Make project management part of your organization’s DNA

Corporate College, a division of Cuyahoga Community College, works with companies and professionals from all sectors to improve productivity and performance. In recent years, more organizations are experiencing greater success as they make project management part of their DNA or culture — a top three strategic priority for many companies. At Corporate College, we believe in the fundamental principles of the Project Management Institute (PMI). Using PMI’s Project Management Book of Knowledge as a foundation, training programs have been designed to provide learners with the tools necessary for successfully overseeing, implementing and managing projects.
Disciplined project management starts at the portfolio level, where the strategic vision drives initial investments and where value measures are established. A fully aligned project, program and portfolio management strategy encompasses the entire organization, dictating project execution at every level and aiming to deliver value at each step along the way. Companies are clearly seeing the payoff from investing time, money and resources to build organizational project management expertise: lower costs, greater efficiencies, improved customer/stakeholder satisfaction and greater competitive advantage.
Corporations across all sectors have embraced project management as a way to control spending and improve project results. Executives have discovered that adhering to project management methods and strategies reduced risks, cut costs and improved success rates. With little room for error and fewer resources to rely on, project management expertise and oversight is helping streamline their delivery process, cut costs and sidestep risks.
Implementing project management across the organization helps create a strategic value chain that gives companies an edge on their competitors. Being able to deliver projects on time and within budget often determines whether a company will get the next job or whether its new product hits the market. A strong project management discipline brings exceptional value to the business. Keeping the project on track requires a strict management of metrics and project goals that extends across the project team and out to stakeholders.
It’s hard to imagine how you would go about delivering a project without program and project management discipline. Without a consistent approach and clear milestones, decision points and metrics to measure your success are difficult to attain.
Having executive support and sponsorship for a strong project management discipline is directly linked to better project results. When project managers answer to executive level leadership, they are more likely to bring projects in on schedule. When executives believe in the value of project management and integrate project management across the organization, the business benefits are evident and easy to qualify. You have a better organization and better communication about project progress across the company, which is key for the success of any business.
Organizations must actively work to shape mature project management practices and integrate it across all levels of the organization. Helpful tips include: define the ROI, manage what’s measured, use metrics to align projects with strategy, get everyone on board and secure buy-in.
Corporate College offers a variety of project management training solutions. The Certificate in Applied Project Management program is designed to help the learner understand and pull together all the knowledge areas and processes of project management. This program is designed for those new to project management, changing roles/careers or already serving as a subject matter expert on project teams and preparing for the PMI-CAPM exam.
The Introduction to Agile Project Management program focuses on continuous improvement, scope flexibility, team input and delivering essential quality products. Agile Project Management is a revolutionary method introduced for the practice of empowering teams and value based team management versus task management. This latest project management strategy is mainly applied to project management practice in software development but also applies to product research and development, and engineering disciplines as well. Learners will learn the basic principles on how to lead projects with this approach.
Project Management Negotiation is a unique program that focuses on: skills for one-on-one and multi-party negotiations; how to win before the negotiation even begins; postulating, partnering or posturing — knowing the difference and its implications; and techniques you can deploy when others don’t play by the rules.
The Project Stakeholder Management program focuses on how stakeholders play a role in project decisions, providing input, delivering work and impacting the project’s success. Stakeholders may be the project team, functional management, a project sponsor, or most importantly, the customer. Anyone who participates in the project or is impacted by its results is a stakeholder. Each project stakeholder has an essential contribution to make and all stakeholder expectations need to be met. It’s the responsibility of the project manager to understand how to identify, manage and clarify stakeholder direction.
For more information on project management training solutions, call Corporate College at 216-987-0234 or visit www.corporatecollege.com/project.