Project Management Essentials for Beginners
Project management has become an essential skill to ensure the success of organizational initiatives. This comprehensive training explores the foundations and essential tools to implement effective project management, taking into account the specificities of your context: mature or conquest markets, functional or matrix organizations, and the need to reconcile quality, cost and deadline.
You will learn the key differences between Waterfall and Agile approaches, as well as the critical stages of a project, from initial request to detailed planning. Using tools such as Gantt, PERT and Kanban, you will learn how to structure your work, anticipate risks and manage teams, even outside your area of expertise.
On the program: theory, practical cases and simulations.
Topics covered
At ClavaConsulting, each training is unique. It consists of a combination of the following themes, according to the client's needs.
Why set up project management?
The importance of the economic context: mature markets vs. conquest markets; functional vs. ad-hoc, matrix organizations; competition, speed, innovation.
Reconciling the irreconcilable: quality, cost, deadline.
Distinguish between Waterfall projects and Agile projects. Analyze the principles of each of them.
Scenario of a project (in waterfall: Upstream Phases / Detailed Analysis / Implementation)
Who plays a role in a project? From the project manager to the sponsor, including the contributors.
Receive the sponsor's request.
Define the deliverable and its different levels: who orders what?
Role of the client and role of the sponsor.
Identify the relevant documents: functional specifications, technical specifications, project charter.
Writing the specifications with 2 hands, with 4 hands.
The variability of the deliverable, the risks of drifts and the start of the project.
Planning (Gannt, PERT, Work Breakdown Structure, Kanban).
Planning experts when you are not.
Padding the schedule when planning. Planning vs. retroplanning.
Risk analysis. Principles and methods of animation.
Focus on the very notion of risk (vs. consequence of a risk).
02
Pedagogy
Card game, project; Workshop, quality, cost, deadline; Simulation of the progress of a Waterfall project; Collaborative creation of a schedule; Interactive risk mapping; four-handed specifications; Case study.
03
Targeted skills
Acquisition of knowledge of the different project management methods; Mastery of basic constraints; Organizational and planning skills; Mastery of the management process and risks; Ability to identify the deliverable(s).
04
Possible formats
The optimal duration is 3 days: the first 2 are intended to acquire the skills of the project mode; the last day is a feedback of the implementation of the techniques seen previously. Possible reduction to 2 days.
Modularity: 4 x 0.5 days, 2 x 0.5 five and 1 day… The modularity remains flexible according to the availability of the participants.
Similarly, the choice of face-to-face or distance learning should be made based on the situation and the availability of the participants.
Further reading
From contributors to project managers: lost in transition? Read .
Leading a project means combining opposites. Read .
Five Pitfalls of Project Management. Read .
Accelerating managerial maturity: what lessons do start-ups offer? Read .