Stay Connected

The Versatile Company has been providing world-class project management training since 1990.

icon_widget_image 4616 25th Ave NE #740 Seattle, WA 98105 icon_widget_image + (206) 417-2290 icon_widget_image projects@versatilecompany.com

Newsletter Sign Up

     

    Project Management for Non-Project Managers

    Two days of training (15 PDUs) 

    Read a customer story (pdf – opens in a new tab or window)

    Call them “Accidental project managers,” “Incidental PMs” or “Unofficial project managers.”

    They are the staff and management that are running over half your projects — important projects that need to be delivered successfully.

    This Versatile Company training course provides these leaders practical, proven tools of project management, scaled to fit their needs. 

    Practical Project Management Training

    This is the hands-on class that makes project management easy to learn and apply to your projects!

    • Hands-on, workshop-driven course design lets you and your team learn by doing.
    • The interactive format makes the class fun and engaging.
    • Includes a detailed course manual for in-class use and future reference.
    • BONUS: Free access to our eLearning package that reinforces key concepts.

    Learn the Art and the Science of project management.

    Anyone in a project management role is a leader of all the stakeholders engaged in the project: your team, customer, management, and so many more.

    A group of business people "high-five" at a wooden table while participating in project management training for non-project managers
    Learn to use proven techniques to become a better leader.
    • Establish clear goals for all stakeholders.
    • Build a plan that has clear responsibilities and can be used to measure progress.
    • Communicate effectively to influence your team, management, customers, and affected stakeholders.
    • Control scope to maintain focus and productivity.
    • Build management support for your project!

    Project Planning Workshop

    Participants plan one of their own projects in class. It’s the best way for individuals to learn the concepts faster and to transfer the learning to their job. 

    Workshop components are embedded in the course — each lecture topic is immediately followed by a relevant workshop.  For example, after the scheduling lecture, teams will create their own project schedule.

    Who Should Attend?

    This course is particularly appropriate for leaders of part-time, internal business projects – thus the moniker “project management for non-project managers.” This includes:

    • “Accidental project managers” for whom leading projects is just one more job to juggle.
    • Great team members that want to be team and project leaders.
    • Senior staff members tasked with leading cross-functional corporate initiatives.

    Course Objectives

    Upon completion of this course the student will be able to:
    Identify five project success factors that apply to every project.
    Describe the cost, schedule, and scope constraints and tradeoffs for their projects.
    Develop a partnership
    with a project sponsor.
    Develop a realistic project schedule that relies on team members who are less than fully assigned to the project.
    Articulate the business benefit of their current project.
    Understand the relationship between the science of project management and the art of leadership.

    Course Outline

    Click the arrows to expand each section.

    1. Project Success Factors
    2. What is Project Management?
    3. A Successful Project Delivers Value
    4. Project Life Cycle and Product Life Cycle
    Workshop: Selecting projects for the workshop
    1. Identify Project Stakeholders
    2. Assign the Sponsor and Project Manager
    3. Answer the Top Five Definition Questions
    Workshop: Develop a Project Charter
    1. The Purpose of Planning
    2. Break the Project into Manageable Units of Work
    Workshop: Developing the Task List
    1. Network Diagrams Help Visualize the Sequence of Events
    2. Task Estimating Guidelines
    Workshop: Build the Network & Visualize the Schedule
    1. Establish a Realistic Schedule with a Part-Time Team
    Workshop: Completion of the project plan
    1. Stakeholder Engagement
    2. Plan Communication
    Workshop: Identify Stakeholders
    1. Change Management
    2. Project Team Kickoff
    3. Monitor Schedule, Risks, and Issues
    1. Project Manager Skills
    2. Art Based on Science
    A man works in an office during project management training for non-project managers
    Project Management Tips

    Learning to Manage Intangible Projects

    The project management discipline was created for tangible products – bridges, buildings, and nuclear powered warships. The current growth of project management is in intangible products: organizational redesign, recruiting strategies, and compensation plans for a few examples.

    At Versatile, we’ve delivered project management training to construction firms and public school administrators. Our current growth audience is Human Resource professionals. So how do we help these knowledge workers bridge the gap between tangible and intangible products?

    When an HR team recently attended our project management training in Seattle, they brought their projects with them. We used their projects in class, breaking down their end goal into major steps, then into specific tasks.

    Every introductory project management class should teach you to clarify the tangible outcome of every task, even if that outcome is a recommendation or decision.

    Thanks to Mark Mullaly, for posting on ProjectManagement.com which got us thinking about this.

    More Training Courses

    FROM THE VERSATILE COMPANY

    This course provides the building blocks of project leadership.

    Complete exam preparation package. 100% engaging!

    Introducing participants to the Agile project management methodology.

    Versatile sets the standard for Microsoft Project training. 

    Our courses dig deeper into all aspects of project management