Objectives

To enable participants to identify and deal with sources of failure hardwired into projects.

Instruction

Method: Lectures, case studies, class exercises.

Material: Workbook. Text: J. Davidson Frame, Project Management Competence (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999).

PMBOK Knowledge Areas

• Integration Management
• Scope Management
• Quality Management
• Time Management
• Cost Management
• Risk Management
• Human Resources Management
• Procurement Management
• Communications Management

Topics Covered

• Why Murphy's Law prevails on projects
• Conclusions of studies on project failure
• Three universal sources of project failure: organizational, poor management of needs/requirements, and poor planning/control
• Identifying and overcoming organizationally-rooted failure
• Managing needs and requirements more effectively with techniques such as rapid prototyping and configuration management
• Key planning/control capabilities needed to improve project success rates
• The prevalence of failure rooted in poor estimation at the project outset
• Basic techniques to improve estimates of schedules, costs, and resource requirements (e.g., use of Monte Carlo simulation)
• The emerging use of Risk Assessment Groups (RAGs) at major corporations to assist in making more realistic project commitments
• Reducing failure by strengthening competence at the individual, team, and organizational level.
• Basic characteristics of individual competence, team competence, and organizational competence
• The emergence of project support offices to improve project performance.

Course Length

This course comes in varying lengths depending upon the needs of your organization. Project Management Professionals (PMPs) are eligible to earn Professional Development Units (PDUs) for taking this course.

Arrange a Course

Contact UMT Corporate Training at (703) 516-0035 or training@umtweb.edu to schedule a course.