analysts charged with authoring project justification documents. Finance, Audit and Governance staff involved in the preparation, review or approval of benefits cases. Project Sponsors and Owners commissioning, overseeing and depending upon excellence in business case use. Project staff and post-project staff using the business case.



Content

Introductions and Logistics Back@Work Exercise: Introductions and “your business case for being here today”.

Concepts Producing a Business Case for successful approval, Back@Work Exercise: What do we already know about “business cases”, What is the purpose of the business case, What is the minimal and maximal content of a BC, Back@Work Exercise What are the typical problems that must be overcome to consistently create great business cases? – Issues the BC development process must address.

Ch1: Producing a Business Case for successful approval A structured 6 step process The 6 steps – Provide context and the route-map for the rest of the course. 1. Knowing the end point of the business change, 2. Gather data that supports and denies justification. 3. Analyse data for strategic, political, financial, commercial and emotional significance. 4. Structuring and presenting the BC to decision makers. 5. Using the BC to guide and direct change. 6. Post change: Harvesting the benefits.

Step 1 Ch:2 Knowing the end point of the business change • Identifying, gathering, analysing, influencing stakeholders Back@Work exercise:

Stakeholder identification.

Step 2 Ch:3 Gather data that supports and denies justification • Back@Work exercise: Identify the data available, needed and used in BC, Sources of

data, Techniques for data gathering.

Step 3 Ch:4 Analyse data for strategic, political, financial, commercial and emotional significance • Back@Work exercise: What is the balance between and role of fact versus emotion in

decision making, Recognising business drivers and imperatives, Strength and silence of political and emotion drivers, Appraisal techniques, Financial evaluation, Commercial and strategic evaluation, Significance of options and “Do nothing”.

Step 4: Ch5 Structuring and presenting the BC to decision makers • Back@Work Exercise: Identify the variety of decision maker needs, When and where

to include detail versus overview, The role of numbers, pictures, graphs and text, Documents versus presentation versus road shows versus…, The SARAH cycle: incubation time and decision time, Back@Work Exercise: Pitfalls in assessment and decision making, Back@Work Exercise: Create and present a BC, BC Acceptance or



Amendment or Rejection, Selection of “Best” versus “Good enough” in capital and resource rationing.

Step 5 Ch:6: Using the BC to guide and direct change • BC as trigger for change, Impact of change on the business case.

Step 6 Ch: 7 Post change: Harvesting the benefits • Back@Work Exercise How do we recognise post-change benefits, Best-practices in

harvesting benefits, Reviewing post-change achievements claimed in the BC, Lessons Learned and the Learning Organisation, Back@Work Exercise: How will you implement benefits from your change (ie 3 days on the course).

Workshops. Ch: 0 Introductions and “your business case for being here today” – Illustrate the key elements of a BC in terms that immediately connect with your reason for being here. Ch:1 What do we already know about “business cases” – Acknowledge & pool classes existing expertise – Develop participative ethos. Ch1: What are the typical problems that must be overcome to consistently create great business cases? – Discover the problems and opportunities the BC development process must address. Ch3: Stakeholder identification – Practice assessing stakeholder significance and contribution to learn the traits to look for. Ch3: Identify the data available, needed and used in BC – Appreciation of what is a must, what is optional, what is filtered and why. Ch4: What is the balance between and role of fact versus emotion in decision making – Recognise the role of people in decision making is crucial. Politics is often prime and facts are often secondary. Ch5: Identify the variety of decision maker needs – Expose the variety of needs of each decision maker (eg overview first, detail second) and the different needs of different decision makers, (eg “just give me the facts”, “just the overview”, “all the data”, “Lets decide this now”, “We must fully consider every aspect” etc etc. Ch5: Pitfalls in assessment and decision making – Consider how decision making succeeds and fails, causes and impacts of changed decision, lip-service, post-decision discoveries etc. Ch5: Create and present a BC – Practice the core-skills of the course – Group critique of SWOT from other group’s presentations. Ch7: How do we recognise post-change benefits – Understand the crucial nature of measuring actual achievement versus what the BC claimed would be achieved. Ch7: How will you implement benefits from your change (ie 3 days on the course).



Project Governance: Everything You’ll Ever Need To Know To Be a Project Steering Committee Member

Why do we just train project managers when the Project Sponsor and control board, the people real project success depends upon, are often unsure of what is and how to perform their role?. A successful project needs leadership and vision of the future to start it and maintain momentum, the technical and management skills to set-out the plan and the management decision making framework to answer questions outside of the project manager’s authority.

You Will Learn To Fulfil your role on the project board or steering committee. Know the right questions to ask, when to ask them and the answers that you should get. Recognise the symptoms of poorly sponsored or poorly run projects. Apply corrective actions.

Duration • Overview ½ day • Application formats 1day and 2day available.

Course Benefits Run vital projects to successful conclusion, rescue or kill-off projects that are struggling to deliver and consuming the organisations resources.

Who Should Attend Any one tasked with sitting on a project steering committee or project board. Audit staff responsible for voicing an opinion on project governance.

Content

Introduction, Overview & Logistics

Context & Concept • What is project governance?, what are the results when done well, When done badly. • Who does it, the role of the board, Role of the sponsor, Users, Supplier, Assurance

and Audit. • Why is it done, benefits management, rationing resources, return on investment.

Process • How is it done, Project gates and lifecycles, Types of project, control structures,

decisions at each gate, tolerances, risk appetite, management by exception, balancing control with commitment, cost, agility, and politics, Rolling wave planning and stage authorisation.



• Start-up and initiation, expected information, opportunity versus certainty, decision making, approvals and next steps, strategic risk, reserves and contingencies.

• Project execution, Quality review and progress assessment, Expected information, Continuing business case and risk review, The next commitment point.

• Exception Handling, Wouldn’t it be nice if…?, versus Oh Shit! what now?, contract types in-house and with sub-contractors.

• The board’s link to portfolio and programme management.

Tools & Techniques • Reviewing an estimate, Conducting a gate review. Assessing change impact’s,

Communications planning, Quality planning.




Five Foundation Skills Courses in Best Practice Project Management

Real-world Treatment of Project Management Tools and Techniques drawn from the Best of the Best

Five Foundation Skills Courses in Best Practice Project Management Real-world Treatment of Project Management Tools and Techniques drawn from the Best of the Best............................................. 18

Delivering Results to Plan: Structured Project Management from the Ground Up ........................................... 19 Turning “What the Customer Wants” into “What they Get”: Core Competencies for Managing Project Scope (and Quality) .............................................................................................................................. 22 When & @ What Cost: Core Competencies For Building & Managing Project Schedule and Budget ............. 25 The PM Tool Bag: The Tools and Techniques of Project Management .......................................................... 27 Tools & Techniques for the Management of Projects: A 2 day INTENSIVE course ........................................ 29



Delivering Results to Plan: Structured Project Management from the Ground Up

A basic and structured course in project planning and control based on accepted best-practice.

You Will Learn To Confidently apply the tools and techniques of project planning and progress monitoring and reporting. Justify your plan when challenged by management to show that it is real-world and robust. Articulate project status and probability of success as circumstances and constraints are changed. Recognise the steps you do naturally or are mandated by organisational procedures and verify their completeness, supplement current areas of weakness or uncertainty.

Duration • Overview for those involved in projects 1 day. • Refresher for previous attendees 1 day. • Skimming the surface for those in a hurry 2 days. • Standard Practitioner workshops Course 3 and 4 Days Available


• 3-day format is an intense class, 4 day format introduces more exercises for consolidation of new knowledge into new skill.

• Software development specific formats available.

Course Benefits Projects are challenged by a variety of difficulties, this course equips you to recognise the challenges and describe the practical responses available to management. Apply best-practice tools and techniques to project planning and control. Start and finish projects in control. Push-back against unrealistic constraints and provide the project board with the right input to allow them to exercise appropriate control at strategic level.

Who Should Attend Our short Overview sessions are ideal for everyone taking a role in project activities. Practitioner workshops are appropriate to those moving into project management and those wishing to formalise and verify the completeness of learned-on-the-job approaches. “Skimming the surface” session are appropriate to those who wish to gain an overview at the expense of depth and course based practice and will probably be people with project oversight responsibilities or experienced PMs lacking in formal training.



Content (3day Format)

Management of Projects • Project Manager Assessment Card, Objectives, Cheese, Route Map To The

Objectives.

Foundations • Definitions, Processes and People , 4 Levels of Controls 3 Timeframes, What Happens

Between the Gates?, Project Manager’s Responsibilities in Start-Up & Initiation, Project Manager’s Responsibilities in Execution, Project Manager’s Responsibilities in Delivery & Closure.

Life-Cycles • Investment approval – gate overview, Project Life-Cycle, Development & Management

Stages, Execution & Delivery , Planning Horizons, Rolling Wave Planning Before/ After Gates, Uncertainty Decreases As..., What Is Different In Each Quadrant?.

Creating Useful Plans: Overview, Start-up & Initiation • Development and Maintenance of Project Baseline, Start Up and Initiation. • Stakeholders, Influence Diagrams, Know The End Point, Establish in Start-Up, Know

The Trade-Offs: Better, Faster, Cheaper (Pick Two), Know The Limits (And Escalations), Balance: Risk Versus Rewards, Deliverables.

Creating Useful Plans: Scope Management • Early Estimates: Wide Ranges = Reality , Planning , Breakdown Structures, WBS,

Product Descriptions & Work Packages, Guidelines For Construction Of A WBS Project Plan, Guidelines For Construction Of A WBS, Detail/ Stage Plan & Team Plan, PBS Example, Phase Oriented WBS, Example Stage Plan, Breakdown Structure Rules, Breakdown Structure Guidelines, WBS & Other BS, Stage and Team Plans, Activity is Verb, Product is Noun.

Creating Useful Plans: Task Sequencing & Critical Path • Precedence Diagram Method, Tasks in PDM/ Network Diagrams, Critical Path, Critical

Path and Float (aka Slack), Calculating Dependencies, Adding The Imposed Constraints, Network Diagram to Schedule Gantt.

Creating Useful Plans: Resourcing and Optimising the Schedule • Resource Gantt to Resource Histogram, Resourcing and Levelling, Resource

Levelling, Finalise & Baseline The Plan, Base-Lining.

Estimating • The Importance of Good Estimates, Three Parts To Any Estimate, Achieving Accuracy,

Psychology, 3 Course Dinner, With Wine For 10, Confidence Over a Range?, Budget Allocation, Adding Confidences, Adding Uncertainties.



• Calculating Contingency, Showing Schedule Contingency, Showing Cost Contingency, Deriving The Quantities, Estimating Techniques, Parametric Estimates, Analogous Estimates, Summary.

Estimating Appendix The Details For Those Needing Them! • Confidence, 2pt v. 3pt, Three Point Estimates, Expressing Confidence.

Facilitating Processes: Managing Risk, Communications, Change & Quality • Fundamental Characteristics, Risk Assessment, Risk Management Process, Risk Log. • Communications Plan, Execution & Delivery, Control Flows, Reporting Cycles,

Progress Reporting, Progress Report Template. • Scope Change Control Encourages Change, Change Control, Change Request

Contents. • Quality & Scope, Quality Control, Verification, Scope Creep, Validation.

Project Execution • Planning Draws The Map, Execution & Delivery , What Happens In Execution?,

Execution & Delivery, 3 Distinct Themes, Work Package & Product Description, Execution & Delivery Summary, Tests For A Current Plan, Checking the Route, Assessing Status PM’s Day-Job, Recognising Progress, Analysing Measurements.

Project Closeout • Closure, Acceptance Work-Stream and Project, Product Close-Out: Handover, Project

Close-Out. • Doing it.

Workshops The course uses a variety of exercises and workshop sessions depending on the format selected. For the 3 day format major tools and techniques are introduced and practiced via multiple exercises. For the 4-day format a fun case-study is added that applies techniques of estimating, scoping, scheduling, tracking, risk (uncertainty) and quality. Concepts and application is clarified through application to the case-study.



Turning “What the Customer Wants” into “What they Get”: Core Competencies for Managing Project Scope (and Quality)

A successful project is like a hurdles race: to win you must clear every one. The hurdles represent the specification of project scope and quality. This course provides attendees with the technique and spring in their step to start and end the project successfully. See also the next offering which omits Scope to concentrate on Project Quality in 2 days.

You Will Learn To Clearly define project objectives with S.M.A.R.T. acceptance criteria for input to the planning process. Proceed when the objective is not crystal clear. Build Breakdown structures and breakdown structure dictionaries to capture project scope. Select the correct Breakdown structure for scoping the task at hand. Define Acceptance Criteria and Critical Success Factors for projects, products and work-packages. Confirm technical staff have verification and validation processes that avoid bureaucracy, make project progress transparent during tracking and place a product that is fit-for-purpose into the customer’s hands.

Duration • Standard Full Course 3 and 4 Day formats available


Course Benefits Know how to define scope and acceptance criteria. Produce a project plan that shows true work effort to achieve conformance-to-specification. Enable project owners to assess their aspirations versus realistic price and relevant timescale. Control quality during execution to produce “right first time” products with minimum costs-of-quality. Understand how to proceed safely with project planning, budgeting, scheduling and execution in the light of poor (or excellent) definitions of scope.

Who Should Attend All those involved in creation of project plans. Anyone involved in the capture of project requirements, scope definition and early stages of project approvals.



Note this course is about project management tools such as the WBS. PBS and NOT training in techniques such as UML or other domain specific specification languages.

Content & Workshops

Lesson 1 Breakdown of Scope & Quality Management topics Project Scope & Quality defined. Programme, project, phase or work package, Project Lifecycle vs. Product Lifecycle, Domain Activity by Phase, Relationship of Process Groups. Back@Work Exercise: Paper Chains.

Lesson 2 PMBOK Tools & Techniques of Quality Process definition, Detection, Review & Walkthrough, Sampling, Control Charts, and Checksheets, Pareto Charts, Histograms and Scatter Plots, Trend Analysis, Cause and Effect, Benchmarking, Design of Experiments Rules. Back@Work Exercise Using the QA tools on your Paper Chain Failures.

Lesson 3 Scope Verification Execution: Scope Verification & QC, Acceptance Testing, Validation, Test hierarchy, Testing for Acceptance, Technical Conformance and Usability Issues, In-process testing. Scope Verification Techniques & Plan, Verification & Acceptance, Scope Verification Required Throughout the Project, Scope Creep & Traceability, Back@Work Exercise: Scope Verification. Quality Control, Types of Quality Control, Defect vs. Error, Crosby’s Cost of Quality, Rules for Measuring Performance, Handle Nonconforming Product/Service, Dynamic Testing, Back@Work Exercise: Quality controls.

Lesson 4 Part 1 Initiation: The Source of Scope Project Initiation, Charter, Terms of reference, Scope Statement, Project Initiation Document Contents. Establishing the Scope Statement, What vs. How, Scope Initiation, Authorising a Project, Customer Need, Balanced outcome: Faster, Better, Cheaper (pick two). Project Constraints, Planning Questions, 5 Essential Resources, Ensuring Successful Mobilisation.

Lesson 4 Part 2 Stakeholders Key Stakeholders on Every Project, Stakeholder Management, Assessing Stakeholder Significance, Stakeholder Mapping, Influence Diagrams, Changing Stakeholders, Stakeholder Management Pitfalls, Back@Work Exercise: Your Stakeholders.

Lesson 5 Scope Planning & Management Scope Planning and Definition, Starts with Scope Statement, Products, Quality & Risk, Back@Work Exercise: Scope Planning. Balance: Strategic Risk and Opportunity, Scope Planning & Management.



Scope Definition: Work Breakdown Structure, Project WBS, Breakdown Structure Rules & Guidelines, WBS Dictionary, Guidelines to creating a BS, WBS and other Structures, Other Types of Breakdown, Breakdown Structures, BS Examples, From PBS to WBS, Back@Work Exercises: Developing a BS. PBS & OBS, Cost Accounts, Integrated Teams (IPTs), Project Management in a Matrix Organisation, Organisation structures & IPTs, Project Manager’s Role in a Team, Qualities of a Project Management Professional. Needs PBS WBS, Activity is Verb, Product is Noun, Requirements, Measuring and estimation of quality attributes, Scope, Quality and Contracts, Back@Work Exercise: WBS.

