Professional Skills Development

Participants will learn to:

1. Understand the context and environment within which projects exist, understanding how they are identified, authorised and governed effectively.
2. Understand the benefits of using a structured methodology for project management, with components including; Project life cycles, organisational structure, roles and responsibilities and project management processes.
3. Understand the progression of a project from the creation of project management plans, to scope definition and management, and the understanding and creation of fully resourced project schedules.
4. Understand project procurement and establish key inputs to procurement strategies.
5. Demonstrate  an understanding of project risk management, generate risk response plans and critique those plans. Differentiate between project risks and issues and subsequent management techniques.
6. Determine the key areas of project quality management and examine a number of quality management tools and techniques.
7. Establish the needs for effective project monitoring and control and interpret project data.
8. Establish the principles of leadership, teamwork and communication, and correlate their contribution to project success.

Introduction and Definitions

Project context and environments

• Distinguish between projects and business as usual (BAU)
• Differentiate between project management and portfolio and programme management
• Determine the characteristics of programme management and its relationship with strategic change
• Determine the challenges a project manager may face working within a programme
• Determine where the use of portfolio management may be appropriate
• Determine how environmental factors affect projects (including the sector, geography and regulation)
• Apply tools and techniques used to assess a project’s context (including PESTLE, SWOT)
• Demonstrate the importance of relevant legislation applicable to projects (such as health and safety , environmental, employment, contract, data protection, freedom of information)

Governance of project management and the use of structured methodologies

• Determine the principles of governance of project management; policies, regulations, functions, processes, procedures and responsibilities
• Determine how project management methodologies can be used to support the governance structure
• Determine the advantages of using standard project management methodologies across an organisation

Project life cycles

• Define a project life cycle and project life cycle phases (including concept, definition, development, handover and closure and benefits realisation)
• Establish why projects are structured as phases (including the use of end of phase reviews, go/no go decisions and high level planning)
• Determine the differences between a project life cycle and an extended life cycle
• Define processes for sharing knowledge and lessons learned throughout projects
• Determine the benefits of conducting reviews throughout the project life cycle (including project evaluation reviews, gate reviews, post project reviews, peer reviews, benefits reviews and audits)

How organisations and projects are structured

• Differentiate between types of organisation structures highlighting advantages and disadvantages of each (including functional, matrix, project)
• Demonstrate the way in which an organisational breakdown structure is used to create a responsibility assignment matrix
• Determine the role and key responsibilities of the project manager
• Differentiate between the responsibilities of the project manager and project sponsor throughout the project life cycle
• Distinguish between other roles within project management including users, project team members and the project steering group/board
• Determine the functions and benefits of different types of project offce (including project support offce (PSO), enterprise project management offce {EPMO}, project services or centres of excellence)

Planning for Success

• Determine the purpose of a business case and its importance during the project life cycle
• Determine who has authorship and approval of the business case
• Examine benefits management (including success criteria and key performance indicators and their uses in measuring project success)
• Determine the use of payback, Internal Rate of Return and Net Present Value as investment appraisal techniques
• Define an information management system (including collection, analysis, storage, dissemination, archiving, destruction of information)
• Define a typical project reporting cycle including the gathering of data and dissemination of reports and the principles of reporting by exception
• Define the purpose of the project management plan and its importance throughout the project life cycle
• Determine the typical contents of a project management plan
• Determine the authorship, approval and audience of a project management plan
• Analyse estimating techniques (including analytical, comparative, parametric, three-point, PERT formulae)
• Determine the reasons for and benefits of re-estimating through the project life cycle and the concept of the estimating funnel
• Demonstrate the stakeholder management processes
• Determine the importance of managing stakeholders expectations
• Analyse advantages and disadvantages of earned value management
• Perform earned value calculations and interpret earned value data

Communication within project management

• Determine the key contents of a project communication plan
• Determine the benefits of a project communication plan
• Demonstrate the importance of effective communication in managing different stakeholders
• Compare factors which can positively or negatively affect communication
• Compare sources of conflict within the project life cycle and ways in which it can be addressed(such as Blake and Mouton, Thomas/Kilmann and Pruitt)
• Determine how to plan and conduct different negotiations (including formal, informal, competitive and collaborative)

Project scope management

• Determine scope in terms of outputs, outcomes and benefits (including use of product breakdown and work breakdown structures)
• Determine how to manage scope through requirements management processes (such as capture, analysis, justifying requirements, baseline needs) configuration management processes (such as planning, identification, control, status accounting, audit and verification)
• Differentiate between the different stages of change control (such as request, review, assessment, decision, implementation)
• Quantify the relationship between change control and configuration management, and the concept of change freeze
• Examine the advantages and disadvantages of a change control process

Schedule and resource management

• Determine the process for creating and maintaining a schedule
• Employ different techniques for depicting a schedule (including network diagrams, critical path analysis, Gantt chart, milestone chart)
• Examine advantages and disadvantages of using software scheduling tools
• Determine categories and types of resources (such as human resources, consumable and re-usable equipment, materials, space)
• Define how resources are allocated to a schedule
• Differentiate between resource smoothing and resource levelling
• Determine what is meant by budgeting and cost control

Project Procurement

• Determine the purpose, typical content and importance of a procurement strategy
• Distinguish between different methods of supplier reimbursement (including fixed price, cost plus fee, per unit quantity, target cost)
• Distinguish between different contractual relationships
• Illustrate a supplier selection process

The principles of leadership and teamwork

• Determine typical leadership qualities
• Determine the principles and importance of motivation
• Define the impact of leadership on team performance and motivation (using models such as Maslow, Herzberg and McGregor)
• Define the benefits of adapting styles of leadership within a project (such as situational leadership, action centred leadership)
• Define the characteristics and benefits of effective teams and teamwork
• Determine factors involved in the creation, development and management of teams (models such as Belbin, Margerison-McCann, Myers- Briggs, Tuckman, Katzenbach and Smith)

Risk management and issue management

• Analyse each stage in a risk management process (such as initiate, identify, assess, plan and implement responses)
• Compare the responses to risk in terms of risk as a threat or opportunity (such as avoid, reduce, transfer or accept and exploit, enhance, share or reject)
• Determine the benefits of project risk management
• Distinguish between risks and issues
• Determine the advantages and disadvantages of risk and issue escalation

Project quality management

• Define quality management
• Define quality planning, quality assurance, quality control and continual improvement
• Determine the benefits of the quality management process

This course is designed for technical staff working in a project environment and  all those who would benefit from exposure to best practice in project management within the oil and gas industry.

• Existing project managers keen to experience best practice as defined by the Association of Project Management (APM)* See Additional Information Section for more details
• Those new to projects looking to add new Skills to their technical tool kit
• Project team members who wish to better understand the responsibilities and activities involved in project management
• Project team members who wish to progress into a career as a project manager