Training Hub

To understand stakeholder management, first we will need to understand what a stakeholder is.

To simply explain this, it is a person or a group of persons who has a certain interest in something particularly the matters of an organization. They can affect of get affected by the matters of the company. They can particularly be the investors or sponsors, employees, suppliers and customers however according to modern theories it can also include trade association, government and community.

They are further divided into two categories i.e. internal stakeholders and external stakeholders.

Internal Stakeholders:

The people who are greatly affected by the outcome of the business are internal stakeholders.

External Stakeholders:

They are a little hard to identify because they do not have a direct link to the matters of the company or the outcomes of the business but they are somehow related to the operations of the business. If we take an example of the Government, it does have an influence over the business because they make rules about the things a company can or cannot do and that impacts the operations. Similarly community does not have a direct impact but is greatly impacted by the operations of the company if the operations of the company is disturbing the environment the community lives in i.e. wastage or carbon emissions.

Defining stakeholder management:

It is a process of maintaining good relationship with people who are interested or affected by your business. To keep them on board, communicating with them in the right way is very important.

Stakeholder Management depends upon a few key principles:

1. Communicate.

2. Consult, early and often.

3. Remember, they’re only human.

4. Plan it!

5. Relationships are key.

6. Simple, but not easy.

7. Just part of managing risk.

8. Compromise.

9. Understand what success is .

10. Take responsibility.

Why is stakeholder management important?

There are a plenty of reasons why it is important to manage your stakeholders, some of them are:

l Reputation.

l Competitive advantage.

l Corporate governance.

l Risk management.

l Social license to operate.

All of these factors are important for a business and its undergoing projects and can be used as a good impact.

Develop stakeholder strategy:

Many important factors should be kept in mind while dealing with stakeholders. We need to develop a proper strategy in order to make sure that we are getting what we need from the stakeholders for the good of the business.

How we manage our stakeholders depend upon the:

l The complexity and size of the project.

l The exact amount of help needed in order to get your project done.

l The time you can spend on communication in order to get things right.

How to manage everything related to stakeholders?

1. Summarise Each Stakeholder's Status.

2. Decide What You Want From Each Stakeholder.

3. Identify Your Key Message to Each Stakeholder.

4. Identify Your Stakeholder Communication Approach.

5. Implement Your Stakeholder Management Plan.

You can get a very effective course online which contains realistic questions regarding project management online through this link:

https://www.udemy.com/course/pmp-1000-exceptionally-realistic-practice-questions/?referralCode=76C41F5D52C04501C54E

Resources:

https://twitter.com/EllaJohnson1199  

https://www.facebook.com/traininghub11/

https://www.instagram.com/_training_hub/

Project Cost Management, as it is obvious from the term is the management of the cost that the company/organization/owner has to bear for the completion of a certain project.

It involves the planning and budgeting of all the possible expenditure for the completion of a project or a business.

Planning is needed before taking any step in a business because we cannot step into anything new without having an idea about the outcomes and what it will cost us because no one has an unlimited budget. Only a certain amount of finances from a company or a person can be spent on a project or a business.

In the planning phase, costs are carefully assigned to the parts of the projects and then closely monitored if everything is going according to the plan or not.

How successful was the planning and budgeting can be checked by comparing the planned cost and the cost that has actually incurred. By doing this, Cost Management of the future projects can be done more efficiently if any point was missed now.

The budget that is planned is first approved by the executive involved in the financing of the project and then took to the next step.

Basically, the success of a project depends upon the TRIPLE CONSTRAINT which revolves around three metrics, Time, Cost and Scope. Imbalance in one can disturb the project badly, hence it needs to be taken care of.

There are three really important steps in Project Cost Management:

l Estimate Costs.

l Determine Budget.

l Control Costs.

Estimate Costs:

A process which can estimate what input is needed financially and then work on it.

A Cost management plan should be projected and the a human resource management plan should be presented keeping the view in mind that what kind of workforce is needed to complete this project. A proper scope baseline should be placed. A Project schedule should be planned. A risk register should be made just in case anything unusual happens. Enterprise environmental factors should be kept in mind too and organizational process assets should be checked.

The tools and techniques that are needed are:

l Expert judgment.

l Analogous estimating.

l Parametric estimating.

l Bottom-up estimating.

l Three-point estimating.

l Reserve analysis.

l Cost of quality.

l Project management software.

l Vendor bid analysis.

l Group decision-making techniques.

We move on to the next step after evaluating the outputs.

Determine Budget:

A comprehensive budget is determined after the estimation of cost and it is compared with what company have in box for the concerned project.

Following tools and techniques are needed in order to complete this step:

l Cost aggregation.

l Reserve analysis.

l Expert judgment.

l Historical relationships.

l Funding limit reconciliation.

The next and final step is to control the cost.

Control costs:

Project management plan should be implemented properly and project funding requirements should be completed. Work performance data should be analyzed and  organization process assets should be reviewed.