Lesson 6 Optimising for quality Initiation: Quality Planning, Definition of Quality, 5 Ways of Looking at Quality, Optimising the Plan, The Quality Management System (QMS), Concepts & Definitions, Scope drives Quality Planning drives everything. Quality Assurance Purpose and Approach, Corrective Action, Plan-Do-Check-Act, The Engine of CPI, Use the Right Tools at the Right Time Back@Work Exercise: Building the Aircraft Fleet.

Lesson 7 Quality Frameworks In-house standards, ISO 9000:2000, Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), Baldrige Quality Award, European Business Excellence Model – EFQM, Six Sigma, Balanced Scorecard Back@Work Exercise: Balanced Scorecard: Lifecycle of a House Brick.

Lesson 8 Change Control Elements & use of a project baseline, Back@Work Exercise: The trouble with Change, Causes of change, Purpose of change control, The Change Control Process, Handling Change Configuration Management Plan.



When & @ What Cost: Core Competencies For Building & Managing Project Schedule and Budget

You Will Learn To Construct a project schedule, perform Critical Path Analysis and fully optimise resource allocations. Track project progress using a variety of techniques from milestone charts to Earned Value Management.



• Standard course with the use of Microsoft Project (in pairs) 5 days.

Course Benefits Provides attendees with best-practice techniques to translate the project’s scope baseline into a schedule, budget and resource profile that is auditable and subject to challenge. Equips the organisation to build project baselines that match the reality of project context. Include provision for uncertainty (risk) into your plans that accounts for unclear goals, estimating problems and a world where Murphy’s law operates.

Who Should Attend Graduates of our “Turning “What the Customer Wants” into “What the Customer Gets”: The Master-Class in Managing Project Scope & Quality”. All those involved in creation of project plans. Anyone involved in the scheduling of tasks and resources and the approval of requests to commit the enterprise’s resources to a business case.

Content & Workshops


Scope & Quality review • What is scope, Goal & deliverables, Product breakdown, Product description, Tasks,

Work breakdown, Work-package, Back@Work Exercise: Create a PBS & WBS.

Critical Path • Tasks, Activity on the Node, Finish Start, Forward pass, Backward Pass, Critical path,

Float, Back@Work Exercise: Constuct a network, calculate Float, Other relationships, Hammocks, Just in Time, Back@Work Exercise: Create a network and analyse the CP.



Estimating • What’s an estimate, Producing estimates, Approaches, Top down, Bottom-up,

Techniques, Analogy, Formulae, Using Ranges, Uncertainty, 3pt, Double counting uncertainty, Back@Work Exercise: Produce estimates, Adding contingency to the Critical Path.

Resourcing • Smoothing, Levelling, Rolling wave horizons, Cash-flow, cumulative costs, PV or

BCWS, Back@Work Exercise: Schedule the resources.

Risk, optimising and base lining • Considering risk in the schedule, tuning for cost & schedule targets, Agreeing the 3

baselines, The project baseline,, Back@Work Exercise: Set a meaningful baseline.

Performing the work • Verification, Quality log, Work done, Value earned, basic earned value formulae,

Simple forecasts, Complex Earned value formulae, Further forecasts, Earned value types, timing discrepancies, Interpreting graphs, Info vs. data, misleading with EV, Back@Work Exercise: Track good and bad progress to the schedule, Back@Work Exercise: Report EV.

Other Reporting tools • Tracking Gantt, Milestone charts, Progress reports, Tracking costs, Tracking

contingency, Back@Work Exercise: Report project status.

Corrections • Consolidating gains, Exceptions, Escalation, Crashing & fast tracking Using buffers,

Rescheduling resource calls, Tracking EV, Handling changes, Adjusting EV plots, Handling retrospective finance “edicts”,, Back@Work Exercise: Redraw the baseline for “today”.

Conclusions



The PM Tool Bag: The Tools and Techniques of Project Management

What tools do you have in your tool bag? When faced with a problem the “right tool” aids sure and swift remedy, when faced with an opportunity the right tool helps sure and swift profit.

You Will Learn To The purpose and application of a wide range of management models, tools, diagnosis aids and techniques. Select the right tool for the job. Combine tools for capitalising on local, situational opportunities (and resolving problems, avoiding threats).



Course Benefits A survey of useful tricks, tips, tools & techniques for experience staff looking for things to add to their repertoire of responses to problems and opportunities.

Who Should Attend Anyone in a management or functional role dealing with defining objectives and strategy, managing staff, organising resources, scoping, estimating, tracking, reporting, monitoring & measuring. Anyone with an interest in Risk, Appraisal, Organisation, Change management, Management of Change.

Content & Workshops


Tools for ideas generation • Generating ideas, Brainstorming, Silent Though-showers, Blue-slip, Nominal group,

Hazid Keywords, Back@Work Exercise: Lets try each one!. • Organising ideas, Fishbone diagrams, Affinity diagrams, Root-cause, Breakdown

structures, Taxonomies, Back@Work Exercise: Lets try each one!, Comparative ranking, Filtering, Weighting.

People • Communicating ideas, feedback loops, post-it notes & walls, Involvement, Belief &

Motivation, Evolution, Attractors, Fitness landscapes, Complex Adaptive Systems Outcomes.



• McGregor, Maslow, Hetrzberg, Vroom, Belbin, Kotter, Change, Back@Work Exercise: Ranking models.

Planning & Performance • Terms of Reference, Charter, Mandate, Contract. • GQIM, Cause & Effect, Aint it Awful/Wonderful, PDCA, CPI. • Gantt charts, Critical paths, Goals, Objectives & Deliverables, Product quality criteria,

Process criteria Requirements, Attributes, -ilities, Balanced score-card, Boston squares, Maturity models, Ratios: evm et.al., SWOT, SOFT.

Measurement & Estimating • Metrics, Scales, Attribute specifiction Estimating, PERT, Standard deviation, Control

charts, scatter plots, Trend analysis. • Influence diagrams, Cause & Effect nets, Entity relationship diagrams Process

modelling, Flow-charts, UML.



Tools & Techniques for the Management of Projects: A 2 day INTENSIVE course

The course is delivered by Simon Harris, PMP and ex PRINCE2® examiner in a engaging, relax and fun atmosphere interspersed with plenty of short breaks and short exercises.

You Will Learn To Structured best practice in project management. Despite the short duration topics are taken from no assumed knowledge to practitioner level. Thus the sessions are rich in content and intensive.

Duration • Standard Full Course: 2 Days • 0900 to 1630 formal class hours (1630 onward informal/ optional time for discussion of

“topics raised on the day” and demonstration of relevant software tools if wanted), 1530 finish on last day.

Course Benefits Know the full range of tools & techniques for creating and using project plans Be practiced in using the key tools Able to use the tools and techniques to build motivation and buy-in Equipped to tackle the challenge of bringing tools to usage from class-room to work-place

Who Should Attend? Those in a hurry to appreciate the complete set of techniques used for project scoping, scheduling, & tracking. Anyone with project related duties from project manager down (and upwards and sideways) No prior knowledge of framework, tools or techniques is assumed

Content & Workshops

Introductions & Logistics • Are You & Your Boss Willing To Change How You Work? • Domestics • Objectives

What? - Foundations • Coming Next:…What • Development and Maintenance of Project Baseline • Project Lifecycle • What Is Different In Each Quadrant? • Development & Management Stages • Benefits Management: Granting Approvals



• Rolling Wave Planning Before/ After Stage Boundary • Summary

Why? Project Close-Out • Securing Acceptance • Close-Out Activities

How? Project Execution & Tracking • Execution Tracks The World About Us • Analysing Variances: Significant? Systematic? • Gathering Status Data • Progress Report Template • Summary

How? Creating Useful Project Plans: Stakeholder Needs, Influence and End-Points • PM’s Job: Stakeholder Management • Stakeholders • Influence Diagrams • Know The End Point

How? Creating Useful Project Plans: Scope Modelling with Product & Other Breakdowns • Coming Next:… • Outcomes/ Deliverables/ Impacts* • Deliverables • Breakdown Structures WBS or PBS or OBS or GBS or CBS… • WBS • Guidelines For Project Scoping Customer or ‘Outcome View’ • Guidelines For Project Scoping: Team/ Activity View • Product Descriptions & Work Packages • Impact or Outcome BS Example • Phase Oriented WBS Example Stage Plan • Breakdown Structure Guidelines • What & Who • Summary

How? Creating Useful Project Plans: Dependency Modelling, Critical Path, Resourcing & Budgeting • Coming Next:… • Tasks in PDM/ Network Diagrams • Precedence Diagram Method • Critical Path and Float (aka Slack) • Network Diagram to Schedule Gantt • Resource Gantt to Resource Histogram • Cumulative Cost (PV or BCWS)



• Base-Lining • Summary

How? Supporting Processes: Estimating • Coming Next:… • Estimating Techniques • Parametric & Analogous Estimates • Estimating Difficulties • 3? 4? 5? 6? Parts To Any Estimate • Part 4: Psychology • How Much to Budget? • Summary

How? Supporting Processes: Change Management, Risk & Quality • Coming Next:… • Change Control • Risk • Risk Management Process • Risk Log Contents • Quality & Scope • Quality Control • Scope Creep • Summary

Conclusions & Summary • Conclusion • Doing it • Future help & assistance

Exercise Background Materials • Exercise: Critical Path Calculations • Exercise: T-Break WBS • Exercise: T-Break Gantt & Resources Levelling • Exercise: T-Break Network Template



Six Advanced Topics: PMO Set-Up and Operation, Managing Project Managers, Delivering Complex Projects, Managing Programmes and

Recovery of Challenged Projects Six Advanced Topics: PMO Set-Up and Operation, Managing Project Managers, Delivering Complex Projects, Managing Programmes and Recovery of Challenged Projects ...................................... 32

PMO Set-up and Operation: Overseeing & Supporting the Work of Project in The Enterprise ........................ 33 Project Rescue: Diagnosing & Rescuing Troubled Projects ............................................................................ 35 Delivering Complex Projects: Leading and Controlling Where ‘Managing’ Doesn’t Work ................................ 38 Herding Cats: Managing Project Managers, Programmes and Portfolios ........................................................ 40 Changing the Business: Programme Management .......................................................................................... 43 Management of Change and Change Management Creating the will to embrace, & the ability to control change .................................................................................................................................................. 46



PMO Set-up and Operation: Overseeing & Supporting the Work of Project in The Enterprise

Projects are temporary but the need to manage them is constant. Creating a function that can lend expertise to the stream of PMs and initiatives that come and go increases consistancy, reduces probability of failure and provides senior management with project transparency. But the trick is how do you do it!?.

You Will Learn To Set-up and manage programme & project support or management offices. Select the right PMO/ PSO structure and allegiances for the needs of your business.



Course Benefits Increase your confidence in delivering benefits from projects by establishing the function to provide advice and guidance, to be auditor and watch-dog and ultimately whistle blower.

Who Should Attend All those charged with assisting the PM community to run projects, charged with auditing the PM activities or charged with reporting to senior management on project (programme or portfolio) health.

Content & Workshops


PSO Defined • What is a PSO, Variations on the theme, Back@Work Exercise: Strengths,

weaknesses and applicability of PSO types, PSO reporting lines.

PSO report contents • Gathering portfolio status data, formats of reports, Measuring achievement,

Forecasting performance, Cost reports, Schedule reports, Risk reports, Resource reports, Back@Work Exercise: Interpreting data, Selecting formats.

• PSO as Support to the PM, Giving advice, Guidance and mentoring, In the tent…, PSO as Support to the board, Consolidating portfolio progress reports, Auditing projects, Outside the tent…, Tracking benefits and ROI Back@Work Exercise: The business case for the PSO: benefits.



Project Assurance & Audit • Role of Project Assurance, Assessing plans, Reviewing progress, The Quality audit

trail, Product maturity, Back@Work Exercise: Assessing progress, Helping the PM, Getting the right people, right time, right task, right tools, Blowing the whistle, Management short-falls, Political hassles, Organisational Bottlenecks, Back@Work Exercise: Making real – coping with an imperfect reality.

Project Support • Project initiation, Project justifications, Strategic, Financial, NPV, DCF, ROI, IRR,

Others, Business Cases, Approvals, Funding, Stages, Rolling Wave, Tolerance, Escalation, Corrective actions, Phase Gates, Lifecycles, Between the Gates, Preparing for a gate, Preparing for close-out, Back@Work Exercise: Selecting Gates and Review input/ Criteria/ Outputs.

QMS contents • QMS concepts, Who writes standards, Who uses them, When to discard standards,

Why standards help. Standards and estimating, How they help the team, Standards and Work, Help the PM, Progress, Help the PSO, Consistency, Help the sponsor, Transparency, Decision making, Governance, Back@Work Exercise: Designing & Populating a QMS.

• Back@Work Exercise: Business Case for the PSO: Costs.

Supporting the Project Community at Large • Spreading best practices, lessons learned, Providing tools, Non-software tools,

software PM Tools, Responding to common concerns, Lunch-time learning, fire-side chats, Learning from Experience.

• Back@Work Exercise: How to apply what we’ve heard.



Project Rescue: Diagnosing & Rescuing Troubled Projects

You Will Learn To Identify and address the causes of project failure Place troubled projects on a sound footing for recovery and delivery under control Conduct the project assessment and diagnosis process and make recommendation for recovery or cancellation


0900 to 1630 formal class hours (1630 onward informal/ optional time for discussion of “topics raised on the day” and demonstration of relevant software tools if wanted), 1530 finish on last day

Course Benefits The course equips attendees with a structured and methodical process for the assessment of a troubled project’s symptoms and trace-back to root causes After attendance you will be able to rapidly assess project status, design rescue plans and implement them

Who Should Attend Anyone involved in project execution before trouble arrives, alternatively those involved in audit or recovery of existing challenged projects Project owners and sponsors, members of steering committees, project and programme managers and support office staff

Content & Workshops

Introduction and Overview • Logistics, Introductions, Ways To Get The Project Wrong, Introductions & Logistics,

Domestics, Style, Personal Goals

Overview Concepts, Definitions & Assessment Methodology • Fixing the Troubled Project, Case Study intro Trouble Defined, Degree: Incompetence

or Negligence, Sources of Trouble: Change, Management, Technical Capability, Politics

• Change The People Or Change The People, Learning Types, Summary, Reflection

Assessment Methodology Overview • Assessment Steps, Set-Up, Data Gathering, Analysis & Diagnosis, Proposal &

Selection, Recovery, Withdrawal, Summary: Assessment & Recovery Method



The Good IPECC Summary (Avoiding Troubled Projects) • Two Approaches To Any Project, What Does An Untroubled Project Look Like?, What

Does a Project Do?, Benefits: How, What & When, Know The Trade-Offs: Better, Faster, Cheaper (Pick Two),

• Perfect Planning, Escalations (Knowing The Limits), What Is Different In Each Quadrant?, Cycle of PM’s Activity, Planning Approaches vs. Project Types, Summary, Reflection

Setup: Preparing For Assessment • The Recovery Charter, Awareness: Tone, Set-up’s Goals, Communications Planning,

Awareness: Sponsor’s Kick-off Meeting, Audit Team’s Competencies, Appointing the Audit Team, Team: Who Does Assessment, Team: Stakeholders, Scope, Recovery Aims, Timescales, Summary , Reflection

Business Case Re-evaluation • Assessing The Politics, Business Case is Opportunity (re-)Assessment, Assessment

Methods, Risk: Probabilistic Cost Vs. Benefits, Probabilistic Schedule, Regret, Summary , Reflection

Conducting The Assessment: Information Gathering • Overview of Information Gathering Step, Expectations vs. Inspections, What to

Inspect, Documentation & Why, Assessment Questionnaire Tool, Assessment Summaries (Using the Cobit® Framework)

• Gathering Information From People, Workshop Techniques, Interview Techniques, Questions to Ask, Summary, Reflection

Conducting The Assessment: Analysis & Diagnosis? Proposal & Selection • Approach & Inter-relationship, Analysis Tools, Analysing, Synthesis: Affinity Analysis,

Example Cause And Effect, Filtering & Ranking, SIPOC • Findings Report Structure, What Teams, Contracts, Politics, Mission, Vision & Values,

Analysing Politics, Management Strategies

Next: Trouble From Resistance To Change • Rationing Change, Analysing Change, Limits to Absorbing Change, Willing Change It

Still Takes Time, Management of Change, Management of Change The Prince pub. 1515, Prerequisites

• Feelings vs. Analysis , Analyse-Think-Change, Managing Change, Who Drives Change, Guiding Team, Engine of Faith, Assessing Sponsorship, Summary

Analysing Change

1: Trouble From Inability to Process Change Control • Churn: Scope & Change, Matching Change to Authority, Assessing the Change

Cause and Effect, Process of Change, Verification Is Antidote To Scope Creep, Planning, Monitoring & Control



2: Analysing Of Planning, Monitoring & Control • Analysing Of Planning Monitoring & Control, Tools For Schedule & Resources,

Bandwidth Analysis, Project Meetings & Reports • Analysing Controls, Analysing Controls, Gathering Status Data , Progress Report

Template, Milestone Status - Slip Chart, Milestone Accomplishments • Fixing Estimating, Proposal: Planning, Monitoring & Control, Capability & Quality

3: Technical Capability • Capability: Quality Regime, Assessing the Technical Capability, How Quality Should

Work: Basis for Monitor & Control, Verification: Basis for Monitoring & Control, Validation (&Verification): How to Recognise Achievement, Summary, Reflection

Audit Findings: Proposal & Selection • Sharing Initial Findings, Troubled Project vs. Troubled Capability, Selection: Back to

the Sponsor & Decision Makers, Team Design, Summary, Reflection

Implementation Recovery Actions • Driving Safely, Iterative Set Of Steps, Communicating The Restart , Kick-off Meetings,

Removing People • Adding People, Stabilising the People: Morale

Planning, Monitoring & Control • Stabilising Lack of Control Capability, DM-A: A for Architecture, DM-A: A for Authority,

Problem vs. Issue: A Question of Authority Levels, Authorities, …and Finally: Delegate The Real Work!

