Better Projects Through Better Planning: An Online Course

Get more done… without working more hours.

Great projects don’t happen by accident. Learn how to make your projects run better by planning better.

Whether you work on your own or have a team, learning to think about your project like a project manager will help you get more done with the time and resources you have.

If you hear “project management” and think “useless, bloated process,” this course is for you. We’ll discuss the goals behind the processes, so you can understand what tools and techniques will have value in your specific situation, and build a process that helps you succeed instead of hindering you.

This is a recorded online class.

In this course you’ll learn how to:

Build plans that help you manage change

Eisenhower famously said: “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is essential.” Effective project management isn’t about making a plan once and then sticking to it. Use your plans to respond more effectively to the inevitable changes that will occur.

Analyze dependencies to reduce waste and stress

One of the most powerful things project planning provides is a knowledge of how all the parts of your project depend on each other. Use this to make your projects more successful.

Think about risk to protect your project... and your team

Things go wrong, but some things are more likely to go wrong than others. Analyzing your risks from the very beginning can help you protect your project and your team when sh** happens.

Communicate more effectivey

Communication isn’t just about talking! Use all your available communication tools to get the right information to the right people when they need it.

Manage competing priorities

Very few people get to focus exclusively on one thing these days. Luckily, there are tools available to help keep the competition for ourattention from causing paralysis.

This is the recording of an online course consisting of two 1.5 hour sessions.

Testimonials from past students:

This was an excellent quick and dirty introduction to project management for those of us who don’t have the time or need to explore certification. The scope of the workshop was just right for getting started.

Academic data librarian

I thought the course was great… I started implementing the techniques you discussed within an hour of the end of the webinar.

A recent student

I was getting frustrated by project management tools, because I was trying to use them to juggle multiple projects. Now that I actually understand the difference between project management and program management I think I’ll be about to use them a lot more effectively.

Graduate student

I really liked the fact that it was a short overview about project managing, with just enough examples to see and compare methods, so I can pick which one seems best suited to my task.

Engineering professor

About Melanie Nelson

I am a consultant specializing in scientific data management and the effective management of people and projects. Prior to starting my own consultancy, I led teams and projects in the biotechnology industry for more than ten years. I am not a devotee of any particular project management process: I believe in understanding the fundamentals and tailoring the process to fit the team and the work. I have a Ph.D. in biochemistry from The Scripps Research Institute.

You can find out more about my approach to project management by reading the posts on this site and by reading the articles I’ve written for Chronicle Vitae. If you have any questions, you can email me at melanie@beyondmanaging.com.