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The topic of Project Management is very popular among professionals today, as project management skills can really help to advance your career.  Choosing the right project management course becomes the next challenge many professionals who want to build their project management skills.  This article outlines the top considerations for identifying the best project management course for you as an individual, as well as how to get the most out of it personally and for your career.

One way great way to begin to choose a project management course is to look at the problems you are facing today.  For example, perhaps you are having some special challenges dealing with stakeholders.  Maybe gathering requirements effectively is your current challenge.  Often times you can identify communications problems on your project and would like to learn more about tools and techniques for managing these problems.  Perhaps you would like to enhance your management skills.  Perhaps also, you simply would like to learn a broad project management framework or methodology and earn a project management certification to enhance your credentials.

Once you have this idea in mind, it is also helpful to consider the method of delivery that you prefer for the project management course.   The typical delivery methods include classroom training, audio training, and online project management training.  Classroom training has the advantage that you can give it your full attention as you are away from daily distractions.  There also is great value in being present with the instructor and students to discuss and absorb points on the spot as well as network.   On the other hand classroom training is expensive, might involve travel, requires trading off work time, and needs to be scheduled. 

An audio project management course can be very convenient, but lacks the visual learning aspect, so it often is a great supplement to other learning methods.  Some PDA-based audio programs are beginning to also offer the video, which is helpful, but it important to make sure that the audio delivery taken alone is effective for this medium when you cannot look.

Online project management training includes both instructor assisted training and pure online training.  With an instructor assisted online project management course, you take a live course over the internet, and the instructor is leading and facilitating the course.  In this case, you may have the ability to interact with the instructor and students during the class.  With pure online training, on the other hand, the course is self-contained and is available 24×7, and you can easily skip over topics of little interest and focus more on those of keen interest.  Often for the pure online training a mentor or online help is available for assistance.

Another decision is about the topic of the project management course.  For example, you might have a need to learn about a project management tool, so something like Microsoft Project training might be a good choice.  You might be in the information technology field, and perhaps you are transitioning from more technical functions to project management.  In yet another situation, perhaps an IT project management course would be a great choice. There are many other topics, especially in the soft skills areas like leadership, management, communication where you can select a sub-topic that will help take your current skills to the next level.

A final key is to choose and take that selected project management course right away!  Once the decision has been made, the desire is most likely at its peak, and you will get the most out of the project management course at that time.  If you wait even a few weeks, sometimes the issues you are facing may shift, and your ability to absorb like a sponge and immediately apply your new knowledge may diminish.  You want to be able to realize the benefit rapidly, and also making that knowledge your own for the long haul.

In summary, the way to get the most out of any project management course.  is to choose a topic related to something of very current interest.  Select a project management course about a topic of current interest to you, something for which you have a current burning desire or need and that you will be able to apply right away.  Pick the method of delivery of the course that best suits you, whether classroom, online, audio, self-paced, or other, and schedule yourself as soon as possible.  When the time comes, take the project management course at your own pace, but make sure you can give it full focus when you do.  Most importantly, apply what you have learned in the project management course right away!

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John Reiling, PMP, PE, MBA is an experienced Project Manager and certified Project Management Professional. John’s web site, project management  course provides online project management training for beginning managers and for PMP exam prep and PDUs. John also writes regularly in his blog, PMcrunch.com.

Business Analyst skills are important to have on the project team, and not a bad thing for a Project Manager to have! The same holds true for Business Analysts, where some Project Managment skills will serve the Business Analyst well.  In either case, the business analysis function is one that needs to be managed with care, perspective, and the wisdom of experience.

Business analysts typically play the following roles: requirements analysis, systems analysis, requirements management, or consulting.The key point is that the business analysis process does not just happen once. It is not just a matter of completing a task in the Work Breakdown Schedule! It starts at a high level near the beginning of the project, progressively elaborates, takes continuous monitoring, and is never really finished until the project itself is nearly finished.

Here are some key timeframes within the life of a project where business analysis makes an appearance:

1. Enterprise Analysis and Making a Business Case
Each project must fit into the plans of the organization as a whole. In depth familiarity with that plan, and understanding where the subject project fits into that is a key step in building the business case. The business case must align with the strategic objectives of the organization.

