Project Management Fundamentals

Project management isn’t just for construction engineers and military logistics experts anymore. Today, in addition to the regular duties of your job, you are often expected to take on extra assignments, and to get that additional job done well, done under budget, and done on time.

This one-day workshop is not intended to take you from a supervisory or administrative position to that of a project manager. However, these topics will familiarize you with the most common terms and practices in terms of working on projects.

• Describe what is meant by a project
• Explain what project management means
• Identify benefits of projects
• Identify the phases of a project’s life cycle
• Sell ideas and make presentations related to pitching a project
• Prioritize projects
• Begin conceptualizing your project, including goals and vision statements
• Use project planning tools
• Contribute to creating a Statement of Work

To begin the day, we will look at what a project is and what project management means. We will also look at some of the key players in a project team.

This session will examine some of the key skills that a project manager needs. We will also look at developing a proposal for your project.

Often, people see projects as just more work to do. However, if managed properly, projects can provide tremendous growth and satisfaction for all those involved. We will look at some of the benefits and challenges of projects in a lecture and a case study.

This session will explore the four major phases of a project. Participants will complete a mix-and-match exercise to reinforce the concept.

If you can identify a project that will bring benefits to your company, that’s great. However, getting support for that project can be a whole other story. This session will look at some ways to prioritize and sell projects.

Before you start planning a project, you must know what you want the project to achieve. The best way to do this is to create a vision statement. We will discuss what a vision statement is and how to create one. Then, participants will work in small groups to create a vision for a sample project.

This session will discuss the six key parts to a project goal. Then, participants will write some goals for a project they are working on.

A target chart can help you identify the biggest priorities in your project and help you see how to achieve your goals. This session will explore how to create and use a target chart.

Once you have decided which project to promote to others and identified your vision and goals, there are some considerations you want to be prepared for. Participants will discuss six key considerations in small groups.

Now that we have a good idea of what our project will entail, we can create the charter and statement of work. We will also look at using a project planning worksheet.