More and more engineering and technical professionals are making career transitions from product design into project management. This, however, requires formal training and a willingness to learn new skills. All the technical know-how in the world will not deliver a project successfully, i.e. with the required level of quality, within cost constraints and on time, without proper project management skills. Unfortunately very few engineering professionals have any degree of formal project management training, which results in a great deal of personal stress as well as cost blow-outs and other woes.

The lack of training often applies to the ‘people skills’ required for effectively leading the project team as well. To address this problem, the course will focus on the critical project related activities such as work breakdown, scheduling, cost control and risk management, and show how these can be performed with software to lighten the project manager’s workload. The ‘soft’ (but equally important) aspects such as team leadership and contract law are also covered. All topics will be supplemented with practical exercises focusing primarily on the areas of electrical/electronic (including instrumentation) and mechanical engineering. If participants wish to do so they can choose, as a basis for the practical exercises, small projects from their work environment so that they are familiar with the attributes thereof.

What will you learn

• Create quality project plans
• Generate effective work breakdown structures
• Create computerized PERT and Gantt charts for your projects, add and level resources, and monitor/report on your project effectively
• Define appropriate cost reporting mechanisms for your projects
• Define, analyze and manage the risks associated with your projects
• Introduce appropriate quality management procedures
• Keep your projects on track using the ‘Earned Value Analysis’ method
• Exercise an appropriate leadership style and keep team members creative and motivated
• Avoid the pitfalls caused by a lack of understanding of the legal issues pertaining to projects
• Use appropriate software to leverage your time and expertise
• Deal with projects that have a large degree of inherent uncertainty and/or a strong emphasis on timely completion