Dear Mr. Munyai…

What kind of response can you expect from us to meet your organisation’s needs in respect of Project Management training? This letter was written to a prospective client by one of our directors on 18 December 2017. We’ve added links to the text, but besides that, we’ve changed nothing except for the client’s name.

Dear Mr. Munyai

Thank you for your enquiry about in-house training.

Below is a summary of what we discussed, namely how we typically conduct the first phase of assisting an organisation in implementing formal Project Management via training. Some of the final steps may overlap.

1 – Senior management engagement. This may take the form of a telephone call or e-mail conversation with the senior person in charge of the organisation, department or division. The purpose of this step is to get consensus on the approach, and to get agreement on the steps which require this senior person’s approval.

2 – Obtain organisational artefacts. Here, we request relevant information, such as details on the organisation’s vision, strategies and existing systems and projects, and the organogram showing all the people who will be participating in the next steps.

3 – Questionnaires. The participants in the next steps complete an online questionnaire which have been customised to provide the facilitators with the initial context for the steps to follow. The questionnaires are approved by the organisation’s designated person before being mailed out to everyone.

4 – Goal-setting. The goal of the Workshop (see below) is set out.

5 – Workshop preparation. We design a workshop to satisfy the goal, and make logistics arrangements in collaboration with the you.

6 – Workshop (2-3 days). The Workshop involves team work and exercises, and flexes to address the issues which arise from the discussions. The outputs from the Workshop may include an outline of focus areas for the team, as well as consensus on how the success of the implementation will be measured, e.g. through cutting down the time it takes to perform specific named processes, and thereby saving money.

7 – Online entrenchment programme. The participants do an online course to embed the common language of Project Management over 3 months. (This requires approx. 30 minutes per day.) Common language is seen as the first tier of Project Management maturity in an organisation, according to various models.

8 – Online discussion. Participants engage online to discuss topics and issues presented by the facilitators. These discussions do not have a standard formula: they are devised to support the goals of the organisation and team, and are developed specifically for the organisation, to meet specific goals. This discussion is usually done in parallel with the online entrenchment programme.

9 – Training the scheduler(s). One or more individuals are selected from the organisation to undergo scheduler training, to use Microsoft Project to plan and report on the organisation’s projects. This is the first step towards establishing a Project Management Office.

10 – Stage-gate discussion. The facilitators discuss the progress with the organisation’s leader(s) and set goals for the next steps.

I trust that this will help you to provide some context to your colleagues. I think you will also find it helpful to read our 10 Principles and Considerations for training organisations.

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions at this stage.

Best regards

MARIUS CLOETE
Director: Organisational Learning

Tel +27 21 949 2077

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