Summary
Tess reflects on the "Practical Project Management for Staff" course delivered internally at the University of Edinburgh.
I had the privilege to attend “Practical Project Management for Staff”, a one-day course run by the University’s Project Management Office.
Project Management Office | Project Management
My line manager suggested the course as something of interest, as I have worked on large and small-scale projects at the university, and I now find myself project managing small projects within my team, and wider section.
The “Practical Project Management for Staff” course provided an overview of the key responsibilities involved with project management. The course content covered:
- The project lifecycle and the key factors which influence project success
- The Project Brief: defining the why, what and how
- Constructing project plans
- Stakeholder mapping and engagement
- Assigning team responsibilities using a RACI matrix
- Risk, issue, and change management
- Closing projects, and documenting lessons learned
Key Take Aways
The training session not only provided an overview of the requirements of a project manager, it provided a common language to discuss projects. I find working in a large organisation, such as the university (but industry as well), there is a phenomenally large vocabulary that I have had to develop. Every day words such as “project” actually refers to very specific activities taking place, and not just every-day, business-as-usual work. A project is a tangible piece of work that exists. Not all work is a project. The Association for Project Manage defines a project as “A unique, transient endeavour, undertaken to achieve planned objectives, which could be defined in terms of outputs, outcomes or benefits”.
“A unique, transient endeavour, undertaken to achieve planned objectives, which could be defined in terms of outputs, outcomes or benefits” – Association for Project Management
For anyone new to working on projects, new to an organisation, or just plain confused in meetings, understanding a shared language is so important. As a relatively new member of the UoE staff, I find the number of acronyms and initialisms just plain frustrating. Language clarity is such an important part of communication, and too often is it overlooked. The session facilitator started each segment of the day defining key terminology, and that went a long way to making the day a success.
I also appreciated that the 6.5 hour session was broken into four main segments, each with a group activity which allowed us to practice the project management element being described. The best part about this course is that after the session, the facilitator provided us with digital versions of all of the project management templates she demonstrated, which will save me work next time I plan and manage a project.
Enhancing my understanding
Last year I completed a course on LinkedIn Learning called “Project Management Foundations” delivered by Bonnie Biafore.
Project Management Foundations | LinkedIn Learning
This course went into more detail about project management methodologies (e.g. waterfall vs agile), and so ultimately the “Practical Project Management for Staff” did not introduce any new concepts for me. What I found very useful however, was having my existing knowlege placed into the university’s context. Understanding stakeholder management in a devolved university, is completely different to understanding stakeholder management within a standard pyramid-style hierarchical organisation.
Running a SUCCESSFUL project
The “Practical Project Management for Staff” identified 8 “success factors” which influence a project:
- Sufficient Planning
- Good Communication
- Realistic Budget and Timeline
- Sufficient Resources
- Good Stakeholder Engagement
- Clearly Defined Requirements
- Clearly Defined & Controlled Scope
- Effective Risk Management
Each time we looked at a different stage in the project lifestyle, the facilitator linked the relevant success factors to highlight the aim/goal of each stage. This repetition of key content, definitely helped my memory retention.
Having attended this course, I am looking forward to taking on my next project. Not only to mindfully working through the project lifestyle and practice what I have learned, but also to compare the success of future projects, with my past ones.
In short, I would recommend this course to University of Edinburgh staff looking to get involved (or better understand) working on ‘projects’.
(i a walsh, CC BY 3.0
(i a walsh, CC BY 3.0