2. Requirements Planning
Developing requirements is a challenge in part because of the time dimension. Requirements planning describes a phased approach that forecasts and schedules how the requirements will unfold. It thus should have, as an output, a schedule for various time-based requirements gathering and documenting tasks.

3. Requirements Management
Managing requirements as they evolve is an important task. In some organizations there is a formal Configuration Management function. There also are myriads of business applications on the market that focus on Configuration Management for requirements. It is important to understand the degree of complexity, the expected level of change or evolution over the course of the project, and the risks involved related to requirements change developments.

4. Eliciting Requirements
Drawing requirements out of various stakeholders is as much an art as a science. The science part provides a framework, usually in the form of ways the structure questions, common pitfalls, and how to document. However, it is an art to develop rapport with varying stakeholders and probe deeply to uncover the core needs.

5. Requirements Analysis and Models
The documentation of requirements is important to assuring that everyone is “marching to the same tune”. Often this requires developing sophisticated architectures, drawings, mathematical models, and prototypes that consolidate requirements input and reflect back to stakeholders the proposed solution. This provides further subject matter for conversations around the continuously unfolding requirements.

6. Communicating and Implementing Requirements
With a given set of requirements, the business analysis function must assure stakeholder buy-in, but also must ensure that those who will implement the requirements are equally “plugged in”. One challenge is to ensure that the stakeholders are in clear and in agreement with what will be implemented, and the implementers are clear on what they need to do. Due to the detailed and often technical nature of the work, work packages at the implementation level are well removed from the stakeholder, so the business analyst servers to bridge that gap and “broker” that relationship.

While distinctly different in many ways, Project Management and Business Analysis functions overlap in many areas. The Business Analyst ensures that the product of the project meets the targeted business needs and is well-defined. This job is a project lifecycle function and does not end until the stakeholders verify that the product meets their requirements. The Project Manager, on the other hand, is concerned with the totality of the project, and is concerned mostly with ensuring progress against schedule, risk management and mitigation, and delivering of the product of the project within budget, on time, and to specified quality standards. Skill in both areas is very valuable, and only serves to benefit the project, program, and organization – as well as the professionals in their careers. 

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John Reiling, PMP, MBA is experienced Project Manager and analyst. John’s web site Project Management Training Online, provides numerous courses for PDUs and certification training for both Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP). John’s Project Management blog is PMcrunch.

To make the most use of whatever time you have available you must focus on your long term aims. Being focused on the smaller picture rather than the big one will throw you off course. Look at where your time goes and consider if you can make better use of it. Not everybody understands us when we talk about time management. So if you are working in a group you all need to understand the same message and what you are trying to achieve.

Short term goals are one type of time management goal and the other is the long term goals. All of them will need you to list what and when things need to be completed. The things that need doing now and over the next year or two are usually considered to be short term goals. Long term time management goals are where we plan to be in five to ten years time.

We all want fast results but the big picture is where it is important to aim. Avoid being distracted and maintain focus on your long term aims. Goals should be considered and changed as required and they should never be set in stone.

Each day you should be doing something that is using time management skills to achieve your aims. A lot of people spend far too much time chasing their tails so make sure you are not one of them. Spend some of your time considering how you can make the most of the time you have to reach your long term goals

Keep a regular check on where your time is spent and if that is wise and productive. Try to look with an impartial eye as though you were somebody else. Decisions should be taken because they are good and this helps prevent emotions getting in the way. Your free time should be considered as well and using time management skills can help to make the most of your relaxation time.

Make a plan of what you need to have to reach your goal in ten years time. We need to set out how much time we can devote to each task we have ahead of us. Time management always starts by looking at our aims and our intentions for where we want to end up

Your time management scheme is your plan to meet the goals you have set for yourself. Whatever skills and education are required to achieve your goals need to be learned .Make the time available to prepare your plans for the future.

The application of time and energy will help you achieve your goals but it must be focused on the important things. To achieve success you will need to plan and have a time frame of how things should pan out. Wasting time in one area of your life will delay your plans so always consider your time management goals when deciding to spend time on other things.

