Course Overview

Today’s companies recognise that successful project management is necessary for business growth and organisational change. And while many are actively considering ways to expand their project management capabilities in order to take on more complex and novel projects, few have been able to effectively connect and join the dots between their strategic goals and their project goals.

This programme presents concepts vital for developing these broader project capabilities, empowering leaders to ­fill in the context gaps within their projects and to envisage what shape the implementation might take within their organisations. The programme’s modules are applicable and relevant across most major industries, including banking and finance­, consulting, government, infrastructure, professional services, real estate, technology, and telecom.

This Zoe course on Mini MBA in Project Management explores three different project types: execution, novel, and change. Each type of project should be managed differently, taking into account the politics and negotiation of strategy within projects. As a participant, you will also discover how to build the personnel and incentive structure essential to identify the right project for your strategy and implement it.

Course Objectives

The course objectives of this Mini MBA in Project Management training course are to empower professionals to—

• Interpret high level strategic goals into project goals
• Ascertain the key characteristics of different types of projects and articulate the suitable management and personnel systems for each
• Predict project uncertainties and take mitigating or responsive actions
• Build a framework for working governance structures with accountability measures
• Develop successful practices in relationship management and exercising influence
• Implement established methods of knowledge exchange and learning tools in a way that is fitting to the challenges of a project

Training Methodology

This collaborative Mini MBA in Project Management course will comprise the following training methods:

• Lectures
• Seminars & Presentations
• Group Discussions
• Assignments
• Case Studies & Functional Exercises

Zoe Talent Solutions follows the ‘Do-Review-Learn-Apply’ model.

Organisational Benefits

Through this Mini MBA in Project Management, participants shall be able to benefit their organization in the following ways:

• Having better skilled project personnel leading and guiding the project process
• Continuous improvement and progress in the alignment of project results and the organization’s goals
• Higher productivity of personnel working on project activities
• Creating projects a high value added process
• Improvements and developments in the performance of projects
• Turn high-level strategic goals into project goals
• Having the desired results in commercial transactions

Personal Benefits

Successful completion of Mini MBA in Project Management, shall benefit participants in the following ways:

• Foresee project uncertainties and take mitigating or responsive actions
• Construct a framework for managing governance structures with accountability processes
• Gain mastery in managing projects and ability to develop professionally
• Improved negotiation skills
• Better job satisfaction by becoming more expert
• Receiving increased recognition by their organization leading toward advancement and progression
• Increased confidence in leading, planning, and managing the complete project and contract process

Who Should Attend?

• Senior-level executives looking for an overview of project management, as well as insights on selecting the most suitable project approach based on their strategic objective
• Very experienced PMP-certified project managers looking to go deeper than traditional PMP courses and advance their leadership skills in project management
• Consultants who want the skill to articulate the case for projects and influence multiple stakeholders
• Project Management Professionals
• Tendering, Purchasing, Contract Administration Professionals and Contract Management Personnels
• Engineering, Operational, Finance, and Maintenance Professionals
• And all others who are working in project work from simple to complex that cover the acquisition of materials, equipment, construction, and services and who are in organizations whose leadership need high levels of competency from those involved in these activities

Course Outline

This course includes the following topics important to steer complex projects:

Module 1: Projects as Strategic Change

• Know the strategic goals of the organisation and clearly communicate how the project outcomes will contribute to the strategy
• Recognise the political process of forming project goals, including negotiating and seeking win-win coalitions
• Turn high level strategic goals into project goals
• Identify the key characteristics of di­fferent types of projects and articulate appropriate management and personnel systems for each

Module 2: Execution Projects

• Identify the main characteristics of execution projects
• Comprehend the logic and assumptions behind Gantt charts to ascertain their limitations
• Know the managerial relevance and significance of the critical path and limitations
• Know the uncertainties and take mitigating or responsive actions

Module 3: Novel Projects

• Identify the main characteristics of novel projects and the technical steps of managing them
• Clearly communicate the steps to follow when encountering unforeseeable uncertainty
• Appreciate pivoting/iterating and parallelism, and how to include them into project planning and monitoring market positioning

Module 4: Change Projects

• Identify and understand the four methods for managing a change project
• Make guidelines for managing the social dimensions of change
• Author a template for stakeholder management
• Reflect upon and apply the principles of change project management to a project in your professional work attracting and retaining talent

Module 5: Managing People and Teams

• Classify and use ingredients of goal clarity and three criteria for them
• Articulate competency-driven values for a project
• Explore how to deal with rule-breakers and high-performers and establish associated guidelines
• Answer the key questions for fostering eff­ective interpersonal dynamics appraisal

Module 6: Governance

• Understand the significance of the role that governance plays in maintaining strategic alignment in projects
• Know the five elements of well-designed governance structures
• Construct a framework for managing the governance structure with accountability measures
• Learn how supervision and goals reveal the political nature of the role of the project within the organisation

Module 7: Partners

• Discover what contracts can and cannot do, and ascertain the four di­fferent types of contracts for an appropriate fit
• Appreciate the role that co-location can play in project management
• Realise how renegotiation must be built into the contract from the beginning
• Develop successful practices in relationship management and exercising influence

Module 8: Learning and Integration

• Find the tools for each project type, and how to deploy them
• Define how organisational learning is unlike individual learning
• Make informed choices from the portfolio of tools to make sure projects boost learning within the organisation
• Implement established methods of knowledge exchange and learning tools in a way that is fitting to the challenges of a project