Introduction to Project Management Skills

Projects are one-off pieces of work that are completed within a fixed timescale. And they usually contain a great deal of risk, uncertainty, and complexity that needs to be managed.

There are a series of project management approaches and tools to help you reduce these risks, and create an effective platform to deliver the project objectives. These are designed to improve the project's overall success, and to capture the knowledge that’s gained every time a project is completed.

Our project management section discusses some of the specific skills, approaches, and tools you'll need to run projects successfully. The tools are divided into the following categories:

• Project Management Framework – These tools and articles cover the fundamentals of setting your project up to succeed.
• Scheduling – Projects involve a huge number of tasks with multiple inter-dependencies. Learn the tools and techniques for planning what needs to be done, and when.
• Scope Management – Use these tools to define your project clearly, and to avoid the problem of 'scope creep'.
• Building Support for Your Projects – Engaging the right people in the right way, and at the right time, is critical to project success. These tools help you do this.
• Communication – Monitoring the progress of a project is vital for keeping it on track. These effective reporting tools will keep everyone involved in the project up to date.
• Change Management – Projects are, by nature, all about change. Many people find change hard to handle, which can disrupt successful implementation. The tools in this section will help you manage the important 'soft side' of projects.
• Review – Use these structured techniques to learn from each project, and to ensure that it delivers what it should.

Project Management Framework

• The Planning Cycle – A planning process for medium-sized projects.
• Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) – Implementing new ideas in a controlled way (Also known as the Deming Cycle).
• Logframes, and the Logical Framework Approach – Planning robust, coherent, successful projects.
• Organization Design – Aligning organizational structure with business goals.
• Project Initiation Documents – Getting your project off to a great start.
• Request for Proposal (RFP) Documents – Getting better terms with a competitive bidding process.
• Risk Impact/Probability Chart – Learning to prioritize risks.
• Benefits Management – Getting the greatest possible benefit from a project.
• Words Used in… Project and Program Management – A glossary of terms.

Scheduling

• Action Plans – Small-scale planning.
• Scheduling Simple Projects.
• Planning Large Projects and Programs.
• Estimating Time Accurately – A key to project success.
• Gantt Charts – Planning and scheduling more complex projects.
• Critical Path Analysis – Planning more complex projects.

Scope Management

• Business Requirements Analysis – Clearly agreeing what you're going to deliver.
• Work Breakdown Structures – Mapping out the work within a project.
• Scope Control – Avoiding too many changes in projects.

Building Support for Your Projects

• Stakeholder Analysis – Winning support for your projects.
• Stakeholder Management – Planning stakeholder communication.
• The RACI Matrix – Structuring accountabilities for maximum efficiency and results.
• Influence Maps – Uncovering where the power lies in your projects.

Communication

• Project Dashboards – Quickly communicating project progress.
• Project Milestone Reporting – Keeping projects on track by monitoring significant check points.

Change Management

• Change Management – Making organizational change happen effectively.
• Lewin's Change Management Model – Understanding the three stages of change.
• Using the Change Curve – Accelerating and improving change.
• Leavitt's Diamond – An integrated approach to change.
• Burke-Litwin Change Model – Unraveling the dynamics of organizational change.
• Kotter's 8-Step Change Model – Implementing change powerfully and successfully.
• Why Change Can Fail – Knowing what not to do.
• Overcoming Cultural Barriers to Change – Moving to a high performance culture.

Review

• After Action Review (AAR) Process – Learning from your actions sooner rather than later.
• Post-Implementation Reviews – Making sure that what you delivered actually works.