• Managing the Uncertainty, Summary, Reflection

Politics, Mission, Vision & Values • Stabilising Excessive Politics, Resolving Micro-Management • Stabilising Capability, Stabilising Lack of Technical Capability • Stabilising Change, Stabilising Excessive Change to Goals • Stabilising Excessive Technical Change • Revisiting ‘Pulling The Plug’, Summary, Reflection

Making Changes Stick • Withdrawing Trouble-Shooters, Trigger for Withdrawal, Recovery Closure, Summary:

Learning From Experience

Never Having Another Troubled Project • Project Problems are People Based, Silver Bullets, Summary

BigCo Case Study • Big-Customer Scenario & Big-Co Project Document Archive The Case study runs throughout the course to provide reinforcement of concepts and practice in using techniques



Delivering Complex Projects: Leading and Controlling Where ‘Managing’ Doesn’t Work

You Will Learn To See beyond conventional project management approaches Supplement the strengths of the PMBOK or PRINCE2® with a whole new tier of practical insights and approaches Apply a ‘structured’ approach to project control based on ideas from the Complex Adaptive Systems and Nature



Course Benefits After this course you will be able to

• Add control to projects that are beyond your capabilities from just PMBOK and PRINCE2® guidance

• Confidently justify removing ‘controls’ that increase costs without providing value

• Create architectures for the governance of projects whose complexities defy centralised “plan and command” structures

• Extend your delivery capabilities to handle more complex projects

• Increase certainty of positive outcome to projects of current complexities

• Integrate ‘Agile’ thinking at the programme level across complex endeavours

Who Should Attend Project participants charged with delivery of projects whose complexities exceed the organisation’s ability to write exhaustive plans, both customer and supplier side. Participants are assumed to start with a sound understanding of traditional project and line management. Ie they will have several years experience in projects in an industry setting, for example PMP qualified or PRINCE2® practitioners of several years real use.

Content & Workshops

Introduction and Overview • Logistics, Introductions, Course Objectives, Course Contents, Exercise: World Views

Learning From Experience • Concepts & Vocabulary, More Than I Can Say, Tacit and Explicit Knowledge,

Knowledge Cycles, Learning, Kolb: Observe, Reflect, Conceptualise, Experiment, When Plans Are (Not) Useful, Planning and Control Architecture



• Exercise

Systems Thinking • What is a System?, Feedback Loops, Agents, Attractors, Self-Organisation,

Emergence, Dynamics, Businesses as Systems, Newton & Descartes, Command and Control, Innovate, Proliferate, Aggregate, Decision Making Architecture

• Exercise

Complexity And Objectives • What is Complexity?, Simple vs Complex, Controls Across the Spectrum, Determining

Project Complexity, Some Complexity Measures, Communicating Complexity’s Component Parts, Why & When To Re-assess

• Case Study

Leading and Managing • What are Leadership & Management, What Managers Do…, What Leaders Do,

Senders and Receiver, • Initiation, End-Points (Goals), Benefits Definition, Using Ideas from Complexity, WIIFM • “Planning”, Designing the Complex Project’s Control, Harnessing the Agents Ability,

Linking Senders and Receivers, Authorities, Delegation & Escalation • Case Study

Governance • Reactions To Change, See-Feel vs Think-Analyse, The Prince, Guiding Change,

Tracking and Reporting • Execution, Why, When and How to Increase Complexity, Why When and How to

Reduce Complexity, Removing complexity and reverting to Simple, Execution to plan • Case Study

Course Summary • Personal Application



Herding Cats: Managing Project Managers, Programmes and Portfolios

Managing projects, portfolios and programmes have many similarities and many differences. Success at one or the others is improved by understanding what does and does not change when creating and managing change initiatives.

You Will Learn To Establish programmes and divide them into projects within the organisation’s portfolio of change. Apply planning tools and techniques at programme level. Define the roles of participants at all levels within the organisation’s structure. Track achievement through metrics , steering and closing projects and programmes. Motivate, direct and rely upon all those involved in the specification, funding, execution and acceptance of project based activities.

Duration • Lightening Management Overview 1 Day • Standard Full Course 5 Days


Course Benefits Know the focus areas for establishing a portfolio of projects (whether a programme or not) from customer, resources provider and project participant’s perspectives.

Who Should Attend Anyone with a management role in delivering change via groups of projects including project and programme managers, change champions and sponsors. Programme office and audit staff supporting or reviewing change initiatives within the organisation.

Content

Foundations & Concepts of Programmes & Portfolios • Back@Work Exercise: The performance you get is down to what you manage, Arriving

at “Business as usual”, Benefits streams and harvesting the results of change, Sponsor’s major focus, How focus shapes responsibilities in execution of change, Risk, Threat and opportunity at the investment or strategic level, The Market-Place and Business planning.

• Vision, objectives and business cases, Business case contents, development, clarity, completeness and decision making, Strategic alignment:, Fitting project to programme and programme to business visions, Adding and subtracting from the portfolio of change initiatives, Limits to absorbing change, Creating the will to accept change.



• Life-cycles, stage gates and Governance through approvals, Project control and technical development cycles, Change comes from projects, projects in aggregate equal programmes and portfolios of change.

Project, Portfolio and Programme • Defined, dissected and inter-related, What makes project and programme different?,

How do the differences affect planning, execution and control. • End points, Acceptance, handover and close-out for programme and project, Quality,

Defining expectations and acceptance criteria, Activities at handover (technical and business), Caring for the people and the process when closing down initiatives, Programme deliveries, preparing the business to absorb change.

• Funding the programme: Options and the politics of each.

Making Plans • Roles & responsibilities of sponsor, programme, portfolio & project manager. • Techniques for planning: When planning at programme & when planning at project

level, Planning levels and involvement for the teams. • Risk and quality: Threat, opportunity and acceptance at the tactical level, Estimating

and uncertainty: Creating plans matched to uncertainty, Constraints, limits and assumptions.

• Cascading intent and escalating mismatches, From Goal to Deliverables: Back@Work Exercise: “Stepping into the future” and “Defining Quality Expectations”, Politics and stakeholders, A group of people is not (yet) a team, Forging the team and forging a shared view of the future, “Stepping into the future”: conducting the workshops that define desired change, The mechanics of running the workshop, Clear goals vs. ill-defined goals, Defining known goals clearly, Reality of uncertainty and unknown goal’s impact on “good” plans, Expressing programme (and project) goals in business language, Rolling-wave planning concepts.

• From Deliverables to Activities: Breakdown structures, product descriptions and work-packages, Product breakdowns and product descriptions: Capturing details of scope & quality, Work breakdowns and work-packages: Integrating quality, testing & progress recognition into the plan, Organisational breakdowns: Delegating responsibility for scope-of-outcome to project participants.

• From Activities to Critical path: Network diagrams, Mechanics of critical path calculations: Finding where are the scheduling options, Constructing network diagrams: Forward & backward passes, float and its significance, Programme critical path: Linking over product dependency and over resource contention.

• From Critical Path to Resourced Schedule, Determining resources needed to achieve the critical path, Using scheduling options: Adding the reality of resource constraints, Probabilistic schedules: Preparing resource providers to be flexible enough to start early, Adding buffers.

Tracking & Reporting • Programme status as sum of project statii:, Clear vision at the top, Good reporting at

the bottom, Action at the bottom, Instruction from the top, Managing programme critical path, Control of change: Business, Programme & Project, Adding, linking and deleting projects in the programme, Risk management across the programme, Programme risk and contingency.



• Governance is plan plus status equals steering decision, Measurement analysis and correction: Keeping things on track, Current plan as selected route across the landscape.

• Recognising value earned: Activity is not achievement, the pay-off from quality and acceptance planning, Tracking and reporting progress: Gantt charts, milestones and variances, Where are we, where will we be: Reporting and forecasting with earned value and its cousins.

• The best route forward: Steering at activity, phase, project, programme and business levels, Steering committees, Agenda, purposes and conduct, Attendees and their obligations, Procurement of goods and services: Contracts and sub-contractors.

Closing Projects, Closing the Programme • Learning from experience: The corporate and the personal learning cycle, Achieving

change in the corporation through seeing and feeling, Personal learning cycles through do, reflect, conceptualise, experiment.

• Applying the course’s messages to ourselves, our bosses, peers, customer’s and teams.

• Programme end-point is BAU: Recognising programme end.

Workshops A wide variety of exercises are used to practice tools and techniques, while case-study segments, workshops and discussion groups consolidate and explore concepts and practice application.



Changing the Business: Programme Management Managing a programme is a step-up from project management: A different skill set that is aimed at driving change into the business. Orchestrating the full project set from evaluating options, building infrastructure, adding capability and bringing the whole ‘online’.

You Will Learn To Establish programmes and divide them into projects that deliver business transformation. Plan at programme level, interface to project planning and resolve the conflicts. Establish programme roles required at all levels to safely drive the transformational change. Track achievement through metrics , steering and closing projects and programmes. Motivate, direct and rely upon all those involved in the specification, funding, execution and acceptance of project based activities.



Course Benefits Know the focus areas for establishing a programme from customer, resources provider and project participant’s perspectives.

Who Should Attend Anyone with a managment role in delivering change via programmes including programme managers, change champions and sponsors. Programme office and audit staff supporting or reviewing change initiatives within the organisation.

Content

Introductions, Logistics & Contents • Back@Work Exercise: The performance you get is down to what you manage,

Programme Management • Course Contents, Introductions & Logistics, Path To Success, Domestics, Style

Learning From Experience • More Than I Can Say, Tacit & Explicit Knowledge, Knowledge Cycle, Lessons

Learned, When Should or Could You ?, Learning, Applying The Course’s Messages



Concepts & Definitions • Business Planning, Vision, Communication of Direction, Definitions, Definitions Of

Project & Programme • Essentials Of Programmes, Portfolio, Project Management Institute's View • Management

Creating The Will To Accept Change • Limits to Absorbing Change, Willing Change It Still Takes Time, Management of

Change, Management of Change The Prince pub. 1515, Prerequisites • Feelings vs. Analysis , Analyse-Think-Change • Who Drives Change, Guiding Team, Engine of Faith, Assessing Sponsorship

Roles & Responsibilities • Change Managers, Steering Committee, Programme Director or Programme

Manager?, Delivery Manager & Change Manager, Senior Users & Design Authority(ies), Project Manager’s Day Job, Programme Delivery Manager’s Day Job, Other Roles

Politics, Influence & End-Points • Sources Of Conflict, Purpose Of Stakeholder Management, Identify, Use or Resolve

Programme Conflicts • Purpose Of Vision, Identifying Stakeholders, Influence Diagrams, Management

Strategies • Stepping Into The Future, How To Establish The Vision (aka Goal aka Scope),

Programme Scope vs. Project Scope, Meeting Conduct, Changing Stakeholders

Pursuit of Opportunity: Investment & Risk • Risk: Cost Vs. Benefits, What Is Different In Each Quadrant?, Drivers for Business

Stakeholders, Benefits How, What & When, Source of Benefits • Business Case Opportunity Assessment, Assessment Methods, Project Canine:

Business Case, BCR & Cash-Flow, Cash-Flow Patterns, Project Canine: Financials, NPV Net Present Value, NPV of Project Canine, What Is the Right Interest Rate?, Project Canine: Interest Rate Affects NPV

Planning at Programme Level • Planning A Programme, Stable State, Scope and Quality, Planning Levels And

Involvement For The Teams • Programme Breakdown: From Vision to Project, Key Programme Phases, Levelled

Plans, Identify Enablers, Project Interdependency, Managing Through Dependencies, Project Coordination Within The Programme, Programme Critical Path, Adding Contingency

• Project Planning, “Steps In Planning”: Overview, Assessing Programme Fit



Resourcing (Staffing) The Plan • Budget As Planning Constraint, Bandwidth Analysis, Programme Staffing, Staffing

Strategies, Pros & Cons of The Matrix, Resources, Remote & Virtual Teams, Remote Team Results, Culture And World View

Program Communications • Communication Flows, Programme Identity, Programme Publicity, Communications

Plan, Steering Meetings, Control Flows, Reporting Cycles

Governance Life-cycles, Stage Gates & Approvals • Governance, Gates,Purpose & Conduct Of A Gate Review, Programme Architecture:

Gates, Events & Authorities, Project Control (as suggested by PRINCE2®), Levels of Programme Control, Problem vs. Issue, Nature Of Issues, Issue Handling Process, Escalation, Handling Escalations

Tracking And Reporting Progress • Gathering Tracking Data, Gathering Status Data , Progress Report Template,

BRAGGing, Recognising Progress, Ways of Recognising Value, Progress Tracking & Quality Control, Verification, Scope Creep, Recommended Approach to V&V, Appropriate Reactions To Status, When To Re-plan, When To Respond @ Programme Level , Milestone Status - Slip Chart, Milestone Accomplishments

Programme Deliveries & Close-outs • Delivery Closeout, Acceptance & Sign-Off of Deliverables, Project Close-Out:

Handover of Deliverables, Business Training, Model Office, Business Implementation Issues, Close-Out Works Bottom-Up, Programme End-Point, Triggers for Programme Closure, Close-Out

• Applying The Course’s Messages

Workshops Throughout the course the case-study supports participates in programme planning the rollout of best practices in programme management Back@Work.



Management of Change and Change Management Creating the will to embrace, & the ability to control change

It has been said that change is the only constant, also that nothing is more perilous to undertake than introducing change, and that uncontrolled change is as consuming as fire.

You Will Learn To Define the differences between Management of Change and Change Management Manage the processes associated with defining project goals and project activities and maintaining alignment with an evolving business context Create the will amongst those affected to accept change Set-up and operate the elements of configuration management and version control

Duration • Overview 2 Days

0900 to 1630 formal class hours (1630 onward informal/ optional time for discussion of “topics raised on the day” if wanted), 1530 finish on second day.

Course Benefits Learn the techniques for embedding change in the organisation, and the techniques that manage the description of required changes. Be able to use them together for effective delivery of project results. Be able to take the principals of CM best practice back to work in projects and operational activities.

Who Should Attend Anyone involved in definition and implementation of changes. Anyone involved in the control of project products.

Content

Introduction and Overview • Course Objectives, Course Contents and Logistics

Terminology and concepts • What is change?, Business and Project as systems, System characteristics,

Management of Change (MoC), Change Management (CM), Problems in MoC, Problems in CM, Lifecycles

Achieving Successful Project Outcomes: Management of Change • People’s reactions to change, SARAH, Understanding the need for time, Helping the

process, See/ Feel/ Change, Think/ Analyse/ Change, Guiding coalition, Roles and responsibilities



Defining Changes, Acceptance Criteria and Benefits • Defining the goal, Expectations, Moving from Expectations to Acceptance Criteria,

Achieving Consensus, Recognising Disagreements, Harvesting Benefits, Embedding changes

Establishing Change Control • Elements of Change Control, Configuration Items (CIs), Versions, Baselines and

releases, Criteria for base lining, Storing CIs, The Configuration Data Base • Identifying, naming and receiving and distributing CIs, Recognising Acceptance • The Request for Change (RfC) process, Triggers for RfCs, Different characteristics of

RfCs, Who pays the bill?, Urgency vs. Importance • Configuration Audit, Configuration Status Accounting • Releases and Rollouts, Where CM meets MoC

Workshops Each chapter uses exercises & case-study segments to practice techniques and consolidate concepts.

