Essential Planning & Scheduling Skills for Successful Project Management
Course Info
Code PO4-105
Duration 5 Days
Format Classroom Online
Course Summary
Planning a new project can be a challenging task. There’s a lot of responsibility involved in making any changes, so it’s important to make sure that every single aspect is planned out as much as possible. One of the biggest risk areas when planning a new project is assuming that everything will go well the first time around and failing to put in timescales for each individual section of the project roadmap.
Developing a Gantt chart to keep track of your progress and provide realistic timeframes will help to make changes if you notice that you’re falling behind. It’s also important to delegate tasks to the right people based on their skill sets to aim for the best quality work and set realistic SMART targets to ensure that everyone is aiming for the same end goal.
Scheduling meetings and planning in checkpoints is also an essential part of any process that most people fail to recognise. This allows all team members to remain on the same page and raise concerns where necessary.
As a project leader, it’s your responsibility to uncover risks and conduct regular auditing on each area of the process, and even gain external feedback to understand where the process may need to change. If you’re working to a strict schedule, it’s important to understand your risk areas as early as possible, remain flexible, and make changes before they begin to cause problems.
- To understand the best devices and tools for planning your schedule.
- To develop a roadmap to plan out your journey.
- To analyse your plan and pull out potential risks.
- To set SMART targets to ensure your project remains on track.
- To communicate effectively with your team to stick to timeframes.
- To create a plan B to implement changes quickly if required.
- To understand how Gantt charts can help you stay on target.
- To understand trade-offs to keep momentum.
- To maintain quality through monitoring control while sticking to a deadline.
This course is designed for anyone who is responsible for project planning and monitoring to make a positive change. It would be most beneficial for:
- Planning Managers
- Project Planners
- Change & Control Managers
- Operations Managers
- Business Owners
- Directors
- Sales Managers
- Bid Writers
This course uses a variety of adult learning techniques to aid full understanding and comprehension. Participants will explore the most effective tools and techniques for their project rollout and begin making plans for the change. They will conduct role-playing exercises to negotiate and pitch a new project to gain buy-in from a team and set realistic timeframes for a change.
Seminars and presentations will also be used throughout to exemplify a good project schedule against projects with bad planning methodologies so participants can understand the impacts of their changes and the importance of planning and risk mitigation.
Course Content & Outline
- What does a successful project need?
- Conducting a fulfilling SWOT analysis.
- Gaining buy-in from partners and stakeholders.
- Tools and techniques to aid a successful project.
- SMART targets, what do you aim to achieve?
- Selecting the right team.
- Delegating based on strengths.
- Gantt charts.
- Setting a realistic timeframe.
- How to schedule multiple tasks simultaneously.
- Lead and Lag and how they influence your decisions.
- The Resource Allocation Algorithm (RAA).
- LEAN project management.
- Time and budget constraints.
- Understanding the economic impacts of causing a delay.
- Your networking considerations.
- Your Project Evaluation Review Technique (PERT).
- Your Line of Balance schedule.
- Your 80/20 plan.
- Monitoring change throughout the process.
- Data-driven proposals.
- Change and control - foolproofing your project.
- Float concepts.
- The Precedence Diagram Method.
- Delivering your final piece.
- Review and revisit based on feedback.
- Rescheduling to aim for maximum productivity.
- Changes and developments to perfect your project.
- Waste elimination and effectiveness scoring.
- Celebrating successes and understanding failures.
Project management is crucial for aligning projects with strategic goals, optimizing resources, and ensuring timely, high-quality outcomes. It involves stages from initiation to closure, applicable across industries. Key skills include leadership and communication. Books and certifications offer deep insights into effective project management practices.
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