Effective Project Management Workshop

Raising the competence of people involved in projects is a key element in improving project management performance. Many organisations book their project managers onto standard PRINCE2® courses that will give people a basic understanding of processes, establish a common language and teach them how to pass the exam. They will not turn your project managers into effective deliverers overnight. Very few project managers put their learning to effective use on returning from a course.

We understand these issues and have designed a 3 day practical project management workshop which can be tailored to your organisation and address your project management issues. The 3 day workshop mixes input of theory (using your internal project method or using standard PRINCE2 language and processes) with a series of practical exercises to allow attendees to try the theory out in practice. The practical exercises are based around a real life scenario, relevant to your organisation.

Some organisations have found additional value by using the workshop as a team building event or to facilitate the team development of a standard lifecycle and templates that will work in practice or as a fastrack start-up workshop for a real life project.

Who should attend?

Anyone who will be acting as a Project Manager, Team Manager, Workstream Leader, Product Manager, Project Co-ordinator or Project Office Manager. In practice, many other team members will benefit – see the case studies below.

Workshop Format

It can be used to prepare attendees for their role on projects or it can be used as an integral part of a start up workshop for a specific project.

Attendees learn from each other within a supportive risk free environment, with our experienced facilitator providing tools, techniques, hints and tips and sharing valuable “I’ve been there” war stories.

A key element will be a discussion of how project methods can be adapted to different types and scale of projects. In the absence of a tailored company method we will use the PRINCE2 approach.

Workshop Objectives

• By the end of the three-day event delegates will have developed a deeper understanding of the project lifecycle (or adapted internal method)
• Through project scenarios, project staff will have had the opportunity to develop project "tools & techniques" at the appropriate point in a lifecycle in order to ensure the correct controls are in place to achieve the quality, cost and budget requirements of their projects.
• Over the event, attendees will develop the ability to identify key stakeholders that have an impact on their project and be able to develop practical strategies to enable them to manage them more effectively.
• Bring clarity to project governance through an awareness of different project organisation structures and typical roles / responsibilities.

Availability

This workshop is available in-house only and will be tailored to match the needs of the organisation.

To discuss dates and individual tailoring requirements please contact Sue Vowler at Project Angels:

Tel: +44 (0) 1189 890507 Email: sue@project-angels.co.uk

Case Study 1:

An organisation focused on product design and rollout to an international customer base wanted to develop a simple project management lifecycle and set of templates for its product management department, based on PRINCE2 but ensuring the product development, marketing and service management elements of their projects were covered. Through scoping meetings we took the time to understand their business drivers and the nature of their projects. Next steps were to develop the course material including a scenario for the practical exercises. We also put together a base set of project templates as a “starter for ten”, which we would trial and amend throughout the workshop. The 3 day workshop was attended by the whole product development team from senior managers through marketing professionals to operational support. The key benefits to them were:

• Team building – an understanding of each others roles and how timely provision of information and decision making were vital to effective team working.
• Team development of a standard lifecycle and mini method including templates – the team worked together using a large sheet of brown paper, post it notes and lots of ideas to create a typical product development project lifecycle. They also used the base templates we had provided and altered them as through practical use to suit they way they worked.

What did the attendees think?

The head of the department admitted he hadn’t been looking forward to it and expected to “dip in and out” – by the end of the first morning he had cancelled all his meetings and really engaged in the process. The whole team used some key tools and techniques to iron out problems for a forthcoming exhibition, by brainstorming the project organisation and developing a high level plan. The marketing team were pleased that the project managers would engage with them earlier than they had previously which would help them plan their workload more effectively rather than “too little, just in time” planning.

Case Study 2:

A large blue chip organisation was merging 2 teams of project managers and business change specialists into a single team focused on running internal business change projects under an organisational transformation programme. We designed and ran the 3 day event, using their newly developed internal project method and templates, adapting the workshop material to meet their needs. The theory was adapted to include additional material on business change and benefits management and the practical exercises were based on a typical business change scenario they would be facing. The key benefits to them were:

• Team building – many of the attendees had never met before and we arranged the teams to get a geographical and skills mix.
• Internal method and templates review – by “road testing” the newly developed material the team jointly agreed changes and enhancements.

What did the attendees think?

Some of the attendees had previously been on a 5 day PRINCE2 course and found the 3 day workshop helped anchor some of their previous learning and put it into context of real life projects. One said “this was harder than the PRINCE2 course as it really made me think and the practical workshop elements allowed us to try the theory out on a project that reflected my day job”.