Following tools and techniques are needed in order to control the costs:

l Earned value management

l Forecasting

l To-complete performance index (TCPI)

l Performance reviews

l Project management software

l Reserve analysis

You can get a very effective course online which contains realistic questions regarding project management online through this link:

https://www.udemy.com/course/pmp-1000-exceptionally-realistic-practice-questions/?referralCode=76C41F5D52C04501C54E

Resources:

https://twitter.com/EllaJohnson1199  

https://www.facebook.com/traininghub11/

https://www.instagram.com/_training_hub/

It is the origin and center point of the service life cycle in ITIL. It provides enhanced guidance over what should be prioritised while giving services in service provider investments. It relies largely upon market driven approach. Basically, it helps IT organisations to develop and improve over long term.

What is the purpose of service strategy?

The main purpose of the service strategy is to define clearly the perspective, position, plans, and patterns that are needed to bring the desirable outcome for the organisation.

What are the objectives of service strategy?

l The first objective is to make us clearly understand what a strategy actually is.

l Then the second objective revolves around the meaning of services and the customers who actually use them.

l The third objective revolves around defining what how the value should be created and then delivered to the customers that required the services.

l Fourth point circulates around the need to give opportunity to provide better services.

l Fifth point is to get a clear and proper model of what services are needed and how they will be funded and delivered. Its purpose needs to be defined too.

What is the scope of service strategy?

To explain the scope, it has to be started with basics. We need to discuss the generic principles and processes related to service management and how these generic principles are applied with consistency to the management of IT courses.

A little overview to understand service strategy better:

Applying the service strategy in your projects will help you learn how to adopt and implement for consistent approaches.

l It will enable the service provider understand how the success rate of the project of customers accordingly and support this service to optimally deliver the requirements.

l A service provider must be seen putting effort into the project and be able to get value out of the work. This means that he should be able to bring outcome between planning and the results.

l To attain a competitive advantage over time, a service provider must be quick in responding to whatever queries are brought forward.

l The concept of the creation and maintenance of the quantified service’s portfolio should be supported.

l Functional and transparent communication should take place between the customer and the service provider.

l ITIL service strategy is basically aimed at all the managers and executives who are majorly responsible for defining the strategy of a service provider.

l They need to make the customer understand it better so that they can communicate their needs in a better way.

l Service provider should keep in touch with the customers and business unit leaders in order to design the service strategy better.

A very economical yet beneficial link of and online course relative to ITIL is stated in the following:

(ITIL 4 Certification Scheme)

https://www.udemy.com/course/itil-4-foundation-practice-certification-exams-6-exams-r/?referralCode=2C81756F8B88E57046E3

Resources:

https://twitter.com/EllaJohnson1199  

https://www.facebook.com/traininghub11/

https://www.instagram.com/_training_hub/

To excel in any certification or qualification one has to be very considerate about the curriculum of its subjects and the material one has to cover to get a full grip on the subject or certification or a qualification.

Before discussing the syllabus, we’ll go for the Exam Format first:

Number of questions:

There are 120 questions for this exam in which there are 20 questions that are called pre-test or random questions whose score is not included in the final result.

Type of questions:

All of these questions are multiple choice questions with four options each

Duration of exam:

The duration of the exam is three hours.

Type of exam:

It is a computer based exam taken in a certain exam centre.

Syllabus:

Now coming on to the actual part, The syllabus of this exam is lined out as “Domains of Practices”.

There are seven domains of practices for the Agile Certified Practitioner exam.

Domain I Agile Principles and Mindset:

This domain covers 16% syllabus of ACP exam questions.

Domain II Value-driven Delivery:

This domain covers 20% syllabus of ACP exam questions.

Domain III Stakeholder Engagement:

This domain covers 17% syllabus of ACP exam questions.

Domain IV Team Performance:

This domain covers 16% syllabus of ACP exam questions.

Domain V Adaptive Planning:

This domain covers 12% syllabus of ACP exam questions.

Domain VI Problem Detection and Resolution:

This domain covers 10% syllabus of ACP exam questions.

Domain VII. Continuous Improvement (Product, Process, People):

This domain covers 9% syllabus of ACP exam questions.

The outline for the exam content also contains two major parts, the are not allotted to a major portion but they are really important for the examination.

These two are:

l Agile Tools and Techniques.

l Agile Knowledge and Skills.

The know how of these two will make us able to know what a Agile Certified Practitioner should be able to master in. Some of these skills and tools are listed below:

1. Agile Analysis and Design.

2. Agile Estimation.

3. Communications.

4. Interpersonal Skills.

5. Metrics.

6. Planning, Monitoring, and Adapting.

7. Process Improvement.

8. Product Quality.

9. Risk Management.

10. Value-Based Prioritization.

All of these tools and skills will be able to make us into a productive Agile Certified Practitioner and they need to be explained separately due to the vastness of the topic.

