Intensive 3-day Workshop in Project Management

Now in its 9th year, the Intensive 3-day Workshop in Project Management is the only Project Management event in Namibia specifically designed to work towards all three dimensions of competency set out in the Project Manager Competency Framework of the Project Management Institute (PMI^®).

The Workshop is developed to make an immediate impact on the way you manage your projects. It also provides a first step towards international certification.

Read what people are saying about the Workshop.

What makes the Workshop different

The Workshop centres around the specific needs which you express in your Expertise Questionnaire and on the morning of Day 1. (This is different from a regular syllabus-based short course in Project Management, and adds immediate value to your actual work.)

The Workshop also counts as Module 1 of the Practical Certification Programme in Project Management.

If you’re sending a group of participants to the Workshop, please talk to us about what you’re hoping to achieve in the organisation or with your team. This will help us structure conversations and exercises towards these goals.

Where

The Workshop is held at the Safari Hotel and conference complex (near Eros Airport) in Windhoek. For convenience, participants from Angola and other neighbouring countries sometimes prefer to stay in one of the hotels on site, but there’s also guest house and self-catering accommodation available nearby.

What happens in the Workshop?

Expand the links below to see what you can expect on each day of the Workshop.

Day 1

Before you arrive

Before you attend the Workshop, you’ll fill in an online questionnaire in which you explain what you’re good at, what’s challenging for you, and what you hope to achieve. The Facilitator, Tania Melnyczuk, then sets out the teams for the Workshop, based on the questionnaires. (If you’re new to projects, she’ll will place you in a team based on your industry or other considerations.)

Your arrival at the Workshop

The discipline of Project Management centres around the management of risk in projects. Even as you arrive, you’ll already be dealing with the results of up-front risk management (or, the lack thereof). Some risks lie completely beyond your control, e.g. Will the hotel deliver the coffee on time? There are other risks that you will need to manage yourself by doing the necessary preparation for the Workshop. If all goes well, you’ll meet your team by 07:45.

As the Workshop begins

At the start of the Workshop, the learning facilitator summarises your goals and turns them into requirements, explaining why and how this process is formalised in standards-based Project Management.

As the Workshop progresses

The learning of Project Management principles flows from the discussion of these requirements, and later on also from exercises using Project Management methods, tools and techniques designed to meet these stated requirements.

Breaks

There’s a 15-minute tea-break every two hours. Lunch is 45 minutes. The afternoon sessions finish shortly after 17:00.

Day 2

Commencement

Early on, we may need review the goals set out on Day 1. We may even change the scope of the Workshop based on new insights and needs identified along the way. (Scope is a Project Management term which refers to what’s included in the project to meet the goals of the project.)

Your learning

By now, you may already have learned some of the best practices for managing risk in respect of a project’s Critical Path. Perhaps you will also have discovered the secret to why you’ve struggled to get certain people to cooperate in projects!

Working towards personal change

Critical thinking and systems thinking exercises may be introduced at this point, to ensure that you’re working towards all three dimensions of the PMCDF. It is important that you have a plan to continue this process after the Workshop. (We’ll help you with that.)

Revision exercises and quizzes entrench the learning throughout the Workshop.

Day 3

Practical Project Management

By Day 3, you will have started to plan your own real project, based on your learning so far. You’ll produce elements of artefacts described in common Project Management standards, such as PRINCE2^® and the PMBOK^®. What you do here also lays a foundation for what you will do later in Microsoft Project if you decide to do the Planning and Reporting module of the Practical Certification Programme. (In this module, you’ll learn to create, customise and manage larger plans, track and report on progress, and deal with risk and change as you work on real projects.)

Towards the end of the Workshop

The Workshop is intensive, and may leave you exhausted. Before you leave, though, we’ll encourage you to think about what you will do afterwards to build on what you achieved during the Workshop. You may want to continue your learning via an online course in Project Management Concepts, which forms part of the PCP. You may also want to discuss your business or career goals with the learning facilitator, Tania Melnyczuk, or with the Director of Organisational Learning at ProjectManagement.co.za, Marius Cloete, who will be present throughout the Workshop.

The Workshop is guaranteed to equip you with the insight and conviction needed for some important conversations with people back at work.