Project Management Core Skills for Business Professionals Training Course

Course overview

Business professionals are often asked to coordinate projects without holding a formal project manager title: launching a service, implementing a system change, relocating a team, improving a process, or delivering a client commitment. The work becomes difficult when objectives are unclear, responsibilities overlap, deadlines move, and managers receive progress updates that do not reveal emerging risks. This course provides a disciplined way to turn an assigned initiative into a controlled project with a defined scope, credible plan, accountable owners, and decision-ready reporting.

Participants learn the practical core of project management from initiation through closeout. They develop a project charter, scope statement, work breakdown structure, activity network, schedule, responsibility assignment matrix, risk register, stakeholder map, communication plan, and change-control log. The course also covers estimating, sequencing work, managing dependencies, tracking milestones, interpreting schedule and cost variance, leading project meetings, and escalating issues with clear options and recommendations. Microsoft Project, Excel, and Jira are used to show how these methods operate in common workplace environments.

Teaching combines instructor-led demonstrations with a running business case that participants develop across the five days. Teams plan a realistic cross-functional project, respond to late requirements and delivery risks, and present a status report to a simulated steering group. Each participant leaves with a completed Project Management Core Pack: a reusable set of linked templates and a 90-day application plan for an active or upcoming project. This course suits professionals who need to manage work across functions and managers who need staff to produce reliable plans, visible controls, and concise project reporting.

Course objectives

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

• Create a project charter that defines business case, objectives, scope, assumptions, constraints, governance, and success measures
• Build a work breakdown structure that converts project scope into manageable deliverables and work packages
• Develop a dependency-based schedule using activity sequencing, duration estimates, milestones, and critical-path logic
• Assign project responsibilities through a RACI matrix and resource-loading assumptions
• Produce a stakeholder map and communication plan tailored to influence, information needs, and decision rights
• Maintain a risk register using probability-impact scoring, response actions, owners, triggers, and contingency plans
• Control scope changes through impact assessment, change requests, approval routes, and baseline updates
• Present a concise project status report using milestone progress, RAG indicators, variance analysis, issues, and decisions required

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Business Analysts — who translate business needs into coordinated delivery work
• Team Leaders and Supervisors — who must plan and control improvement or implementation initiatives
• Operations Managers — who lead cross-functional projects while protecting day-to-day performance
• Project Coordinators — who need stronger planning, reporting, and governance methods
• Subject Matter Experts — who are assigned workstream ownership without formal project management training
• New or Aspiring Project Managers — who need a practical foundation before managing larger projects

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience working in a business team and basic familiarity with workplace projects, such as contributing to a deadline-driven initiative, attending status meetings, or coordinating tasks across colleagues. They should be comfortable using spreadsheets, entering data into tables, and working with dates, calendars, and simple charts. Prior use of Microsoft Project or Jira is helpful but not required; guided exercises introduce the relevant features. Formal project management certification, advanced Excel skills, budgeting expertise, and prior experience as a project manager are not required. Complete beginners should expect structured terminology and practical planning exercises from the first day.

Training methodology

The course is delivered through instructor-led workshops, short demonstrations, and a five-day business case involving a cross-functional service implementation. Participants build project documents in sequence rather than completing isolated exercises: charter, scope, work breakdown structure, schedule, RACI, risk register, communications plan, and status report. Microsoft Project, Excel, and Jira examples show how planning and controls transfer into common work systems. Group reviews simulate project team meetings and sponsor decisions, while individual application planning connects the methods to a participant’s own project.

Course outline

Day 1: Initiating and defining a controllable project

• Projects, operations, programmes, and portfolios
• Business cases and measurable project objectives
• Project charter components and approval criteria
• Scope statements, exclusions, assumptions, and constraints
• Deliverables versus activities and acceptance criteria
• Project governance roles and decision rights
• Stakeholder identification and influence-interest mapping

Workshop: Participants create a project charter, scope statement, and initial stakeholder map for the course business case.

Day 2: Planning scope, work, resources, and time

• Work breakdown structure design and coding
• Work packages, control accounts, and planning detail
• Activity definition and rolling-wave planning
• Precedence relationships and dependency types
• Duration estimating using expert judgement and analogous estimates
• Milestones, schedule baselines, and critical-path logic
• RACI matrices and resource responsibility planning

Workshop: Participants decompose the case scope into a work breakdown structure and build a dependency-based schedule in Microsoft Project or Excel.

Day 3: Managing risk, quality, stakeholders, and communication

• Risk identification techniques and risk categorisation
• Probability-impact scoring and risk heat maps
• Avoidance, mitigation, transfer, acceptance, and contingency responses
• Issue logs, decision logs, and escalation thresholds
• Quality criteria, review points, and acceptance controls
• Stakeholder engagement strategies and resistance analysis
• Communication plans, meeting cadences, and information radiators

Workshop: Teams produce a scored risk register, issue-escalation route, and stakeholder communication plan for the case project.

Day 4: Executing, monitoring, and controlling delivery

• Kick-off meetings and workstream mobilisation
• Task tracking and milestone reporting in Jira
• Schedule tracking, slippage analysis, and recovery actions
• Planned versus actual progress and RAG status criteria
• Cost tracking concepts and basic earned value measures
• Scope change requests and impact assessment
• Project status reports and steering-group decision papers

Workshop: Participants analyse a simulated project update, revise the plan for delays and changes, and prepare a sponsor-ready status report.

Day 5: Closing projects and applying core practice

• Managing handover, transition, and operational readiness
• Deliverable acceptance and closure checklists
• Benefits tracking and post-implementation review measures
• Lessons learned capture and knowledge transfer
• Project document version control and audit trail
• PMBOK-aligned project management terminology and practices
• Personal project application planning and stakeholder briefing

Workshop: Participants complete and present their Project Management Core Pack, including an application plan for a live workplace initiative.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Project, Microsoft Excel, Jira, PMBOK Guide

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