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Portland State University: Project Execution and Management, May 2021

Title: Project Execution and Management

Event: Portland State University, Professional Development Training

Date: May 5th & 12th, 2021, 8:00 P.M. - 4:30 P.M.

Virtual Presenter: Christopher Dennis

Summary

Building on PSU's Project Planning and Organization course, we delve into the practical aspects of the last three process groups as defined by the Project Management Institute in their Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®):

  • Project execution
  • Monitoring and control
  • Project or phase closure

Practically speaking, project planning is over and it is time to implement. Where do we start?  Where do we focus our attention?   

In this blended course will start by focusing on project trouble and the proactive methods of avoiding it. Then we'll shift to reactive modes of addressing project trouble. The first live session ends with an introduction to earned value management.

During the self-study segment, we focus on the project team, then expand our focus on stakeholder engagement and communications. We review right-sized project leadership and share project tools that have proven useful in day-to-day management. We’ll dive deeply into how to direct and manage the project work. Along the way, we cover how to monitor the work, with special attention to how to handle issues and change gracefully, when stakeholders agree to change.  

In the second live section of the course, we begin with a focus on managing project change, which leads us to adaptive project management, with emphasis on Agile / Scrum. We will discuss its similarities and differences from the predictive, plan driven approach.  We will cover the basic elements of this approach and how the project team operates.

We will finish our time together by focusing on practical delegation of work.