Project Management in the Real-World

Project Management in the Real-World

This course introduces the fundamentals of project management that everyone should know. Epee Education founder Alan Levy draws from his 20 years of diverse project management experience to demonstrate that these skills are valuable in a professional setting as well as everyday life. Alan makes these concepts accessible and relatable by sharing stories from his professional projects in industry and personal projects at home. This course is practical and engaging, even if you are not a practicing project manager.

Target Audience

This course is ideal for anyone looking to learn and improve their project management skills, including:

  • Professionals in various industries
  • Students and younger professionals
  • Homeowners and DIY enthusiasts
  • Anyone interested in learning about project management

Course Prerequisites

This course requires no prior knowledge or experience in project management. It is suitable for individuals eager to learn practical project management skills.

Objectives

This course will help you:

  • Understand the basic principles of project management.
  • Recognize the stages of the project lifecycle.
  • Develop and define project scope.
  • Break down complex tasks into manageable steps.
  • Create and manage project budgets and schedules.
  • Assess and mitigate project risks.
  • Identify and communicate effectively with stakeholders.
  • Handle project issues and change efficiently.

Topics Covered

The course thoroughly explains project management, covering essential concepts, practical strategies, and real-world examples.

  • Introduction to Project Management
  • Project Lifecycles
  • Project Inception
  • Scope Development
  • Task Breakdown: From Complex to Bite-Sized
  • Budgeting and Scheduling
  • Risk Assessment and Mitigation
  • Stakeholder Identification and Communication
  • Managing Issues and Changes

Course Modules

The course consists of ten modules designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to manage projects effectively in various contexts.

Module 1

Welcome & Agenda

Module 2

Introduction – Alan Levy

Module 3

Start from the Beginning – Why Should I Care?

Module 4

Project Basics – Scope

Module 5

Project Basics – Financials

Module 6

Project Basics – Schedule

Module 7

Project Basics – Risk Management

Module 8

Project Basics – Communications

Module 9

Project Basics – Change Control and Change Management

Module 10

Recap and Closing

By the End of This Course

You will have a comprehensive understanding of project management principles and the context needed to apply them professionally and personally. You will be equipped with practical skills to plan, execute, and manage projects effectively, ensuring successful outcomes.

Enroll Now

Learn practical project management skills from an experienced professional by enrolling in “Project Management in the Real World.” Gain valuable insights and strategies to manage projects.

Section 1 : Welcome & Agenda

1
Welcome and Agenda
  • Understand why Project Management is important, and why nearly everything in the real-world is a project.
  • Define a project, program, and portfolio.
  • Gain some professional context into the different types of projects.
  • Define project phases and discuss how they apply and why they are important.
  • Discuss the basics of scope development
  • Apply scope development to complex, multi-discipline, real-world projects.
  • Learn the basics of cost and schedule development.
  • Learn about risk and change management.
  • Understand what a stakeholder is and is not.
  • Learn about stakeholder management and why it's critically important.

Section 2: Introduction - Alan Levy

1
Introducing Alan Levy

Alan Levy, the President of Epee Education, was a long-time project and program manager in the Pharmaceutical industry before launching Epee.  Starting with a degree in Chemical Engineering, he has worked as both an engineer and a PM with most of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world (e.g. Merck, GSK, BMS, J&J, Novartis).  His diverse background has ranged from maintenance and reliability engineering to managing the construction of research labs to establishing and running a global sustainability program.

Through many years with his professional society, ISPE, Alan found that he loved mentoring students and young professionals, particularly in the topics that schools were not teaching them.  A passion that ultimately led to the creation of Epee in order to reach more people with more content than he could do locally by himself.

Section 3: Start from the Beginning - Why Should I Care?

1
Start From the Beginning - Why Should I Care?
3:07

In business and in life, you'll find that most of the things we do are effectively projects.  They have a finite start and end, they have a budget and schedule, they require decisions driven around risk, and they require communicating with everybody involved and impacted by them.  Because of this, there is tremendous value for everybody to have a basic understanding a project management.

2
Lesson 1: Definitions - What is a Project?
1:26

This lesson explains what is and what is not a project.  Professionally, you'll find that basically everything is some manner of project.

3
Lesson 2: Project vs Program vs Portfolio
2:27

This lesson discusses the differences between projects, programs, and portfolios.