• Highlighting benefits of well conducted MoC & CM • Performing configuration identification. • Establishing a CM plan. • Conducting successful product releases. • Defining the charters for the Guiding Coalition and CCB. • Assessing your organisation’s capabilities.



Eight Master-Classes from: Reviews to EVM, LfE to Configuration Management! ☺

Eight Master-Classes from: Reviews to EVM, LfE to Configuration Management! ☺ ................................. 48 Gate Reviews: Roles, Tools and Techniques That Ensure We Know If We Are On Course Or Not ................. 49 Truly Tracking Project Progress: Measuring Accomplishment Using Earned Value Management .................. 51 Learning from Experience: The Master-Class in Lessons Learned as a Valuable Reality ............................... 52 “How Much ?!*@$#~?”: The Master-Class in Estimating ................................................................................. 54 Good Enough?: The Master-Class in Managing Project Quality ...................................................................... 57 Threat & Opportunity: The Master-Class in Risk Management ........................................................................ 60 Where are We?: The Master-Class in Project Tracking & Control ................................................................... 64 “Which Version Do I Need?”: Configuration Management ............................................................................... 66



Gate Reviews: Roles, Tools and Techniques That Ensure We Know If We Are On Course Or Not

To control a project requires making business decisions at each control point or Stage Gate. But what questions are the correct ones to ask? Based on what information?

You Will Learn To Review the inputs to stage gates at start-up, initiation, during project execution and at project close-down/ benefits enablement and beyond into benefits realisation. Make decisions that maintain the health of the project. Assist the project to conclude successfully.


0900 to 1600 formal class hours.

Course Benefits Be able to set-up, run and follow-up a project gate review confident that the time and effort spent was worthwhile.

Who Should Attend Anyone and everyone responsible for review of projects during their life-cycle.

Content & Workshops

Introduction, Concepts and Overview • What is a gate, Why have them, The project lifecycle, Product vs. Project lifecycle.

When to have them, Lifecycle of a review, Preparing for the review, Attendees, Purpose, Conduct, Records, Follow-up, Escalations.

The Gates • Before the project, Before the cost are know, During development, At roll-out, After

usage, The final gate, Scheduling of reviews, Guidelines to reviewers, Role of Assurance, Logs to examine, Sources of Reference.

After Start-up • Inputs, Idea, Feasibility, Process, Typical pit falls, Expected outputs, Decisions,

Options, When to proceed and when to Kill it off, When to skip the review.

At Initiation • Inputs, Business Case, Risk Process, Typical pitfall, Expected outputs, Decisions,

Options, When to proceed and when to Kill it off, When to Skip the review.



In Execution • Inputs, Stage Reports, Updated Plans, Business Case, Risks, Process, Typical pitfall,

Expected outputs, Decisions, Options, When to proceed and when to Kill it off, Which reviews may be skipped, When.

At Close-out • Inputs, End project reports, Post Project actions, Lessons Learned Reports, Process,

Typical pitfall, Expected outputs, Decisions, Options, What next?

Post Project Reviews • Inputs, Benefits measurement, Process, Typical pitfall, Expected outputs, Decisions,

Options, When to close down the review process.

Course Close • Review! ☺



Truly Tracking Project Progress: Measuring Accomplishment Using Earned Value Management

You Will Learn To Track project progress using Earned Value Management.

Duration • Standard Course for those with planning & tracking knowledge 1 Day

0900 to 1530 formal class hours (1530 onward informal/ optional time for discussion of “topics raised on the day” and demonstration of relevant software tools if wanted)

• Other formats available: Brief overview ½ day In depth introduction for those without planning & tracking skills 2 to 4 days Earned value with Microsoft Project Add a day to any of the above

Course Benefits Explains the Earned Value principles and practice as well as less rigorous ways of achieving most of the EV benefits without most of the EV costs.

Who Should Attend All those involved in track projects. Those charged with using (or introducing use of Earned Value) (Knowledge of creation of resourced project schedules is a pre-requisite for the Standard course).

Content & Workshops


Review • Stakeholder, Goals, Deliverables, Tasks, Networks, Critical Path, Resource,

Contingency, Reserve, Base-line.

Performing the work • Verification, Quality log, Work done, Value earned, Basic earned value formulae,

Simple forecasts, Complex earned value formulae, Further forecasts, Earned value types, timing discrepancies

• Interpreting graphs, Info vs. data, Misleading with EV. • Back@Work Exercise: Track good and bad progress to the schedule, Back@Work

Exercise: Report EV.

Corrections • Consolidating gains, Exceptions, Escalation, Crashing & fast tracking Using buffers,

Rescheduling resource calls, Tracking EV, Handling changes, Adjusting EV plots, Handling retrospective finance “edicts”,, Back@Work Exercise: Redraw the baseline for “today”.



Learning from Experience: The Master-Class in Lessons Learned as a Valuable Reality

Mistakes are expensive. Shouldn’t that unauthorised expenditure return some value to the organisation? Likewise serendipity: the happy accident should be something we strive to repeat. Creating good luck is process driven tool based skill that can be added to any organisation.

You Will Learn To Follow a 4 step cyclic process from Observation to Application. Match people’s strengths and interest to the cyclic steps. Use tools and techniques for synthesising solutions to prevent repeating mistakes and also formalising the knowledge, skills and experience of your best people to repeat best-practices. Cascade experience from the highly capable to the newly appointed.

Duration • Awareness session ½ day. • Workshop sessions 1day.

Course Benefits Move beyond Lessons Observed to “Learnings applied” and value earned. Improve your competitive advantage by actually using the engine within continuous process improvement.

Who Should Attend Everyone involved in the organisations business as usual or project base activities who has opportunity to spot opportunities for improvement. Everyone with the responsibility for using, defining, managing/ supervising or overseeing the organisations procedures, processes, methods from line managers and executives to QA and Audit.

Content & Workshops

Learning From Experience • Route Map, Path To A Project Blame-Storm & Beyond, Learning from Experience aka

Lessons Learned, Knowing & Do.

More Than I Can Say • Knowing v. Doing, Knowledge Cycle, Examples of Absorbing & Combining or

Rejecting knowledge.



How To Improve LfE • PIR = LfE + BBR, Key message, WIIFM (Why should *I* bother?). • Lessons Learned, Root Cause Analysis (RCA), Focus areas. • LfE has three axis, Why do lfe, Why – WIIFT ?, Intellectual Capital, LL Timing, When

(Sh/C)ould You ? +, When LL techniques are applied.

LL is a Look-back to Look-forward process • Look-back, Look-ahead, PIR = LfE + BBR, Your Context ?, Usefulness of PMMS only

grows with feedback from users.

Some Best Practices • Eastern & Western Philosophy, Organisations , PRINCE2 – LL Log, PRINCE Product

Descriptions, Capture LL as you go, Sources: Risk Log, Tracking Gantt, PM & Sponsor, PMBOK.

The Learning Model • Learning, Learning Types.

Tools • Tools for LfE: Classical, Learning Histories & Camp Fires, New tools, We all have the

same problems, Hearing the experts thoughts, I know who knows.

Implementation • The LfE Business Case, Quick wins - What Can We Do Now?, Change is required,

Small/quick delta, Create momentum, Medium delta consolidate, Power to change is in your hands not up to “them”, MacGregor.

Implementation Issues • Future Wins, Almost Final Thought, Feedback.



“How Much ?!*@$#~?”: The Master-Class in Estimating

This course teaches creating estimates that are accurate at all times! (and whose precision is realistic given everything we know currently.). A plan stands or falls on its estimates yet how to estimate is poorly understood and badly applied in most organisations. Implementing good estimating practices is a tough job made easier with understanding of the psychology of how organisations treat good and bad news, good and bad performance.

You Will Learn To Create estimates that match the uncertainty in your projects. Apply a wide range of estimating tools, techniques (such as via analogous and parametric) and approaches (such as top-down and bottom-up). Defend estimates using ranges and confidence levels. Including impact of range-based (3-point) estimating on schedules and resource pool owners. Include and manage contingency. Address the issues of implementing best-practices in estimating.

Duration • Budget holder’s overview 2hr and ½ day formats available. • Technical Staff overview for those supplying estimates 1 Day • Standard Full Course 2 Days


Course Benefits Recognise good versus bad estimates and be able to challenge and defend estimates. Confidently create estimates that can be challenged and whose audit trail is transparent. Calculate contingency amounts that are visible and under control. Enable sound business decision making based on estimates whose degree of reliability is known and expressed.

Who Should Attend All those who need the skills to generate estimates for inclusion in project business cases, schedules and budgets. Project Assurance staff needing to take a view on project control. Staff involved in initiatives to improve Estimating Capabilities.



Content & Workshops

Introductions & Logistics • Poor Estimates Are Everyone’s Problem, Back@Work Exercise Introductions.

What is an Estimate? • Estimates Are Not Guesses, Content Of An Estimate ?, Use of Estimates, Accuracy v.

Precision, Achieving Accuracy, Early Estimates: Wide Ranges are a Reality. • Planning Horizons, Rolling Wave Planning, Uncertainty Decreases As…, What Is

Different In Each Quadrant?, Project Control Assessment. • Back@Work Exercise Estimating Status Quo.

Planning Concepts • Context for Estimates, Development and Maintenance of Project Baseline,

Scope=Project, Phase & Work-Package, ALL the Products = ALL the Tasks, ALL the Tasks = ALL the Effort, Work Breakdown Structure, Measuring And Estimation Of Quality Attributes, Quality Description: WBS Dictionary, Tasks in PDM/ Network Diagrams, WBS + Resources & Schedule = Cumulative Cost & BAC.

Estimating Approaches and Techniques • Approaches: Top Down Versus Bottom Up, Techniques: Parametric Estimates,

Analogous Estimates, Back@Work Exercise: Estimate the following.

Project Tracking & Feedback Loops • Use, Not Creation, Is The Issue, Improving The Individual’s Estimating Capability,

Improving the Organisation’s Ability, Corporate Development Model, Sources of Misestimating, Scope Verification Occurs Throughout The Project, Recognising Progress, Rules for Measuring Performance, EV an Estimating Tool: Project Canine.

• Back@Work Exercise: EVA Graph of Stained Glass Window.

Things To Count • Base Values Vs. Derived Values, Basics, Deriving Schedule…, Units To Estimate In,

Encapsulate Expert Knowledge, Models in a Wide Range of Fields, EG A Document Metric: Gunning’s Fog index, EG Complexity Measure for Procedural Software, EG Technical Complexity Assessment, Back@Work Exercise What Quantities Could You Model?.

Non-numeric Estimates • Ordinal Estimates, Back@Work Exercise Creating an Impacts-Scale, Risk Assessment

Matrix, Higher-Order Drivers for Project Estimates.

Experts And Overcoming The Problems With Them • Expert Opinion: Source Of Data, Problems With Expert Opinion, “Gosh is that the

time!?.”, Psychology, 5 + 5 = 13, Biases, Delphic Oracle: Concept & Process, Back@Work Exercise Delphic Oracle.



Estimating For Situations With Less Than Certainty • Confidence, 3 course Dinner, with wine for 10, Confidence Over a Range?,

Confidence, 2pt v. 3pt, Three Point Estimates, Budget Allocation, Back@Work Exercise 3pt Arithmetic, Define Levels Of Precision, Improving Precision Over Time , Improved Estimates, Assignable Causes & Random Variation, Three Parts To Any Estimate, Responses to Uncertainty, Budgeting the Uncertain.

Adding & Showing Uncertainties • What Confidence Of 5 Weeks Parallel Tasks, Over-Allocating Contingency Serial

Task, Confidence in Schedules, Departmental Budget, Reality & Simplicity, Calculating Contingency, Showing Schedule Contingency, Monte-Carlo Analysis, Retiring Contingency, Back@Work Exercise: Estimating.



Good Enough?: The Master-Class in Managing Project Quality

‘Better than asked’ for is often the Customer’s ‘excite and delight’ factor while “what you said” is all the supplier can promise. This course explains why most organisations find project quality an (unnecessarily) difficult topic. By the end of the course you will know how to talk about quality and be equipped with tools to manage it much more easily and happily. Done right Quality is exciting! However it is done Quality is a vital topic for projects to get right. So why does the topic’s name invoke so much negative baggage? Is it from visions of mediocre employees sidelined in a dead-end where they are out of the way?. The more your project team comprehends how to combine pride-in-a-good-job with good-enough-for-the-contract then 1) the sooner your projects will be too time and budget 2) the sooner the customer will be excited and delighted by results achieved and 3) the sooner you get promoted!. This course explains the slippery topic of quality with insights that will help every project participant understand and even enjoy the responsibilities they have ☺.

You Will Learn To Appreciate that customer and supplier have different perspectives, Define quality from both perspectives. Recognise how quality is intertwined through product and project life-cycles. Be able to use tools of quality control throughout the both lifecycles. Gauge product maturity through the use of verification and validation techniques for safe project progress assessment. Define quality participants, their accountabilities, responsibilities and the Quality Management System to achieve desired results. Specify and deliver against project quality criteria. Establish a Project Quality Plan, select relevant Quality Standards and plan quality into your project activities, budgets and schedules. Draw-up Quality Control and Quality Assurance activities by setting-up or drawing from the Corporate Quality Function’s project related roles, templates, processes and techniques. Conduct quality reviews within project validation and verification activities.

Duration • Standard Full Course 2 Days (Other formats available)

0900 to 1630 formal class hours 1st day (1630 onward informal/ optional time for discussion of “topics raised on the day” and demonstration of relevant software tools if wanted), 1530 finish on 2nd day.

Course Benefits This course provides the insight that turns quality from drudge to valuable (and interesting) element of project.



Philip Crosby famously declared “Quality is Free”: he understated it: Quality isn’t a non-cost – it has a real positive pay-back. Find-out how to benefit from the pride-in-a-good-job for the team and the excited and delighted response from the customer. Know how to create a quality control regime within a project that will be competent to specify quality and deliver quality. Know how to define acceptance criteria and create and then track a project plan that will deliver required quality levels. Enables Business cases to reflect true cost and benefits relationships.

Who Should Attend All those involved in Project or quality assurance. Anyone involved in the creation of testing strategies or definition of acceptance criteria. Everyone with involvement in creating project plans or tracking project progress.

Content & Workshops

Lesson 0 Welcome!, Domestics, Contents, How Good (Quality)?, Who?.

Lesson 1: Project Quality Management? What is it? What Does Quality Mean To Us ?, Poor Quality Definition, Definitions Of Quality, Quality & Scope, Crosby’s Cost of Quality, PMBOK Quality

Lesson 2: Step/ Check/ Step/…Lifecycles Project Lifecycles, Purpose Of The Phases, Project Decision Points: Granting Approvals, Product Life-Cycle & Maturity, Relationship Of Process Groups, Back@Work Optional Exercise 2.1: Air force, Test-Flights and Acceptance.

Lesson 3: PMBOK Tools & Techniques of Quality Tools & Techniques Of Quality, Flowchart Example, Flowcharts, Tools & Techniques Of Quality, Statistical Sampling, Control Charts & Interpretation, Graphical Check sheet, Histogram, Pareto Chart, Scatter Plots, Cause And Effect, Benchmarking, Design Of Experiments, Back@Work Optional Exercise 3.1: Using The QA Tools, Conclusions.

Lesson 4: Building Product Quality into Project Plans Scope Verification Plan, Scope Planning and Definition, Starts With Scope Statement, Increasing Certainty , Requirements, Scope, Quality And Contracts, Techniques. Scope Statement to Deliverables to Tasks, Deliverables = End Point, ALL The Tasks = ALL The Effort, PBS Example, Product Descriptions, WBS Dictionary, Work Packages, Measuring And Estimation Of Quality Attributes, Summary. Back@Work Optional Exercise 4.1: User Friendly.



