XCPD-481 - Planning and Controls

Course Description

Course Description

Successful projects start with sound planning. While establishing baselines is key to project success, measuring progress and adapting to changing circumstances is vital to accomplishing project objectives. This course looks at various measures of project performance and concentrates on how to keep a project on course by using insight into best practices in estimating schedules, costs, and resource requirements. Measuring progress requires that the data be current, complete, and accurate. To best use these data, a number of techniques have been developed that help measure project status. This course concentrates on one of the most successful project measures- earned value analysis. This technique has proven to be highly successful in assisting project managers to better measure where their projects stand.

Course Objectives

At the completion of the course, a successful student will be able to:

• Define the basic nature of estimation theory
• Explain the psychology of estimation
• Treat uncertainty in estimating
• Analyze data collection needs for project management
• Apply estimation theory, tools, and techniques to develop scope, schedule, and cost baseline estimates
• Describe earned value and how it is applied in measuring project management schedule and cost performance
• Compare the basic elements of baseline change control and how to apply them in project management
• Describe the essential elements of project process control