1st Edition

Training for Project Management Volume 3: Innovation, Value and Performance

By Ian Stokes Copyright 2009

    Most people accept the importance of project management as a means of realizing value, enabling change and distinguishing your organization from its competitors. But recognizing and doing are two entirely different things and project management remains something that is difficult to do right; every project brings something new and, whilst learning is about improving things we have done before, becoming good at project management is about getting better and better at doing the things that we are doing for the first time. This brand new collection of activities enables your project managers and team members to improve the performance of their projects by exploring topics such as benefit and value management, stakeholder relations, critical and innovative thinking and much more. The collection is a natural companion volume to Training for Project Management Volumes 1 and 2, by the same author, which seek to develop the basic human and technical skills associated with working in projects.

    Contents: Introduction; Benefits of project management; Business modelling; Creative concepts; Critical thinking; Customer understanding; Dynamic versus static: Energizers: Estimating and costing: Estimating quiz: Four types of innovation: Functional design: Health check: Life profiles: One page project: Planning by deliverables: Process maturity: Product improvements: Project breakdowns: Quality controversies: Risk diligence: Roles matrix: Self-learning: Situation analysis: Stakeholder analysis; Team brainteasers; Technology roadmap; Testing and prototyping; Time lords; Transversality index; Usability; Use case; Value analysis metrics.

    Biography

    Ian Stokes has many years experience of training in project management techniques across continental Europe. He has worked with the most successful suppliers of project management software and in the mid 1980s moved to France to develop methodology and training courses for a contracting and consulting company in the European space sector. He is the Chairman of two small consulting/training companies and more recently has developed and facilitated a number of different training courses based on active learning, including several three-day project management simulations, one- and two-day 'micro-projects' and teambuilding activities.