Project Management Course: Master Project Initiation [5 PDU]

Project management, as with everything else, starts at the beginning.  There is no better way to ensure successful project management and success as a project, manager and that is to master the art of initiating the project the right way.

Would you start a 100m race facing backwards and still hold on to the idea that you stand a chance to beat your competition? Of course not! Neither will you start a vacation trip travelling east if you know your destination is west. So why does it happen so often that projects are commenced without due consideration of the intended final destination?

Sure, you can initiate a project in any way you wish and realign it during planning and execution, but that goes against the grain of project management philosophy, which in essence circles around the idea of optimization of project effort. Initiating the project the right way, will not only simplify the project planning process, but it will also play a major role in early project effort efficiency and correct team orientation, which will ultimately add to the chances of avoiding any unnecessary project blunders.

In this course you will learn everything you need to know about the project initiating process group. Furthermore you will also gain a working understanding of the very important work that happens before a project can be initiated. Understanding pre-project work makes a big difference in your ability to start your project on the right foot. The knowledge you will gain in this course regarding project initiation and how to ensure you start the project the right way will prove to be invaluable. The techniques thought in this course will not only help you to effectively initiate your projects, but it will also ensure that you facilitate stakeholder alignment before project planning even starts, giving you a great head start and ensuring that you eliminate or at the very least limit the effect of two of the largest contributors to project failure namely lack of stakeholder engagement and misalignment of stakeholder expectations.

This course was designed to arm you with the essential knowledge you require to lay the foundation upon which the remainder of your project will be built.

The course covers all of the essentials of pre-project work or project conception, which is the work done at a program or portfolio level that aims to ensure the viability and practicality of the project before it is even initiated. The stakeholder engagement techniques taught as part of the needs definition process will prove to be one of the most useful skills you can have as a project manager. The course then goes on to teach you what initiation is all about and how to compile a project charter containing all the precursor information you will need to effectively plan the project later on. Particular attention is given to the compilation of the initial scope that forms part of the charter and the techniques taught here will set the pace for the rest of the project. The course also covers stakeholder identification and analysis in detail. The last topic of the course is that of the project kick-off meeting, what its purpose is and how you can use it to get project team buy in.

Building a house on the wrong foundation will ultimately cause a countless problems later on and the same holds true for project management. This course will arm you with the knowledge you need to lay a strong foundation, ensuring you eliminate a lot of the problems that may have presented itself in the future had you not done so.

The course design caters for those who already have the foundational knowledge of project management and are familiar with the PMI project management methodology. Beginners are however welcome to take it up as well as the course is structured to add value to all project management professionals.

Newcomers to project management will find this knowledge very beneficial, as it will enable them to start projects the way they are supposed to be started, greatly reducing the chances of issues popping up in later project phases.