BCS Foundation in IS Project Management - Corporate in-house training

BCS Foundation in IS Project Management3 Days includes examAbout the Course

If you’re about to take on your first managerial role this course is the ideal place to start learning more about IS and IT project management principles.

In our Foundation in IS Project Management course, you’ll investigate and understand a number of project management issues around IS and IT applications. What do we mean by that? Well, some of the key areas you’ll look into include the nature of projects and project work, monitoring and control, quality issues and project organisation and communication.

Who is it for?

The course is designed for people new to the project management field within IS. It is also suitable for others such as business analysts, solution developers and change professionals, who want an understanding of project management or who have to undertake project management responsibilities alongside their nominal duties.

Entry Requirements

There are no pre-requisites for this course.

The Exam

Yes. During this three-day course you’ll receive all the training you need to prepare for the BCS Foundation in IS Project Management certificate multiple choice examination, which is held on the final afternoon of the course. A pass means a Foundation certificate in IS Project Management which is part of the BCS Professional Certification portfolio, but it contributes to your BCS International Diploma in Business Analysis too.

Course Content

This classroom-based course provides participants with a good general understanding of the purpose, structure and techniques of project management within the information systems (IS) field.

Project environment

• Characteristics of a project; the ‘triple constraint’ of time/cost/quality
• Project and operational responsibilities
• Special features of computer projects
• Role of the Project Manager
• Project success and failure
• Development lifecycles

Project initiation

• Stakeholder analysis and management
• Defining the objectives and scope of the project
• The role of the Client and their responsibilities
• Project constraints and resources
• Project Initiation Document

Project planning

• The importance of breaking work down
• Product breakdown structures
• Project and User deliverables
• Standard deliverable sets and templates
• Product flows and work packages
• The concept of dependencies

Estimating deliverables

• Key concepts in estimating
• Estimating difficulties
• Estimating by analogy
• Parametric estimating
• Effort and elapsed time estimates
• Schedule compression

Planning networks and charts

• Precedence diagrams and project networks
• The critical path and its implications
• Gantt charts and resource histograms
• Planning at an appropriate level
• The use and abuse of planning software

Working in teams

• The elements of a good team
• Team composition
• Team roles

Motivation and management style

• The roots of motivation at work
• Approaches to motivation (Maslow, Herzberg)
• The effect of management style

Project risk management

• Purpose of risk management
• Risk management process
• Identifying and assessing risks
• Introduction to quantitative risk assessment

Project quality plans

• Principles of quality management
• The contents of a quality plan
• Quality Management
• Configuration management

The project plan

• Elements of a project plan (schedule, quality, risk)
• Contents and structure of a project plan

Project monitoring, reporting and control

• The importance of monitoring and control
• Allocating personal deliverables
• Progress measurement
• Time recording
• Introduction to earned value analysis
• Dealing with non-delivery
• Slippage and re-planning – corrective actions
• Change control, scope creep and over-engineering
• Reporting structures

Project completion

• Project sign-off and the need for a controlled close
• Post-project reviews

The project manager

• The project manager’s role revisited
• Qualities and characteristics of effective project managers