Building Skill

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Career Development   Communications Management   Knowledge Management   Lessons Learned   Talent Management  

What course should I take next? I get asked that question a lot, so I figured there must be a lot of people who aren’t sure about the type of training that they need to take. I’m not going to pretend to give you the definitive list in this article--it’s still a very personal decision, but I will try and provide some thoughts on the things to consider when trying to advance your skills beyond the basics of project management.

Remember also that training isn’t always about taking a course. Reading and researching for yourself can be just as effective--and potentially more effective as it allows you to tailor your learning to exactly what you need (you did that when you decided to read this article).

Basics (+ /- supplementing foundation PM skills)
The basic project management skills are a given, and I’m assuming that you have that basic foundation of planning, communication, risk management and others. But these are often included in an “introduction to project management” course that only scratches the surface, so be careful assuming that you have covered those topics. It’s a cliché, but no less true, that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

I think that you can never have too much communications training--it’s such a fundamental skill for project managers. Whether it be a formal presentation …

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