Professional Development Units (PDUs): 18
When we ask people to identify historical projects that employed the largest workforces, the most commonly identified project is the one that built the Giza Pyramid in ancient Egypt. People commonly believe this project was delivered with a workforce made up primarily of slaves controlled through threats and violence; however, the latest archaeological research proves this to be not true. There is no evidence that slaves were ever used; rather, the bulk of the workforce was made up of craftsmen, farmers, and other skilled workers who were managed using rewards and other motivation techniques.
While normally associated with disciplines like engineering and architecture, the Giza Pyramid project has rarely been associated with project management and this is what makes this course so unique. The core principles of project management were used extensively on this project and, without them, the project could not have been delivered. This course allows you, the learner, to take on the role of project manager and deliver the most notable early mega project in history.
As the project manager, you will examine the human side of the project and the significance of organization, teamwork, welfare, healthy competition and creating a conducive work environment. You will also see the importance of innovation and how it was used to manage the project scope by developing unique solutions to problems. The primary challenges on this project were related to managing the available project resources, making intelligent decisions about their deployment, and determining where investments in quality needed to be made to achieve the required high levels. Along the way, the course summarizes the lessons learned into a set of best practices that you can carry forward into your current projects.
During this course, you will be asked to complete the project and deliver the Giza Pyramid. You will be presented with the experiences (both good and bad) of the ancient Egyptians as they built pyramid projects over a 200 year period. Their experiences led them to evolve their structural design until they reached perfect symmetry. As you play the PM role, you will be presented with scenarios, situations, and exercises based on actual events, and you will be asked to make challenging decisions, which put the lessons taught into practice.
This course uses sound. Please have computer speakers or a headset ready.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
In this 2.5-day self-paced online course, participants will better understand the need for:
- having a comprehensive grasp of the project including its work breakdowns and both schedule and resource constraints
- understanding the ways in which complex features can impact a project in unexpected ways
- managing innovation and the problem-solving process
- where exactly to invest in quality and precision so that it makes a difference
- investing in the project workforce and welfare, through teamwork and a healthy level of competition, and creating harmonious and conducive working and living environments to get the best from your teams
- and more...
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
This course is intended for those interested in "how mega-projects" are managed differently from regular projects, especially when faced with exceptionally large project teams.