Summary

We will introduce you to project planning and scheduling by discussing our proven techniques used for determining the major tasks and evaluation milestones that are required to develop a comprehensive and manageable schedule plan. This course will also provide an overview of the techniques used for determining and creating interdependencies between tasks, setting up internal and external project schedule constraints, and using the Edwards Industries internally refined BMPP ™ (Big Monster Piece of Paper) methodology for planning project schedules.

Details

Introduction. Students will learn the basic definitions for a project and project management. Course participants will also gain an understanding of the role of the project manager and how the project manager must constantly manage the Triple Constraint (Scope, Time, and Cost). Students will learn how to distinguish a “project” from “program” or other on-going operations.

Project Management Lifecycle. Course participants will gain an appreciation for the various methods of project life-cycle organization and list the benefits and risks of each approach. Students will understand how time effects product development and how the ability to make changes within a project is dependent on what phase and method of project life-cycle organization is used

Project Planning and the Development of the Project Management Plan. Students will become familiar with the PMBOK® Guide approach to project planning and learn the importance of employing a structured project planning methodology. Course participants will understand the role of WBS development in the project planning process.

Creating a WBS. A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a fundamental project management technique for defining and organizing the total scope of a project, using a hierarchical tree structure. Course participants will learn how to write a simple scope statement for a project and understand the principles of creating a WBS. Students will read and understand the structure of a WBS and understand how a WBS supports other elements of project management as well as understand the importance of scope control and scope change documentation.

Time Management. Once the WBS is created and all of the work packages identified, the project tasks need to be scheduled. Students will create a complete and comprehensive project schedule. Students will become familiar with the different processes of project time management and understand the basic application of activity sequencing tools within project management. Course participants will understand the basic application of time estimates and determine the critical path for a project if given a simple project network diagram. In addition to appropriately scheduling project tasks, students will learn the basic concepts of resource leveling.