PROGRAM DETAILS

Introduction

Project professionals continue to face mounting challenges in the successful delivery of projects. Limited resources and budgets place even stricter demands on project delivery time, cost and quality. Knowledgeable project professionals recognise that a major ingredient of project success is the development of a well-designed and dynamic project plan to accurately reflect project resource requirements and costs based on a well-defined scope description.

Developing a realistic and executable project plan goes hand in hand with a project schedule that is based on solid estimates of resources and work durations, including the ability to monitoring and control progress and expenditure efficiently. It is important to treat estimating, scheduling and cost control as an integrated process rather than a disjointed set of activities as is unfortunately practiced too often in some major corporations..

The programme discusses advanced techniques such as:

• Mastering important project planning and control techniques
• Develop effective performance monitoring and control systems
• Measure, forecast and control project performance
• Produce clear and concise project progress reports and administer project documentation and reporting
• Effectively manage schedule & technical risks and contingency planning

 Learning Objectives

This 5-day programme will provide participants with a proven set of critical methods, processes, tools and techniques to enable the team to:

• Integrate scope, time, resources and cost management
• Develop project network diagrams (CPM) and advanced PERT calculations
• Maintain continuous project performance and delivery control
• Compress the schedule when required by adverse circumstances
• Apply a dynamic risk mitigation process to reduce risk
• Apply the process of linear scheduling to repetitive project activities
• Develop a project recovery plan for budget and schedule overruns

 Target Audience

This programme is designed for project professionals, project planning engineers and managers, and senior project control and business services professionals who have the responsibility for planning and controlling project schedules and costs in client and contracting companies.

 Training Methodology

Delegates will develop advanced project management performance and control skills and knowledge through formal and interactive learning methods. The program includes team projects, applicable case studies, group discussions and critical analysis of video material based on actual large construction projects.

This brand new advanced course will significantly enhance the skills and knowledge of delegates and improve their ability to plan, schedule, estimate, and control projects.  The material has been designed to enable delegates to apply all of the material with immediate effect at the office.

 Program Content

Day 1 – Work Breakdown Structures and Critical Path Analysis

• Work Breakdown Structures (WBS)
• Triple Constraint – Time, Cost, Scope
• Precedence Network Diagramming
• Logic Relationship Chart
• Defining the Critical Path
  • Early & Late Start & Finish
• Monitoring the Critical Path
• Schedule Control & Tracking Progress

Day 2 – Contingency Planning and Schedule Compression

• Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
• Path Convergence Analysis
  • PERT, Probability and Standard Deviation Formulae
  • Z-Values: The Probability of Project Completion at a Required Date
• Time-Cost-Scope Trade-off
• Project Time Reduction
• Options for Accelerating the Schedule
• Crashing the Schedule – How?
• The Optimal Acceleration Point

Day 3 – Project Progress Monitoring, Control and Reporting

• Project Cost Reduction
• Project Cost Management
• Earned Value Control Process
• Progress Control Charts – Trend Analysis
• Schedule and Cost Variance Forecasting
• Earned Value Reporting
• Project Disaster Recovery Plan Development
• Project Variance Analysis and Quantification
• Project Recovery Data Assessment
• Schedule and Cost Recovery Analysis

Day 4 – Project Disaster Recovery Plan Development

• Project Variance Analysis and Quantification
  • Schedule Performance Index (SPI)
  • Cost Performance Index (CPI)

• Setting Schedule and Cost Control Limits
• Project Recovery Data Assessment
• Schedule and Cost Recovery Analysis
• Schedule and Cost Recovery Plan
• Project Recovery Baselines and Controls

Day 5 – Line of Balance Scheduling – Recurring Activities

• Velocity Diagrams and Linear Scheduling
• Balancing the Schedule
• Calculations for a Line of Balance Schedule
• Resource Estimating
• Balanced Project Schedule without Buffers (Finish-Start)
• Comparison of Unbalanced with Balanced Schedules
• Measuring Planned Progress on Schedule