Friday 29 January 2010

Maven Training launch P30 - Portfolios, Programme and Project Office

OGC'S PRINCE2, MSP and M_o_R all touch on the need to provide adequate support structures for these best practices. However, currently there is no single source of this information that either organisations or individuals can go to find guidance or advice on setting up or running an effective delivery support office in alignment with OGC's Best Practice guidance.

This guidance brings together a set of principles, processes and techniques to facilitate effective portfolio, programme and project management through enablement, challenge and support structures. These structures also bridge the gap between the strategy/policy makers and the delivery arm of the organisation.

The purpose of the P30 is to provide universally applicable guidance that will enable individuals and organisations to successfully establish, develop and maintain appropriate business support structures that will allow:

- Informed senior management decision making on strategic alignment, prioritisation, risk management, optimisation of resource etc to successfully deliver their business objectives (portfolio management)
- Identification and realisation of business outcomes and benefits via programmes
-Successful delivery of project outputs that enable benefits within time, cost and quality restraints.

The guidance will provide:

- An introduction to P30 - discussing why, when and how to use P30 models including the difference between portfolios, programmes and project environments and their different requirements
- Value - what value P30 can bring to the organisation including a business case, funding models and performance measures
- Model - an overview of the different P30 models with examples
- Functions and Techniques - details on the functions/services and techniques/tools used by units of a P30 model

For dates and prices please visit our website

Wednesday 20 January 2010

Project, Programme and Change Management Free Briefing

At the Maven Training Centre Friday 29th January, London

Here are Maven HQ we are always looking for ways to help you keep up to date with the latest developments. This month we are launching a new range of free briefings designed to help introduce the qualifications that are essential to today’s professionals. We give a brief over view of suitable methods, framework and show under what circumstances each is appropriate.

The Project Management Free Briefing overviews PRINCE2 ®, APM Introductory Certificate, APMP and P3O®.

Programme Managers Free Briefing looks at MSP®- Managing Successful Programmes and M_o_R - Management of Risk.

Change Management Free Briefing takes you through the salient points of Change Management and discusses when it is useful and how to implement it within your organisation.

Book your place today

Monday 11 January 2010

Building Organisational Culture of Capacity

Capacity is having sufficient quantities of appropriately skilled resources to meet business need. Capacity is built by mapping resources and then building a community where your staff are proud to hold their skills.

To build capacity in your organisation carry out the following:

• Resource Gap Analysis
• Build a Resource Database
• Build a Community
• Community Peer System
• Build a Brand for Your Community


Resource Gap Analysis
To build capacity, this initial picture must be mapped against planned resource usage, using knowledge of future business plans, intended strategic direction of the organisation and the projects and programmes already in the pipeline for delivery.

Build a Resource Database
Building capacity requires a fully populated resource database that captures current skill levels for each individual along with their experiences and preferences so that they can be assigned as opportunities present themselves.

Build a Community
To build organisational capability, the organisation needs to create an environment where having capability means that an individual is part of a community. There needs to be an explicit message that without capability, they cannot join the community.

Community Peer System
Individuals need to know that being a member of this community is advantageous and positive, that it is meaningful and desirable. The community has to have values and exhibit behaviours that they ascribe to or that they aspire to.

Build a Brand for Your Community
In some cases, development of a brand for this community can be helpful in developing a positive view of it. A brand is more than just a logo and a name, it encompasses the fundamental principles of the community. Anyone who hears about the community understands its purpose, its values and behaviours.

If you would like Maven Training to help you build staff capability and organisational resource capacity please call our team on 020 7403 7100

Tuesday 5 January 2010

Maven Training Accelerated Learning in new APM courses

Are you a Latte or Americano?....join Maven Training’s new cafe style APM courses.

Maven Training brings it’s renown passion and experience to the Association of Project Management range of Certificate courses launching in January in London. These courses showcase the new accelerated learning techniques that help delegates learn quickly and efficiently so that they are ready to use their new skills when they return to the office.

Maven Training is not selling coffee but they do use the Cafe Style Learning in their new APMIC and APMP. You may think that you are going to spend a the time sitting quietly making notes while your trainer works through the syllabus. But on a Maven APMIC and APMP course you have to do a bit more which helps you to learn faster and better.

