Stakeholder and people management. Master soft skills for project management.

Take the next step with our project management master class for project managers looking to build out their stable of skills. In this course, you will learn the technical aspects of project management, people management and how to scope and initiate a project.

This course offers an in-depth view of project scoping from business case to the realisation of benefits. Work collaboratively to develop the suite of deliverables required to baseline, monitor and control your project scope.

Aims

This course aims to provide a structured approach to the effective initiation and scoping of a project. You will develop your knowledge and skills to set up your projects for success in the initiation and planning phases. The course also aims to further develop your technical project management skills and people management skills.

Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• build a project team
• empower individuals and teams to get the best results including creating an environment for psychological safety
• apply different leadership styles to suit different project phases and contexts
• develop communication, facilitation and negotiation skills to more effectively engage with people
• develop an awareness of psychological models and EQ Frameworks for consideration in future professional development
• allocate work to resources
• apply scheduling tools, including defining your critical path
• apply estimation techniques to define a project budget and schedule
• prepare a project cost estimate and budget
• describe earned value management techniques to develop an integrated baseline and track progress, performance and forecast completion date and cost
• apply risk management techniques and integrate risk treatments into the project plan
• analyse a business case and benefits as inputs to the project scope
• develop a project charter, including definition of benefits, objectives, success measures and deliverables
• identify stakeholders to define a project scope
• meaningfully engage with stakeholders to define fitness for purpose and develop requirements in a quality plan
• develop a WBS, scope statement, requirements traceability matrix, configuration management
• ensure requirements flow through to statement of work through appropriate procurement strategies
• apply integrated change control methods to control or change scope after project commencement
• describe the role of projects in supporting benefits realisation at a program, portfolio and organisational level.

Content

Part 1: Scoping a project

Strategy & business benefits

• Context and business benefits or outcomes

Initiating a project

• Preparing the project scope statement
• Aligning scope with strategy and benefits
• Identifying and engaging stakeholders

Develop scope & requirements

• Scoping terminology and approaches to scoping
• Developing a work breakdown structure
• Developing requirements, including traceability matrix and configuration management
• Delivering on requirements using a quality plan
• Developing a procurement plan that will deliver on desired scope

Controlling changes to scope

• Integrated change control approaches

Part 2: Technical skills

Planning a project

• Preparing a project WBS, budget and schedule
• Estimation techniques
• Identifying, recording and evaluating risks
• Building risk treatments and contingency into your project plan

Monitoring and controlling a project

• Measuring project performance
• Integrated performance baseline
• Effective status reports

Even more

• Tips for project success, including what not to do
• Exploring advanced tools, beyond the course

Part 3: Forming and leading teams

Forming and leading teams

• Team roles that may exist on your projects
• Building a team with targeted interventions
• Adaptive leadership approaches
• Embracing diversity on projects

Leading others

• Personality traits, learning styles and leadership styles
• Adaptive approaches for effective stakeholder engagement
• International standards for leadership and emotional intelligence

Managing relationships

• Stakeholder analysis techniques, including network thinking, stakeholder dynamics and relationships
• Tailoring communications for audience and purpose
• Facilitation techniques for running effective meetings and workshops
• Negotiation techniques and conflict resolution

Intended audience

• Project Managers
• The 'accidental' Project Manager
• Team members and subject matter experts involved in projects
• Anyone interested in project management
• Anyone wanting to be more organised in their work
• Current and aspiring business leaders

Prerequisites

Some familiarity with project management.

Before the course

Please complete the Communication and Learning Styles Questionnaire using the PDF document below.

Communication and Learning Styles Questionnaire

Please note, the results from this questionnaire are important to parts of the course and must be completed prior to completion of the Forming and leading teams component of this course.

Delivery style

This three-day course focuses on experiential learning. Content is broken into 10-15 minute blocks and immediately followed by group activities where the theory is put into action.

A range of interactive methods will be used including:

• storytelling and the use of professional examples to exhibit concepts
• self-reflection and group discussions
• case studies where the concepts are actively applied
• individual and team activities and presentations
• suggested readings for after training.

Materials

You will receive:

• online course materials (using Dropbox) with case study activities
• an online project management toolkit with templates
• a Statement of Completion.

In order to access online course materials (using Dropbox), we recommend that you bring your own device (Windows or Mac) to class. You should ensure your device is fully charged as access to power is limited. Please note that the University does not carry any responsibility for your lost, stolen, or damaged devices whilst on the University premises.

Courses by module

	An introduction to project management	Technical skills	Forming and leading teams	Scoping a project
Project Management Course: Introduction
Project Management Course: Core Skills
Project Management Course: The Master Class
Project Management Course: Project Scope and Stakeholder Management
Project Management Course: Managing People and Projects *
Project Management Course: Methods, Tools and Techniques *

Note: Each module represents one day of content.

Course content overlaps between courses. Please get in touch if you have questions.

* Managing People and Projects & Methods Tools and Techniques – only available for corporate training bookings.