Project Management courses

We offer two courses in project management.

Essentials of Project Management

Taking the Channel 4 series ‘Grand Designs’ as its inspiration, the course starts with a house building exercise (using a range of office stationary) set within a limited time frame. The success/failure of the exercise is discussed and a second house is planned throughout the day using better communication and tried and tested project management tools.

Using stories from Heathrow T5, Wembley Stadium, Project Eden and the Airbus 380, we understand the importance of good project management and the necessity of great communication. The following areas are covered:

Defining a project

• How projects go wrong
• Project Lifecyle
• Briefing & Initiation
• Planning
• Estimating
• Scheduling simple and complex projects
• Risk management
• Organisational issues
• Role of the project manager
• Monitoring and tracking
• Quality control & trouble shooting
• Communication & reporting exercises
• Review learnings and closure

Advanced Project Management

This course is designed to build on Project Essentials and builds in a wide range of interactive activities and exercises using cameras, walkie-talkies and bottles of wine!

The following areas are covered:

• Characteristics of great project leaders
• Avoiding scope creep: the Pareto Time Principle
• A systematic approach to PM
• Clear objectives and outcomes
• Information
• What has to be done/planned
• PAR cycle
• Defining roles and responsibilities
• Reviewing
• Managing stakeholder interests
• Defining the needs of the team
• The four stages of team development (Tuckman)
• Avoiding the Time Bandits
• The Art of Estimating
• Costing failure