Training Course in Project Management Fundamentals: Knowledge Areas and Practitioner Skills
1Summary
Most projects do not collapse because of bad luck — they collapse because no one on the team was tracking the knowledge areas that hold a project together: scope, cost, time, quality, risk, and procurement. When ownership of these areas is unclear, small gaps turn into missed deadlines and blown budgets.
This Training Course in Project Management Fundamentals, delivered by the Arab British Fellowship Training Academy, gives participants a working command of these knowledge areas and the practical skills of the project manager role: from selecting the right team to assessing whether a project is even worth funding in the first place.
2Objectives and target group
Who Should Attend
- Project management office (PMO) members and project supervisors.
- Project managers and their deputies.
- Executive managers overseeing project portfolios.
- Project owners and entrepreneurs launching new ventures.
What Participants Will Be Able to Do Afterwards
- Organise and prioritise the core project management activities, and understand how they integrate across the project's life cycle and phases.
- Apply the skills, tasks, and authorities of a project manager in real situations, including using modern technology to run the project.
- Read practical models of successful projects and translate the lessons into their own project's performance reports.
- Manage the individual elements of a project — scope, time, cost, quality, risk, and team — as one connected system rather than separate checklists.
3Course Content
Module 1: The Project and Its Manager
- What defines a project, and the different types and priorities organisations set when launching one.
- The executive and administrative skills a project manager needs, including emotional intelligence.
- The manager's core tasks and the authority needed to carry them out.
Module 2: The Core Knowledge Areas
- Quality, scope, time, and cost management within the project.
- Risk management and the team, communications, and stakeholder relationships that surround it.
- Procurement management, contracts between buyer and seller, and how supply decisions are integrated into the wider project plan.
Module 3: Running the Life Cycle From Start to Close
- The concept of the project life cycle and its phases.
- Initiation, planning, execution, and closing — and what changes at each stage.
Module 4: Assessing Whether a Project Is Worth It
- The concept of investment and how to study investment opportunities before committing resources.
- Technical and marketing feasibility studies.
- Project valuation methods, net present value, internal rate of return, and payback period.
Module 5: Technology and Proven Models in Practice
- Using modern technology and software to manage a project.
- Practical models drawn from successful projects.