Unearthing your project's requirements & scope

By Dick Billows, PMP, GCA

Summary: A good WBS is not a detailed "To do" list. Using that approach lead to less control, not more, and a schedule that is too detailed to track closely.

Achievement-driven project management

AdPM™ is an approach to project management designed for cross-functional corporate projects with practical methods for dealing with people, teams, budget and software. Developed over twenty years of project management experience and delivered to thousands of practicing managers from organizations such as Siemens, USWEST, Jones Intercable and IBM.

Sophisticated tools for planning and strategically positioning your project

Techniques for managing people and teams and developing a high-performance culture

Training on PM software that makes planning, budgeting and tracking efficient

Methods for coping with politics, organizational change and project launch

Project Conceptualization: the First Challenge

We are not supplied with a neat blueprint of what the organization should look like at the end. Conceiving a project is the first phase of the Project Manager's Control Tower; we call it Broadbrush Planning. This step in managing cross-functional corporate projects requires the integration of many skills. The days when project management was a narrow mathematical science are over. Project managers (PMs) in the corporate world must take an active role in the strategies and tactics of the projects they run.

This is not a world of just Gantt and PERT and CPM calculations. Successful PMs must meld traditional project skills with strategic analysis, techniques to develop high performance team cultures, political and negotiating skills and much more. The Broadbrush planning phase integrates these elements so we do the "right" project with the "right" team and the "right" authority.

Our Training Process

The Project Manager's Control Tower is an approach to managing projects that integrates all these tools and techniques into a process that ensures project success. We do not teach it with academic theories and concepts. All our courses require:

Advance reading for each module,

Participation in Internet discussions with other practicing managers, and

The completion of five or more project case studies on PM software and

Written analyses of business situations

The PM mentor grades your work and gives individual feedback and coaching before moving you on to the next course module.

The Hampton Group, Inc. 3547 South Ivanhoe St. Denver, CO 80237-4320 USA
© 2004 The Hampton Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be reproduced without written permission . The Microsoft Corporation owns the registered trademark Microsoft Project®. The Project Management Institute, Inc. owns the following registered trade and certification marks: PMI® PMBOK® PMP® and CAPM™. The CompTIA IT Project + certified professional logo is a registered trademark of CompTIA (the Computing Technology Industry Association). All rights reserved.2003