The capability to effectively estimate, manage, and control IT costs and schedules can mean making a profit, having a satisfied customer, or gaining a competitive advantage.

This course provides participants with a comprehensive exposure to industry-proven principles and techniques for preparing meaningful project estimates and schedules, and implementing effective project controls. Participants will learn the essential elements involved in repeatable estimating, scheduling and control processes, and will receive guidelines for implementing these processes in their own organizations. Special emphasis is placed on understanding the interrelationships between effort, schedule and cost.

This course incorporates all the key estimating, scheduling and project control principles and techniques recommending the the Project Management Institute's Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), as well as the essential core elements specified in the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) Project Planning and Project Tracking & Control key process areas.

What You Will Learn

• How develop realistic estimates & schedules
• How to develop effective work breakdown structures
• How to incorporate risk & uncertainty into estimates
• How monitor & adjust project components to measure progress & keep on track
• How to evaluate the impact of project changes on cost & schedule

Who Should Attend

This course is intended for IT project managers project leaders who are responsible for planning, estimating, scheduling and controlling IT projects.

Course Outline

Prerequisites for Successful Projects

• Defining the project life cycle
• Defining project deliverables
• Defining completion criteria
• Defining meaningful milestones & checkpoints

Getting a Handle on the Project

• Identifying project activities
• Developing a work breakdown structure (WBS)
• Decomposing the WBS

Developing Realistic Estimates

• Why estimating is so difficult
• Factors that influence project estimates
• Estimating techniques
• Incorporating risk & uncertainty into estimates
• Packaging & presenting estimates
• Improving estimating accuracy

Developing a Project Schedule

• Critical project scheduling parameters
• Scheduling Do's and Don'ts
• Scheduling tools & techniques
• Finding the critical path activities
• Determining if the schedule can be compressed
• Calculating the probability of meeting project deadlines

Project Tracking & Control

• Basic steps in project tracking & control
• Establishing an adaptive control model
• How to track "real" project progress
• Project control metrics
• When & how to revise estimates & schedules
• Closing out the project
• Conducting a project post mortem

Seminar Length: 2 Days