Course Description:

This power session offers new ways of managing and dealing with projects. The focus is more on communications, understanding stakeholders’ needs and managing expectations. Participants will also learn about organizational politics and culture, and performing value-adding activities.

Aligned with the Project Management Institute (PMI®) Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide 5th Edition), this course provides a practical approach to focusing on those things that matter most for project success. Namely – communication, managing stakeholder expectations, risk, change and quality, so that the scope, schedule, cost and project goals are met as planned. In short, the course provides the context and meaning behind the words Project Integration. Participants will discover the approaches and techniques that will deliver project success through topics that deal with: The importance of proper stakeholder analysis and robust communication planning in building the foundation for a successful project. Utilizing best practices, concepts and methodologies and leveraging them in the context of organizational challenges and project realities.

Illustrating the link between effective management of back office aspects (e.g., quality, risk, communication and change) and delivering value and project success. Realizing the importance of assessing and prioritizing project readiness and complexity in the context of the organizational bigger picture to ensure alignment with organizational objectives. The delivery format will combine lecture with practical real-life examples. There will be mini exercises “on the go” to apply individual learning.

This course is designed after the book Managing Stakeholder Expectations for Project Success (Ori Schibi, 2013).

Course Topics:

● Introduction

● Module 1: The Sad Reality of Project Management and the Need for Meaningful Project Integration

● Module 2: Project Complexity and Readiness Assessment

● Module 3: Stakeholder Needs Assessment

● Module 4: Assumptions: Project Manager’s Best Friends

● Module 5: Focus on What Matters

● Module 6: Integration: Putting it all together

Learning Goals:

● Techniques for improving vertical collaboration between project managers and other stakeholders to help achieve meaningful results for the organization.

● Checklists and other measures that can help determine how prepared an organization is for undertaking a project.

● Concepts around defining success criteria and in turn, tying them to the project constraints.

● How to identify, address, track and act on assumptions and link them to project success.

● Ways to determine project health that check a project’s interim performance beyond the traditional measurements.

● Techniques to reduce the number of requirement and scope changes introduced throughout the project.

● Stakeholder analysis to design a communication plan that is relevant, effective and efficient – and addresses stakeholders’ needs.

● Integration, what it really means and what the project manager needs to do to perform it properly.

● Concepts that help perform a meaningful lessons learned process.

Course Agenda:

Day 1

● Introduction

● The Sad Reality of Project Management and the Need for Meaningful Project Integration

● Project Complexity and Readiness Assessment

● Stakeholder needs Assessment

Day 2

● Assumptions: Project Manager’s Best Friends

● Focus on What Matters

● Integration: Putting it all together

Who can Attend?

This course is designed for project, program and operations managers, as well as project sponsors and personnel who work in project environments.