Joanne WhiteheadPMO Analyst/Project Planner| UK Govt Uk, United Kingdom
Based in the UK.
I have significant project support/PMO Analyst experience and will shortly be joining a company with an Agile environment as a junior project planner (MS Project 2007 is used).
I have some experience of using MS Project to track project plans that Project Managers have produced but none of developing portfolio plans from scratch.
I have undertaken no direct project planning training other so only have introductory level knowledge gained during project management training courses. I have never worked in an Agile environment.
So I am refreshing my MS Project skills to an advanced level and will perform research on Agile practices to ensure I am up to speed on my first day. I will receive a week's handover from the outgoing Senior Project Planner.
What online courses, training and professional development path do you recommend for someone in my position to gain Project Planning/Scheduling expertise?
Any great Project Planning/Scheduling forums, professional bodies or knowledge sharing sites you could recommend in addition to Projectmanagement.com?
Thanks in anticipation of your assistancce. Saving Changes...
Hi Joanne, please check the meetings of the local PMI Chapters, it will help you connect with the PM's in the area who can suggest local networking platforms and resources.
I also subscribe to lot of events(only few are very expensive) we get a lot of tools to try and we can get idea for creating something to suit our needs.
Do you want to take up some training course, that might help you revise if required.
Attending the Globa Congress is a great checkpoint on one's PM knowledge.
I apologise that i do not have direct answer to your question but some leads, might help! Saving Changes...
In my view, Agile environment and project planner used in the traditional way are not usually compatible. Is there any way you can provide more detail on your 'new' job description? Perhaps that will help guide the responses.For example, we may be able to better ascertain whether it is Agile methodology training that you need, or MS Project technical training, or softskills, or what mix of each of them... Saving Changes...
saurabh mahajanPMP, ITIL, PRINCE2| vodafonePune, Maharashtra, India
I will suggest to go again through PMBOK.... its bible
plus to gain expertise you will need experience into it
for professional development path I would suggest you to be in PMO role as from point of view its the center where all projects connect and so you can have better insight on processes/techniques/tools used to gain expertise and experience.
From agile point of view i think you can read agile for dummies book, its simple and crisp to understand to get started Saving Changes...
Joanne WhiteheadPMO Analyst/Project Planner| UK Govt Uk, United Kingdom
Thanks all -
Agile experience is seen as desirable and I am happy to bring myself up to speed on it.
MS Project skills are rusty but I am working my way through a training course to gain expertise in it.
My main weakness is that I have merely maintained other PMs plans and never been involved in any major planning activities so I'd like to find out more about planning best practice and techniques to produce accurate plans. Saving Changes...
Joanne WhiteheadPMO Analyst/Project Planner| UK Govt Uk, United Kingdom
My understanding is that some of the projects use Agile principles – a colleague who works for the company doesn’t even think I need to do any pre-starting activities to bring myself up to speed in planning/MS Project or Agile as she feels I will learn on the job and that the team support, knowledge sharing and professional development is strong.
However, I prefer to be a bit more prepared, particularly as there is an emphasis in my role to champion planning best practice when I am at the novice end of the spectrum in this particular specialism, and because there is a drive to improve the PMO. I’ve already book marked some of the checklists, templates and articles from this website.
I'm aware from some recent research that MS Project is seen inadequate for non-waterfall structured projects. I've been looking at the suggested workarounds/add ons that are supposed to address this and will raise this issue with the outgoing Senior Planner who is handing over their workload to me.
My JD includes
- creating MS Project plans illustrating the options for delivery of projects being evaluated in the initiation stage
- Produce plans to support scenario planning to accommodate new demand/changes
- Liaise with other colleagues to capture capacity constraints that may impact the delivery of projects under evaluation
- communicate any contention in the portfolio plans
- establish and operate planning standards based on best practice and champion the development of improved planning capability across the management team
-advise on and implement new tools that enable efficient planning
Key outputs – plans, reports on key milestones, pipeline plans with scenarios, planning standards and processes.
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1 reply by STEVE BOEDECKER
May 24, 2016 12:02 PM
STEVE BOEDECKER
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One major advise from my lesser experience, is to ask the company for their Lessons Learned, what the PMIS system will be, and check with Functional managers in acctg and HR about how they want you to track and enter work and resources during the task scheduling-monitoring. They may have a system you can or need to use to record and track your budget and costs and labor.
Previous projects similiar to yours would be major Input. Also, if you are beyond the PMBOK guidelines of Initiating, and some planning is done, ABSOLUTELY get to know your stakeholder management plan and its register, and meet and greet them. Know what they and the Biz Analyst have set as REQUIREMENTS and review past communication methods. Then update all of that, in-case some Stakeholders found past information wasn't disseminated the way they prefer.
