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Project Planning With PM Training...

Every area of industry and commerce can be improved with Project Management. Training for a career in Project Management will lead to some really absorbing and satisfying assignments in industry. If you have a methodical mind and can structure your thoughts well, this could be right for you. Additionally, people skills will stand a project manager in good stead as exacting projects need everyone's compliance.

...On Track, On Price!

Companies today want everything to come in on time, at the right quality and within the original budget. Shareholders want profits and customers want value and convenience. Unless production is managed with a fine toothcomb, that's not going to happen easily! Learning the skills to utilise commercial resources in the most lean and efficient manner will enable you to enter this well-paid and well-thought of profession.

Training courses in Project Management can be sought from various different companies. These range from the basic fundamentals of planning, goal-setting, budgeting and executing projects to advanced management techniques on the most complex of projects and programmes.

Language

Project Management has a good deal of terminology that students need to comprehend. In addition to language you'll need to learn the principles involved, and the most important PM skills and techniques. Not all project managers use the same approach, but introductory programmes will equip you with a certain amount of flexibility to join most teams.

A Recent Discipline?

It sounds like a very modern application, but in fact you could say project management is as old as the pyramids!

In the Industrial Revolution, civil engineers such as Thomas Telford and Brunel would have taken responsibility for project managing their own builds.

The early 1900's saw the development of PM tools and techniques, with Henry Gantt producing his Gantt chart and Henri Fayol proposing five primary management functions and fourteen principles of management. Fayolism was one of the first comprehensive general management theory statements and the management functions and principles it described still have relevancy today. Fayol's principles of management refer to how people are managed to best effect.

The Story Of Modern Project Management

Fast forward to the 1950's, and we see the beginnings of Project Management as we know it today - with the systematic application in the USA of PM tools and techniques to complex projects. The Polaris missile project involved so many different aspects that a new management system had to be developed to handle it. The solution came in the form of a new network chart known as PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique). Private enterprise quickly caught on to this and other mathematical techniques for managing projects. In 1956 the American Association of Cost Engineers was formed as technology for cost control was developed.

International Project Management Association (IPMA)

The International Project Management Association was formed in 1967. Initiated in Switzerland, it was created to promote project management internationally. Training from the IMPA comes as a four level program that is designed as an on-going competence development process.

Project Management Institute (PMI)

Shortly afterwards in 1969 the American 'Project Management Institute' was launched. PMI publishes a guide to the 'Project Management Body of Knowledge' (known as the PMBOK Guide). It provides the fundamentals of Project Management as they apply to a great cross-section of projects. In addition to the general guide, specialised extensions have now been produced which cover the unique aspects of certain industries (e.g. Government, construction etc). Professional training programs can teach you what you need to know. These prepare students for the most widely recognised Project Management certifications across the globe, which in conjunction with on-going experience in the field will really advance your professional career.

PRINCE2:2009

In the UK, PRINCE2 is a very popular project management method, and there are many companies providing training programs in it. PRINCE2 2009 describes forty different activities that can be organised into seven processes. It has recently been updated to the 2009 version, so students of PRINCE2 will learn the latest techniques of this framework model. The model ensures that the focus is always on the viability of the project in relation to the overall business objectives. Based on management by exception, it's efficient and exacting.

Other training options include degrees that incorporate project management modules, and also of course pure project management degrees. Essentially your training needs to cover skills and techniques that you can perfect as you build your real life experience in industry. Draw up a critical path now to work out the optimum career track for you.