Thought Leadership Articles

    Defining Project Management with Skills Builder

    May 7, 2021 | Posted by Harri Pyke

    If you have little or no previous experience of project management and have been asked to manage a project that will result in changes to ways of working, then a Project Management for Change Skills Builder from CMC Global can certainly help. 

    Our latest Skills Builder will help you kick-start and build your project management skills, under the guidance of a CMC Global Instructor who has many years of first-hand knowledge and experience applying this skill set to a variety of business changes. 

    You will learn from the experts, then apply your learnings to a real-life project you’ll have brought with you – we call it a Project on a Page. 

    Throughout the day we’ll be introducing the CMC Skills Builder Toolkit: a practical, online toolkit comprising everything you need to see a project through from start to finish.  You will have access to the Toolkit for the following 12 months as you build out and implement your new Project Management for Change skills.  

    This one-day Project Management for Change Skills Builder introduces you to the key aspects of project management and provides you with the knowledge of how to apply a form, structure and intent to your Project Management, giving you the visibility and control to ensure that your Project succeeds in meetings its objectives.

    Why choose CMC's Skills Builder - Project Management for Change? 

    This course’s intrinsic value is provided in 3 key areas:  

    Firstly, this workshop provides you with the opportunity to develop and apply your thinking around a real-life project. And moreover, you’ll leave this skills builder with a few key items already ticked off your to-do list.  

    Secondly, this workshop is instructed by CMC Global’s Instructors whose vast first-hand experience and personal anecdotes that supplement the learning. Our Advanced Instructors are subject matter experts who have seen almost everything - the good, the bad and the ugly – in the world of Project Management and will provide key insights to your unique project considerations and will help you to overcome your challenges based on their wealth of knowledge – both theoretical and by first-hand account.   

    Thirdly, this course provides you with 12-month access to our Tools and Templates. These templates have been designed by experienced Project Managers for Project Managers and at the heart of each tool is the desire to ensure that objectives are set from the get-go and are ultimately reached by the Project’s close. 

    What tools are included in the Skills Builder toolkit? 

    Everything you need to see a project through from start to finish….  

    • Before even beginning the planning of a project, participants are directed to The Project Start Up Checklist, which gives an overview of your project and ensures that you have all the elements in place before you can begin planning. It serves as an early indicator as to whether you require further information and gives you a basis to see what should be in place before proceeding. 

    • The Project on a Page sets the scene for our planning, it covers what we are doing and why we are doing it. This is a collaborative template that ensures the agreement of key parties before work has even commenced. This template ensures that the business reasons for the project have been documented, expectations of what can and can’t be delivered are agreed and other key elements such as Resources, Requirements and Timescales have been considered and more importantly, agreed upon.

    • Most projects will impact more than just those working on it. The Stakeholders Map provides the basis of determining all interested, impacted and/ or influenced parties. Once identified we can use the map to ensure that these parties are communicated with, are provided opportunity to collaborate and moreover, the map permits us to visualise where stakeholders lie in relation to the change, their influence and how they are impacted. This is particularly beneficial when exploring gaining further buy-in and managing resistance early.  

    • Communication is always key to a project’s ultimate success. The Project Planner is a plan that, in the form of a Gantt Chart, sets clear communication strategies with all interested parties and aids in managing the direction and control of a project. It sets clear barometers on how we deliver and achieve objectives, establish a timetable, identify and negotiate resources, monitor progress, identify success, and it arranges activities and tasks into a coherent plan.
    • Project Management can seem at first to be an insurmountably mammoth task. Projects are best managed by being broken down into manageable chunks. The Work Breakdown Structure is a clear visual designation of this. This template permits you to assign tasks to your team members and highlights the often-forgotten key project areas of pre-project and Transition & Closure. This template makes it easy to get your team involved and provides space to share ideas and interact collaboratively.  
    • Planning for Project Management is one thing but the day-to-day management of it is another. The Project Control Log is an easy and effective tool that allows your team to agree how risks and issues are captured, how and when they’re reviewed and what to do when issues need to be escalated and who to escalate them to in such circumstances. This document can be used both to identify risks and also to manage opportunities that could be exploited. This Log is an ongoing process and manages the day-to-day of project risks and issues and ensures that they dealt with by those who own them. Requests for Change are a natural component of Project Management and here you can be prepared for the unexpected and can deal with them effectively when they are sprung upon you.
    • The Meeting Agenda template gives you the structure to ensure that no meetings is wasted. The Project Kick Off Meeting is an excellent point to see the Agenda in action. This structure permits you to clearly share your project objectives, establish a vision, identify teams & roles and set a timeline for your delivery. With this structure ensure that you prepare your team to be motivated, energised and focused on your project.
    • Project Management is more than just setting the wheels in motion, it is vitally important that you monitor progress. Use regular team meetings as an opportunity to populate your Project Progress Report and review open actions, progress against the current plan and any risks and issues that may be on the horizon. This structure keeps up rapport with your team, allows concerns to be raised and can be concisely circulated as a higher-level overview to sponsors and stakeholders as an update on the progress of the project.    
    • Project Management success can be attributed on two bases, firstly, Adoption – how quickly people get on board with the project and secondly, Utilisation – how many people are engaged with project. The Project Closure on a Page template ensures that the project board accepts completion by ensuring all objectives are reached, all issues and risks are addressed and all communication channels and support mechanisms are in place before the handover to BAU. This provides a documentation of benefits realised and lessons learned so that the organisation can learn and that you can take your helpful insight onto the next project.    

    Conclusion

    So, three reasons to sign up for your next Project Management for Change workshop. World class instruction from Subject Matter Experts, Tools and templates to take your Project Management skills up to the next level and some things already ticked off your to-do list ahead of your return to real-world scenarios.

    Sign up today at www.cmcpartnership.com. CMC Partnership Global. Change for Good, Together 

    Click here to download the leaflet.   

    CMC Global offers private, single-company virtual or face-to-face training and advisory support worldwide. If you're interested in finding out more about how we can work with you- get in touch!

    Topics: CMC, Integrating change and project management, project management, Online Studying

     

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