Deeply Practical Project Management (16 PDUs)
What you'll learn
- "Finally an online course that teaches the 'how' of project management from an experienced veteran." – Karin Brame
- One comprehensive course that covers the entire PM process, with a professional $44M example.
- Earn a Practical Project Manager (PPM) certification from the IFPPM.
- Get the practical background needed to pass the PMI PMP exam, and earn 16 Professional Development Units (PDU’s).
- How to get stakeholder and senior management support at the beginning of your project, and maintain it throughout.
- The most important project manager skills, including communication, team management, negotiation, and leadership.
- How to plan your project efficiently and effectively, so everyone has realistic expectations before you start.
- How to avoid the top three causes of project failure, and manage the top three drivers of project success.
- How to initiate your project so all stakeholders are supportive and planning will be maximally productive.
- The three best common ways to build a business case that demonstrates your project is worth pursuing.
- The key techniques to gathering good project requirements, with best practices for documentation, review, and approval.
- Real-life examples and advice for building your work breakdown structure (WBS), and when to break it down further.
- Why your precedence diagram is the key to good project management, even more important than the Gantt schedule.
- Five techniques for estimating, how to estimate within +/- 10%, and how to handle estimating error.
- An animated example of how to calculate the critical path, and why schedule is actually more important than budget.
- How to decide whether to build or buy, the best type of contract structure, and the best way to make the award.
- How to prepare a good project plan, brief management, communicate options, stay truthful, and protect your career.
- The essentials of building the best project team, and how to delegate, motivate, and resolve personnel conflicts.
- How to manage scope so you can find the things inevitably missed, while avoiding scope creep.
- How to use the critical path to focus on the most important items, reallocate resources, and make the PM’s job easy.
- How to track the budget and manage its key drivers to obtain the best cost performance possible.
- How to identify the risks up front, mitigate them early, and manage your project to stay within the risk budget.
- The most effective things you can do to manage quality and ensure the customer is happy with the project result.
- How to use earned value management (EVM) to objectively estimate future cost and schedule performance.
- How to ask the stakeholders for help when your project is in trouble in the most productive and constructive way.
- How to use scenarios to sign off requirements and make sure the customer loves the result at the same time.
- How to gather lessons learned to find both what went well and what can be improved, and easily gather them as you go.
- How to close your project, write a good final report, and hold a project celebration so everyone can transition to their next challenge.
- Includes a complete example of professional project management documentation for the $44M “Magical Devices Version 3” project.
- Includes the book “How To Plan Your Project With Microsoft Office” describing how to document scope, schedule, and budget.
- Many short quizzes, nine project management document templates, a 250 page reference manual, and six summary checklists.
- Gain a deeply practical understanding of the PMI process for those that wish to write an exam and obtain a certification.
Requirements
- Comprehensive coverage of the PM best practices, with a wealth of practical tips and tricks for new project managers and experienced veterans alike.
Description
"Finally an online course that teaches the 'how' of project management from an experienced veteran." – Karin Brame
This course is complete and comprehensive. Whether you are a new project manager, or have managed projects for years, this course will give you the information, tools, and skills to ascend to the next level, become an expert project manager, and greatly accelerate your career.
The instructor for this course has managed projects for more than 30 years, from just a handful of people to $55M, and worked in senior roles on very complex projects up to $3B. He is a PMI certified Project Management Professional (PMP), has taught more than 300 live project management courses to more than 3,000 people, and is a founder of the Institute For Practical Project Management (IFPPM).
This course will teach you how to manage projects the way it is done in real life by the most professional organizations. The course includes mini-courses on the role of the project manager and their key skills, risk management planning, and earned value management (EVM). You will also receive a complete set of PM templates, example documentation for a realistic $44M project that you can reuse for your own projects, and the book How To Plan Your Project With MS Office explaining how to use MS Project and PowerPoint to professionally document your project scope, schedule, and budget.
The course will give you the practical background you need if you are pursuing the PMP exam, and will give you 16 Professional Development Units (PDUs) if you already have a PMI certification. You will also receive a Practical Project Manager (PPM) certificate from the IFPPM, now being referenced by thousands of people as a career differentiator on LinkedIn.
If you need to manage a project right now, are preparing for a PMI PMP exam, or just want a solid grounding in practical project management to accelerate your career, this course will really help.
INSTRUCTOR
William Stewart PhD, PMP, DPPM is President of the Institute For Practical Project Management (IFPPM), and a PMI certified Project Management Professional (PMP) who has managed projects for 30 years, from just a few thousand dollars to $55M, and worked in senior roles on PM teams on projects up to $3B. He has managed projects in the domains of system integration, software development, business process, construction, real estate, and others. Internationally recognized, he has spoken twice as a keynote speaker at International Project Management Association (IPMA) conferences. He has delivered this course live more than 330 times to more than 3,300 people. Previously, he worked for aerospace, government, academia, and founded the open source cloud computing company Cirrus Computing. He has deep experience with project management, risk management, systems integration, software engineering, and negotiating. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science for discovery of an algorithm that builds geodesic domes in multiple dimensions in optimum space and time.
