Project Management Principles for Business Analysts

 

Target Audience

This course is designed for Business Analysts who require an understanding of the key principles of project management.

Approach

This is a highly interactive course where participants are encouraged to learn though a mixture of lectures, exercises and group discussion. There is an emphasis on practical application through the use of a case study which will help participants increase their confidence in applying their learning in the real world. 

Instructors

All of our instructors have real world experience of working as project managers and are not just ‘training specialists’. Whilst our emphasis is on practical knowledge and skills, all of our instructors are also accredited to teach qualification based courses in project management.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course the Business Analyst will be able to understand the principles of project management such as:

  • Defining projects and project work
  • Establishing and maintaining business justification for the project
  • Having defined roles and responsibilities
  • Monitoring and controlling project progress
  • Approaching the planning process with a focus on products
  • Dealing with Change Control and Configuration Management
  • Managing uncertainty within the project

Course Information

Pre-requisites:

  • None other than a general understanding of the business or project environment

On-Going Support:

  • 90 days post-course support via email or telephone
  • Sample templates of common project documents provided as part of the course

Duration

  • 2 or 3 days

Participants

  • Maximum 10 delegates per course

Delivery Method

  • On-site

Venues

  • London or your own

Course Content

1. Projects and Project Work

1.1 Defining a Project, and the differences between projects and ‘Business As Usual’

1.2 Common reasons for project failure

1.3 The different phases of a project

1.4 Key terminology used in a project environment

2. Establishing business justification

2.1 The purpose of a Business Case

2.2 Typical contents of a Business Case and the key responsibilities for it

2.3 How and where the Business Case is developed, maintained and verified throughout the project lifecycle

2.4 Identifying benefits and planning benefits measurement

2.5 Cost / benefit analysis

3. Defined roles and responsibilities

3.1 Creating the Project Management Team ensuring the primary stakeholders are represented

3.2 The specific roles and responsibilities within a project organisation

3.3 The reporting lines within the project’s hierarchical structure

3.4 Specific responsibilities and competencies of a Project Manager

3.5 The Business Analyst role within a project environment

4. Monitoring and controlling project progress

4.1 Systems for progress information collection and the reporting cycle

4.2 Setting and monitoring Tolerance

4.3 Exception reporting and Exception planning

4.4 Managing the project through the use of stages.

4.5 Determining the length of stages within a project

5. Product focused approach to planning

5.1 The different levels of plan in a project

5.2 The key elements that a plan should contain

5.3 The steps to creating a comprehensive plan

5.4 Product Based Planning

5.5 Product Breakdown Structures and Product Flow Diagrams

5.6 Using Product Based Planning to comprehensively understand activities

5.7 Estimating and calculating costs

6. Change control and configuration management

6.1 Defining Configuration Management including its purpose and procedures

6.2 Identification of Configuration Items and Configuration Management Databases

6.3 The different types of project issues

6.4 Change Control procedures including roles and responsibilities

6.5 Role of Change Control Boards

7. Managing risks

7.1 Definition of risk and risk management

7.2 Describing risks using cause, event and effect

7.3 The risk management procedure to identify, assess and control risks

7.4 The techniques that help support each step of the risk management procedure

7.5 The different risk responses

7.6 Roles and responsibilities within the project for managing risks

Available Courses

This is available as an on-site course only, no public courses are scheduled.



If you would like further information on our courses, or would like to discuss how we can build a course for your organisation using our training modules, please contact us.