BCS Foundation Certificate in IS Project Management

Managing and Controlling Projects

Learn to Allocate Project Resources
Understand The Various Change Control Procedures
Define Quality and Learn The Various Terms Associated With it
Understand the Relationship between Programmes and Projects
Learn from Certified Instructors
Train from Globally Known Training Providers

Project planning, monitoring and control and change control have always been at the helm of affairs while managing an organisation and the various processes in it. To successfully manage projects in an agile manner current or aspiring Project Managers can enroll for The BCS Foundation Certificate in IS Project Management. This course provides an understanding of the principles of project management, along with those that relate to project planning, monitoring and control, change control and configuration management. Besides, it also helps the delegates to understand effort estimation, quality and risk management and communication between project stakeholders. We, at Pentagon Training, help the delegates learn the course from those who are certified in this course.

Who should take this course

Those who are affected by IT Projects whether directly or indirectly fall under the scope of the program. Also, the course is aimed at delegates who are new to project management and work within an IT project environment.

Prerequisites

The course has no prerequisites but a training with a BCS accredited training provider is recommended.

What Will You Learn

By the end of the course the delegates will have become familiar with the following concepts:

Planning Projects and their purpose
Implementation Strategies
How Products and Activities are related
Resource Allocation
Work Schedules, Gantt Charts
How to Monitor and Control Projects
Change Control Procedures
What is Quality Control and Quality Assurance
Approaches to Estimating
Risk – Identification and Prioritisation
Relationship between Programmes and Projects

Key Learning Points

Courseware

Tutor Support

Course Overview

This course is a suitable addition for individuals alraedy having PRINCE qualification.

At a high level, PRINCE2 provides a framework for projects in terms of what needs to be done, by whom and by when. The Foundation Certificate in IS Project Management provides a range of techniques of how those things can be done. The course provides an explanation and an analysis of various estimating techniques that are available so that a Project Manager or Business Analyst can decide which would be most suitable to use.

Exam

The BCS Foundation Certificate in IS Project Management exam is taken on the afternoon of the last day of the course. The delegates are given a period of one hour to answer the 40 questions. They need to score 26 marks out of 40 to pass this multiple-choice closed book exam. Candidates passing the examination are awarded the BCS Foundation Certificate in IS Project Management.

Projects and Project Work
- The definition of projects, as opposed to other types of work
- Terms of reference for a project
- The purpose of project planning and control
- The typical activities in a system development life-cycle
- System and project life cycles
- Variations on the conventional project life cycle, such as the use of prototypes or an iterative approach (e.g. the creation and testing of a series of versions of a product that converge on the final deliverable) or incremental approach (i.e. the phased creation and delivery of a series of products to users)
- Implementation strategies e.g. parallel running, ‘sudden death’, use of pilots
- Purpose and content of business case reports; the utilization and significance of discounted cash flows in such reports (Note: knowledge of the method of calculation is NOT required)
- Types of planning document: project initiation documents; project and stage plans, quality plan, communications plan, risk plan
- Post implementation review
Project Planning
- Project deliverables and intermediate products
- Work and product breakdowns
- Product definitions (including the identification of derived from, and component of relationships between products)
- Relationship between products and activities in a project
- Checkpoints and milestones
- Lapsed time and effort required for activities
- Activity networks (using ‘activity on node’ notation)
- Calculation of earliest and latest start and end dates of activities and resulting float
- Identification and significance of critical paths
- Resource allocation, smoothing and levelling, including the use of resource histograms
- Work schedules and Gantt charts
Monitoring and Control
- The project control life cycle: including planning, monitoring achievement, identifying variances, taking corrective action
- The nature of, and the purposes for which, information is gathered
- Collecting progress information
  - Timesheets,
  - Team development meetings
  - Error and change reports etc
- Presenting progress information
  - Content of progress reports
  - Graphical presentation of progress information e.g. accumulative resource charts (also known as S-curve charts)
  - Use of earned value analysis, including where it would be applied in project life-cycle (Note: it is not expected that candidates be able to calculate and interpret earned value figures)
- The reporting cycle
  - Reporting structures in projects
  - Timing, personnel and purpose of different types of reporting meetings
- Corrective action
  - Tolerance and contingency
  - Exception reports and plans
  - Management procedures involved in changing plans
  - Options, including extending or staggering deadlines, increasing resources, reducing Functionality or quality requirements, cancelling the project, etc.
- Change Control and Configuration Management
  - Reasons for change and configuration management
  - Change control procedures
    - Role of change control boards
    - Generation of change requests
    - Change request evaluation (e.g. its impact on the business case)
    - Change request authorisation
  - Configuration management
    - Purpose and procedures
    - Identification of configuration items
    - Product baselines
    - Configuration management databases: content and use
  - Quality
    - Definitions of the term ‘quality’ e.g. ‘fitness for purpose’
    - Quality control versus quality assurance
    - Defining quality: definition and measurement
    - Detection of defects during the project life cycle
    - Quality procedures: entry, process and exit requirements
    - Defect removal processes, including testing and reviews
    - Types of testing (including unit, integration, user acceptance, and regression testing)
    - The inspection process, peer reviews
    - Principles of IS0 9001:2000 quality management systems
    - Supplier evaluation
  - Estimating
    - Effects of over and under-estimating
    - Effort versus duration; relationship between effort and cost
    - Estimates versus targets
    - Use of expert judgement (advantages and disadvantages)
    - The Delphi approach
    - Top-down estimating
      - Identification of size drivers (e.g. function points etc)
      - Identification of productivity rates (e.g. function points per day)
      - Need for past project data to establish productivity rates
      - Factors affecting productivity rates (e.g. staff experience)
      - Estimation of effort for new projects using productivity rates and size drivers
    - Bottom-up approaches to estimating
    - Use of analogy in estimating
  - Risk
    - Definition of the term ‘risk’; components of risk: risk events (or triggers), probability, impact
    - Ways of categorising risk, e.g. business versus project
    - Identification and prioritisation of risk
    - Assessment of risk exposure (i.e. combining consideration of potential damage and chance of loss)
    - Risk responses and actions: risk prevention, reduction, acceptance, transfer and contingency planning
    - Typical risks associated with information systems development
    - Assessment of the costs/benefits of risk reduction activities
    - Maintenance of risk registers and risk logs
  - Project Communications and Project Organisation
    - Relationship between programmes and projects
    - Identifying stakeholders and their concerns
    - The project sponsor
    - Establishment of the project authority (e.g. project board, steering committee, etc.)
    - Membership of project board/steering committee
    - Roles and responsibilities of project board, project manager, stage manager, team leader
    - Desirable characteristics of project manager
    - Role of project support office
    - The project team and matrix management
    - Reporting structures and responsibilities
    - Management styles and communication (including same time/same place; same time/different place, different time/same place, different time/different place)
    - Team building (including phases of team cohesion e.g. forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning)

