Learning Spotlight: Project Management
WHY LEARN ABOUT PROJECT MANAGEMENT?
Project management (PM) skills help you provide leadership, balance priorities, oversee resources, and track progress toward goals. This Spotlight will give you an overview of project management, the different approaches and processes behind it and useful tools to support you.
KEY TERMS
Waterfall Method: A traditional PM approach employing sequential phases that are completed before the team moves to the next phase.
Agile: An iterative and incremental development methodology. Scrum is an example of its implementation.
Scrum: A framework that emphasises teamwork and an iterative approach towards a specific goal.
PRINCE2: A structured PM method and practitioner certification programme, PRINCE2 emphasises dividing projects into manageable and controllable stages.
GET STARTED
Video: To start, get an overview of the subject in What is a Project and Project Management? (4.5 mins)
Video: Project management can be summed up by asking a few crucial questions. (3 mins).
Video: This straightforward ‘12 step process’ will help get you up and running (4 mins).
Video: Which PM approach is right for your project? Find out in Traditional versus Agile project management (3 mins).
Article: further your understanding of the different PM approaches and options ‘Agile vs Waterfall vs Prince2’ (10 mins).
DIG DEEPER
Course: Project Management Simplified (1 hour 44 min): Perfect for those looking to quickly learn how to use the Waterfall - or traditional – PM approach.
Course: Project Management Foundations (3 hours 20 min): This course explores the fundamentals of PM, from establishing project goals, objectives and building a project plan to managing resources, meeting deadlines, and closing (covers Waterfall and Agile approaches throughout).
Course: Transitioning from Waterfall to Agile Project Management (40 min): For those seeking moving from traditional methods to a more Agile approach.
Course: Project Management Tips (46 min): This short course will help you quickly improve your skills, learn useful tips, and get answers to common project management questions.
FOLLOW-ON ACTIVITY
Project tracking is essential to keeping projects on schedule and within budget. Make your own project tracker with an Excel template, which automates a lot of the work:
Open Excel.
- In the Search for Online templates box at the top, type Project Tracker.
- Select the Project Tracker template.
- Click Create.
- Choose a project you’re working on and enter estimated dates, actual start dates etc, and monitor the project to see how much time each task is actually taking.
LIVE WORKSHOP!
PRINCE2 is a proven best practice model that helps ensure project delivery is on time, on budget, and meets customer requirements. DCU Learning & Organisational Development offers ‘Prince2 2017® Foundation Course and Certification’ training to DCU staff annually.