This course is designed to provide participants with an understanding of the complexity of managing stakeholders and project communications. We will cover the processes, tools and techniques of Project Communications Management and Project Stakeholder Management as presented in the Project Management Institute’s (PMI®) A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge®. Participants will learn through application to a case study and hands-on exercises.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Use the terminology and processes of stakeholder and communications management
• Prepare a project or program communications management plan
• Use the tools of stakeholder analysis
• Learn tools and develop strategies for managing and monitoring stakeholder engagement
• Learn tools and develop strategies for managing and project communications
• Articulate the benefits of a proactive approach to project communication and stakeholder management

Schedule

Contact Tim Gibson to register or learn more.

This course will review roles and responsibilities, estimating, how to be a good steward of project resources and how to adapt project scheduling and budgeting efforts to uncertainty with concepts such as rolling-wave planning and agile delivery.

This course is also sometimes known as “Tracking and Forecasting Progress: Budgets, Baselines and Timelines”, “Managing Variances: Cost and Schedule Management Best Practices” and “Project Schedule and Cost Control”.

Learning Objectives

• Participants will gain practical skills to:
• Understand the roles and responsibilities of the project manager and other subject matter experts such as schedulers, financial experts, and others
• Prepare a project budget and schedule
• Use fundamental scheduling techniques such as calculating critical path and float
• Use cost-benefit analysis, earned value and velocity for project decisions and to understand project health
• Appreciate the importance of a sophisticated and nuanced understanding of project objectives

Schedule

Contact Tim Gibson to register or learn more.

We live in a world of change and uncertainty. Now, more than ever, the success of a project is dependent on the ability to identify, qualify, quantify, and manage threats and opportunities. Sometimes, organizations view potential undesirable outcomes as something that should not be discussed to avoid negativity or because they do not appreciate the importance of risk management. Other organizations value risk management but they lack the skills and knowledge to be effective in this crucial area of competence.

This course looks at risk identification, qualitative and quantitative techniques to identify the likelihood of a risk occurring and the impact if it does. A variety of risk response strategies are discussed and practiced during workshop exercises. Upon course completion, participants will be more confident in their ability to manage uncertainty.

Learning Objectives

Participants will gain practical skills to:

• Apply a common framework of risk management
• Value the importance of including risk management in project planning and execution
• Facilitate team discussions to identify project risks and opportunities and formulate risk responses
• Analyze risks and select response strategies appropriate to priorities and an organization’s risk tolerances
• Use expected monetary value to assess the reasonableness of risk response strategies

Schedule

Contact Tim Gibson to register or learn more.

What distinguishes projects from business-as-usual operations is that projects introduce change; therefore, change is a fundamental goal of every project. Yet, many people resist change for various reasons. This resistance, if not accounted for in project delivery strategies, can lead to significant risks jeopardizing the attainment of project objectives.

Through a combination of lectures and individual and group activities based on real-world case studies, this course introduces project managers to the fundamentals of change management practice, helping them to understand the risks introduced by change resistance and how to reduce or eliminate those risks. By incorporating the techniques revealed in this course into their toolkits, project managers will be better able to deal with stakeholders, reduce project delays, increase efficiencies, and reduce the risk of not meeting a project’s business case objectives.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Identify barriers to change including stakeholder reactions
• Choose appropriate strategies to address specific change resistance points
• Prepare better stakeholder management plans
• Prepare better project communications plans to build commitment
• Prepare more comprehensive risk management plans
• Improve the chances of meeting project objectives

Schedule

Contact Tim Gibson to register or learn more.

Many organizations are now introducing agile delivery techniques into the workplace with the goal of delivering faster, with greater efficiency.  To achieve these benefits, agile methods encourage a closer collaboration between the project business stakeholders and the project delivery team, they encourage the lowering of barriers (functional silos) between roles, and they promote communications techniques that foster a culture of openness and transparency. This level of change may create resistance for some people who have difficulty adapting.  One of the best ways of overcoming such resistance is through education.

