Project Management has become more and more a preferred way of managing tasks and changes in organizations as well as proven to be the preferred way of planning and executing development and delivery issues.

The course will give the key dimensions of what project management are, critical success factors and success criteria, as well as describing tools and methodologies in the way of planning executing and organizing projects.

The course will cover aspects such as the distinction between effect goal and result goal, milestones planning prior to activity planning, the use of and importance of stakeholder management and risk management in the projects.

Furthermore the course will expose the importance of firm and clear roles, and design of the project organization. In addition, the roles outside the project team are also covered such as the steering group, advisory group and resource providing units like the base organization.

Management of changes during project execution is a prioritized area for the project manager as their normally is a continuous series of changes during planning and execution. In that context also the interface management becomes critical, concerning, physical, as well as organizational and contractual interfaces.

During the course, state of art of project execution models will be given with particular focus on stage gate models. In addition, scrum and agile project management will be covered and put into context of stage gate models.

The course highlights the topics of project governance and strategic project portfolio management, in light of use of state of art stage gate project execution models. When is it appropriate to perform management on portfolio level, when do you need management on detail performance level on single projects.

The characteristics of different types of projects are briefly described; from internal development projects, via business development projects, reorganization projects to delivery projects within different industries.

Learning outcome
At the end of this course, candidates are expected to achieve the following:
1. Know the success criteria and success factors for high performance project management & execution
2. Have achieved a firm understanding of stage gate project execution models and the associated roles
3. Full understanding of project governance and strategic project portfolio management

Prerequisites
Bachelor degree or equivalent, 4 years work experience, managerial experience and good written and oral knowledge of the English language.

Compulsory reading
Books:
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). Latest edition. Project Management Institute
Robert Buttrick. The interactive PROJECT WORKOUT. latest edition. Financial Times/Prentice Hall

Recommended reading

Course outline

• The project Management Concept
• The project goals
• Project strategies and systems view
• Detail planning
• Risk & Opportunity management in Projects
• Project Organizations and roles
• Project execution, Project control and changes
• Project Execution models
• Stage Gate Principles
• Agile Project Management
• Management and leadership challenges in projects
• Project governance
• Strategic Project Portfolio Management