Project Planning and Control™ (PPC) Foundation and Practitioner

Project Plan and Control is a deep dive into the principles of effective project planning and control. Learn to plan at the right level of detail, establish simple but effective project tracking and reporting processes. This course is delivered in two modules a 3-day foundation followed by a 2-day practitioner course. Click on the session information to see details of the dates.

Description

Based on the Association for Project Management (APM) guidance for Planning and Project Control Managers and Engineers this course builds a structured and formalised approach to planning and controlling projects.

The APM’s guide, ‘Planning, Scheduling, Monitoring and Control – The Practical Project Management of Time, Cost and Risk.’ sets out a comprehensive and practical guide to project control across a number of different industries. The guide set out in practical terms the recommended best practice for the implementation of project planning and control.

Adopting this guide will provide organisations and individuals with the following benefits:

  1. Following this guide provides organisations with a common understanding of the approaches to project planning, reporting and control.
  2. Being clear about the standards improves the quality of project planning, especially the level of detail required to give effective project control.
  3. It improves the quality of transparency and accuracy of project reporting, so that project managers and senior stakeholders can have improved confidence in the data presented.
  4. This is turn strengthens the project governance processes and leads to more effective decision making.

The combined effect is more clarity about the current state of the project and increased chances of project success.

Learning Outcomes

Foundation:

  • The approaches and products used to gain a clear definition of a project.
  • The approaches and techniques used to plan and close a project.
  • The selection and use of appropriate scheduling techniques.
  • The practices used for rigorous monitoring to enable proactive control of the project.
  • The basis for good record keeping, which also facilitates the virtuous feedback and learning cycle.

Practitioner

  • The approaches and key products used to gain a clear definition of a project
  • The approaches and techniques used to plan and close a project
  • The scheduling techniques and appropriate presentation of the outputs
  • The management of risk in the planning, execution and evaluation of a project
  • The practices and data used for rigorous monitoring to enable proactive control of the project.

Topics Covered

Both foundation and practitioners cover the same contents. The difference is in the format of the exam. The course contents are:

Planning techniques and approaches including:

  • Scope management,
  • Requirements management,
  • Works information and statement of works,
  • Stakeholder management,
  • Breakdown structures, levels, PBS, WBS, OBS, RAM, CBS and RBS,
  • Dependency management

Budgeting and cost control including:

  • Types of estimate,
  • Contents of an estimate,
  • Estimating methodologies,
  • Definition of budgeting,
  • Funding and budgeting,
  • Cost breakdown structures,
  • Cash flow,
  • Budget transfers

Scheduling practices including:

  • Steps in establishing a schedule and the different types of schedule including:
    • tender,
    • contract
    • baseline,
    • working,
    • target,
    • medium and short term
    • and as build schedules.
  • Project trackers required to support the schedule including
    • Procurement schedules,
    • Design and other trackers,
  • Elements of a schedule, including:
    • Critical path,
    • links,
    • leads and lags.
  • Estimating durations,
  • Resource management.
  • Horizontal and vertical integration of schedules from different perspectives including combining schedules from several organisations.
  • Schedule interfacing and coding,
  • Contingency and the use of buffers

Communicating the Schedule including:

  • Bar charts,
  • line of balance,
  • time chainage

The supporting components of a schedule including:

  • Schedule narrative including calendars,
  • activity codes,
  • calendars,
  • shutdowns,
  • possessions,
  • permits and licences.

Schedule review including the processes for approving and accepting schedules.

Building Information Management (BIM) including the integration of the schedule with the design process

Agile including planning for the use of sprints, timeboxes and other ag

Monitoring and Control including

  • baselines,
  • re-planning,
  • baseline
  • maintenance,
  • re-programming

Performance reporting including

  • drop line method,
  • activity weeks,
  • milestone monitoring,
  • cost value.

Cost Control including

  • cost control process,
  • performance management baseline,
  • performance measurement

Change management including

  • Change control process,
  • Adjusting the schedule to accommodate changes,
  • Communicating and reporting change

Risk Management including

  • Risk management process, risk drawdown, quantitative schedule risk analysis (QSRA), Quantitative cost risk analysis (QCRA)
  • Forensic analysis
    • Purpose of forensic analysis, Methods including planned vs as built, Impact method
  • Record keeping
  • Document management
  • Handover and closeout
  • Lessons learned.