Lesson 5: V & V (Validation & Verification) Test Hierarchies and Test Types, Verification, Validation, Test Hierarchy, Scope Verification Occurs Throughout The Project, Traceability, Quality Control. Static Testing: Review, Walkthrough, Inspection, Detecting Defects. Dynamic techniques: White Box (aka Clear Box), Combinational Explosion, …Boundary & Equivalence Testing, …Black Box, …Capability Tests, Recommended Approach, Acceptance Testing, Sign-Off of Deliverables, Product Close-Out: Handover, Warranty Not Guarantee. Back@Work Optional Exercise 5.1 : Scope Verification.

Lesson 6: Using Quality Control Results for Progress Tracking Defect vs. Error, Non-Conformances, Corrective Action, Basics of Metrics Input & Outcome Metrics, Collection of Metrics, Back@Work: Optional Exercise 6.1: Metrics.

Lesson 7: Who Has What Quality Accountabilities? Stakeholders, CQE & AC, SMART, Roles Involved, Quality Accountabilities. Back@Work Optional Exercises 7.1: Stakeholder Identification.

Lesson 8: Building The QMS, Creating the QMS Some Useful Frameworks, Key ISO 9000 Sections, Process Based QMS, Model Contents, CMMI® : The Manager’s Vision, Capability Maturity Model Integration Overview, Baldrige Quality Award, Six Sigma, Six Sigma Objective, Balanced Scorecard Four Indicators, Translating Strategy Into Action. Back@Work Optional Exercise 8.1 and 8.2: Balanced Scorecard. Course conclusions and Back@Work Optional Exercise 8.3: Personal Application.



Threat & Opportunity: The Master-Class in Risk Management

Shit happens! and a project plan/ project manager is not excused from remaining in control and on track for successful delivery. Equally projects are full of happy accidents, tasks routinely finish ahead of estimates. Project managers should be equipped to consolidate opportunity. Handling threat and opportunity is both a simple systematic process and a complex exercise in people’s perceptions, preferences and tolerances. This course teaches how to combine project planning and tracking with risk management of threat and opportunity. Attendees learn tools & techniques for use in each of the steps of the risk management cycle that improve the team’s ability to identify & analyse risks, propose, select and implement risk responses.

You Will Learn To Identify, analyse and manage risks. Cope when risks become issues. Include provision for threat and opportunity into project plans. Give back unused contingency (1/2 the time?) or request more, with meaningful justifications (1 time in 5?).

Duration • Sponsor’s awareness session 2hr to ½ day. • Standard Specialist’s comprehensive course 4 Days


Course Benefits Assess, articulate and respond to risk clearly and transparently, assign risk responsibilities and decision making where it belongs to enable the organisation to handle risk effectively at every level.

Who Should Attend All project staff members. Any project participant or Project Office staff member with project assurance responsibilities. Project managers and team leaders identifying, assessing, responding and reporting on risks. Project sponsor and ownership community charged with balancing investment threat with reward opportunity, Risk owners and those who suffer the pain of threats that occur.



Content

Risk Management • Hellos, Logistics & Expectations. • What is Risk, Common Words, Risk & Uncertainty, Predictability, Attitude Towards

Risk.

Scene Setting: 9 Key Steps to Successful Risk Management • 1 Awareness, Risk Culture, Tone, Ownership & Appetite, Risk Policy, Policy

Statement. • 2 Identification, 3 Assessment, 4 Response Development, 5 Response Selection, 6

Preventative & Contingent Responses, 7 Execution, Monitoring & Response, 8 Retirement, 9 Record Keeping & Audit Trails.

• The Risk Management Plan, Risk Register, Risk Process.

2 Identification • Tools for Risk Identification, NIST 800-30, Risk ID: HAZOPS and HAZID, Example

Words, Other tools. • Risk Assessment Teams, Delphi, BIA & Dependency, Business Impact Analysis,

Identification Techniques, Affinity & Fishbones, Proper Risk Description, Risk Identification.

3 Pt1 Essentials of Assessment • Many perspectives, Expression of Risk, How is An Assessment Expressed, Scales,

Qualitative v. Quantitative, Qualitative Methods, Ordinal Scales, Try This. • Assessing Proximity, Exposure and Windows, Dimensions of Risk, Assessing

Probability, Arithmetic, Probability in Reality, Risk “Size” , A Sample Exposure Matrix, The Project Management Body of Knowledge Chapter 11, Risk Assessment Matrix, Risk Ranking, Risk Response Changes Exposure, Assessing Risks.

3 pt2 Assessment: The need to estimate • Estimates, How Long, How Much…, 3pt Estimates, Normal Distribution, Distributions,

The Right Shape For The Real World , Improved Estimates. • Confidence in Schedules, Departmental Budget.

4 Response Development • Risk Response, Prioritisation, Responses, Response types, Care/ Caution/ Alert/

Alarm, Risk Response Hierarchy. • Risk Interactions, Risk Response Plan, Response Development.

5 Pt1 Critical Decisions: Selecting Responses • Emotion, Dimensions of Responses, Poor Response Selection, Decisions, Power to

Act, 20 / 20 Hindsight. • Psychology of Decisions, Corporate Culture Affects Decisions, Group Decision

Making, What Attitude Prevails, Framing, Response Selection Over Many Risks, Risk Response Budgets, Attitude to Risk.



5 Pt 2Risk Seeking & Risk Aversion A detour in Risk Psychology (back to decisions later) • Asymmetry in Loss and Gain, How to Express Appetite, Risk Seeking v. Risk Avoiding,

Utility, The Lottery, “How” Insurance Works From A Utility Perspective, Single & Multi-Attribute Utility.

• Prospect theory, Regret Theory, Examples of Regret.

6 Pt3 Critical Decisions: Concluded • Modelling Tools, Payoff Table: A Numeric Example, MaxiMin, MaxiMax, MiniMax,

Decision Trees, T&O Are Not Discreet. • How Much Does It All Cost, Budget, Seriousness Urgency & Growth, Proactive and

Reactive Responses, Residual Risk And Secondary Risk, The Law of Diminishing Returns, EMV as Determinant of Budget.

7 & 8 Prevention then Retirement, Monitoring & Contingency • Prevention, Now what, After Preventative Measures, The Role of Audits, Risk

Reporting, Now what , Plan B, Reserves, 8 Retirement It Didn’t Happen!, Contingency, 9 Records.

A Hammer Is Not The Only Tool In The Box • Survey of T, T, & As, Risk Analysis Methods, Comparing Vulnerabilities, RIM,

Courtney’s Method, Back@Work Exercise After Lunch.

BAU Risk • Operational Risk, Help Desks & Incident Response. • Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery, Defining the IT Recovery Strategy,

Continuity, Recovery Time & Point Objective (RTO & RPO). • Project Risk, Risk in Projects.

Project Risk • Published Project Frameworks, Project Management, What Confidence Of 5 Weeks,

Showing Cost Contingency.

Frameworks for controls • Why frameworks, Maturity, Corporate Governance, Legislative & Auditing focus,

Turnbull & the Combined Code, Risk models,, COSO Enterprise Risk, Orange Book Risk in Government, IT Risk: Octave, IT Management Focus, What is it, CobiT®’s Structure for IT Governance, ITIL Series (and Microsoft’s copy), CMMI®, CMMI Process Areas, CMMI for Services Organizations, Technical Focus, BS 7799:2005 [aka ISO 17799 and ISO 27002:2007].

• Personal qualification focus. • Course Summary.

Workshops The course uses a variety of exercises and workshop sessions depending on the format selected.



In general: tools and techniques are introduced and practiced via multiple exercises. Concepts and application is clarified through application to a case-study.



Where are We?: The Master-Class in Project Tracking & Control

You Will Learn To Monitor project status through the use of tracking tools and techniques. Define acceptance criteria and test for their development during project execution and at product hand-over. Highlight and assess project status using a comprehensive suite of reporting tools and techniques.



Course Benefits A combination and subset of our “Turning “What the Customer Wants” into “What the Customer Gets”: The Master-Class in Managing Project Scope & Quality” and “When & @ What Cost: The Master-Class in Managing Project Schedule and Budget” which focuses on the progress monitoring aspects of a project.

Who Should Attend Anyone charged with measuring project status, with reporting project status or assessing status information to authorise on-going commitment to projects at a higher level (or smaller investment) than required to attend the above two courses. Project managers and team leaders, Project Office and Project Assurance Staff. Staff responsible for constructing plans as well as monitoring & reporting should consider the wider and deeper coverage within the 2 courses from which this one is extracted.

Content

The starting point for project control • Balancing control with cost and bureaucracy, The right frequency, the right control

processes, Building controls in at the planning stage, Back@Work Exercise Qualities of Good Controls.

Change • Amending the plan, Baselines and Re-Baselining, Today’s best route to the end-point,

Change control, Delegated tolerances, Back@Work Exercise Designing delegated authorities.



Progress Measures • Assessing progress actually achieved, The role of Quality Control, Quality reviews,

Setting up QC in planning, Verification, Executing in-process tests, Test types, Testing Hierarchy, Record Keeping, Validation, Acceptance and Hand-over.

Reporting • Knowing & saying clearly where we are, Tools, techniques and approaches, Earned

Value Management, Earned Value Types, Milestone types and definition, Milestone Slip Chart, Tracking Gantt, , Product checklists Comparison to plan, Easier alternatives to EVM, Progress reporting, (Blue) Red-Amber-Green, (Grey)-ing.

Analysing & Acting • Diagnosing, formulating and taking or escalating the right corrective actions, Roles

tolerances and authority levels.

Workshops The course uses exercises to practice techniques and is based on a Case-study to consolidate understanding and application of concepts of status appraisal, reporting and action diagnosis.



“Which Version Do I Need?”: Configuration Management

Producing project deliverables is an expensive process. Configuration management is the discipline that assists us to safely manage our project’s growing set of assets. Important in contexts producing physical items CM is indispensable for any intellectual activity involving multiple versions of plans, specifications and designs.

You Will Learn To Establish a CM function with cost and rigour balanced to your needs. How to do CM day-to-day independently of any specific CM-tool. Manage change in a controlled manner (eliminate scope-creep). Interface with testing function to reate baselines and distribute products of know quality.



Course Benefits Learn the whole discipline from the ground-up and appreciate where CM adds value (and where it may not in your context). Be able to take the principals of CM best practice back to work in projects and operational activities.

Who Should Attend Anyone involved in the planning, design, development, test or rollout of products produced by projects or maintained in operational environments.

Content

Introduction and Overview • Course Objectives, Course Contents.

Managing the Configuration of Systems • CM Supports the Product Lifecycle, Goals, The CM Process Area From CMMI: Part II,

Sources of CM Models, CM Supports Each Development Phase, CM Activity by Phase, Purpose of the Phases, Software Edit/ Build/ Test Cycle, Physical item Design/ Manufacture/ Test/Integrate/ Test/ Releases, Development Milestones and Baselines, Confirming Milestone Achievement, CM Moves Deliverables Between Environments, Change Control, Managing the Configuration of Systems, Tools to Manage CM, Tool Types.



Policy and the CM Plan • Size and Scale, CM Plan: IEEE 828, Creating an CM Plan, Management’s Needs

From CM, How Is Support for CM Expressed?, Policy and the CM Plan, Drivers of Policy, Policy Considerations, Management and Reporting Lines, CM Team Members, Development Teams in Policy and Plan, Achieving Buy-In, CM Perspectives, Perspectives or Needs From CM, What Does CM Provide?, CM’s Responsibilities to the Organization, CM Procedures, Organizational Boundaries.

Introduction to Identifying and Naming Configuration Items • Work Products of Frontend Phases, Work Products of Backend Phases, Traceability,

Lifecycle of Document CI, Nature of Documents, The Document Library, Configuration Item, Version Control, Lifecycle of a Simple Product/ Programm, Creating an Assembly/ System, CM Processes, Versioning, History of a CI: Versions, Optional Version Control Demonstration, Identifying Configuration Items, CIs and the WBS, CIs Are Made Up of CIs, A CI Is a Single Entity, Logical, Derived, and Written, Installable, H/W & S/W Build, Install, and Runtime, Introduction to Identifying and Naming Configuration Items, Naming CIs, Name Triplet.

Version Control: Advanced Concepts • Why Are Variants Created?, Trunks and Branches, Branching Capabilities, History of a

Component: Merging, Clashes, Multiple Versions on the Trunk, Merging Into and From the Trunk, Managing Development Using Branching and Merging, Merging Tools, Permanent Variant, Versioning Derived Items.

Building Programs and Systems • CIs Are Made Up of CIs, System Is Composed Of …, Creating Programs & Products,

Program Build Tree/ BOMs, Dependencies in Build, S/W Makefile, Daily Build and Smoke Test, Identifying Installed Files, Keyword Expansion.

Baselines • Baselines (a.k.a. Stability), Baseline Concepts, Baseline Definitions, Baselines in

Project Management, CM Baselines, Work Products of Frontend Phases, Functional Baseline, Allocated Baseline, Work Products of Backend Phases, Product Baseline, Fit to Be Declared a Baseline, Functional Configuration Audit, Physical Configuration Audit, Physical Configuration Audit, Baselining Documents and s/w Source Code, Baselining & Storing physical products, Changeset and Baseline of Baselines, Base-lining.

Development Lifecycles • Traditional Views of Baselines in the Standards, Baselining Implications of Lifecycles,

Architecture-First Lifecycles, Architectural Model Characteristics, Baselines Created Per Phase, Development Milestones, Prototyping & Iterative Processes, Iterative Model Characteristics, CM Implications of Iterative Approaches, Development Lifecycles, Iterative Demands on CM.



Managing Change • Change Is Normal, Change Control Costs and Benefits, Change Management

Process, Raising a Change, Bugs, Incidents, and Problems, Maintenance Change, Typical Severities, Typical Urgency, Assessing Impact, Formal Impact Assessments, Infrastructure, Change Manager’s Responsibilities, Change Control Board (CCB), Interfaces, Mil-Std-973: Interface Control Working Group, Interface Specification, Emergency Changes, Change Freezes, Records, Example Change Control Reports, Outsourced Environments, Change Tools.

Release Management • Release Management Aims, Environment CI, CM Environments, Environments,

Promotion of CIs, Promotion of CIs, Promotion and Distribution, Release Timing, Release Note, Licenses, Product Releases, Roll-Out Strategy.

Product Distribution • Product Distribution Steps, Concepts, All Distribution Is From the CMDB, Install Is

Build to a Target Environment, Install-Time “Gotchas”, Decommission: Retiring CIs, Distribution Tools, Distributing COTS/Shrink-Wrap Software, Distribution Types, Installing to Test, Backout Plans, Reversing a Distribution.

Web Content Management • Content Management, Workflow Issues, Web Content Management or Content

Change Management Plan, WCM Technical Issues, Web Content Types, Service Levels, Outsourcing, and Responsibility, Tools.

Managing the Configuration Management Function • Managing the CM Function, Day-to-Day Management, CM and CMDB Maintenance,

CM Reporting, Definitions of Configuration Status Accounting, Configuration Status Accounting, Management Reports, CM tools provide flexible reporting capabilities.

Assessing CM Needs and Capability • CM Is Free!, Route Map, Assess Current Processes From the Perspective of …,

Consider Required CM Services, Confirming That the Current Approach Is OK, Making Evaluation Easier*, Capability Scales, Tool Selection, Delta-V*, Delta-V Namespaces, Tool Reviews and Lists, Where to Start, Extending Existing CM Functions, Cutover, Resourcing New CM Functions, Training, Course Summary, Go Do It!.

Workshops Each chapter uses exercises & case-study segments to practice techniques and consolidate concepts.

• Highlighting CM benefits for the management team. • Performing configuration identification. • Evaluating the impacts of life cycle choice on CM. • Establishing a CM plan. • Conducting successful product releases. • Writing a release management plan from both a customer and supplier perspective.



• Defining the charter for a CCB. • Developing a CM policy document. • Assessing your organisation’s CM capability.



Three Miscellaneous Topics: Cobit™, Incident Management and BCP

Three Miscellaneous Topics: Cobit™, Incident Management and BCP ....................................................... 70 CobiT™: Using the Framework for IT Governance .......................................................................................... 71 HELP! Incident Management for Help Desk Staff ............................................................................................. 74 Business Survival! Creating the Capability for Business Continuity .................................................................. 77



CobiT™: Using the Framework for IT Governance

Governance is a “hot-topic”. Failure to address governance needs is an unacceptable risk for both the business and a personal risk to managers with governance responsibilities. Corporate governance is dependent on IT systems to provide the transparency required for compliance monitoring. Many frameworks describe best practices in the management of IT. CobiTtm consolidates the world’s leading frameworks under an integrated umbrella of control objectives with maturity models, process goals and metrics. Attendance on this course provides a complete appreciation of IT Governance issues, their integration into corporate governance and the steps to match IT Governance to existing IT controls within the organisation, identify and fill gaps.