Team dynamics

About Kingston upon Hull

Kingston upon Hull also known as Hull is a city and unitary authority located in East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated on River Hull, 40 km inland from the North Sea and has a population of 260,220. In the 12^th century, this town was discovered. Monks of Meaux Abbey required a port from wool from estates could be exported. These monks choose a place at the confluence of River Humber and Hull to construct quay.

Year in which this town was discovered is not yet known, but it was first mentioned in 1193. It was renamed Kings-town-upon Hull by King Edward 1 in 1299. Hull has been a military support port, market town, whaling and fishing centre and industrial metropolis. In English Civil Wars, Hull was an early theatre of battle. William Wilberforce took a significant part in the abolition of slave trade done in Britain.

From 1902, the city is unique in the United Kingdom has had a municipally owned telephone system. After facing massive damage during Second World War. At the beginning of 21^st century, after facing recession in the late 2000s, the city saw a large amount of new commercial, retail, public and housing service construction spending.

Tourist attractions of Kingston Upon Hull include Museum Quarter, Old Town, The Deep, Hull Marina that is a city landmark. Redevelopment of Ferensway, include the opening of St Stephen’ Hull and new Hull Truck Theatre. Sports in Kingston Upon Hull include Football and Rugby. KCOM study houses Hull City football club and Hull FC rugby league club. Hull is home to English Premier Ice Hockey League Hull Pirates.

The University of Hull was discovered in 1927, and now It has more than 16000 students. It is ranked as the best university in the Yorkshire and Humber region, and it is located in Newland suburb that is in the north-west of the city.

In 2013, it was announced that Hull would be 2017 UK City of Culture.

In 2015, it was announced that Ferens Art Gallery would host prestigious annual art prize called the Turner Prize in 2017. After this, the prize was held outside London every year.

History

The population of Hull in 1901 was 239,000, and it continued to increase. City Hall was built in 1909 and Guildhall in 1916. During 20^th century facilities in Hull improved. In the 1920s and 1930s, slum clearance started in the centre of Hull. Many new council houses were built on West, North and East of the city. At the beginning of 20^th-century various houses in Hull didn’t have flushing facility. In 1929, fences of Hull were extended to include part of Anlaby and Sutton. Queens’s gardens were laid out on a site filled in the dock. Hull suffered depression in the 1930s, and many Dockers got unemployed, similarly in the shipbuilding industry. In 1954, Hull University was founded. In 2001 an aquarium called The Deep was opened in Hull. Later at the beginning of 21^st century, various parts of Hull were regenerated. Fish Market of Hull was closed in 2011. In 2017 Hull became UK City of Culture. Now the population of Hull is 258,000.