Overview

 The objective of project management is to deliver high-quality projects that meet the critical success factors to an agreed budget and timescale.

An IT project manager will use a range of skills, methodologies, and expertise to achieve the project’s delivery in line with the business objectives.

An effective IT project manager needs an understanding of the technology and effective people skills. Furthermore, strong stakeholder management and the ability to support alignment of the project with the organisation’s strategic vision are critical.

On this course you’ll learn about these topics.

This course is designed to help people with an interest in project management understand:

• The role of a project manager.
• The skills and characteristics you need to be a successful project manager.
• A career as a project manager.
• How to plan projects.
• How to manage testing activities.
• Cutover planning and management.
• Critical activities regardless of methodology.
• The principles of quality management and how critical this activity is. 
• Post go-live project support.
• How to build a high-performing project team.

This course isn’t like many introduction to project management courses. It is based on proven principles that have been used to deliver complex, critical projects.

Course objectives

The course aims to help you learn how to:

• Prepare documentation, including the project initiation document, the project plan, the dress rehearsal document and the cutover runbook.
• Agree on critical success factors with the stakeholders.
• Manage risks using a simple, but effective, tool. 
• Manage the project budget.
• Manage data quality activities.
• Plan and run dress rehearsals.
• Manage and communicate with stakeholders. 
• Prepare Go/No Go documentation and manage the Go/No Go meetings.
• Manage cutover.
• Handover to post-go-live support.

Who is this course for?

This course is designed for people that want an introduction to project management and junior project managers that want to learn the principles that will allow them to deliver projects successfully.

It will be valuable for anyone involved in IT projects with a desire to learn about effective, professional project management.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course you should:

• Be able to plan and manage small-scale IT projects. (Support from a senior project manager may be required according to the complexity of the project.)
• Understand estimating principles and the reasons so many projects encounter issues with this.
• Be able to use the principles in the Pathway IT Advanced Project Management Toolkit to manage risk on projects.
• Understand the importance of quality assurance and how to include this in your projects.
• Have the ability to prepare standard project documentation.
• Be able to agree on critical success factors with stakeholders and confirm their delivery status.
• Be able to manage project budgets.
• Be able to plan and run dress rehearsals. (Along with professional project initiation, dress rehearsals are the most critical activity for ensuring a successful project.)
• Have the knowledge required to manage Go/No Go meetings.
• Understand how to manage cutover to BAU.