This workshop aims to introduce stakeholders and project team members to the agile way of working using the common Scrum framework. Unlike typical Scrum-based training, however, the course expands the framework to include an overview of agile requirements management techniques and agile estimating and planning techniques that are used to set reasonable stakeholder expectations at the start of an agile project.

Learning Objectives

To provide project stakeholders and project team members with a basic understanding of how agile projects are structured, including an introduction to the common Scrum framework, and how disciplined approaches to agile can be used to set (and manage) realistic stakeholder expectations.

Schedule

Contact Tim Gibson to register or learn more.

This one-day program focuses on the requirements management process. Using an exercise taken from a real-life project, participants will learn how to define the problem, assess its business impact, and identify and manage stakeholders’ expectations. Participants will use elicitation tools and techniques to discover the underlying requirements that contribute to solutions that produce desired outcomes. Through the use of techniques for clarifying expected deliverables and discovering overlooked requirements, participants will be better prepared to work on projects characterized by uncertainty and high levels of change. The course will cover requirements verification, traceability and change management techniques for both predictive and agile project environments. Participants will discover different ways to present requirements to stakeholders to maximize comprehension and encourage feedback.

Learning Objectives

By working on a prepared case study, participants will gain practical skills to:

• Utilize an enterprise requirements management framework and processes
• Identify impacted stakeholders and discover and define their real problems
• Realize and uncover real requirements using various methods and tools
• Create appropriate questions to ask in surveys, interviews, job shadowing, and JAD sessions
• Discover functional requirements that deliver business value
• Document requirements clearly using standard formats, including user stories and use cases
• Analyze, verify, and validate requirements
• Refine, manage, and control changes to requirements
• Use a hierarchical solution selection process to build a foundation for future requirements
• Conduct financial analysis of proposed solution(s) to maximize benefits realization
• Prioritize, select and present the best requirements solutions to problems/opportunities

Transfer a practical requirements management methodology back to the workplace

Schedule

Contact Tim Gibson to register or learn more.

• Offered in Thompson and The Pas
• Students can apply and enroll at any time.
• Students work through course materials independently but supported by an instructor.
• Traditional course schedule is not applicable.
• Referral to/enrolment in this stream: collaborative with academic advisors and enrolment services. This pathway is well-suited for individuals seeking an alternative route to their academic goals, offering a flexible approach to success.

Schedule

Contact Tim Gibson to register or learn more.

As project managers, we tend to keep our eyes focused on the finish line. For us, it is all about on-time completion. Once the deliverables have been handed over to our project sponsor or client, we relax — the project is over. But is it really?

Project closeout always presents challenges: from getting final approvals, to performing administrative and contract closure, to capturing lessons learned, and more. At the rapid pace of business today, efficient project closure is a must and may even give you a competitive edge. This 1-day workshop introduces project managers to the best practices for getting final signoffs and closing out projects. Project managers will come away with a structured closeout framework and some templates that can be used to complete an orderly project closeout.

Learning Objectives

Participants will gain practical skills to:

• Use a structured approach to get final sign-off and closing out a project
• Describe the barriers to project closeout including both scope and lifecycle barriers
• Describe how to overcome closeout activities including financial, administrative, and legal closure (and more!)
• Use lessons learned to drive continuous improvement

Schedule

Contact Tim Gibson to register or learn more.

Discover how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing project management practices by understanding practical strategies for integrating AI solutions into your projects.

In this hands-on workshop, attendees will explore real-world case studies, engage in interactive group exercises, and gain valuable insights. Whether you are new to technology or a seasoned professional, this workshop offers a unique opportunity to demystify AI concepts, discover cutting-edge tools and technologies, and unlock new possibilities for optimizing resource allocation, scheduling, risk management, and more.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Understand how fundamental aspects of project management are affected by AI
• Recognize the impact of AI on specific PM practices
• Describe real-world examples of AI tools being used today on projects
• Discuss ethical considerations and best practices of using AI

Schedule

Contact Tim Gibson to register or learn more.