You Will Learn To Apply the CobiT™ Governance framework to your IT organisation or section. Interpret CobiT™’s process model, maturity model, roles, measures and indicators.

Duration Available in a variety of formats to suit different audiences in an enterprise rolling-out of CobiT™. 4 day comprehensive overview.

• Lightening senior management Overview ½ Day • Help-Desk, Application Development, IT Management and Service Support Staff and

Internal Audit modules. 1day or 2days each 0900 to 1630 formal class hours (1630 onward informal/ optional time for discussion of “topics raised on the day” and demonstration of relevant software tools if wanted), 1530 finish on last day.

• Standard Full Course 4 Days 0900 to 1630 formal class hours (1630 onward informal/ optional time for discussion of “topics raised on the day” and demonstration of relevant software tools if wanted), 1530 finish on last day.

Course Benefits Tailored and focussed sessions for all the role-holders in an IT function seeking to implement the CobiT™ IT Governance Framework.

Who Should Attend Three levels of typical attendee.

• Executive Management with responsibilities under legislation. • Line management with delegated responsibility for organisational service levels. • Technical management with day-to-day operational responsibilities.



Content (4 day Comprehensive Format)

Enterprise IT Governance ITGI’s CobiT® Framework • What is Corporate Governance?, COSO Definition of Internal Control, COSO Effective

Internal Controls, Governance Framework. • Governance Driven by Business Rests on IT, Translation of Policy to Procedure,

Growth in Governance, CobiT® Context, “The Business Comes First”. • 5 Drivers of CobiT®’s Content, 5.1 Strategic Alignment, 5.2 Value & 5.3 Risk, 5.4

Resource Management, 5.5 Performance Management Balanced Scorecard, Development & Strategy BSC.

What is IT Governance (as expressed by CobiT®)? • The CobiT® Mission, IT Governance according to CobiT®, What is it?, A Process

Area, Domains & their Focus, CobiT®’s Structure for IT Governance, Attributes of a Control Process, Inside the CobiT® Framework, CobiT®, Control Objective, Terms Explained.

• Document Structure Part 1, High Level Control Objective, Information Criteria (Business Requirements for Information), CobiT® Controls, Data Origination/Authorisation Controls, Data Input Controls, Data Processing Controls, Data Output Controls, Boundary Controls.

• Summary, Actions & Measures, Resources Identified in CobiT®, Resources Driven by Business Goals, Detailed Control Objectives, Part 2, Responsibilities & Data Needs, Information Needs, Responsibilities, Measuring the Processes, Goals & Metrics, Mapping from business to metric, Information needs & metrics, KPIs & KGIs.

Maturity Modelling • The Maturity Model, Maturity Model, Goal of Maturity Models, Maturity Attributes P.22,

Maturity Model, A Generic Maturity Model (p19), Control Maturity Model (p177), Maturity Questions to Ask, How well, Answering the questions.

Implementing CobiT® • Route Map According to CobiT®, Where to Start Implementation, Two Models for

Assessing Control, Example Process Area from Audit Guidelines , Implementation: Board Actions.

The Domains • CobiT®’s Structure for IT Governance, CobiT® Based on Lower Level Detail, Heritage,

CobiT® Source Documents, ITIL Framework Documents , ITIL Publications, Service Management, BS15000, ITIL Core Structure.

Plan and Organise • PO1 Strategic plan, PO1 Define a Strategic IT Plan, PO2 Information Architecture,

PO3 Determine Technological Direction, PO4 Define the IT Processes, Organisation and Relationships, PO4 Define the IT Processes, Organisation and Relationships, PO5 Manage the IT Investment, PO5 Manage the IT Investment, PO6 Communicate Management Aims and Direction, PO7 Manage IT Human Resources, PO7 Manage IT Human Resources, PO8 Manage Quality, Key ISO 9000:2000 Sections, Quality



Awards, Example Baldridge Criteria, 6s, PO9 Assess and Manage IT Risks, Risk , PO10 Manage Projects, Project Management, PMI®’s PMBOK® - Structure & Content.

Acquire And Implement • AI1 Identify Automated Solutions, AI2 Acquire and Maintain Application Software, AI3

Acquire and Maintain Technology Infrastructure, AI3 Acquire and Maintain Technology Infrastructure, AI4 Enable Operation and Use, AI5 Procure IT Resources, AI6 Manage Changes, AI6 Manage Changes, SS8 Change Management, AI7 Install and Accredit Solutions and Changes, SS9 Release Management.

Deliver And Support • DS1 Define and Manage Service Levels, SD4 Service Level Management (SLM), DS2

Manage Third-party Services, DS3 Manage Performance and Capacity, SD6 Capacity Management, DS4 Ensure Continuous Service, SD7 IT Service Continuity Management, SD8 Availability Management, DS5 Ensure Systems Security, Security Frameworks, 7799 Security, DS6 Identify and Allocate Costs, SD5 Financial Management, DS7 Educate and Train Users, DS8 Manage Service Desk and Incidents, SS4 Service Desk, SS5 Incident Management, DS9 Manage the Configuration, SS7 Configuration Management, DS10 Manage Problems, SS6 The Problem Management, DS11 Manage Data, DS12 Manage the Physical Environment, DS13 Manage Operations.

Monitor And Evaluate • ME1 Monitor and Evaluate IT Performance, ME2 Monitor and Evaluate Internal

Control, ME3 Ensure Regulatory Compliance, ME4 Provide IT Governance.




HELP! Incident Management for Help Desk Staff

Do you have responsibility to respond to the unpredictable? When a user request arrives at the help-desk it has to be responded to. What happens when that request is immediately serious or when its seriousness grows slowly? How does your organisation mange incidents?.

You Will Learn To Apply a procedural, defined process for coping with the unexpected or unprecedented. Create Incident Management system for use by your help-desk function and the 2nd and 3rd line support resources they rely on to keep the business working.



Course Benefits Understand how to handle the technical and the PR elements of incidents, the coordination and escalation processes. In short be equiped to deal with the tough challenges outside of day-to-day activity as effectively as the routine responsibilities.

Who Should Attend Anyone and everyone involved in the set-up, supervision and operation of incident response teams from help-desk to 3rd line support.

Content


Managing Incidents • Agenda, Exercise: Introductions , Objectives, Route map to the objectives, Where are

we now ?, Current Problems, Service Catalogue, Service Catalogue, The IT Asset List, Assets Under Management, Stakeholders, How are stakeholders impacted ?, Definitions, Crisis definition, What Is The Current Incident Management Process?, Incident Management Process , Incident Process Map, Incident Problem Cycle, Typical IT Service Delivery Stack, Summary.

Incident Response • 1st 2nd and 3rd line, DS10 Managing Problems and Incidents, DS10 Manage

Problems and Incidents, DS10 Manage Problems and Incidents, Incident Problem Cycle, Responding to a Crisis.



Crisis Response Steps • Identify A Crisis Has Occurred, Incident or Crisis ?, Effect of Time on Priority,

Recovery Time Objective (RTO), Recovery Point Objective (RPO), Update Catalogue & Asset list.

Start Managing The Incident • Declare Crisis Response, Crisis Communications, Establishing Correct

Communications , Communications Plan, Stakeholder Groups , Decision Making, Communications Plan, Crisis Communications , Communications Plan Content, Crisis Communications Rules, Information Gap, Crisis Communication Rules, Stakeholder Map, Assess Stakeholder Significance, Stakeholder’s Stakeholders, Stakeholder Icons, Update Stakeholder & Communications Plan, Communications Templates, Record Keeping for Incident Management, Incident / Problem Records.

Diagnose the crisis • Analysis Techniques, Problem Analysis, Kepner & Tregoe, Brainstorming 1, Affinity

grouping, Event Tracing, Ishikawa Fish Bone , Identify & Analyse.

Resolve the Cause • Step-down, Step Down the Response, Post Incident Opportunity, Opportunity List, The

11th Step, Comprehensive List of Causes, Summary.

Pro-active Crisis Management • Crisis Response Teams, Team Charters, Roles & Responsibilities, Response Team’s

Charter, Timescales & Actions, Crisis Response Plan, Preparing for incidents, Help Desk, Crisis budget.

Service Level Management • DS1 Defining and Managing Service Levels, DS1 Define and Manage Service Levels,

SLAs, Maturity Model, Define Service Levels, Manage 3rd Party Service.

Establishing SLAs retrospectively • Business Impact Analysis, BIA Outputs, Participants in BIA, Gathering BIA data,

Gathering BIA Data, Assessing Impact , Assessing Impact, Qualitatively, Quantitative Metrics, Impact Varies With…, Context, Business Cycles, BIA Outputs, Technical Impact Analysis, Dependency Modelling , Application Linkages And Synchronisations, Typical Application Interdependence, Out-sourced Services, Manage 3rd-party Service, Out-sourced Services.

Proactive Actions • Risk – Probability & Impact, Risk Management Steps, Risk description, Threat

assessment, Threat identification techniques, Threat Identification, Management’s IT Concerns, Problem Coding Structure, Problem Coding Structure, Identify Threats, Risk Sizing, Risk Assessment, Risk Assessment Matrix, Risk Identification and Sizing.



Response Development • Risk Response Planning, Risk Response Hierarchy, Risk Preventative Response,

Identify Controls in Each Class, Risk interactions, Response development, Risk response, Contingency actions, IT Contingency, Fail-over & DR, DRP, Ensuring Continuous Service , Continuous Service SLA maturity Model.

Managing Change • Common Cause of Incidents, Change Management Process, AI6 Managing Changes,

AI6 Managing Changes, Manage Changes, SCM Environments, All Distribution Is From the CMDB, Environment CI, Environments, AI5 Installing & Accrediting Systems, AI5 Installing and Accrediting Systems, Install & Accredit Systems, Delivering Incident Hardened Systems, AI3 Acquiring and Maintaining Technology Infrastructure, AI3 Acquire and Maintain Technology Infrastructure.

Applying the course to the workplace • Applying The Learning, Stakeholders, Deliverables, Tasks, Participants & Estimates,

Dependency & Schedule, Risks & Opportunities, Course Summary.

Appendix: • DS11 Managing Data, DS12 Managing Facilities, AI4 Developing and Maintaining

Procedures.




Business Survival! Creating the Capability for Business Continuity

You Will Learn To Create the capability to survive business threatening disasters. Create and deeply an emergency response team plus supporting command centre. Prioritise key business capabilities and prerequisite infrastructure. Write a Business Continuity Plan. Control creation of the continuity plan as a project.



Course Benefits The majority of businesses that experience a disaster fail within 2 years. Equally those with too rigid a recovery plan are as poorly prepared as those with none or an out dated plan. Find the best balance for being safe rather than sorry.

Who Should Attend Anyone & everyone charged with responsibility to create, review, maintain or replace the provision made for continuity of operations within a business.

Content & Workshops

Introduction and Overview Course Objectives, Course Contents, Exercise: Personal Goals.

Introduction to Disaster Recovery Planning • DRP for the Enterprise, Disaster Recovery Planning Overview, Definitions, Why Plan?,

Obligations, Data Protection Act, Seventh Principle, DRP for the Enterprise, Stakeholders, It Did Happen to Us.

Assessing Risks in DRP • DRP for the Enterprise, Threats vs. Risks, Dimensions of Risk, Assessing Risks, The

Risk Process Steps, How to Collect Risk Data, Classification of Threats, Assets That Can Be Threatened, Sources of Man-Made Threats, Back@Work Exercise: Types of Threat, Impact of Threats, Identifying Exposure to Threats: Identifying Our Risks, Risk Analysis Methods, Qualitative Methods, Quantitative Methods, Back@Work Exercise: Define a Scale of Impacts for CCC’s Threats, CRAMM, NIST Contingency Planning Guides, Courtney’s Method, Frequency and Loss, Risk Matrix, Risk Matrix: Axis,



Documenting Risks: Risk Assessment Template, Back@Work Exercise: Identify CCC’s Risks, Risk: Final Thoughts.

Disaster Avoidance • Back@Work Exercise: Fire, DRP for the Enterprise, What Do We See and What Do

We Do?, When to Create Avoidance Capability, Disaster Avoidance by Design. • Disaster Avoidance by Design (External Threats), Design Considerations (Internal and

External Threats), Back@Work Exercise: Proposed Disaster Avoidance Measures for CCC’s Threats.

Business Impact Assessment • DRP for the Enterprise, Purpose of Business Impact Assessment (BIA), The BIA

Process, Membership of BIA Team, Who Contributes to BIA?, BIA Detailed and Local Knowledge, Business Impact Assessment, Gathering BIA Data, BIA Questionnaires, BIA Interviews, BIA Workshops, Business Perspective of BIA, IT Perspective of BIA, Recovery Plan Document—By When?, Rating the Importance of Processes and Applications, Back@Work Exercise 4 and 5: CCC’s Business Impact Assessment and CCC’s IT Impact Assessment.

Transition: Threat Assessment to Solution Design • What Is a Disaster Recovery Plan?, DRP for the Enterprise, Course Checkpoint, DR

Plan Contents, DR Plan Functions as a User Manual.

Establishing a DR Standby Site • DRP for the Enterprise, DR Standby Sites: The Alternatives, Hot Standby, Cold, Warm,

and Mobile Solutions, Other Solutions, DR Standby Sites: Commercial Options, Using a Third-Party Supplier, DR Standby Sites: Making the Selection , Where Do Costs Accrue?, Guidelines for Supplier Selection, DR Is Just a Part of Business Continuity , Workshop (Optional): Contingency Options, DRP for the Enterprise, Sizing Needs, DR Characteristics of Technical Environments, Documenting Contingency Arrangements.

Designing Recovery Strategies • DRP for the Enterprise, Defining the IT Recovery Strategy, Recovery Time and Point

Objective (RTO and RPO), Backup Window, Information Lifecycle Management, Tiered Storage, Vital Records, Record Storage, Document the Backup and Restore Process, Typical IT Restore Requirements, Backup, Backup Dimensions, Traditional Backup Strategies, Alternate Methods, Backup Avoidance, Nonstop and High-Availability (HA) Solutions, Virtualization, Returning to Normal Operations, Backup Strategies, Back@Work Exercise 8 (Optional): Design CCC’s Vital Record Storage Strategy.

Recovering Users’ Access to Services • Reconnected Components, Total Desktop Requirement, Third-Party Network Services,

Single Point of Failure vs. Redundancy, Removing Network Single Point of Failure (SPF), Data: Impact of Network Loss, Network Reconfiguration , Network Failover, Who Are the Users?, End-User Requirements, Retrieving Critical Resources, How Do Users Access Services?, Remote Access.



Project Management Approach to DRP • Following a Project Approach, Stakeholders: In Making Plans, Assess Stakeholder

Significance, Stakeholder Map, Stakeholders’ Stakeholders, Establish Objectives and Obtain Funding, Justification of Funding, Define Roles and Responsibilities, Project Roles: Operations Management and Staff, Resourcing the DR Project, Typical Work, Assess Dependencies, Estimate Time, Schedule the Work, Scheduling Around Constraints, Execute and Track Achievement, Handle Risks and Issues, Test Deliverables, Back@Work Exercise 9 (Optional): Create a Draft DRP Project Plan.

Plan Assurance • DRP for the Enterprise, Why Test the Plan?, Testing the Plan: Process, Incremental

Approach, Scenarios, Preparation, Minimizing Disruption to BAU, Test Results.

Responding When Disaster Strikes: Teams and Communications • Responding When Disaster Strikes, Recovery Plan: Who Does It?, Recovery Plan:

Reactions and Activities, Recovery Plan: Resources, Recovery Plan: By When?, Invocation Decision, Emergency Response, Recovery Plan: Recovering Business Applications, Effect of Time on Application Priority, Setting Priority, Crisis Management Communications Plan (CMCP), Creating the Communications Plan, Information Gap, Crisis Communication Content, Controlling Communications, Back@Work Exercise 10: Create CCC’s DR Team Charters.

When Disaster Strikes: Critical Response • When Disaster Strikes: Critical Response, Recovery Road Map, DR Plan Contents,

Back@Work Exercise 11: Create CCC’s DR Team Action Plans, Walkthrough of DR Plan Template, The Command Center, Immediately Post-Disaster, Returning to Normal Operations: Non-Destructive, Destructive Disaster, Post-Incident Opportunity.

