This course is ideal for those who manage small to medium sized digital projects, particularly those who are new to their role or who are not project management specialists.

Whether your goal is to produce or update a website, app, IT system, or any other digital product, effective project management is critical to your ultimate success.

And yet, many people tasked with leading a project are not specialist or trained project managers, and often have to fulfil this role alongside many other responsibilities. New project managers often lack the experience or skills to recognise and tackle problems before they get out of control, and many don’t have the confidence to have difficult conversations inside the business and with external stakeholders.

Inevitably, this means an unstructured approach, unclear goals and communication, and eventually, project overruns and failures.

It is vital then, that those leading digital projects are properly equipped with a clear process for each project that enables co-ordination, sets and manages expectations and agrees clearly defined goals for each stage. They also need the skills and confidence to keep key stakeholders informed and on-board, and to address challenging issues as they arise.

This ‘Managing Digital Projects’ course has been designed to address the needs of non-specialists who have been given digital project management responsibilities and who want to develop a professional, organised and structured approach. It is a practical and realistic programme, with a raft of tools and techniques to make your role easier and more effective.

By the end of the Leading Projects course delegates will learn to:

• Define the scope of the project
• Agree Critical Success Factors
• Understand and use an agreed process
• Manage the project team
• Apply project monitoring and control techniques
• Use risk analysis and management
• Manage expectations throughout the project
• Keep key stakeholders on board at each stage
• Maintain stakeholder communication using the RACI model
• Manage delays and overspend
• Have difficult conversations early and effectively

This training is very interactive with delegates involved in activities, case studies, team challenges, discussions and practical exercises that bring the material to life. Action planning forms a central component to ensure the training makes a difference back at work.   Delegates will also get a chance to address real challenges from their current projects over the course of the day.

Below is an outline of what can be covered. Depending on whether you prefer a one or a two day course, we can work with you to identify which elements to emphasise to make best use of the training time..

What does great project management look like?

• What’s the purpose of a project manager?
• What does a great project manager do?
• Where are our strengths and weaknesses as project managers?

The project management process

• Understanding what process will be used
• Agreeing the definitions used
• Defining the key responsibilities of the Project Manager, team and stakeholders

 Agreeing the scope of the project

• Agreeing the scope – the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of projects
• Managing complexity - what can you define / not define? / what are the accepted risks
• Identifying key markers for success
• Managing scope creep

Managing an agile-type process

• Making the most of the daily / weekly/ fortnightly meetings or touch points
• What is your DOD (Definition of Done) at each stage of the project?
• Managing the project team, including staff who are working on different projects
• Managing the burn throughout the project
• Managing risk – up and down

Managing the expectations of stakeholders

• Stakeholder mapping
• Managing expectations as the project evolves and if things ‘slip’
• Negotiating and influencing skills to keep stakeholders on board

Managing challenging conversations during project management

• What sorts of challenging conversations do we have?
• Five communication styles and which ones give the best result
• Emotional intelligence – managing how we respond under pressure
• Preparing for your own difficult conversations with stakeholders

Evaluating projects for outcomes not just outputs

Action planning

Strengths Finder assessment coaching (optional)

There is the option for delegates to complete the Clifton Strengths Finder online assessment that identifies their top five strengths.  Delegates then have a one to one coaching call with our coach to discuss how they use these strengths during their projects, what the ‘shadow’ sides of strengths are (i.e. how they can be over-played under pressure) and how they can use their strengths more actively in their role.