PMBOK Guide Project Management Practices Training Course

Course overview

Projects often fail in execution not because teams lack effort, but because scope, schedule, costs, risks, stakeholders, and delivery decisions are managed through disconnected documents and informal judgement. Project managers must translate organisational strategy into a workable delivery approach, establish reliable governance, and respond to change without losing control of commitments. This PMBOK Guide Project Management Practices Training Course equips experienced practitioners to apply PMBOK Guide principles and performance domains to real project conditions rather than treating them as a checklist of terms or processes.

Participants examine how to tailor a project management approach for predictive, adaptive, and hybrid delivery environments. They practise defining value and success measures; developing scope baselines and work breakdown structures; sequencing work and estimating schedules; managing budgets, quality, resources, procurement, risks, issues, and stakeholder engagement; and using earned value and performance information to support decisions. The course also addresses governance, change control, delivery measurement, and the relationship between project work and intended business outcomes.

Delivery combines instructor-led explanation with a continuing case study, planning workshops, peer review, and decision-based exercises. Participants work through a project scenario using PMBOK Guide concepts, Microsoft Project scheduling techniques, Jira workflow examples, and practical templates. They leave with a tailored project management plan pack containing a project charter, stakeholder engagement approach, WBS, schedule logic, risk register, change-control workflow, and performance dashboard outline that can be adapted for a live project.

The course is designed for project professionals who already coordinate projects or work packages and now need a more disciplined, defensible approach to planning, governance, and delivery control. It is equally valuable for managers responsible for approving project methods, reviewing status reports, or improving consistency across a project portfolio.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Tailor a PMBOK Guide-aligned delivery approach for predictive, adaptive, and hybrid projects
• Develop a project charter that defines objectives, value measures, authority, assumptions, and success criteria
• Create a scope baseline using requirements documentation, a work breakdown structure, and acceptance criteria
• Build a network schedule with dependencies, critical path analysis, milestones, and resource-aware estimates
• Construct a risk register with qualitative analysis, response ownership, triggers, and contingency actions
• Design stakeholder engagement and communications plans using power-interest analysis and information needs
• Apply earned value measures, variance analysis, and forecasting to produce a project performance dashboard
• Prepare a change-control workflow that evaluates impacts on scope, schedule, cost, risk, and benefits

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Project Managers — who need to establish repeatable planning, governance, and control practices across complex projects
• Senior Project Coordinators — who are moving from administrative support into ownership of workstreams and delivery controls
• Programme Managers — who need consistent project reporting and escalation methods across dependent initiatives
• PMO Managers and Analysts — who define project templates, assurance reviews, and portfolio reporting standards
• Operations Managers — who sponsor change projects and need clearer visibility of delivery commitments and risks
• Business Analysts and Workstream Leads — who translate requirements into controlled scope, acceptance, and delivery plans

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience contributing to or leading projects, workstreams, or operational change initiatives. They should already understand basic project terms such as scope, milestone, dependency, budget, risk, issue, stakeholder, and status report. Familiarity with spreadsheets and the ability to interpret a simple Gantt chart are assumed; prior use of Microsoft Project or Jira is helpful but not essential. Participants do not need PMP certification, PMI membership, advanced statistics, or prior earned value experience. This is not a beginner’s introduction to project management, and complete newcomers should first build foundational project coordination knowledge.

Training methodology

The five-day course uses short instructor-led sessions to establish PMBOK Guide concepts, followed by hands-on application to a single cross-functional project case. Participants build and review a charter, WBS, schedule, risk register, stakeholder map, and control dashboard in stages, testing decisions against changing project conditions. Small-group workshops examine governance dilemmas, schedule trade-offs, procurement risks, and change requests. The final day includes an individual application-planning session in which each participant adapts the course plan pack to a current or proposed workplace project.

Course outline

Day 1: PMBOK Guide foundations and project value

• PMBOK Guide principles and the system for value delivery
• Project performance domains and their practical interactions
• Predictive, adaptive, and hybrid delivery life cycles
• Tailoring methods to project context, uncertainty, and governance needs
• Business case alignment and benefits realisation measures
• Project charter development and sponsor-authority boundaries
• Project success criteria, assumptions, constraints, and decision rights

Workshop: Participants analyse a project brief and produce a tailored delivery approach and draft project charter for the course case.

Day 2: Scope, schedule, resources, and cost baselines

• Requirements elicitation, traceability, and acceptance criteria
• Scope statement development and scope baseline control
• Work breakdown structure construction and work package definition
• Activity sequencing using finish-to-start, lead, and lag relationships
• Critical path method and schedule network analysis
• Duration estimating, resource calendars, and schedule assumptions
• Cost estimating, contingency reserves, and baseline approval

Workshop: Participants create a WBS, dependency network, milestone schedule, and initial cost assumptions for the case project.

Day 3: Quality, resources, procurement, and stakeholder practice

• Quality planning using requirements, metrics, and acceptance methods
• Resource planning, responsibility assignment matrices, and team working agreements
• Stakeholder identification and power-interest mapping
• Stakeholder engagement assessment and communication planning
• Procurement strategy, make-or-buy analysis, and contract risk
• Supplier performance controls and procurement change considerations
• Team performance, conflict management, and escalation pathways

Workshop: Participants develop a stakeholder engagement plan, RACI matrix, quality measures, and procurement risk profile for the case.

Day 4: Risk, uncertainty, governance, and change control

• Risk, issue, assumption, dependency, and opportunity distinctions
• Risk identification techniques including prompts, interviews, and cause-event-effect statements
• Qualitative risk analysis using probability-impact matrices and risk appetite
• Risk response strategies, ownership, triggers, and contingency planning
• Integrated change control and configuration management principles
• Governance gates, decision logs, escalation thresholds, and assurance reviews
• Adaptive planning responses to uncertainty and emerging information

Workshop: Participants facilitate a risk workshop and produce a prioritised risk register with response actions and a change-control workflow.

Day 5: Measurement, reporting, and workplace application

• Performance measurement baselines and status-data quality
• Earned value measures: PV, EV, AC, CPI, and SPI
• Variance analysis, estimate at completion, and forecast interpretation
• Project dashboards for schedule, cost, risk, quality, and benefits
• Microsoft Project schedule tracking and baseline comparison
• Jira workflow reporting for adaptive and hybrid delivery teams
• Lessons learned, project closure, transition, and benefits handover

Workshop: Participants complete a project performance review and assemble a tailored project management plan pack with a 90-day workplace application plan.

Tools & standards covered

PMBOK Guide – Seventh Edition, PMI Process Groups: A Practice Guide, Microsoft Project, Jira Software

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions