Project Management for Planners

One-day or two-day formats can be delivered.

As a result of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Define key project management concepts and terms
• Start a project properly
• Develop a Work Breakdown Structure
• Prepare project schedule and cost estimate
• Learn important management techniques
• Understand how to close a project

Planners manage projects. However, planners have not been provided the tools and skills necessary to be successful project managers. Project Management for Planners is a professional development workshop designed specifically for planners. Terry A. Clark, AICP, is author of the book Project Management for Planners: A Practical Guide published by the American Planning Association Planners Press in January 2002 and facilitates the workshop. The course provides participants with a hands-on approach for managing planning projects. A five-phased process for managing planning projects will be presented. The course is interactive and very participative.

The course is built around the five phases of project management:

• Initiating
• Planning
• Executing
• Controlling, and
• Closing

The course design is based upon adult education theory. Discussion, dialog, participation and application in the real world are incorporated into the session. Content for the workshop generally follows the book entitled Project Management for Planners: A Practical Guide, however the workshop provides additional learning opportunities not offered in the book.

Packaged Training Workshop Inquiries
Contact Nathan Randall at 202-349-1007 or nrandall@planning.org.

Workshop Outline

Introduction

Group Project Assignments

• Each group will choose a project
• This will be "your" project for the day
• Each group will present their project at the end of the day with "lessons learned"

Initiating

• Project Scope Statement
• Stakeholders
• Deliverables
• Resource Requirements
• Project Organization
• Project Charter

Group Exercise

• Prepare and present a project scope statement to the Planning Board.

Planning

• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• Project Schedule
• Cost Estimating
• Communications
• Risk
• The Project Plan

Group Exercise

• Prepare a WBS for your task of the project
• Apply the WBS validation criteria
• Start off with major tasks/deliverables and work down in detail

Executing

• Reinforcing the Role of the Project Manager
• Management Styles
• Team Meetings
• Quality Assurance
• Leading

Controlling

• Change Control
• Monitoring
• Earned Value
• Percent Complete
• Project Adjustments

Group Exercise

Closing

• The Deliverable "Walk Through"
• Lessons Learned
• Team Transitions
• Document Archiving

Group Exercise

• Identify a group recorder
• Document lessons learned from your project experiences today

Wrap-Up — It's All About People

• You now have the basic technical skills to be a successful project manager
• It's easy to forget that projects are people
• People are messy

More About the Facilitator

Terry A. Clark has more than 20 years of professional experience. He has worked at state, regional and local government levels. His work experience also includes being Vice President in Charge of Planning for an environmental engineering and planning consulting firm. Clark is President of StaffConnections, LLC (www.staffconnections.com) an organization and employee development consulting firm.

As a planner, Clark has managed a variety of planning projects including city and county comprehensive plans, local government land development regulations and regional water management plans. As a manager, Clark has led and managed public and private sector work units ranging in size from four to 32 multidisciplinary professionals with annual operating budgets of over $3 million. As an educator and instructor he has facilitated numerous training sessions on project management, general management techniques and performance management. Clark is also an adjunct instructor in the organizational management program at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Clark has a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Science degree in geography, and a Master of Science degree in human resource development. He is a long time member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and is certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute and a Certified Professional Facilitator (CPF) by the International Association of Facilitators. Clark is also a qualified administrator of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

He is the author of Project Management for Planners: A Practical Guide published in January 2002 by APA's Planners Press.