Introduction to Practical Project Management

Explore the project life cycle from initiation to closing, including planning, execution, and monitoring and controlling, and learn how scope, time, and budget shape good, fast, and cheap outcomes.

Initiation marks the genesis of a project, turning ideas into a business case and charter. The charter acts as a map guiding scope, budget, and time, noting stakeholders and goals.

Break down large, overwhelming goals into smaller tasks to build a work breakdown structure. Create work packages with estimates, dependencies, and assignments for a team.

Master the formal change request process to document and evaluate scope, budget, and time impacts before proceeding. Drive sponsor-informed decisions and protect the project from scope creep.

Learn the six project schedule management processes—plan schedule management, define activities, sequence activities, estimate activity durations, develop the schedule, and control the schedule—emphasizing flexible planning and the critical path.

Build parametric estimating, analogous estimating, bottom-up estimating, and three-point estimating on activities derived from the work breakdown structure, integrating expert judgment and rolling wave schedule planning.

Plan, estimate, determine, and control cost management to form a project budget with contingencies, reserves, and earned value tracking.

Use reserves analysis to protect the project budget, differentiate contingency reserves for known risks from management reserves for unknown risks, and refine estimates to prevent cost overruns.

Quality means fitness for use and reliability as seen by customers and manufacturers. In projects, plan, manage, and control quality to balance costs, value, and sponsor expectations.

Decide how to measure and manage quality in the project, including the cost of quality. Plan, track, and control quality with checklists, reporting, and root cause analysis to drive improvement.

Master root cause analysis by asking why five times to uncover underlying issues, refine critical thinking, and enable effective corrective actions.

Explore Lean Six Sigma concepts to streamline processes, eliminate waste, and reduce variation and defects, saving time and materials and achieving faster, more repeatable project management.

Learn how resource management identifies, acquires, and controls resources within project constraints, with budget and time as key drivers. Explore how these resources shape project scope and delivery.

Acquire resources for a project by securing facilities, staff, and vendor services through approvals, bookings, and procurement processes, while applying internal policies and quotes, rfq, and rfp methods.

Identify and manage resources across facilities, equipment, materials, budget, and human resources, coordinating people and contracts to optimize just-in-time delivery and project outcomes.

Define controlling resources as a service to sponsors and stakeholders by monitoring and adjusting material and human resources to maximize performance, ensure fit, provide feedback, and address issues.

Plan, manage, and monitor project communications to keep stakeholders informed and aligned. Define who communicates what, how often, and through formats such as status reports, emails, and weekly meetings.

Treat risk as a spectrum measured by likelihood and impact, and manage project risk with seven processes: planning risk management, identifying risks, qualitative and quantitative analysis, risk responses, and monitoring.

Identify and analyze risks by gathering ideas from the team, recording them in a risk register, and assessing impact and likelihood to inform responses and monitor progress.

Identify and analyze stakeholders who influence or are affected by the project. Plan to manage their influence and interests to reduce resistance and build support.

Monitor stakeholder influence and engagement to invest the right amount of effort, using surveys, meetings, and informal check-ins to improve outcomes for end users.

Explore how anyone can manage projects, from everyday small tasks to workplace initiatives, and launch or enhance your career through project management and related practices like Six Sigma.

Advance earned value management concepts, master the work breakdown structure and control accounts, and apply forecast tools like EAC, variance analysis, budget baselines, contingencies, and management reserves.

Craft tailored resumes and cover letters with ChatGPT, ace agile and earned value interviews, and plan your 30-60-90 day strategy for salary negotiations and career growth.