Five Sigma® Project Management
The program for the busy manager of a technical project
 

A 3-day, 21 PDU (2.1 CEU) instructor-led program This program shows you how to apply the latest business thinking about "three sigma" quality and "six sigma" manufacturing to your projects by using the breakthrough concept of Five Sigma® project management. Five Sigma® project management builds on the The Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) and the "critical chain" to create a new plan that weaves together the latest thinking about "common cause" and "special cause" variations in systems that are projects. This program blends sophisticated scheduling with robust budgeting, then adds the best in product quality and risk management. You'll develop the skills needed to build a sturdy project plan and to manage the project using that plan. Each participant will learn how to balance the triple constraints of scope, cost, and schedule with the other project imperatives of quality, risk, stakeholder satisfaction, and business profit. The program features several workshops where participants use their own real projects to develop a scope statement, work breakdown structure, network logic diagram, and resource assignments. Through the interactive game of Herding Cats®, everyone will manage a project, revise a plan based on milestone achievements, assess risk, and re-plan to accommodate changes that occur. Topics include progress measurement techniques such as "buffer" management and "earned value," status reporting, and how to manage a team of creative individual contributors. The program includes the latest terminology from The PMBOK® Guide. Upon completion, you will be able to: ·      Write a one-page scope statement ·      Construct a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) ·      Develop accurate estimates ·      Quantify cost and schedule risk . Sequence activities ·      Calculate the critical path ·      Build a stronger project team ·      Schedule activities and resources ·      Measure performance objectively  Who will benefit? ·      Project managers who must plan and execute projects ·      Project leaders who want to inspire their project teams ·      Team leaders who manage project teams ·      Project team members who need to know the elements of project management ·      Executives of project management firms with a need for better processes ·      Managers of project managers who want to know what project managers do ·      Program managers who must coordinate several projects at the same time Agenda Day 1 Introduction to project management ·      What are our big project challenges? ·      Generally accepted project management practices ·      Project life cycle: should the project have one? ·      Stakeholders: who are they, and why you should care? ·      How do you make scope, cost, schedule, and quality trade-offs? ·      What are a project manager's responsibilities? Scope development ·      How do you write a one-page scope statement? ·      How do you define project success criteria? ·      What's a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)? ·      WBS examples and alternatives ·      How do you plan for project management? Day 2 Estimating ·      What should you estimate, why, and how often? ·      Project estimates vs. activity estimates ·      Bottom-up, analogous, and parametric estimates Risk management ·      How do you figure out a risk's likelihood, outcome, and time frame? ·      On-going risk management Influence without authority ·      How do you deal with conflict? ·      An innovative team exercise with Legos ·      Why is role assignment so important? Day 3 Scheduling issues ·      Duration estimating: time vs. resource driven ·      Activity sequencing: what must you watch for? ·      Determining scheduling flexibility ·      How do you calculate the critical path using the Critical Path Method (CPM)? ·      Merge bias: why is the CPM schedule too optimistic? ·      The realities of working overtime Project execution ·      Herding Cats®: the Game of Projects ·      What is the best way to measure performance objectively? ·      How do you predict the cost at completion? ·      How do you predict the schedule at completion? ·      What is are the two important uses of a Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)? ·      How should you conduct project performance review meetings? ·      What must you do to close a project? ·      How do you best document the important lessons learned? Contact us early to be sure to get the training dates you need.