Available via virtual classroom delivery or face to face for closed course group bookings – please call 0117 949 1500 for details or contact us via the Enquiry Form.
APMG International Project Planning & Control™ is a course developed in partnership between APMG International and The Association for Project Management to provide best practice guidance on the critical aspects of project management. By implementing effective planning, monitoring and control, project success rates are dramatically increased and the risk of overruns in project scope, schedule and costs in minimised. Project Planning & Control is a popular project management course, which can be delivered in house to your team or for individuals by attending a scheduled course at our training facility in Bristol.
Our highly regarded Foundation, Practitioner and Combined Foundation & Practitioner courses are structured so that the Practitioner exam is taken, in the classroom or online, directly after the training element. We prefer this approach to the post course online exam booking system as it ensures that the course content is fresh in the mind and enables delegates to leave having completed both the course and examinations.
*BMC is proud to have maintained a 95% pass rate at Foundation level and 96% at Practitioner level in 2021.*
Reviews:
July 2021 (virtual) -“I feel that i have learnt so much from this course. The highlight was Gary as a trainer. I found him really engaging to listen to, and his real life examples made things much easier to understand. I did a lot of revision prior to the course, but Gary helped to bring the information to life. I also feel that the amount of breaks throughout was the perfect amount to get you away from the screen.”
“Excellent course.”
“The PPC course provided by Gary last week was very good. His method to review topics from the day before and pose random questions was very useful to consolidate our learning, as well as discussing the answers from the sample exam paper that he set each night.” AB, Intellectual Property Office, Newport.
“Excellent trainer – relating to real life scenarios.”
“Going through the homework the following day consolidated my understanding and knowledge.”
Please telephone 0117 949 1500 to enquire about group bookings or alternative course dates.
PPC is suitable for existing programme & project managers, support teams, team members and managers from any discipline. It is designed to be fully scalable and can be tailored to any project. It is suitable for senior managers and will help them benefit from understanding how decision making and responsibilities are delegated and projects are planned, monitored and controlled.
This course will provide advice and insights that will help you gain a good understanding of effective planning & control standards and best practice, which both you and your organisation can derive immediate value from.
Successful application of PPC guidance ensures that:
The Foundation examination takes place after 3 days of formal instruction (Mon - Wed). It is a multiple choice, closed book exam lasting 40 minutes.
A further 1.5 days comprising formal instruction and examination is required for the Practitioner level (Thurs/Friday). To be eligible to sit the Practitioner examination, delegates must have achieved a 50% pass in the Foundation examination.
The Practitioner exam is a 3 hour open book objective test examination. Candidates may use the APM Planning, Scheduling, Monitoring & Control Guide only during the exam. Questions are based on a Project Scenario and the exam is comprised of 8 questions, each worth 10 marks, giving a maximum of 80 marks available. The pass mark is 50% (40 marks).
Candidates are permitted to use a simple calculator in the exam.
Candidates for this course are automatically enrolled for both the Foundation and Practitioner examinations. The course fee includes the Foundation and Practitioner examination fees and the official APM manual, Planning, Scheduling, Monitoring and Control – The Practical Project Management of Time, Cost and Risk.
Topics covered include:
Definitions Hierarchical Breakdown Structures - WBS, OBS, CBS, RBS • Purpose of the Business Case, Scope Management, Requirements Management and Stakeholder Management • Purpose and composition of the Works Information and Statement of Work
Planning Purpose and benefits of successful planning • Differences between Planning and Scheduling; Funding and Budgets • Planning approaches and influencing factors • Breakdown Structures • Purpose of the Work Package, WBS Dictionary, RACI Matrix, Dependency Management, cost estimating, budgeting and budget transfers
Scheduling Definition of key network analysis terms • Methods of presenting scheduling results • Schedule density • Time phased schedules • Schedule design • Key features of the Precedence Diagram Method (PDM) and Critical Path Analysis (CPA) • Methods of estimating durations • Resourcing the schedule • Schedule Narratives and Reviews • Scheduling process steps • Network construction
Monitoring and Control Definition and terminology of Earned Value Analysis (EVA) • Key monitoring, risk and change management terms • Project baselines • Baseline maintenance and Change management • Performance reporting and features of a good control system • Variance Analysis Methods of Progress Monitoring • Performance Analysis Methods of Progress • Use of Network Analysis and measurement of float usage in monitoring • Short-term Planning