4
Lesson 3: Project Phases
5:01

This lesson will discuss the distinct phases of a project and how they relate to one another.  Alan uses a unique approach to demonstrate the phases by looking at his DYI project to build a brick smoker in his back yard.

Section 4: Project Basics - Scope

1
Project Basics - Understanding Project Scope
9:08

This lesson includes discussion around Project Scope.

2
Lesson 1: Personal Story - Surveying
2:21

This lesson is a personal story discussing an actual project that illustrates Building Influence and Credibility through your actions.  In this instance, Field Survey.

3
Lesson 2: Personal Story – Scope Development without Support
4:14

This lesson is a personal story about scope development around a difficult request from an actual client.  It demonstrates the value of resoursefulness for a PM and how it helps build strong Client Relationships.  This is a great example of real-world problem solving that they never in school!

4
Lesson 3: Personal Story – Scope Development to Win an Actual Project
8:01

This lesson is a personal story about the need for creative scope development to win a New Project.  It demonstrates Real-World Problems, Appreciating Urgency, Challenging Project Constraints, Creativity, and Responding to Bids.

5
Lesson 4: Everything is a Project, Applying What We Learned to a Home Project
3:20

This lesson is a personal story demonstrating how "Everything is a Project".

It applies what we learned in Section 4 to a Home Project that everybody is likely to deal with at some point.

Section 5: Project Basics - Financials

1
Project Basics - Understanding Project Financials
11:13

This lesson includes discussion around the basics of project finances.

2
Lesson 1: Personal Story - The Reality of the S-Curve
3:14

Personal Story – Understanding the Reality of the S-Curve when the Owner’s Cashflow conflicts with Project Spend

Clients Rarely Appreciate This!!

Section 6: Project Basics - Schedule

1
Project Basics - Understanding Project Schedules
4:54

This lesson includes discussion around project scheduling.

2
Lesson 1: Personal Story – Scheduling Concepts Outside Work
3:32

Using scheduling concepts outside of work

3
Lesson 2: Applying Scheduling Concepts as a Student
1:43

For student reference, work schedule for classes in a semester with individual classes as projects and all your classes as a program.

Section 7: Project Basics - Risk Management

1
Project Basics - Understanding Project Risk Management
5:20

This lesson includes discussion around Project Risk and Risk Management.

2
Lesson 1: Personal Story - Project vs Program Risk
1:52

Personal Story – Project vs Program Risk, Risk Management of finding asbestos

Section 8: Project Basics - Communications

1
Project Basics - Understanding Project Communications
10:34

This lesson includes discussion around Project Communication and Stakeholder/Change Management

2
Lesson 1: Stakeholders
3:39

Definitions, Not every stakeholder is equal, stakeholder management, positive and negative stakeholders, leading by influence rather than authority

3
Lesson 2: The Reality of Communications for PMs
2:49

When Communications Fail – Over communicating > Under communicating, Avoid assumptions about people’s motivations, Stakeholders are often under pressure, Stakeholders have their own agendas that can help or hinder the project, Something ALWAYS goes wrong on projects, Build a thick skin and learn not to take things personally, PMs need to provide a calming influence (lighthouse in a storm), Your stress will influence your team’s performance and stakeholder responses.

Section 9: Project Basics - Change Control and Change Management

1
Project Basics - Understanding Change Control and Change Management
12:21

This lesson includes discussion around Change Control and Change Management.

2
Lesson 1 Part 1: Personal Story - Change Control on a Large Project (Part 1)
9:06

Personal Story (Parts 1&2):  Change Control on a large utility project.  The good, the bad, and the ugly for a technically challenging project with an enormous amount of client driven change.  Delving into the sources of change, known and unknown change, client approving a scope you didn’t want, working the changes into a project with a hard, physically-constrained deadline, conflict management, project communication lessons learned, and ramifications of angry stakeholders on an otherwise successful project.

3
Lesson 1 Part 2: Personal Story - Change Control on a Large Project
8:09

Personal Story – Change Control on a large utility project – The good, the bad, and the ugly for a technically challenging project with an enormous amount of client driven change.  Delving into the sources of change, Known and unknown change, Client approving a scope you didn’t want, Working the changes into a project with a hard, physically-constrained deadline, Conflict management, project communication lessons learned, and ramifications of angry stakeholders on an otherwise successful project.

Section 10: Recap and Closing

1
Recap - Does this make more sense now?
0:45

Recap of Project Management Basics

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