Everything is summed into a compiled package in ACP, some of the traits to be adopted and some skills should be learnt which will make you perfect for the job and all these qualities will be really beneficial for your career as-well

Following link will lead you and amazing and comprehensive yet economical course online:

https://www.udemy.com/course/pmi-agile-certified-practitioner-pmi-acp-certification/?referralCode=390D240D50F0DC56324F

Resources:

https://twitter.com/EllaJohnson1199  

https://www.facebook.com/traininghub11/

https://www.instagram.com/_training_hub/

Project managers have to deal with many things while working on a certain project. A tiny change can alter the project and its undergoing progress a lot so it is better to understand how it is done properly in order to avoid convenience.

The sole purpose of change management is to ensure that a change is going to bring a positive result and the intended and expected results before the change was introduced. It is not entirely possible but to attain maximum benefit is preferable.

One huge change that can be expected or unexpected but it has a huge impact on the project is change in people.

Change is understood in different levels in an organisation i.e.

l Enterprise level

l Project level

l Individual level

Enterprise Level:

Competency and capability of an organisation.

Project level:

When we are taking multiple initiatives, the benefit and value creation of and for the organisation should be kept in mind.

Individual level :

It is an approach that depends of the one person to validate the change successfully.

Now as we are focusing on Project Management, we will focus on the project part.

l Meaning of change management at a project level

l Goal of change management

l Application of change management

Meaning of Change Management:

A technical definition of a certain terminology is very important while working in any aspect with a team to give them a better understanding upon which they are working on, so a technical definition taken from Prosci is:

“Change management is the application of a structured process and set of tools to manage the people side of change from a current state to a new future state such that the desired results of the change (and expected return on investment) are achieved."

Change management is not basically concerned to the audience but to the project managers and they keep the following terms in mind while going through it:

l Benefit realization.

l Results.

l Outcomes

l ROI

l Adoption.

l Usage.

l Cost.

l Risk.

So to perfectly elaborate what change management is, we must know that who are we talking to and about. While talking to the managers, its all about how we engage and why the change will bring a better outcome than the original plan. When we define it in-front of a proper practitioner then it bends to being a properly structures methodology which introduces strategies into the system and makes it easy for employees to adopt it while keeping in mind the quality of the project outcomes.

Goal of change management:

The main goal of change management is to make sure that the results that are expected from this project are achieved and outcome is generated. It also ensures that the comfort level of employees is not being broken and something foreign is not being introduced into the project which cannot be adapted by the employees and will result in a delay or less quality.

Apply change management at a project:

By following the given step, the process can be completed smoothly:

l Apply a Structured Methodology.

l Customize and Scale Your Approach.

l Dedicate (Or Find) a Resource.

l Work in Collaboration with the Project Team.

Resources:

https://twitter.com/EllaJohnson1199  

https://www.facebook.com/traininghub11/

https://www.instagram.com/_training_hub/

Risk is something that can never be avoided in a business. While projects are undergoing for the businesses and organisation, we can never say or tell that the project is planned out perfectly and nothing can go wrong. Anything can go wrong when the outcome is being achieved, there is no such thing as perfection because planning and execution are greatly related but totally different aspects. What we plan while making a project charter always leaves some space for risk because some things might not go according to as planned, so it needs to be fixed before it does a damage that cannot be comprehended.

For this specific task, project risk management does its wonders. Project managers are there to ensure that the risks that the project faces are kept minimal in order to avoid disappointment.

If we divide it further, risks are divided into two parts:

l Positive Risk Impact

l Negative Risk Impact

Risk Management basically comprises of four major steps mentioned as follows:

l Risk Identification

l Risk Quantification

l Risk Response

l Risk Monitoring and Control

Risk Identification:

Risks can be operational or business related and then handled by the relative teams. They can be supplier risk, resource risk and budget risk. It is very difficult for managers to comprehend the upcoming risks but it is an inevitable and unavoidable job as-well. The strategies to solve these risks could be structures or unstructured and brainstorming and experience is needed to deal with such matters and it is important to be kept in check that only project managers or the stakeholders of the project are ought to be handling these risks. Risks can be of many types for example if the supplier is not meeting the time-line to provide the raw supply to complete the project or human resource needed for the project is not available and the available ones are not skilled enough for the said job or if the costs are exceeding the given budget from the finance department. We always need to identify first what we are dealing with then move on to the next step.

Risk Quantification:

A process called by the name Matrix is used to evaluate the risk based on quantity. Through this process, the project managers can know numerically that what are the odds of a risk most likely to happen.

This is a matrix and through this the impact of a factor and the probability of happening of a risk can be comprehended.

Risk Response:

Strategies are chosen in order to keep the risk minimal. Following are some strategies lined up as risk response:

l Risks can be avoided

l Pass on the risk

l Take corrective measures to reduce the impact of risks

l Acknowledge the risk

Risk Monitoring and Control:

They are monitored at each step to check how is it going and if any change is being made, it is observed and identified by the project managers to eliminate or make the risk  minimal.

Resources:

https://twitter.com/EllaJohnson1199  

https://www.facebook.com/traininghub11/

https://www.instagram.com/_training_hub/