Course Overview

Click Here for the full agenda

Course Timings
Registration will be at 08.00 on the first day of each course. All courses will begin at 08.30 and conclude at 14.30 with lunch. There will be breaks for refreshments at approximately 10.30 and 12.30 each day.

Course Synopsis
From the opening morning, you will get hands-on experience, practicing your skills in building project requirements and the work breakdown structure. You will learn a sound, logical framework for scheduling and controlling project activities. You will also master techniques for estimating, forecasting, budgeting, monitoring, controlling, analyzing and reporting costs and interpreting the meaning of earned-value data.

Individual and small-group exercises feature scenarios that help hone these skills while a comprehensive toolkit provides practical field guidance. Discover a number of sophisticated tools and techniques that you can use to manage time and costs effectively on every type of project. This is one of the program’s most popular courses, classes fill up quickly, so
register early.

Participants in this course will receive ESI’s Earned Valued Formula Finder, which puts the information you need to determine cost, schedule, estimate at completion and estimate to complete values for your projects right at your fingertips.

Recommendation: Please bring a calculator to class.

Course Topics

1. Essential Background
a. Overview of the project management life cycle
b. The triple constraints
c. Planning tools
d. Project requirements—a review
e. The work breakdown structure—a review

2. Resource Allocation And Estimating
a. Using estimates for scheduling and cost control
b. The basic rules of estimating
c. Levels of estimating and estimate types
   • Top-down vs. bottom-up
   • Order of magnitude
   • Budget
   • Definitive
d. Four estimating methodologies
e. Identifying controllable costs
   • Resource
   • Material
   • Direct
   • Indirect
f. Planning for risk with contingency
g. Building the project resource pool
   • Using resources to build estimates
   • The responsibility matrix
h. Time-controlled estimates
i. Resource-limited estimates

3. Scheduling
a. Network scheduling
b. Validating schedules
c. Arrow diagrams and precedence diagrams
d. Basic scheduling and network calculations
e. Advanced precedence relationships and the critical path
f. Alternative constraints
g. Gantt and milestone charts

4. The Baseline
a. Establishing baselines
b. Understanding types of baselines
c. Time-phased distribution of costs
d. Cumulative cost curves

5. Managing Change Within The Project
a. The process of control
b. Identifying sources of change
c. Screening change
d. Updating the project plan
e. Communicating change

6. Evaluation And Forecasting
a. Causes of variances
b. Establishing the “data date” for evaluation
c. Controlling costs and schedule late in the project
d. Components of the project audit
e. Considerations in establishing a monitoring system
f. Earned value
g. Advanced earned-value forecasting tools

7. The Exit Strategy
a. Steps in completing the project
b. Scope verification
c. Contract closeout
d. Administrative closure