Maintaining the DR Plan • DRP for the Enterprise, Change Control, How Do We Apply Change Control?,

Document Management, Document Management: Plan Maintenance, Automated Tools for Supporting BCP, Certification and the PPBCP.

Course Summary • DRP for the Enterprise, Objectives, Threats, and What to Protect , Creating the Fall-

Back Solution , Recovery Road Map (Ongoing Need for Non-IT BCP), Maintenance During BAU.



Seven Non-Certification Courses on PRINCE2® Skills in Real-World Usage

Seven Non-Certification Courses on PRINCE2® Skills in Real-World Usage ............................................. 80 Foundation Skills for Would Be PRINCE2® Practitioners: What the PRINCE2® Manual Assumes You Already Know ............................................................................................................................................ 81 Real-world and Practical PRINCE2®: Fluency in Actually USING PRINCE2® ............................................... 84 Fulfilling The Project Board Member Roles in PRINCE2® The Master-Class for Senior Managers ................. 86 The Board’s Eyes and Ears: Fulfilling the PRINCE2® Project Assurance Roles ............................................. 88 Driving a Project using PRINCE2®: Filling the Senior Roles ........................................................................... 90 Delivering Results using PRINCE2®: Awareness of PRINCE2® Use For Managers And Participants ....................................................................................................................................................... 92 Product Development in a PRINCE2® Project: Understanding MP: Managing Product Delivery .................... 94



Foundation Skills for Would Be PRINCE2® Practitioners: What the PRINCE2® Manual Assumes You Already Know

A course for those new to project management who require a structured and practical PRINCE2® based approach that works in the real world (for veterans of an exam cram course see our shorter versions, for those without interest in PRINCE2® see our “Delivering Results to Plan: Structured Project Management from the Ground Up”.

You Will Learn To Really use PRINCE2® (rather than have academic exam oriented knowledge of its contents). Build a Project Plan. Assign work-packages to project participants. Track project progress. Take necessary corrective actions in a timely manner. Set project tolerances and contingencies to include auditable justified allowances for risk and change. Make reliable assessment of progress towards project goals. Establish a consensus view of the project’s end-point or outcomes amongst the stakeholder community. Establish a control regime that balances formality (bureaucracy), agility, risk and cost. Close-out the project in an orderly fashion.

Duration • Base course is 5 days


• Tailored versions available to match in-house procedures and reduced or extended timescale.

Course Benefits Be able to apply PRINCE2® to reality. Learn how to use PRINCE2® and fill the gaps left in the PRINCE2® manual. This course teaches PRINCE2® plus all the skills that PRINCE2® project managers are assumed by the PRINCE2® manual to already possess. Use the vocabulary and structure to speak the same project speak as over a hundred thousand registered practitioners to aid clear communications within your organisation. Attendance on a exam cram course in PRINCE2® focuses on exam technique not the ability to apply in the work-place. Further PRINCE2®’s scope less than a new entrant to project management needs to fulil their responsibilities. This course reverses that position to show how to get return on the training investment.



Who Should Attend Anyone who is involved in real-world project planning, execution and control who wants a ground-up structured approach from 1st principals that they can mould and amend to local business practices. Those new to PM who will be working in a PRINCE2® environment. Those whose organisation uses a PRINCE2® based project management method. Those wishing to introduce PRINCE2® to the organisation or whose sub-contractors or customers are using (or moving towards) PRINCE2®. Those looking for a route-map for how to apply the PMBOK (PRINCE2® is compliant with PMBOK’s view of project management).

Content Significantly the same formal material as our “Real-world and Practical: Fluency in Actually USING PRINCE2®”. Real-world and practical is aimed at Registered Practitioners, this course is aimed at those with without familiarity with PRINCE2® terminology, roles, processes and other elements.

Fundamentals that start projects on the road to success • Taking the skills back to work, Project Lifecycle In The Class And In The Office. • PRINCE2® on a page, The whole process model. PRINCE2® on a page again: the

components. • Definitions & the PM’s job through the lifecycle, Principals of Rolling Wave Planning:

(IP2 plus upto and after the (SB)F∗F stage boundaries process). • Better Faster Cheaper: Tools and techniques for SU4 & IP1, Stakeholder’s real needs

and wants, Know The End Point, Know The Trade-Offs:. • Better, Faster, Cheaper (pick two), Know the limits (p234 et. seq. tolerance and

escalations), Balance: Risk Versus Reward (IP3/ SB3), Deliverables (PBP, Product Descriptions and Work Packages), What v. how (PD & WP).

Surer, safer, steadier: Tools and techniques to ensure the project’s scope of work is unambiguously defined and agreed • Breakdown structures (PL2), WBS & WBS Dictionary (PL3), Guidelines for

construction of a PBS & WBS, Breakdown Structure Rules & Guidelines, Activity is Verb, Product is Noun.

• Skilful application of scheduling: Part 1 Knowing who could to do what and when (PL5), Precedence Diagram Method, Tasks in PDM/ Network diagrams, Critical Path, Float & Slack, Network Diagram to Resource Gantt.

• Skilful application of scheduling actives: Part 2 Knowing that the resources are available (PL5), Resource Gantt to Resource Histogram (PL5 continued), Resourcing and levelling, Cumulative Resources & Timing, Finalise and Baseline the plan (PL6 and PL7), Base-lining (PL7).

• PL4 Estimating: Black-art to transparent process producing reliable figures, The Importance of Good Estimates, The Difficulties, Confidence over a Range, Three point

∗ References in parenthesis are to the PRINCE2® manual’s content



estimates, Adding uncertainties, Calculating Contingency, Showing Schedule & Cost Contingency, Deriving the quantities, Estimating techniques, Parametric estimates, Analogous estimates.

Maintaining control • Avoiding bureaucracy and running the project to budget and schedule (From DP to

CS2 via IP4 & IP5), Risk assessment (Chapter 17), Communications Plan, Progress Report Template (CS6/ Highlight & CS2/ Checkpoint), Actions & Responses (CS7, DP4, CS8 and SB6).

• Sources of Change & Configuration Management (Chapters 20 & 23 plus Chapter 19). • Quality & Scope (Chapter 18 & Chapter 24), Quality Control: Using the Quality Log &

Quality Review (chapter 24), Verification, Scope Creep, Validation. • Project Execution, Staying on the straight and narrow path all the way to the project’s

end point (CS and MP), Planning Draws The Map, Tests For A Current Plan, What happens in execution?, Checking the Route, Assessing Status (CS2, CS5 and CS1/7/8), Analysing Measurements.

Close-out: Agreeing we’re done • Acceptance, Product Close-Out: Handover (MP3), Project Close-Out, Parties and

Lessons Learned (CP).

Conclusions and wrap-up

Workshops Throughout the course a Case-study and exercises are used to introduce, practice and consolidate effective use of techniques and understanding of the concepts of project management.



Real-world and Practical PRINCE2®: Fluency in Actually USING PRINCE2®

An intensive course that equips attendees with fluency in techniques for application Back@Work within their projects. This course is targeted at those who have taken an exam cram course (whether passed or not) and are now asking: “how do I actually use PRINCE2®?”). See below for the equivalent course for those who are new to PRINCE2® and new to project management.

You Will Learn To Apply PRINCE2® to the real-world. Tailor PRINCE2® to your local needs on a per-project basis by discarding inappropriate and adding locally required elements.

Duration • 4 Days


Course Benefits Learn how to extract the maximum value from the best project management control structure available in the public domain. Focus on usage turns your exam cram investment into lasting knowledge and insight into what PRINCE2® is good at and how to use it. Fill the gaps where PRINCE2® fails to provide guidance: in short acquire a complete understanding to apply PRINCE2® to real world situations. Prior knowledge from an exam preparation course is a prerequisite (see our 5 day version below for those new to PRINCE2® based project management). Each tool of planning, control and progress monitoring is introduced, explained, discussed in the class and practiced via case study session.

Who Should Attend Registered practitioners who feel their exam cram course taught them how to answer exam questions rather than how to use the method and now want insights in how to use PRINCE2® Back@Work.

Content

Fundamentals that start projects on the road to success • Taking the skills back to work, Project Lifecycle In The Class And In The Office. • Definitions & the PM’s job through the lifecycle, Principals of Rolling Wave Planning:

(IP2 plus upto and after the (SB)F∗F stage boundaries process). ∗ References in parenthesis are to the PRINCE2® manual’s content



• Better Faster Cheaper: Tools and techniques for SU4 & IP1, Stakeholder’s real needs and wants, Know The End Point, Know The Trade-Offs:.

• Better, Faster, Cheaper (pick two), Know the limits (p234 et. seq. tolerance and escalations), Balance: Risk Versus Reward (IP3/ SB3), Deliverables (PBP, Product Descriptions and Work Packages), What v. how (PD & WP).

Surer, safer, steadier: Tools and techniques to ensure the project’s scope of work is unambiguously defined and agreed • Breakdown structures (PL2), WBS & WBS Dictionary (PL3), Guidelines for

construction of a PBS & WBS, Breakdown Structure Rules & Guidelines, Activity is Verb, Product is Noun.

• Skilful application of scheduling: Part 1 Knowing who could to do what and when (PL5), Precedence Diagram Method, Tasks in PDM/ Network diagrams, Critical Path, Float & Slack, Network Diagram to Resource Gantt.

• Skilful application of scheduling actives: Part 2 Knowing that the resources are available (PL5), Resource Gantt to Resource Histogram (PL5 continued), Resourcing and levelling, Cumulative Resources & Timing, Finalise and Baseline the plan (PL6 and PL7), Base-lining (PL7).

• PL4 Estimating: Black-art to transparent process producing reliable figures, The Importance of Good Estimates, The Difficulties, Confidence over a Range, Three point estimates, Adding uncertainties, Calculating Contingency, Showing Schedule & Cost Contingency, Deriving the quantities, Estimating techniques, Parametric estimates, Analogous estimates.

Maintaining control • Avoiding bureaucracy and running the project to budget and schedule (From DP to

CS2 via IP4 & IP5), Risk assessment (Chapter 17), Communications Plan, Progress Report Template (CS6/ Highlight & CS2/ Checkpoint), Actions & Responses (CS7, DP4, CS8 and SB6).

• Sources of Change & Configuration Management (Chapters 20 & 23 plus Chapter 19). • Quality & Scope (Chapter 18 & Chapter 24), Quality Control: Using the Quality Log &

Quality Review (chapter 24), Verification, Scope Creep, Validation. • Project Execution, Staying on the straight and narrow path all the way to the project’s

end point (CS and MP), Planning Draws The Map, Tests For A Current Plan, What happens in execution?, Checking the RouteAssessing Status (CS2, CS5 and CS1/7/8), Analysing Measurements.

Close-out: Agreeing we’re done • Acceptance, Product Close-Out: Handover (MP3), Project Close-Out, Parties and

Lessons Learned (CP).

Conclusions and wrap-up

Workshops Tools and techniques are introduced and practiced via multiple exercises. Concepts and application is clarified through application to a case-study.



Fulfilling The Project Board Member Roles in PRINCE2® The Master-Class for Senior Managers

Project’s do not reliably deliver against their justifications unless every key participant plays their role adequately. PRINCE2®defines the project board member’s role: if you’re a board member then do you know your role’s part in preventing project difficulties?.

You Will Learn To Execute your duties as a project board member in a PRINCE2® environment. Rely on PRINCE2®’s documents and processes to keep you fully informed to make sound business based investment and benefits decisions. Discharge you responsibilities in handling risk and change. Make the decisions falling to you that are required to deliver the project to expectations. Ensure decisions you have delegated are made in a transparent, safe and timely manner.

Duration • Lightning overview 2hrs. • Swift overview ½ day. • Our course “Delivering Results using PRINCE2®: The Master-Class in PRINCE2®

application for managers impacted by PRINCE2® projects” offers detailed “hands on guidance”.

Course Benefits The Board member’s Master Classes address all your questions about expectation from adopting PRINCE2® and many more, providing time to talk and think through the issues, meet new networking contacts as well as practical guidance to radically improve your effectiveness as a Project Board member (or Senior management appointing board members) in a PRINCE2 environment.

• The Master-class charts the complex PRINCE2 project landscape from an executive perspective. Your experienced Guide will de-clutter the method to highlight the executive sponsorship role and responsibilities. Through interactive discussion you will cover the overall PRINCE2 philosophy and process, the responsibilities of senior management within the framework, and the dependencies of the project team on senior management decision-making and participation in project governance. The session will give you a clear overview of the complete PRINCE2 project process and detailed understanding of what to delegate and when/where to be personally involved.

• You will gain insight into how to achieve successful business change via the PRINCE methodology. Understand how to use PRINCE’s exception & stage based management techniques to balance control with risk and reward. You will appreciate how project professionals in your organisation can provide project control information that matches your needs for benefits management and their needs for direction in day-to-day project conduct.



Who Should Attend Directors and Senior Managers who are involved in project governance and who achieve major business and technology changes by sponsoring projects, or who appoint or sit on Project Boards and Steering Committees.

Content Delegates will receive a binder containing a fully defined reference model of the PRINCE2 processes from the executive sponsor and board member’s perspective.

Introduction, Overview & Logistics • We’ve adopted PRINCE2®, A helicopter view of PRINCE2, Philosophy & mechanics of

PRINCE2?, Elements, Processes, Components, techniques, Roles, Templates, Healthcheck.

• Responsibilities, Role holders, Legendary bureaucracy, Reality, Senior people are already busy, Control without drain on the diaries, Management by exception, Your key responsibilities, Who else has responsibilities, What are they? Project Assurance, Where to be personally, Start-up, Closure, Post project benefits realisation.

• Exploring start-up and closure in PRINCE2, Appointing Project Managers and Project Boards, From Idea to Business Case, From Business Case to Project via Risk.

• Authorising investment, Project, Stage, Authorising a stage, Closing a stage, Assessing on-going viability, Normal and Abnormal project closure, Harvesting project benefits.

• Management by exception, Tolerance, Delegated discretion, Deft control, Change control, Exception handling, CS8, Stage Boundaries, Exception plans, Risk, Progress, Ad-hoc advice, Communication into projects.

• Communications, DP processes, Project Mandate, PID, Highlight reports, End Stage documents, End project documents, FOAR, Lessons learned, Post-project review plan, benefits harvesting.

Workshops The course is discussion based and exploratory of attendee needs. Workshops from our wide library of relevant materials will be woven into the topics and time where matched to session needs.



The Board’s Eyes and Ears: Fulfilling the PRINCE2® Project Assurance Roles

As a PRINCE2® Project Board member you are a busy decision makers who is responsible for safe project conduct. As a board member you may conduct your own assurance activities but often need to delegate the day-to-day project assurance responsibilities of the board role to someone with specialist skills and more available time.

You Will Learn To Assess project status in order to meet your board responsibilities (either directly or as a delegatee). Ask the right questions of the right people throughout the PRINCE2® process model. Evaluate and take action on findings from assurance activities.

Duration Available in a variety of formats to suit organisational maturity and attendee roles.

• Lightning introduction and awareness session 2hrs. • Standard awareness session ½ day. • Awareness and introduction to tools 1 day. • Awareness and application of tools and techniques 2 days.

Course Benefits Have confidence that the state of project’s in your organisation is clear. Any project or business case problems are detected and remedies identified. Projects whose prospect of return deteriorates can be weeded out to redirect resources to the best source of return (and vice-versa). Project assurance participants understand the activities within their role and (if delegated the assurance responsibility) how to report information to decision makers. Project participants share a common view of the project landscape and the responsibilities of each role.

Who Should Attend Project Board members or their delegated Project Assurance representatives who need clarity of project status as input to the governance and steering activities. Programme office staff with responsibility for supporting senior managers with visibility into projects and/ or for supporting project managers plan, execute and deliver project results. Audit staff and all staff members with oversight & reporting responsibilities (eg is a Sarbanes Oxley capacity).



Content


What is the Assurance Role • PRINCE2® management structure, PRINCE2® process structure, the PRINCE2®

components, How it all fits together, Board responsibilities Where Project Assurance fits in, Delegating the Project Assurance role, Source of Project Assurance staff.

Assurance in Start-up & Initiation • Checking out the project mandate, Team and task, Project Brief and Risk Log,

Decisions at Authorising Initiation (DP1). • Assessing production of The Project Quality Plan, Project Plan & Product Checklist,

Business Case, Risk Log, Controls, The PID, Decisions at Authorising a Project (DP2).

