Pragmatic Project Management: everything you need to know
What you'll learn
- Distinguish between operational priorities and strategic projects.
- Create a project management (methodology) framework that works for your projects.
- Draft a suite of concise project management plans (assorted documents or perhaps just the one single document I use).
- Continue adding your own personal body of knowledge and skill you develop with your professional development plan.
- Understand and work with uncertainty, complexity and change throughout your projects.
- Develop professional (and personal) confidence in conceiving, scoping, planning, deliverying, completing and evaluating your projects.
Requirements
- You may be surprised to know that you already have some prior knowledge and skill for this course because you are involved with different aspects of project management every single day in both your personal and professional lives.
- Before enrolling though, students should spend time reflecting on how they currently plan, manage and deliver their projects, what process and documentation is involved and how effective these are in delivering genuine project outcomes.
- The course also requires your commitment to read, watch, listen, reflect, question and practise what is applicable to you and your projects.
Description
Hi everyone.
My 7th textbook on project management has been released through Allen & Unwin - Project Management: A practical guide to planning and managing projects (4th edition), the ISBN is 978 1 76063 178 9. This edition is the updated version of the 2014 book featured in each of the videos as the 2014 edition is no longer available.
Project management isn't difficult, nor do you always need an examination or certification to prove you can do it confidently and professionally.
What you need is a mix of selective theory (not all theory is good) and time to question and apply what you learn and reflect on. Project management can sometimes be too full of theory, methodologies (frameworks), templates, checklists, formula, registers and assorted documents that might produce (in some cases) little more than excessive paperwork and frustrated stakeholders.
With over 25 years project management experience (outside the theory) and six project management textbooks (inside the theory), I know I can deconstruct project management for you in simple, plain English without undermining the knowledge and skill you need.
With a short written commentary introducing every 100+ lectures, along with my conversational presentation style and concise PowerPoint slides, the course will not just cover essential project management theory and practice, it will challenge and empower you into thinking about your operational priorities and (perhaps strategic) projects, the potential conflicts between both and the different practices and straightforward and uncomplicated documentation needed when working with projects.
And all those documents can actually be a single document created when the project starts, revised and updated throughout the project and closed-out and archived when the project is finished. (I explain how to do this in this course)
Your project management knowledge and skill has to satisfy you; not some examination paper, certifying body or professional association (no offence to all three). It has to satisfy you, your projects and the changing terrain each and every project will navigated through over time.
Who this course is for:
- People from all walks of life as project management knowledge and skill is not restricted to any particular industry, position description or what you do.
- The course is for people wanting to reinforce what they know, identify what they don't know and work progressively in filling in those gaps in partnership with my 100+ video presentation.
Instructor
I work with projects everyday of my life: as a project manager and consultant, a university lecturer, an education and training provider (my own company), a leading author with six textbooks published in project management and a PhD student investigating how project management capability is developed in higher education.
In my spare time I volunteer with charities working with disadvantaged communities, travel to Lao to donate my time lecturing in project management and English, and play some golf.
Project management is a life knowledge and skill base that I stumbled across years ago that continues to inspire, guide and in some cases challenge me when I am planning and managing projects. I continue to look for new ways to enhance my learning and to share that with all my past and current students and clients.