Successful Project Management: Avoid These Common Mistakes

The global economy has become synonymous with chaos, unrelenting levels of corporate competition, rapid change, and previously unimaginable levels of uncertainty.

What do you think businesses are doing in answer to this globally changing environment? How are they keeping the competitive edge?

Well, an ever growing number of businesses are realizing the immense value that disciplined project management brings to the table and how the use of qualified project managers are consistently delivering better business results than ever before. Business sentiments are changing from the “A penny saved is a penny earned” outlook more towards the “penny wise pound foolish” attitude. This basically boils down to the fact that corporate management used to believe that the cost of project management was not worth the potential gains, whereas today corporate management has realized the massive strategic value project management brings with it.

This course will give you the opportunity to get ahead of the pack by arming you with the invaluable knowledge of what project management refers to as lessons learned. By completing this course you will gain the knowledge that comes with years of project management experience and with several costly mistakes. More than just learning about the most infamous project management mistakes, you will also be taught some useful strategies for voiding these project killers.

The curriculum of the course was compiled and is presented by Gerrit Fourie, a practicing project management professional (PMP), professional engineer (Pr.Eng) and director of an engineering and project management consultancy.  The information is based on lessons learned both personally and by means of a collective pool of experience stretching over the 45 years of the firm.  Knowledge of these project management pitfalls and the effective strategies that can be employed to avoid them will prove to be invaluable in your career as a project manager.

This course covers the ten most prolific contributing factors that result in failed projects in the industry as well as how you can go about circumventing them.

The ten factors covered in this course are as follows:

1. Requirements Management Shortcomings

2. Scope Creep

3. Insufficient Project Planning

4. Unrealistic Project Estimates

5. Lack of Proper Monitoring and Control

6. Stretching Project Resources

7. Poor Stakeholder Engagement

8. Neglecting Communication

9. Ineffective Risk Management Practices

10. Inexperienced or Uneducated Project Managers

The objective of the course is to arm you with the lessons learned knowledge of other practitioners and in the process provide you with the tools and knowledge they need to avoid the ten mistakes that most frequently contribute to the failure of projects.

The course design caters for those who already have the foundational knowledge of project management and are familiar with project management lingo. Beginners are however welcome to take it up as well as the course is structured to add value to all project management professionals, even up and comers.

Newcomers to project management will find this knowledge very beneficial, as it will enable them to start projects with sound knowledge of the biggest project management risks and how to avoid them.