Assurance at Stage Boundaries • Assessing production of task-level plan, revising the business case and risks,

Amending project structure, Amending Project Controls, Reporting Stage End, Decisions in Directing a Project (DP).

Assurance in Controlling a Stage and Managing Product Delivery • Monitoring the Quality Log, Assessing Progress Achieved, Task reporting vs Product

Reporting, Checkpoint s, Assessing Highlight Reports, Assessing Exception Reports, Decisions at Giving Ad-Hoc Advice (DP4), Assessing Exception Plans.

Assurance in Project Closure • What next?, Assessing Post-Project Review Plan, Assessing Follow-on-Actions,

Learning Lessons for “next Time”.

Assurance After the Show is Over • Conducting Post-Project Reviews, Benefits Management & Realisation.




Driving a Project using PRINCE2®: Filling the Senior Roles

An awareness course for those who are not project managers, but may be on the project board or are entangled with a PRINCE2® project in a senior capacity.

You Will Learn To Fulfil your role and responsibilities within a PRINCE2® project to aid successful benefits delivery

Duration • Full course 2 Days


Course Benefits PRINCE2® tells the project manager the responsibilities of the project participants – Well this course lets everyone else know too so everyone can do their bit!

Who Should Attend Senior managers & their direct reports whose department’s are significantly involved in or impacted by a PRINCE2® project. Suppliers of resource (eg Heads of technical departments), Specifiers of requirement (eg Heads of Business departments), Acceptance authorities or impacted users (eg staff managing working in affected departments), business architects. Anyone needing the knowledge of PRINCE2®’s day-to-day processes for project control in order to play their part as project participant. Staff with a technical, creative role in project delivery will find the focus of our PRINCE2® for Product Delivery Teams more appropriate.

Content

PRINCE2® Overview • Introductions, domestics and logistics • Course contents • The Whole of PRINCE2® On A single page

PRINCE2® Scope & Context • Main Elements of PRINCE2®, Terminology, PRINCE2 Overview & Process Context • The Difference Between Management and Technical Stages, Stages and Planning

Horizons



Process Models in Detail • SU in Detail, The PRINCE2® Cast & Their Roles, 4 Levels of Controls, Setting up the

Organisation Structure Of The Project Board, First potential project kill-point at DP1 • IP in Detail, Overview of PL1-7, Plans & Exceptions upto DP2’s appraisal of Project

Viability • Introduction to Product Based Planning (PBP), Major Steps of PBP • Plans: @Start, Plans in Middle & End • Overview of CS & MP, The Escalation processes in Detail CS3, 4 & 8 and Progress

Reporting in CS6 all with DP4, SB in Detail, DP3 reassessment of Benefit Delivery in Detail

• CP in detail Preparing for Follow-On-Actions, Upto DP5 in Detail and After the Project

Components & Related Elements in Detail • Organisation, Business Case, Contents, Preparation, Evaluation & Life-Span • Risk Concepts, Risk Analysis and Management Processes, Integrating Risk Analysis &

the Risk Log, Risk Tolerance & Ownership • Controls, Their Purpose and Users, Tolerance, Controls @Start, @Middle & @End • Change Control Component & Technique, Change Authority Relationship to CS3, 4 &

8, Change & Issue Log, Change Control and Configuration Management, Overview of Configuration Management, Configuration Items, Version Control, Baseline & Release, The Filing Structure

• Customer’s Quality Expectations, Acceptance Criteria and The Product Descriptions, Project Quality Management and the Project Quality Plan, Course Summary

Workshops The course uses a variety of exercises and workshop sessions depending on the needs of attendees. Exercises focus on the challenges with creating management buy-in to following a method and to judgement to balance factors in situational tailoring of the method.



Delivering Results using PRINCE2®: Awareness of PRINCE2® Use For Managers And Participants

An awareness course for those who are not project managers, not on the project board, do not normally work on projects, but are caught-up in a PRINCE2® project

You Will Learn To Fulfil you role and responsibilities within a PRINCE2® project when you ARE NOT the project manager!.

Duration • Overview 1 day. • Full course 2 Days


Course Benefits PRINCE2® tells the project manager the responsibilities of the project team members (and the project’s senior management team) – Well this course lets everyone else know too!.

Who Should Attend Senior manager’s or their delegates whose department are significantly involved in or impacted by a PRINCE2® project. Team managers, project participant, supplier of resources (eg Heads of technical departments), Specifiers of requirement (eg Heads of Business departments), Acceptance authorities or impacted users (eg staff supervisors working in affected departments), business architects. Anyone needing the knowledge of PRINCE2®’s day-to-day processes for project and team or work-package control in order to play their part as project participant.

Content

Whys & wherefores of projects: Delivering value to the sponsor • Understanding & achieving project close-out: Delivery of results the shareholders

recognise (CP, DP5, Post Project Review Plan). • All about Tolerance: How much risk can you tolerate, how much control do you want to

pay for (DP, SU4, IP3 & IP4+5, SB3 &4), Governance and control matched to needs and capabilities (SU5+6, IP, CS7, DP4 and DP1, 5).

• Being able to close-out because we knew the critical success factors from the start (Project Mandate, SU4, IP1+2, DP1+2), - Coping when CSFs are unclear (Feasibility) and/ or volatile (SB & DP).



What is the context for using PRINCE2®? • Project is a part of a business transformation (Mandate to PID and beyond post project

review plan), Separating principals of lifecycles & investment decisions: Matching technical development steps to the technical problem & stages to management decision-points.

• Rolling wave planning and continuous refinement, Context for planning (SU6, IP2, IP6, SB1+6 & DP), Specifying requirements, PM’s, Team’s and sponsor’s responsibilities (Org component, SU1+2+3, SB1, CP3).

How do the cogs mesh to drive results • Creating plans: Practical, sensible and safe use of PL2, Reality of PL3 to PL7 Robust

plans, “I believe in this plan”, Teams, Tasks. • Integrating the components of Risk, Quality and Change into planning, monitoring and

controlling. • Running the project to plan within tolerance (CS+2+5+7+9 & MP), Accepting a work-

package, Doing the REAL work, Handing over the results. • Products and QUALITY for real, Quality Log, Quality Review technique, Configuration

management, Quality in recognition of progress, transparency of progress, Project steering decisions, Checkpoint meetings, Checkpoint reports, Raising risks and issues, Handling change, Assessing impacts.

• Transparency & agility in execution (Checkpoint, Highlight & Exception reports, DP4).

Stage Close-out • Closing the final stage (CP & DP5), Acceptance, CP1 and MP3, Product descriptions,

FOAR(CP2), Lessons Learned(CP3) Closing a stage, SB and DP3, Stage Plans, End Stage Report, Stage Quality Plan.




Product Development in a PRINCE2® Project: Understanding MP: Managing Product Delivery

The course for those who working in project teams within a PRINCE2® project.

You Will Learn To Interface and interact with a PRINCE2® project from the product developer’s perspective. Formal course printed content is similar to the previous course but delivery emphasise and exercises are quiet different.

Duration • Full course 1 Days

0900 to 1600 formal class hours.

Course Benefits PRINCE2® tells the project manager the responsibilities of the project participants. This course helps technical team staff know what rights and responsibilities they have under PRINCE2®.

Who Should Attend Staff with technical expertise who are working on a project being controlled using PRINCE2®.

Content

PRINCE2® Overview • Introductions, domestics and logistics • Course contents • The Whole of PRINCE2® On A single page

PRINCE2® Scope & Context • Main Elements of PRINCE2®, Terminology, PRINCE2 Overview & Process Context • The Difference Between Management and Technical Stages, Stages, Planning

Horizons and Team Plans

Process Models in Detail • SU Defines the end Point, The Cast Involved & Their Roles, 4 Levels of Controls,

Organisation Structure Of The Project, Purpose of DP1’s Deliberations • IP in Detail, Details of Project Planning in PL1 to 7, Plans & Exceptions up to DP2’s

Decision • Product Based Planning, The Steps Involved in Product-Based Planning, Product

Based Planning Syntax, Simple Products • Project, Stage & Team Plans: @Start, Plans in Middle & End Ch15 • CS & MP: Three Distinct Related Themes, CS1, 2, 9 & MP1, 2, 3 in Detail, CS3, 4, 8 in

Detail, DP4 in Detail, CS5, 6, 7 in Detail, Upto DP3 in Detail



• Project Quality Management: Purpose & Benefits, Quality Review and MP2, The Project Quality Plan & Role in Defining Work-Packages, The Product Description, CS1 and MP1 boundary, Ditto CS9/Mp3 and CS2/MP2, Quality Depends on Specification, Customer’s Quality Expectations

• SB in Detail • CP in detail, Upto DP5 in Detail and After the Project

Components & Related Elements in Detail • Organisation, Overview of Business Case • Understanding Risk, Its Analysis and Management Processes • Controls, Purpose and Users, Tolerance, Controls @Start, @Middle & @End • Change Control Process, Technique and Place in CS & MP, Relationship to CS3, 4 &

8, Change & Issue Log, Change Authority • Link Between Change Control and Configuration Management, Purpose of

Configuration Management, Identification of Configuration Items, Version Control, Baseline & Release, The B9: Configuration Librarian Role, Appendix E: The Filing Structure

• Course Summary

Workshops The course uses a variety of exercises and workshop sessions to introduce the PRINCE2® tools & techniques. Those wanting sufficient fluency with Product Based Planning, Quality Review and Change Control Techniques to move beyond awareness should request 2 or 3day versions of this course.



Two PRINCE2® Certification Courses and multiple options on how they are scheduled

Two PRINCE2® Certification Courses and multiple options on how they are scheduled ............................ 96 Achieving PRINCE2® Practitioner Qualification ............................................................................................... 97 Accelerated PRINCE2®: Qualification in a Weekend .................................................................................... 100



Achieving PRINCE2® Practitioner Qualification

An exam cram course for anyone wishing to pass the PRINCE2® exam whether familiar with projects or not (there is some, but not extensive treatment of “how to be a project manager – PRINCE2® assumes we already know this – See our courses in fluent application of PRINCE2® for a courses with a solid practical focus).

You Will Learn Everything required to pass the PRINCE2® Practitioner Exam. This week long event’s primary focus is accreditation to exam standard. Understand the exam question types, how t read a question, how to answer questions and practice exam technique Describe project controls using PRINCE2®’s vocabulary for processes, roles and document templates. Assign PRINCE2® roles to project participants and tailor PRINCE2® to suit specific needs. Apply PRINCE2® processes to control of your projects (PRINCE2® is a control mechanism & the course does teach application of the control processes at a practical Back@Work level). Complete PRINCE2® documents for sound decision making and the appropriate level of auditable project transparency.

Duration • Pre-course preparation from supplied materials as suits you (we would anticipate

between 20 and 40 hours study). • The course runs Monday morning to Friday mid-day with evening work Monday thru

Thursday. The 3hr practitioner exam occupies Friday morning. • Class hours are 0900 to 1630 formal class hours (1630 onward informal/ optional time

for “topics raised on the day” if wanted).

Course Benefits Practitioner level qualification in PRINCE2®. Add PRINCE2® to your existing project management abilities and apply to your organisation’s needs. The PRINCE2® registered practitioner qualification is a widely used, if crude filter used by organisations to confirm tendering suppliers or job applicants have the skills for the job. PRINCE2® is the de-facto qualification in the UK and is being widely adopted in many other countries.

Who Should Attend Those who are focussed on achieving an exam pass and do not also need to develop their familiarity with generic project management skills. The course is suitable for anyone wishing to pass the PRINCE2® exams independently of gaining fluency with day-to-day tools and techniques of project management. See our “Foundation skills for would-be PRINCE2® practitioners” for those who have limited



project management experience or training (PRINCE2® assumes we already have core PM skills) and “Real-World and Practical: Fluency in Actually USING PRINCE2®” course for those whose interest is in PRINCE2® application rather than exam-cram).

Content

Bronze, Silver and GOLD Standards • We provide a comprehensive set of course materials BEFORE the event to give you

the maximum study advantage as a natural part of our Bronze level support. • Bronze upgrade to silver includes a number of value-added extra’s to help in the pre-

exam revision and Back@Work application [Marked below]. • Silver upgrade to GOLD standard adds pre-event support from your course tutor via

eMail and phone to answer queries, clarify misunderstandings during self-study and confirm mock exam results prior to course attendance.

Pre-Course Preparation Guide & CD • A simple 6 step scripted guide to studying the course notes prior to attendance at the

exam event. • [Silver] CD Based, narrated PowerPoint presentation giving a complete overview of the

PRINCE2® method. • Progress diary to set-out your study schedule and plot progress vs. baseline (in the

best traditions of project control).

Course Notes • Overview of the PRINCE2® method. • Exams and the Real-world. • PRINCE2® Processes context. • PRINCE2® Components Reference Models. • PRINCE2® Each of the 8 Processes in detail., PRINCE2® Each of the 8 Components

in detail.

[Silver] Quick-Reference Guides • Responsibilities by Process. • Information Needs by Process. • Information Needs by Subject.

[Silver] Revision Aids • CD Based flash-cards for building Process Name to Process ID recall. • CD Based flash-cards of approx 600 revision questions for the Foundation &

Practitioner level understanding.

Past Papers at Foundation and Practitioner Level • 4 full 75 question mock Foundation Exams. • 5 full Practitioner mock exam scenarios each with Examiner’s Marking Schemes and

over 25 questions (a live exam comprises 1 scenario and 3 questions).



Workshops Multiple exam practice workshops are included in the preparation materials and at the course. All workshops are centred on mock exam questions and matching marking schemes.



Accelerated PRINCE2®: Qualification in a Weekend

A highly intense exam cram for experienced project participants.

You Will Learn Everything required to pass the PRINCE2® Practitioner Exam. This weekend event has maximum focus on exam success. For PRINCE2® week-day exam courses or courses aimed at solid practical application of project management (using PRINCE2® or not) see the accompanying courses described below.

Duration • Pre-course preparation from supplied materials as suits you (we would anticipate

between 20 and 40 hours study). • Exam event runs from Friday Evening to Sunday afternoon. • Course hours are Fri 1800-2000, Sat 0800 to 2000 inc. breaks Sun 0800 to 1700.

Course Benefits Practitioner level qualification in PRINCE2®. The PRINCE2® registered practitioner qualification is a widely, if crude filter used by organisations when selecting applicants to call forward for interview. PRINCE2® is the de-facto qualification in the UK and is being adopted in many other countries including the US and China.

Who Should Attend Those who are focussed on achieving an exam pass and do not also need to develop their familiarity with generic project management skills. The course is primarily intended for those who cannot afford to take a 5 day time out from fee-earning, or dead-line focussed work-based commitments. The course is suitable for anyone wishing to pass the PRINCE2® exams independently of gaining fluency with day-to-day tools and techniques of project management (see our “Achieving PRINCE2® Practitioner Qualification” for those focussed on qualification who can afford 5 days out of the office. See our “Foundation skills for would-be PRINCE2® practitioners” for those who have limited project management experience or training (PRINCE2® assumes we already have core PM skills) and see our “Real-World and Practical: Fluency in Actually USING PRINCE2®” course for those whose interest is in PRINCE2® application rather than exam-cram).

Content

Pre-Course Preparation Guide & CD • A simple 6 step scripted guide to studying the course notes prior to attendance at the

exam event. • CD Based, narrated PowerPoint presentation giving a complete overview of the

PRINCE2® method.



• Progress diary to set-out your study schedule and plot progress vs. baseline (in the best traditions of project control).

Course Notes (in animated PowerPoint and Printed formats) • Overview of the PRINCE2® method. • Exams and the Real-world. • PRINCE2® Processes context. • PRINCE2® Components Reference Models. • PRINCE2® Each of the 8 Processes in detail. • PRINCE2® Each of the 8 Components in detail.

Quick-Reference Guides • Responsibilities by Process. • Information Needs by Process. • Information Needs by Subject.

Revision Aids • CD Based flash-cards for building Process Name to Process ID recall. • CD Based flash-cards of approx 600 revision questions for the Foundation Exam.

Past Papers at Foundation and Practitioner Level • 4 full 75 question mock Foundation Exams. • 5 full Practitioner mock exam scenarios each with Examiner’s Marking Schemes and

over 25 questions (a live exam comprises 1 scenario and 3 questions).

Workshops Multiple exam practice workshops are included in the preparation materials and at the course. All workshops are centred on mock exam questions and matching marking schemes.