Whether you want to set goals for your business or your personal life, defining clear, concise goals is very important. Without clear goals you can end up confused about what you want to achieve, and you may be putting yourself on the path to stagnation. Clear goals can give you tremendous momentum and intense purpose in your life.

Here are five important tips to help you to define clear goals in your life:

1. Understand what you want to achieve. In order to define clear goals, your first step is to determine exactly what you want to achieve. If you don’t know where you’re going, you can’t figure out a route to get there.

Once you know where you want to be and what you want to achieve, you’ll be able to come up with the goals that will help you get there.

* Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Your long-term dreams and desires might take some brainstorming, so take the time to sit down and do it.

2. Determine a timeline. Setting timelines will prevent procrastination and spur you on to action to meet your goals. Having a timeline for your goals also helps to clarify them because now you know what you want and when you want it!

* Come up with goals that you want to meet in a month, year, and even five or ten years from now.

* Make a plan that will keep you on track; however, don’t etch your plan in stone! Keep you eye on the prize, and know there will be changes along the way.

3. Ensure your goals are realistic. Eliminate stress from your life by having realistic goals that you can achieve. A clear goal is a realistic one.

You can seperate long-term goals for business or life into smaller, acheivable action steps. Reaching multiple goals along your journey will give you a feeling of accomplishment and motivate you to continue.

4. Be specific. Clarify your goals with the details of exactly what you want. Avoid vague generalities. When you make a specific goal, you’ll be better able to accomplish it.

* Specific goals allow you to form your timeline and define your action steps. There’s no guesswork involved when dealing with specifics.


* For example, “make more money with your business” is a vague goal. Come up with a specific goal, such as, “I will make $1,000 more per month, three months from today.” This goal is specific, measurable, and realistic.

5. Refine your goals. Your goals may change as your life changes. During this process, you’ll be able to make them more specific, realistic, and achievable.

* It’s okay to refine your goals several times in your life! What’s important now, might not be important to you six months or six years from now. Be willing to accept change. Revisit your goals from time to time and make new plans if necessary.

Some people flounder through life, unsure of their purpose or what they want to achieve. Don’t let this be you! Your life will have clear meaning if you put some thought into what’s important to you, what goals you want to achieve, and what actions to take to make your dreams a reality.

Participative Management Design Improves a Multi-Production Facility

The Situation

QuietFlex Manufacturing had a problem. Productivity and morale needed to be improved, and one department was in conflict amongst themselves and with the company. Meetings were disintegrating into arguments over emotional issues, rather than yielding constructive discussions toward solving production problems and improving the workplace. Workers tended to bring nonspecific complaints to management, making resolution difficult, even though CEO Dan Daniel’s priority was to create a thriving work environment. These miscommunications caused workers in one department to question their confidence in the company’s leadership.  

The Task

Mr. Daniel wanted to help the QuietFlex Manufacturing employees be satisfied and challenged in their jobs, and feel important to the company’s overall success. He needed a way to “shift the focus from emotional issues to factual issues that I could do something about,” and hoped to “increase the production rate and decrease the amount of physical labor so our employees felt that the job had more value.” QuietFlex Manufacturing needed to move quickly to continue competitive production, and make plans to avoid a recurrence of the situation. Mr. Daniel wanted to bring everyone together around a set of common goals, reduce stress and physical labor, and find new ways to solve problems into the future.

Mr. Daniel had attended a Caridas Consulting International (business consultant) workshop about using Participative Management Design to build individual involvement in company success, “It was a good seminar for strategic executives, but I initially questioned how well it would work on the plant floor.” He contacted CCI to tailor a program for QuietFlex. Mr. Daniel sought an approach in which all stakeholders could win. He valued the talents and skills of his people and wanted to bring out those strengths to build internal capability. He knew CCI specialized in improving performance and productivity through people. The task was to improve the quantity and quality of production, increase morale, and improve communications to manage problems effectively over the long term.

