Hands-On Project Planning
1-day Workshop

This program provides hands-on practice with tools and techniques for project
planning. Participants are grouped into teams and use projects from their work
for the in-class exercises. All topics other than Project Pre-Work and Project
Planning are dealt with as overview, not in depth, due to constraints of time.

Introduction
  • Definition of projects
  • Why projects are undertaken
  • The characteristics of projects
  • The “Triple Constraint” of time, resources, and output
  • Exercise: Defining the constraints for each project as they are
    known at this time
  • Characteristics of effective project leaders
  • At this point, participants nominate projects to use as working examples.
    The list is reduced to 3 - 5 projects and participants self-select onto the
    project teams of their choice. For the remainder of the workshop, these
    are the projects that are developed.
  • Key players in the world of projects: project team, customers, sponsors,
    stakeholders

Project Pre-Work
  • Researching the need for the project: Why this project? Why now?
  • Defining Needs and Wants
  • Exercise: A seven-step needs-analysis process applied to each
    project. Steps include:
  • Define the problem
  • Determine Needs (required) and Wants (desirable) and
    prioritize Wants
  • Determine the desired outcome of the project based on
    Needs and Wants        
  • Develop options and alternative approaches
  • Compare options to Needs and Wants
  • Assess overall risks
  • Select an option
  • Developing the project goal
  • Exercise: Developing a goal statement for each project
  • Determining commitment and support needed for the project
  • Exercise: Developing a list of stakeholders and evaluating their
    commitment to the successful completion of the project
  • Determining the skills needed for the project
  • Exercise: Completing a Skills and Influence Matrix for each project,
    linking needed skills with individuals who are current or potential
    team members
  • Assembling the project team
  • Exercise: Developing strategies for obtaining the services of
    needed team members

Project Planning
  • Introduction to project planning and the Post-It® Planning Process
  • Framing the project
  • Exercise: Defining project phases
  • Planning major tasks
  • Exercise: Developing high-level project tasks and key decision
    points
  • Testing for validity
  • Exercise: Review the plan and adjust at the highest levels
  • Detailing tasks
  • Exercise: Adding detail and sub-tasks to high-level tasks; adding
    additional high-level tasks; reviewing the plan and adjusting the
    task sequence
  • Connecting people to tasks
  • Exercise: Identifying levels of connection between team members
    and tasks
  • Scheduling the project
  • Exercise: Developing estimates of Task Time and Duration for
    each task and sub-task
  • Identifying the Critical Path
  • Exercise: Determining the Critical Path through the project (both
    critical tasks and schedule)
  • Additional planning tools
  • Transfer planning
  • Exercise: Develop first draft of the plan to deliver the final output of
    each project; scheduling mid-point and final reviews of the
    transfer plan
  • Contingency planning
  • Exercise: Identifying potential risk points in each project and
    developing contingency plans for each

Project Implementation Overview
  • Project kickoff
  • The cycle of project management; Monitor, measure, problem-solve,
    report
  • Status reporting and management reviews
  • Project team meetings, tools and techniques
  • Change control
  • Problem-solving process and tools

Project Closure Overview
  • Documentation and training
  • Timing the transfer and implementation of project output
  • On-going support
  • Completing the transfer
  • Post-project evaluation
  • Closing ceremonies
ProjectTraining.com
Providing Project Management
and Process Improvement Training
for over 20 years
"Planning is an
unnatural process; it is
much more fun to do
something. The nicest
thing about not
planning is that failure
comes as a complete
surprise, rather than
being preceded by a
period of worry and
depression."
     Sir John
     Harvey-Jones
     English Business
     Advisor