Just as we all like our favourite style of coffee, we all have different learning styles. You may already know whether your style is visual, aural, read/write or kinaesthetic. All of these learning styles are catered for with cafe style course where the delegates sit in small groups so that they can discuss the life-like exercises with their co-learners and then report back their findings. This satisfies the audio and kinaesthetic learners as they can and be involved with discussions about what they would expect to deal with in the scenario given.

You may not be Picasso but if your learning style is visual then your drawing skills will be used to help you to study and understand the structure of leadership and management. The APMIC and APMP courses are unique in that it allow delegates to gain practical skills for how to implement their project. Married with practical training techniques this course is an enjoyable and effective way to increase the effectiveness of Project Managers.

APMIC is the Association of Project Management Introductory Certificate which combined with the Practitioner qualification, covers project lifecycle, Project Management as a job, feasibility analysis, business case and risks, project planning, scheduling, quality and change control, documents, deliverables, people, sign off, hand over and lessons learned.

APMIC and APMP is an established qualification but Maven Training gives it a fresh approach by introducing these accelerated learning techniques to help delegates enjoy their course and quickly gain skills that will be invaluable in their workplace.

The industry's view of Maven’s APM courses :

• "We are thrilled to bring our expertise and skills in accelerated learning to the APM qualifications ." Melanie Franklin - CEO – Maven Training

• "Our approach to the APMIC and APMP qualifications is to give the delegate a clear understanding with experienced trainers and well laid out and clear course notes.” Lisa Peacey - Senior Course Developer – Maven Training

Please check our website at www.maventraining.co.uk for further information on these courses.

Monday 4 January 2010

Building Individual Staff’s Capability

Capability is having the ability, potential, aptitude, facility, and qualifications to meet the needs of business today. We expect staff to continually develop new abilities and aptitude at a pace that matches the transformational change taking place within our organisations.

To build capability in your organisation:

• Identify Skills Gap
• Individual Development Path
• Individual Development Plan
• Training Needs Analysis
• Implement Learning Interventions
• Post Learning Activities
• Performance Support
• Give long term support
• Build a Community


Identify Skills Gap
To build capability, this initial picture must be mapped against the required skill set for effective project, programme and change management.

Individual Development Path
To move towards the required skill set involves creating individual development paths as each person starts from a unique position and will have their own desired state – some will wish to develop greater technical ability and others will search for further management opportunities.

Individual Development Plan
A personal development plan cannot be imposed upon someone. Building capability must be a joint effort between each individual and the organisation. Individuals supply the willingness to learn new skills and the organisation provides training courses, management support and practice opportunities in the form of secondments, transfers to new projects and increases in responsibility and authority levels.

Training Needs Analysis
A training needs analysis identifies required training courses and events based upon any skills gaps and for each course pre and post course support activities can be identified. These include briefings by managers to their staff before a course begins to identify with the individual their personal objectives for the course and the objectives that the manager seeks to fulfil on behalf of their team, department and organisation overall.

Implement Learning Interventions
There are many learning options available, you may decide that your staff would learn well on a bespoke training course which can then be followed up with a workshop where your staff can work through real life examples. Senior staff or those on high profile programme or projects may benefit from one to one coaching or mentoring to help with and developing a blueprint and mapping out specific issues.

Post Learning Activities
Post course activities include developing communities of practice and performance support. Communities of practice are effective if they provide access to best practice and a supportive environment in which individuals can share their difficulties in applying new skills and share ideas for how problems can be solved.

Performance Support
Performance support gives help at the point of need. Often, these are short interventions which answer specific ‘how do I?’ type questions. Building capability means that the organisation allows people to practice and accepts the risk that on their first attempts they might get it wrong and resists the temptation to blame them for their early mistakes.

Build a Community
Building capability requires organisations to commit long term effort, investing time and energy in encouraging staff to learn new skills, work in different ways and adopt new technology. They must also provide relevant support as individuals practice these new approaches until they become second nature.

If you would like Maven Training to help you build staff capability and organisational resource capacity please call our team on 020 7403 7100

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