ICE004 - Project Scheduling Essentials and Project Cost Management

Course Description

Project Scheduling Essentials

Are your deliverables consistently late? This course is for those who need to learn how to create and use one of the most valuable project management tools: a project schedule. Defining project success often involves completing on time and on budget, and project budgets are often driven by resource costs and the scheduling of those resources. This course prepares participants to create realistic schedules, resource load those schedules, and update and track project progress. With this valuable skill, project managers and planners will improve control of their projects.

The course continues the tradition of experiential learning, with hands-on exercises, in which participants will use "live" projects to create a schedule, update it, and track it. Participants will practice transferring project logic into a bar chart, which is best achieved using software. Overall, this course reinforces the theory learned in general project management courses with practical, hands-on exercises that illustrate the nuances and common exceptions to general practices. 

Project Cost Management

One of the primary responsibilities of a project manager is to effectively manage a project's budget, ensuring financial constraints are met while optimizing resource use. Success requires not just accurate estimating but also a strategic understanding of how costs interact with project goals, stakeholder expectations, and potential risks. This course will explore key cost management principles, including resource stewardship, adaptive budgeting techniques, and navigating uncertainty with approaches like rolling-wave planning and agile delivery. In this course, you will learn about cost-benefit analysis, cost estimating, budgeting, contingency reserve, and cost reporting.

TRC Calls to Action

Business & Education #92

We call upon the corporate sector in Canada to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a reconciliation framework and to apply its principles, norms, and standards to corporate policy and core operational activities involving Indigenous peoples and their lands and resources.

Learning Outcomes - Project Scheduling Essentials

Learners will gain practical skills to:

• Identify the role of a good schedule in projects.
• Relate the Work Breakdown Structure to the schedule detail.
• Create a simple master schedule.
• Create and analyze a logic diagram.
• Create a simple bar chart.
• Translate relationships into dependencies.
• Identify the critical path.
• Calculate total float and free float.
• Create a schedule.
• Use standard scheduling terminology.

Learning Outcomes - Project Cost Management

Learners will gain practical skills to:

• Understand the roles and responsibilities of the project manager in cost management and collaboration with financial experts, schedulers, and other subject matter specialists.
• Develop and refine project budgets to align with objectives and constraints.
• Apply cost analysis techniques, including cost-benefit analysis and earned value management, to inform decisions and assess project health.
• Utilize adaptive approaches such as rolling-wave planning to manage costs effectively in dynamic project environments.
• Recognize the importance of aligning financial strategies with a nuanced understanding of project objectives and stakeholder priorities.

Skills and Competencies

• Work breakdown structures
• Creating master schedules
• Creating and analyzing diagrams and charts
• Translating relationships into dependencies
• Identifying the critical path
• Understanding float and free float
• Using scheduling terminology
• Tracking project schedules
• Applying best practices in scheduling projects 

Summary

• Number of hours: 3.5 hours/day x 4 days = 14 hours

• Assessment: Attendance and participation are mandatory for all four sessions and are monitored by the facilitator. Lack of attendance and/or participation may affect the learner's successful completion of the course. Successful completion of the course involves achieving 80% on the Final Quiz. An incomplete course will count as a fail.

• Previous education required: The prerequisite for this course is Project Management Essentials. The remaining badges of the Project Management MicroCertificate can be taken in any order.

• Delivery: Hybrid course with online modules and remote learning (Four half-day Zoom meetings).

• Completion timeline: You will have access to the course for one week from the last scheduled course date.

FAQ's

Is this course for everyone?

• Yes, this course is relevant to all people from all walks of life. The learners' life experiences will influence how they experience the course.

Some individuals and organizations may be GST-exempt.

• First Nations University of Canada is situated on the Star Blanket First Nation and is exempt from Provincial Sales Tax (PST). If you or your organization are exempt from Government Sales Tax (GST), please contact icec@firstnationsuniversity.ca to ensure that your invoice is prepared accordingly.

I need financial support. What funding options does ICEC recommend?

• Check out our Funding Opportunities here. 

I am interested in an in-person offering of this course. 

• Please contact icec@firstnationsuniversity.ca to learn more about which courses can be offered in person and discuss the options. 

Who do I contact if I need help?

• Check out ICEC's Learner Support page to see if your question is answered in the FAQs. If your question remains unresolved, feel free to complete the form with your question, or you may contact icec@firstnationsuniversity.ca for assistance with any questions you may have. We are here to help! Support requests are received during regular office hours. Please expect a response within 24-48 hours. 

Applies Towards the Following Certificates

• Project Management Professional MicroCertificate : Project Management Professional MicroCertificate