Course Overview

Project planning is essential for successful project management. It involves defining stakeholder needs, scoping projects, communicating with stakeholders, utilizing resources, minimizing risks, and delivering value.

This Xcelerate Training Institute course covers critical concepts of project planning and execution, factors that contribute to project success, and modern methodologies for managing various project challenges.

Course Objectives

• Demonstrate an advanced understanding of key concepts, principles and practice of project planning and design in a project development context
• Describe how to define a project by understanding the project goal, identifying the priorities, and adequately planning the time, cost and resources needed for the project
• Development of project management plans, which includes the project schedule, amongst, various other plans.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the project design and planning skills and engagement with project stakeholders
• Detail a project plan by identifying the scope, task dependencies, schedule, critical path, and risks
• Identify the critical factors and stakeholders to project success
• Understand the various stages of a project life cycle and the related activities in each stage
• Understand the roles and responsibilities within a project and the different levels of empowerment concerning requirements and the business case
• Development of communication and change plans through active stakeholder management principles
• Develop the required skillset and capabilities to support successful business change programmes within your organization
• Understand the framework and mindset for planning and managing projects by properly setting and prioritizing project goals and objectives
• Develop the skills to identify the most relevant project management methodology to use, given the project objectives, the degrees of uncertainty, and the constraints

Training Methodology

This collaborative Project Planner Course will comprise the following training methods:

• Lectures
• Seminars & Presentations
• Group Discussions
• Assignments
• Case Studies & Functional Exercises

Like all Xcelerate acclaimed courses, this certification program also follows the ‘Do-Review-Learn-Apply’ model.

Organizational Benefits

The organization will benefit from Project Planning professionals as follows:

• The ability to plan and specify the scope requirements for projects to facilitate creation of the work breakdown structure
• The development of project schedules, listing the detailed schedule of the activities and respective sequencing of implementation
• Identification of resource planning, with a breakdown of tasks and activities by role and timelines, as well as identification of any special skills that are needed to accomplish the project tasks
• Development of budgets, specifying the costs to be incurred
• Adequate and timely planning of procurement activities, managing suppliers and vendors
• Planning for risk management, and considering optional contingency plans and mitigation strategies
• Quality planning. Development of quality criteria to be used to assess the project quality
• Communication planning, design of the communication strategy to all project stakeholders

Personal Benefits

Professionals attending this course will benefit in the following ways:

• Development of competencies required of an effective project planner and designer
• Trained and experienced professionals can successfully manage the project planning function of the organization
• Project Planners who bring a fresh perspective on projects, and how the goals and objectives fit in with the Business strategy
• Project resources are prioritized and used efficiently
• Professionals who can plan projects effectively, enabling the organization to implement projects promptly
• Trained professionals who can identify risks, make sure projects stay on schedule, and keep costs and resources within budget
• Ensures effective Stakeholder management via communication strategy and plan
• Better decision-making for the organization based on key insights on data, information & analytics
• Better risk assessment and management, and timely mitigation of risks to avoid Projects from failing
• Stay up to date on best practices and industry trends, and upcoming changes in the new age
• A sense of pride in contributing to the overall success of the projects through effective planning

Target Audience

• Business Leaders, and Managers who wish to understand the fundamentals of Project Management, and Project Planning Principles
• Practicing Project Planners, who wish to enhance their knowledge, and skills
• Project Managers, team leaders, product owners, and PMO (project management office) professionals
• Scrum Masters, Kanban Leads,
• Any other professional members, or team members, who are involved in project management or PMO (project management office)
• Any Individuals/professionals wishing to pursue a career with the Project Planning certificate

Course Outline

Introduction to Project Management

• Fundamentals Of Project Management
• Introduction to project management concepts, methodologies
• Key project management tools
• Stages of Project Lifecycle
• Project vs Program vs Portfolio Management

Defining the Project Charter

• Defining a project
• Project Objectives / Goals
• Project Scoping
• Team Selection
• Team Roles and Responsibilities
• Project Monitoring & Evaluation
• Develop Project Charter

Project Design Tools and Techniques

• Work-breakdown Structure
• RACI
• Methods to be used in situations with a high degree of ambiguity
• Decision Tree
• An earned value approach for monitoring progress

Stakeholder Management

• Identification of Project Stakeholders
• Stakeholder matrix
• Communication Plan
• Key Project Communication Skills

Project Scheduling, Gantt Charts and Critical Path Analysis

• Define Activities
• Sequence Activities
• Project Scheduling
• MS Project vs Excel Gantt Chart
• Sequencing project tasks
• Dependencies among project activities
• Project duration and evaluation of critical path
• Perform Integrated Change Control

Estimating Project Costs

• Plan Cost Management
• Estimate Costs
• Preparing Project Budgets
• Control Costs

Resource Allocation and Resource Smoothing

• Plan Human Resource Management
• Acquire Project Team
• Develop Project Team
• Resource Mobilization
• Project Procurement and Management

 Risk Management

• Determining the project environment
• FMEA
• Identify and assess project risks
• Prioritize and schedule project risks
• Risk Mitigation – Plan Risk Responses
• Issue Management

Project Quality Management

• Plan Quality
• Perform Quality Assurance
• Quality Control

Project Failure and Critical Success Factors

• Reasons for Project Failure
• Measuring Project Success
• Benefits Realization
• Industry Trends