Looks like you will have project planning as well as portfolio planning responsibilities. I will provide some information here but you can message me directly for additional clarification.
Project planning:
A quick review of the project planning approach: https://www.liquidplanner.com/blog/how-lon...-up-strategies/ I just found this while looking for a basic way to explain the planning process... not sure if this is too shallow for your level. One thing that this doesn't seem to cover much is the creation of dependencies/task linkages. Obviously, the power of project planning using linkages and dependencies helps us to identify the quickest time to complete the project, or conversely, what all need to be done in parallel to be able to make a given deadline.
Portfolio planning:
Simplistically, portfolio planning takes the project planning approach and applies it to projects as line items (instead of tasks as in the case of project planning). You could setup a Microsoft Project plan with the Summary task being the Organizational Portfolio and tasks/activities being one project per line. As you add the durations of each project, and setup the dependencies among projects, you could have a way to perform what-if scenario analysis on your pipeline portfolio of projects, as well as report on current milestones.
2013 or later versions of MS Project are recommended, if you have the opportunity to upgrade.
Training:
I think you are going into this with the right mindset and basics, so I cannot think of any formal training at this point (other than general Leadership and soft skills). So once again, simplistically, as you get started and come across challenges, I would recommend web searches (on this site as well as the open internet) on the very specific challenges that you are trying to address and hopefully learn the techniques that way. Saving Changes...
STEVE BOEDECKERUnemployed Project Manager| FutureVision ProductionsVernon, Nj, United States
May 24, 2016 5:59 AM
Replying to Joanne Whitehead
...
My understanding is that some of the projects use Agile principles – a colleague who works for the company doesn’t even think I need to do any pre-starting activities to bring myself up to speed in planning/MS Project or Agile as she feels I will learn on the job and that the team support, knowledge sharing and professional development is strong.
However, I prefer to be a bit more prepared, particularly as there is an emphasis in my role to champion planning best practice when I am at the novice end of the spectrum in this particular specialism, and because there is a drive to improve the PMO. I’ve already book marked some of the checklists, templates and articles from this website.
I'm aware from some recent research that MS Project is seen inadequate for non-waterfall structured projects. I've been looking at the suggested workarounds/add ons that are supposed to address this and will raise this issue with the outgoing Senior Planner who is handing over their workload to me.
My JD includes
- creating MS Project plans illustrating the options for delivery of projects being evaluated in the initiation stage
- Produce plans to support scenario planning to accommodate new demand/changes
- Liaise with other colleagues to capture capacity constraints that may impact the delivery of projects under evaluation
- communicate any contention in the portfolio plans
- establish and operate planning standards based on best practice and champion the development of improved planning capability across the management team
-advise on and implement new tools that enable efficient planning
Key outputs – plans, reports on key milestones, pipeline plans with scenarios, planning standards and processes.
One major advise from my lesser experience, is to ask the company for their Lessons Learned, what the PMIS system will be, and check with Functional managers in acctg and HR about how they want you to track and enter work and resources during the task scheduling-monitoring. They may have a system you can or need to use to record and track your budget and costs and labor.
Previous projects similiar to yours would be major Input. Also, if you are beyond the PMBOK guidelines of Initiating, and some planning is done, ABSOLUTELY get to know your stakeholder management plan and its register, and meet and greet them. Know what they and the Biz Analyst have set as REQUIREMENTS and review past communication methods. Then update all of that, in-case some Stakeholders found past information wasn't disseminated the way they prefer. Saving Changes...
Joanne WhiteheadPMO Analyst/Project Planner| UK Govt Uk, United Kingdom
Thanks all, your advice is very helpful.
I already had a list of questions to ask the outgoing Senior Planner as part of the handover and to my PMO Manager for my professional development and now they've been sharpened and expanded by your input. Saving Changes...
STEVE BOEDECKERUnemployed Project Manager| FutureVision ProductionsVernon, Nj, United States
I Think this is one of the best threads I have read so far that will assist my own professional experience and test preparation and on-the-job ideas. I think all of these responses are great real world applications and I hope that in the near future, anything that you do on this job I hope can be added to this thread for our continued learning experience as far as what you are doing, obviously without disclosing any confidential information. meaning, what PMIS Systems will be assisting you, outside software you use that benefits your tasks, and maybe even some cultural EEFs in the UK that could assist people in the future. Also any kinds of risks or conflict resolution that become successful will greatly benefit all of us who rarely get feedback from a life project manager . good luck and great success. Saving Changes...