STUDENT REVIEWS
"Over the course of a 20 year career I have purchased many training materials, video courses, study guides, etc, and this was hands down the best material I have ever used." – Christopher Irons
"I am interviewing for a PM position in two days, and this course gave me valuable insight into key areas I haven't considered since I received my PMI certification in 2012. I’m also able to improve my resume since I now understand how PM functions I've been performing for years are much more valuable than I thought." – Dan Bischoff, PMP
"I have been a PMP since 2006 and learned so much from this course, truly outstanding." – Mark Thorogood, PMP
"This is by far the best project management course I have ever taken!" – Susan Steigler, PMP
"This is the best real-world practical PM course on the web. Valuable knowledge and insight, clear, and hands on. A great investment when your time is really valuable and you don't want to waste a minute of it." – Sarah Hajipour
"This course offers some of the most valuable material I've consumed as a Project Manager." – Philip Kohler
"This is a very, very useful resource for both Project Managers and team members. The best PM course I have taken online." – Marcelo Palenzuela
"Excellent course -- easy to understand -- wish I had reviewed this resource before I took my PMP exam!" – Thomas Flores
"The only course you will need. Walks you through all the phases of project management. With examples, anecdotes, and most importantly - templates. Highly recommend!" – Allan Madhuram
"I took this course after earning my PMP certification, and am stunned by the practical insights it provides. Thank you! I definitely recommend for both newbies and experienced Project Managers." – Raj Bidika
"This was the best project management course that I have taken. I recommend to anyone interested in project management. Really above and beyond what I expected." – Mark April
"Really straightforward and clear. Wish I had taken this before I sat for my PMP test." – Alexander Feravich
"Great course, perfectly delivered. The PMBOK Guide applied to reality. I plan to repeat this course over and over again." – Alain Yeno
"Not only does this course teach you practical project management, it also teaches you life skills you will keep for a lifetime. Exceptional. I couldn't have asked for anything better." – Saad Faruqui
"Crisp and direct, no blabbing. Wise to go with this first before consulting any other material." – Rufus Okomhanru
"The course was amazing. A lot of real life examples. In my 17 years of PM experience I have never taken a more concise, informative, and easy to understand PM walk-through." – Vladimir Mitev
"I've been managing projects for several years, and picked up key points which will improve my work in the future, and would have made previous projects significantly better if I'd known them sooner. Highly recommended." – David Morrison
"This turned out to be the best money I ever spent. My only regret is I didn't take this course sooner." – Nicholas Ikpi
"One of the greatest courses I have ever had. Short videos you can digest at your own pace. A warm environment, seems that you are talking with him." – Francisco Zapata
Who this course is for:
- Project managers that want a practical description of how to apply project management in real life.
- Anyone working on projects that wants to understand the practical essentials of the project management best practices.
- Managers and leaders: Includes a mini course on communications, team management, negotiation, and leadership.
Featured review
Instructor
William Stewart is President of the Institute For Practical Project Management (IFPPM). He is a Project Management Institute (PMI) certified Project Management Professional (PMP) that has managed projects for more than 30 years from just a few thousand dollars to $55M, and worked in senior roles on projects up to $3B, in the domains of system integration, software, business process, construction, real estate, research, and others. He has delivered more than 330 live onsite PM courses to more than 3,300 people. Previously, he worked for aerospace, government, academia, and founded the open source cloud computing company Cirrus Computing. He has deep experience with project management, risk management, negotiating, systems integration, and software engineering. He is author of the books Deeply Practical Project Management and Project Development Methodologies: Waterfall, Incremental, Iterative, Spiral, Lean, Kanban, Agile, Scrum".
Bill is currently an Ottawa based management consultant helping clients work better and get more done. Previously, he founded and ran the open source cloud company Cirrus Computing for ten years. Before that, he spent 14 years in aerospace where he served as company System Engineering Manager and Software Manager for a functional organization of more than 50 people, Project Manager for system integration projects up to $55M, and in a range of senior roles on other projects up to $3B.
His first real job was with the Canadian Public Service, to establish and manage a computing center supporting 4,500 personnel, where he developed and deployed software to manage enterprise-wide scheduling, resource management, personnel management, and payroll, and developed and taught two programming courses accredited by Seneca College.
Bill received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of New Brunswick in 1992 for discovery of an algorithm that build geodesic domes in multiple dimensions in optimum space and time. While at UNB, he also taught eleven undergraduate courses. His professional training includes Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Project Management, Risk Management, Negotiating, and System Engineering. He has taught courses in Program Management, Project Management, Risk Management, Cost and Schedule Control, and Negotiating.
Bill is author of the first web published book "The Living Internet" with contributions from many creators of the Internet. He wrote the original "The Fun Standard", a collection of best practices for having organizational fun. He maintains the FreeOpenSourceSoftware wiki. His paper on public financing of political parties was credited in the Canadian House of Commons when the federal party financing bill passed in 2003. He currently writes about AI, and recently published the paper "The Human Biological Advantage Over AI". He lives in Ottawa, Canada.