Payment Options

We offer multiple options for payment;

1. Credit / Debit Card

2. Payment via invoice. During checkout for your course, select 'Offline Payment'. You will then receive an invoice from which you can pay. If you wish to add a Purchase Order number to your order, please enter this when prompted at checkout.

What is Included in the Course?

  • Five days of virtual tutor input
  • APM Project Planning and Control manual
  • Both PPC foundation and practionoer exams. 

They monitor you though a microphone, webcam and an app on a mobile phone. The APMG provide detailed guidance on the technology required but in summary, you need a personal computer with Google Chrome installed, webcam and microphone and mobile device (phone or tablet). The exam system will not load any software on your computer, they do ask you to add an extension to Google Chrome. This is why Google Chrome is the only supported browser. The APMG advise that the exam is unlikely to work on a corporate PC unless you have admin rights. Just like classroom exams, you will need a photo ID. For move information of the system requirements visit Equipment Requirements – ProctorU

What is the Course Like?

Course Structure Foundation Phase

Day 1: Foundation

09:00

Introductions

 

Business Case

 

Scope Management

 

Requirements Management

 

Stakeholder Management

1100 to 11:15

Coffee Break

 

Planning and Scheduling

 

Breakdown Structures

12:30 to 13:15

Lunch

 

Work Breakdown Structure Exercise

 

Dependency Management

 

Handover and Closeout

15:30 to 15:45

Tea Break

 

Scheduling

 

Types of Schedules

17:00

End of Day 1

Homework

Complete Sample Paper Questions

Delegates to mark own paper and review rationales

Review Day 1

Delegates should expect to spend approximately 2 hours completing the homework

(Sample examination, self-marking and review of the day.

 

Day 2: Foundation

09:00

Review of Sample Paper Questions

 

Review of Day 1

 

Building the Schedule

 

Critical Path Method

1100 to 11:15

Coffee Break

 

Critical Path Method

 

Time Analysis

 

Network Exercises

12:30 to 13:15

Lunch

 

Duration Estimates

 

Resources

 

Communicating the Schedule

 

Schedule Narrative

15:30 to 15:45

Tea Break

 

Schedule Review

 

Project Baselines and Baselining Principles

 

Performance Reporting

17:00

End of Day 2

Homework

Complete Sample Paper Questions

Delegates to mark own paper and review rationales

Review Day 2

Delegates should expect to spend approximately 2 hours completing the homework

(Sample examination, self-marking and review of the day.

 

Day 3: Foundation

09:00

Review of Sample Paper Questions

 

Review of Day 2

 

Variance Analysis

 

Resource Monitoring

1100 to 11:15

Coffee Break

 

Earned Value Analysis (EVA)

 

Earned Value Analysis (EVA) Exercises

12:30 to 13:15

Lunch

 

Cost Control

 

Short-term Planning

 

Change Control

 

Forensic Analysis

 

Record Keeping

15:30 to 16:00

Tea Break

16:00

Examination administration

 

 

 

 

Day 4: Practitioner

09:00

Introductions

 

The practitioner examination – overview

 

Project Definition

1100 to 11:15

Coffee Break

 

Breakdown Structures

 

Schedules

12:30 to 13:15

Lunch

 

Schedules (continued)

 

Critical Path Analysis and Constraints

15:30 to 15:45

Tea Break

 

Estimating and Resourcing

 

Baselines and Performance Reporting

 

Earned Value Management (EVM)

17:00

End of Day 1

Homework

Complete Sample Practitioner Examination Paper (note that delegates should already be familiar with the case study scenario as a result of the course exercises)

Delegates to mark own paper and review rationales

Review Day 1

Delegates should expect to spend approximately 3 to 4 hours completing the homework (sample examination, self-marking and review of the day.

 

Day 5: Day 4: Practitioner

09:00

Review of Sample Paper

 

Review of Day 1

1100 to 11:15

Coffee Break

 

Earned Value Management (continued)

 

Managing Risk

12:30 to 13:15

Lunch

13:30 to 16:30

APM Project Planning and Control Practitioner Examination

17:00

Close