Practical Project Management Course

Lesson 1 • Stakeholder Identification and Analysis

Applies stakeholder mapping tools to identify, categorise, and prioritise project stakeholders. Directly informs communication and engagement planning in later chapters.

Lesson 2 • Defining Projects and Their Context

Distinguishes projects from day-to-day managerial operations and programmes using key attributes. Grounds all subsequent planning concepts in a shared definitional management framework.

Lesson 3 • Project Manager Roles and Competencies

Defines the responsibilities, authority levels, and competency profile of an effective project manager. Sets organisational performance expectations for all applied exercises in the course.

Lesson 4 • Project Management Knowledge Areas

Maps the ten standard knowledge areas and their interdependencies. Provides a mental model for integrating scope, time, cost, and quality throughout the course.

Lesson 1 • Developing the Project Charter

Synthesises business case, objectives, and constraints into a formal authorisation document. The completed charter becomes the reference artefact for all subsequent planning activities.

Lesson 2 • Identifying Constraints and Assumptions

Catalogues scope, schedule, cost, and quality constraints alongside documented assumptions. Prevents planning errors caused by unexamined constraints later in the project.

Lesson 3 • Business Case and Needs Analysis

Connects organisational management strategy to project justification through structured needs analysis. Ensures every project initiated in the course has a defensible business rationale.

Lesson 1 • Building the Work Breakdown Structure

Decomposes scope into manageable work packages using top-down and bottom-up techniques. The WBS becomes the structural foundation for schedule and cost planning.

Lesson 2 • Scope Baseline and Change Control

Formalises the scope baseline and establishes the change control process to protect it. Prepares students to manage scope creep systematically during project execution.

Lesson 3 • Collecting and Documenting Requirements

Uses interviews, workshops, and prototyping to elicit and document stakeholder requirements. Establishes the requirements baseline that bounds all scope decisions.

Lesson 4 • Writing the Project Scope Statement

Defines deliverables, exclusions, and acceptance criteria in a formal scope statement. Provides the authoritative reference for change control decisions throughout execution.

Lesson 1 • Schedule Compression and Optimisation

Applies crashing and fast-tracking to shorten schedules while managing cost and risk trade-offs. Equips students to recover from delays without compromising project integrity.

Lesson 2 • Gantt Charts and Schedule Baselines

Translates network analysis into Gantt charts and establishes the approved schedule baseline. The baseline enables variance tracking and performance reporting in later chapters.

Lesson 3 • Critical Path Method Analysis

Calculates early/late start and finish dates, float, and the critical path through forward and backward passes. Identifies which activities drive project completion and require priority attention.

Lesson 4 • Activity Definition and Sequencing

Decomposes work packages into schedulable activities and establishes logical dependencies. Correct sequencing is the prerequisite for all network-based schedule calculations.

Lesson 1 • Resource Identification and Classification

Catalogues human, material, equipment, and financial resources required by each work package. Accurate identification prevents resource gaps that derail schedules during execution.

Lesson 2 • Team Development and Organisational Performance

Applies team-building models and performance management techniques to maximise productivity. Connects human resource management to schedule and cost outcomes.

Lesson 3 • Estimating Resource Requirements

Applies bottom-up and parametric methods to quantify resource needs per activity. Links resource estimates directly to the schedule and cost baseline for integrated planning.

Lesson 4 • Resource Loading and Levelling

Detects over-allocation through resource histograms and resolves conflicts via levelling techniques. Produces a feasible, balanced schedule that reflects true resource constraints.

Lesson 1 • Cost Baseline and Change Control

Formalises the cost baseline and integrates it with scope and schedule baselines into the performance measurement baseline. Governs all budget changes through a structured approval process.

Lesson 2 • Cost Estimating Approaches

Vergelyk orde-van-grootte, begroting, en definitiewe skattingstegnieke volgens akkuraatheid en gebruikscenario. Die keuse van die regte benadering in elke projekfase voorkom duur herbasisering.

Lesson 3 • budget

Distributes the approved departmental or operational budget across the schedule to create a spending plan and S-curve. The time-phased baseline is essential for cash flow management and variance detection.

Lesson 1 • Performance Measurement Fundamentals

Defines planned value, earned value, and actual cost as the three pillars of performance measurement. Establishes the data collection discipline required for reliable EVM analysis.

Lesson 2 • Status Reporting and Dashboards

Designs status reports and visual dashboards that communicate project health to diverse audiences. Translates EVM data into actionable insights for sponsors and team members.

Lesson 3 • Forecasting Project Completion

Applies EAC, ETC, and TCPI formulas to forecast final cost and schedule outcomes. Enables proactive management decisions before variances become unrecoverable.

Lesson 4 • Variance and Index Analysis

Calculates schedule variance, cost variance, SPI, and CPI to diagnose project health. Interprets index trends to distinguish temporary deviations from systemic organisational performance problems.

Lesson 1 • Financial Closure and Management Reporting

Reconciles final costs against the departmental or operational budget, releases remaining funds, and produces the final financial report. Provides the financial data needed for future project estimating performance benchmarking.

Lesson 2 • Formal Deliverable Acceptance

Guides the formal handover of deliverables to the customer or day-to-day managerial operations team using acceptance criteria. Ensures legal and contractual obligations are fulfilled before resources are released.

Lesson 3 • Lessons Learned and Knowledge Transfer

Facilitates structured retrospectives to capture successes, failures, and process improvements. Converts project experience into reusable organisational knowledge assets.

Lesson 4 • Contract and Procurement Closure

Closes vendor contracts, resolves open claims, and archives procurement records. Protects the organisation from post-project liability and supports future vendor evaluations.