Project Management for Non-Project Managers

More and more work that once went to specialists is now handed to non-specialists as a "project." This 90-minute project management for non-project managers training gives you the basic tools to deliver those projects without a formal PM background.

It draws on the Project Management Institute's PMBOK, which defines a project as a temporary effort to create a unique product or service, and on Dr. Joseph Juran's view of a project as a problem scheduled for solution. The starting point is always a clear statement of the business problem: the gap between what you have and what you want.

You'll follow the full life cycle, from initiation, business case and charter through planning, scheduling, cost and risk management, team and communication plans, monitoring and control, and closure.

• Define a project and state the business problem it solves
• Make a business case, analyze stakeholders and publish a project charter
• Build a work breakdown structure, logic diagram and critical path schedule
• Estimate costs and set and track a budget
• Assess risks with SWOT analysis and a risk impact matrix
• Create RACI, staffing, communication and training plans
• Monitor scope, schedule, cost and quality and run project reviews
• Close projects and apply lessons learned

Context for project management

• What projects are and where they fit
• Strengths and challenges for non-project managers
• Project success factors and pitfalls
• Projects vs operations

Project management processes

• Applying the process model and chain of processes to projects
• The project management process and project phases

Project initiation

• Stating the project's business problem
• Making the business case
• Making the go/no-go decision
• Stakeholder analysis
• Publishing the project charter

Planning and scheduling

• Eliciting requirements
• Communicating and managing conflict
• Analyzing scope, constraints and assumptions
• Creating a work breakdown structure and tactical plan
• Sequencing activities with a logic diagram
• Managing the critical path
• Scheduling, assigning responsibility and tracking

Cost management

• Estimating costs
• Setting and tracking the budget

Risk management

• Defining risks qualitatively and quantitatively
• Using SWOT analysis
• Building a risk impact matrix
• Tracking, managing and escalating risk proactively

Human resource and communication plan

• Role and responsibility plan and RACI diagram
• Staffing management plan
• Project team structure
• Management communications plan
• Training plan

Execution, monitoring and control

• Deciding what and how to monitor: scope, schedule, cost and quality
• Capturing actual results for scope, schedule, cost and quality
• Conducting project reviews

Project closure

• Capturing best practices
• Applying lessons learned for continuous improvement

Projects often land on already full schedules, with key decisions made elsewhere and no dedicated team. Without a clear definition they suffer scope creep, missed deadlines and blown budgets, while risks go unplanned and time is lost to firefighting and chasing information.

This session helps managers and anyone running projects plan and execute more effectively, solve business problems, reduce risk, use PM tools well and keep stakeholders satisfied.

• Managers
• Project Manager

Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, Ph.D., and President of Advantage Leadership, Inc. works with leaders and their organizations to Increase your bottom-line results through strategic leadership, engaged employees, and delighted customers in all economic sectors. Draw on her proven ability to mentor you through major change, customizing successful solutions to your complex issues. For over 25 years, Rebecca has contributed value as an executive, manager, educator, and consultant, honored on four continents. She is a Ph.D. in organizational development, a National Speakers Association Legacy Professional Member, and St. Petersburg Engineering Academy Foreign Member and author of books on strategic leadership and planning.