Implementation

Mr. Daniel was eager for solutions that would work for everyone at QuietFlex Manufacturing. He had been intrigued by CCI’s participative management strategies, and knew that such an approach made sense for his company. The best solutions arise from the daily needs of work, and the best-informed people are those who are doing the work. Participative Design calls for change in the location of responsibility, so the people doing the work initiate the changes. People are encouraged to be self-managing, though not autonomous. Managers provide redesign guidelines, so that everyone contributes to the process and develops reasonable expectations for change. Mr. Daniel was eager to see how Participative Management could both address the employees’ needs and improve the bottom line at QuietFlex Manufacturing.

The company’s initial Participative Design sessions lasted two days for each shift. Caridas Consulting helped participants define and evaluate their current work process and make suggestions for improvement. Certain features of the production process were not flexible; Caridas Consulting got the group to focus positively on what could be changed. Initially, Participative Management Redesign sessions were difficult because people were not convinced there would be any real change. As they saw their suggestions being implemented, people began to improve their productivity and commitment to the company, as well as their own expectations and morale. Plans created within this collaborative framework earned the commitment of everyone on board. People were eager to implement the plans of their own making. They became innovative problem-solvers, and as issues arose, they found the initiative to create solutions. Caridas Consulting conducts Participative Management follow-up sessions with each area every six months.

CCI recognized that positive business results could not be sustained and company-wide improvements would not be complete without guaranteeing their successful delivery. QuietFlex management realized they needed to improve employee relations immediately. Enhanced communication and conflict resolution skills have made the workplace conducive to the introduction and execution of new ideas. Now QuietFlex keeps employee relations strong by helping managers be quality communicators. Caridas Consulting business consultants helped managers develop:

• basic communication skills, with an emphasis on genuineness, positive regard, and empathy
• conflict prevention and resolution skills

Immediate feedback from top managers shows these skills gives them a sense of interdependent control and improves their relations with employees. The managers are eager to further develop their communication skills and build on their initial accomplishments.

After a Successful Intervention

Mr. Daniel reports the situation at QuietFlex has dramatically improved. Workers in one department have been able to increase production from 2500 lbs per hour to 4000 lbs, and continue to progress. In the meantime, scrap and reject have been reduced dramatically. Safety has greatly improved, since the work redesign. People’s ability to participate has greatly improved the speed and quality of production. Mr. Daniel says the people at all levels of QuietFlex are pleased with the results. There are “more pounds being pushed out the door, and we redesigned the pay structure so there are incentives to reduce scrap and waste further, and improve product quality. Employee earnings are already up by 30%. Our employees can produce more and not be as tired.” The business results have been decisive and continue to improve.

By incorporating Participative Management strategies at QuietFlex Manufacturing, employees have been given a role in solving future problems. Participative Management Design has “given the managers a way to deal with specific issues. Now they know to ask the employees to really define the problem and what they think the solution should be.” Mr. Daniel is pleased CCI helped QuietFlex both increase quality production and communicate with their workers. “I ask everyone to bring me solutions with their problems,” he says.

Caridas Consulting also worked in the most troublesome area of the plant. He “threw Caridas Consulting into the lion’s den,” by asking them to work with a group of workers so disgruntled, and so cut off from management, that they had asked the union to intercede on their behalf. As in the glass plant, CCI helped the duct workers develop detailed outlines of the work flow and define their problems. The workers proposed a set of solutions, and the management responded by detailing the changes they were willing to make, and setting a timetable for implementation. Now that most of the changes have been implemented, productivity is up over 30%; because compensation is tied to productivity, morale and pay for this group has also improved substantially. Caridas Consulting opened the lines of communication between these workers and management, resolving the immediate issues and setting up a framework for future problem-solving.

Mr. Daniel is now a believer; the results at QuietFlex prove that Participative Management Design is a flexible and comprehensive model that can be used across industries and at all levels. The workers at QuietFlex have raised the quality and rate of production, and greater productivity means higher wages. They have learned to innovate solutions. Participative Management Design has helped all the people at QuietFlex Manufacturing reach their individual and common goals, and provided them with a framework for continued success.

Further information, please contact Evangeline Caridas        713-629-5692