Career Planning With Project Management Training Courses
Managing The Plan...
The benefits of Project Management can be seen everywhere. Should you consider training to get employment in this area, you'll find the work to be really thought-provoking and challenging. People who have good logic skills and a strong sense of order can do very well in this type of work. Additionally, people skills will stand a project manager in good stead as exacting projects need everyone's compliance.
...On Track, On Price!
Companies today want everything to come in on time, at the right quality and within the original budget. To over-simplify, a plan has a start and end date, a list of tasks and a list of the resources needed.
Then we need to add in all the real-life complexities that most projects have to deal with. Project management work today is very highly respected and can command an excellent salary. Why not learn the skills of effective project control and build a worthy career for yourself?
Project Management courses at various different levels can be studied through a number of training institutions. These range from the basic fundamentals of planning, goal-setting, budgeting and executing projects to advanced management techniques on the most complex of projects and programmes.
Common Terms
Project Management has a good deal of terminology that students need to comprehend. To gain an awareness of how projects differ from standard work activities, you'll need to recognise PM terms and techniques and their applications. There are many processes in project management, but as all projects seek to achieve the same goals you'll find a good deal of cross-over in the various training approaches.
A Long And Interesting History...
Project Management really isn't the young profession you might think it is - we can actually trace its roots back for millennia! Techniques such as brute force may have been common in early projects, but the discipline evolved over the centuries. Henry Gantt and Henri Fayol were born in the mid-nineteenth century and are considered to be two of the key forefathers of project management. Gantt was called the father of planning and control techniques. Fayol's five functions - namely planning, organising, commanding, co-ordinating and controlling have stood the test of time, though many have now replaced commanding and co-ordinating with leading.
A More Modern Approach
Prior to the nineteen fifties, projects in the United States were largely managed on an informal basis - probably with a Gantt Chart but generally with ad-hoc tools and techniques.
It was when the Polaris Missile System was being developed that engineers realised their production systems were inadequate. The solution came in the form of a new network chart known as PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique). Along with later developments this led to mathematical techniques being used to find the critical path through a project.
Pioneering work by Hans Lang and others led to technology for estimating and managing costs, along with engineering economics.
International Project Management Association (IPMA)
In 1967 the IPMA (International Project Management Association) was founded in Europe. Professionals from thirty different counties attended its first international congress in Vienna, and now fifty national PM associations are represented. Members come from a number of business sectors, and have a broad competence in the profession.
Project Management Institute (PMI)
America followed in '69 with their non-profit professional organisation, the Project Management Institute (PMI). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge has been published by the PMI. This covers project management procedures that are common to "most projects, most of the time." A thorough understanding of the fundamentals covered would make you a subject matter expert.
Courses are available which train students on the various facets of the PMBOK. They are available throughout the world, and prepare students for the PMI certifications, namely the PMI Project Management Professional (PMP) and the PMI Certified Associate of Project Management (CAPM).
PRINCE2
You will discover many training organisations offering various courses in PRINCE2 - a generic project management method that was released in 1996. Project management is a complex discipline, and PRINCE2 attempts to provide guidance on how much of the process to apply. It has recently been updated to the 2009 version, so students of PRINCE2 will learn the latest techniques of this framework model. Checks and balances are in place with the PRINCE2 method for co-ordinating all activities and participants. It's a checklist for success.
Other training options include degrees that incorporate project management modules, and also of course pure project management degrees. Look for training that handles both the leadership and personnel skills as well as the mathematical and logistical elements. Why not make finding the right course for you your first Project Management assignment?
