What is this course about?

Every organization has projects that are behind schedule, over budget or fail to meet stakeholder expectations. Project managers who have the critical skills to effectively analyze and determine appropriate solutions to address troubled projects are more equipped to lead these projects to successful completion. Through an extensive case study you learn how to diagnose troubled projects, structure and perform an assessment plan, and implement a recovery strategy.

Who will benefit from this course?

Those involved in projects as leaders and team members benefit from this course. Also, your organization profits by the knowledge and skills you acquire and apply to your work.

What background do I need?

This course is not an introductory level course on project management concepts and practices. You need basic project management knowledge at the level of Course 296, Project Management: Skills for Success, or Course 340, Project Management for Software Development as a prerequisite. In addition, participants should have at least three years experience working on projects.

The combination of practical project experience and project management discipline allows you to effectively leverage your skills to develop a strategy for recovering troubled projects.

What type of project management tools are covered in this course?

This course aligns project management concepts and tools as well as real world experiences with the case study. You apply metrics including SWOT, SMART, Five Ws and project management tools including tracking and change controls, issues and action register, risk and schedule management processes to analyze the case study.

Is this a course on Microsoft^® Project?

This course focuses on improving project success rate with preventative measures, analytics, continual communication and monitoring of project status. If you are looking for a course on applying tools for project planning, consider Course 299, Microsoft^® Project: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction, in which you learn how to plan, budget and schedule projects taking full advantage of the features of Microsoft^® Project Professional. If you are looking for a course on managing projects in a multi project environment consider Course 249, Hands-On Microsoft^® Project: Managing Multiple and Complex Projects.

How is this course structured?

From the onset of this course, you play the role of project manager assigned to a troubled project. Class discussion and subsequent activities provide you with the tools and techniques to extract the right data to develop an assessment plan. The capstone of this course is to implement a recovery strategy.

What additional benefits do participants gain from this course?

Working in small groups fosters synergy and a robust exchange of ideas and best practices across diverse industry sectors. You gain confidence in presenting project management issues and reports to a critical audience. The activities are designed to promote productive teamwork to yield the desired results.

Is this course applicable toward a Project Management Institute (PMI) certification?

Yes. Though this course is not designed as preparation for an exam, it is beneficial to anyone working toward, or maintaining, a PMI certification. Most PMI certifications require a specific number of PDUs in order to obtain and maintain the credential. Completion of this course provides 17 professional development units (PDUs).

Learning Tree offers several courses that help you prepare for PMI certifications, including Course 276, Preparing for the Project Management Professional (PMP)^® Exam, which prepares you for PMI's most popular certification. For more details on these courses and PMI certifications, please see the Learning Tree PMI Registered Education Provider Q&A.

How much time is spent on each topic?

What kinds of activities are included in this course?

Approximately 60 percent of this course is spent in activities. Throughout this course, you are immersed in a comprehensive case study. Simulations provide you with actual project experience that form a foundation for your next project back at your organization. Activities include:

• Determining the root causes of project failure
• Creating an assessment plan
• Extracting key information from project documentation
• Applying recovery techniques
• Writing an assessment report
• Building a recovery plan
• Monitoring the recovery plan with checklists, templates and job aids
• Capturing and integrating lessons learned

My organization does not have a formal project management methodology. How will this course apply to us?

While this course does not focus on a specific methodology, project management concepts and business controls are applied throughout the curriculum. The concepts presented and discussed relate universally to projects in any environment, commercial or non-commercial application, and irrespective of whether your organization follows formal project management methodology.

Does this course address any particular type of failure?

This course focuses on the major reasons why projects run into trouble, such as, lack of agreed upon objectives and user involvement. While a project can fail for many reasons, e.g, over-budget, delayed, or incorrect allocation of resources, common threads exist across unsuccessful projects. This course gives you a framework to address many types of project failures. Learning Tree also offers specific courses on time management, scheduling, budgeting, risk and developing user requirements that help you in planning your projects for successful outcomes.

How does this course differ from other management courses offered by other vendors?

Learning Tree has a wealth of experience and expertise in the management education business. While this course is not a course on project management, risk management or communication, per se, this course includes these disciplines as they relate to creating effective assessment and recovery plans. Key components for successful projects, such as obtaining consensus for user requirements, continual communication and productive team dynamics are emphasized in this course.

How does this course relate to other Learning Tree courses?

Learning Tree offers a number of courses in project management, planning and communication that will help you expand upon the knowledge gained in this course and further your skills in several key areas. Those courses include:

• 286, Project Risk Management 

• 284, Critical Thinking and Creative Problem Solving 

• 248, Project Scheduling: Controlling the Project Timeline 

• 315, Developing User Requirements: The Key to Project Success 

• 299, Microsoft® Project: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction 

• 177, PRINCE2®: Achieving Practitioner Certification 

• 312, Software Quality Assurance: Delivering Consistent Quality 

• 316, Software Testing Foundation: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction 
• 3620, Managing Global Projects