FAQs
Advisory FAQs
Each project is different, and the reasons for its failure are equally so. But there are common reasons that often lay at the heart of project failure. Many of the failure points can be avoided through the use of effective project management. These include:
- Ambiguous and/or unrealistic objectives
- Poor planning
- Lack of effective resource planning
- Poor communication
- Changes to the scope of the project
- Good project managers understand where these failure points lie and plan accordingly.
A Project Management Office is a department or group that oversees all project management within an organisation. The PMO can be an internal or external group that assumes the responsibility of setting and maintaining organisations’ project management standards.
These standards are used to ensure that all projects within an organisation are run in a standardised and repeatable way, this facilitates the smooth running of projects. Amongst the methods used to achieve “standardisation” are:
- Support – A PMO can provide training, mentoring and quality assurance to support ongoing projects.
- Accountability and Governance – The PMO will ensure that a project’s decision-makers are the right people for the job. It also runs regular audits and reviews to ensure accountability.
- Consistency – A PMO acts as a central hub that ensures a consistent project management approach is used throughout an organisation.
A simple definition of risk in project management could be – Any unexpected event that can affect the outcome of a project.
A risk differs from known problems within a project, as problems are predictable. Problems can be identified in the planning stage and could include issues like resource bottlenecks, staff shortages at vacation times, and times of peak demand.
Risks are events that could happen but can’t be planned for. Risks can include events such as sudden unavailability of critical materials or staff illness.
The role of a project manager in risk management is to consider what risks may affect a project and to understand how these would influence it. Using this information, contingencies can be put in place to mitigate the effects should the worse happen.
The Project Management Risk Process is a critical element in all good project management procedures. Put simply; a project management team will identify and evaluate potential risks that may arise during the project. This will be carried out on an ongoing basis throughout the project.
The types of risk that may arise during a project can be split into 3 broad categories, these are Cost, Schedule, and Performance.
The process of risk management can also be broken down into distinct steps. Generally, these will include:
- Identify – Consider all the potential risks that may arise
- Analyse – Understand the potential impact of any given risk
- Assign – Ownership of risks should be assigned to appropriate team members
- Prioritise – This should be done based on the severity of the impact of each risk
- Respond – This includes taking steps to minimise the chances of the risk occurring and the actions to be taken should it happen
- Monitor – Continual risk assessment should be carried out throughout the project.
Agile Methodology is a Project Management method that works by breaking a project up into distinct phases. The philosophy that drives Agile Methodology encapsulates continuous improvement through constant collaboration with stakeholders and continuous cycling through planning, executing, and evaluation stages.
In other words, the Agile Methodology embraces stakeholder feedback and uses short development cycles that combine to continuously improve the performance of a project as it proceeds.
Waterfall Methodology takes a linear approach to Project Management. With the waterfall methodology, projects are broken down into distinct phases that are completed sequentially. New phases of the project only begin when the previous one is completed.
This Methodology relies on each participant having clear and set goals that are unlikely to change throughout the project. This is the most traditional form of project management and is best suited to projects that have a single timeline.
The lifecycle of Project Management can be broken down into distinct phases.
- Initiation – this phase includes setting the goals and scope of the project depending on the requirements of the stakeholders. It also involves identifying all the said stakeholders and considering the overall feasibility of the project.
- Planning – For project managers, the planning phase is at the heart of project management. During this phase, the project plans are documented, the goals of the project determined, and a project schedule is devised.
- Implementation – The third stage is the execution of the project plan. This is usually the longest stage of the project lifecycle and involves utilising the documentation, schedule, and plans established at the planning stage to see the project through to a successful conclusion.
- Monitoring – This is carried out on an ongoing basis throughout the implementation phase. The object is to ensure that the project remains on schedule within budget and that corrective action is used to counteract unforeseen risks and circumstances that hinder the successful outcome.
- Closing – The closing stage is the final phase of a Project Management Lifecycle. Responsibilities during this phase include:
- Passing the project deliverable to the client/sponsor
- Cancelling supplier contracts
- Releasing staff and equipment
- Handing over documentation to the project owners
- Releasing equipment and personnel
Projects are “fluid” with changes almost inevitable. The process of Change Management can be considered a complementary process that runs alongside Project Management.
The responsibilities of change managers are to ensure that when changes arise, they are dealt with as efficiently as possible with a minimum of disruption to the project and the allocated resources.
To achieve this change, managers will typically follow the steps listed below:
- Communication – This involves keeping people informed about the reasons behind any changes and how it affects them and the project as a whole.
- Planning – This involves developing a plan to account for the changes. This should include goals and performance measures to tell if the change plan is working or whether further action is required
- Implementation – Change managers are responsible for implementing the plans and offering support to the involved personnel
- Evaluation – Finally, evaluating the outcome of the change management and whether the desired results have been met
Cost-benefit analysis in Project Management is the process of estimating the costs and benefits of particular sets of actions in a given project.
Each task or process in any project will have a set of relevant costs and projected benefits. In its simplest form, a CBA considers all the potential options for a particular task to establish the option that gives the most benefit for the least cost.
Typical steps that are followed while performing a CBA include:
- Identify the available options
- Determine the benefits of each option
- Determine the costs of each option
- Calculate the Return on Investment for each option
In simple terms, Schedule Variance in Project Management is the measurement of the actual progress of a project against the expected progress.
Understanding and monitoring the progress of any project is one of the core responsibilities of a project manager.
The first step in calculating the Schedule Variance in a project is to establish a set of baselines. These baselines are set for each task within a project and include the projected start and finish dates as well as the budget for each task. These are referred to as the “Schedule Baseline.”
From these figures, ongoing comparisons can be used to establish how each task is performing in both time and budgetary aspects.
Program Management and Project Management are often confused with each other. However, they perform distinctly different functions within an organisation.
Putting it simply, Project Management is the management of a single piece of work with an expected outcome. Whereas Program Management is a more strategic and long-running initiative that can encompass many projects.
The difference is often defined as – A Project is more focused on outputs, whereas program management focuses on outcomes.
A project maturity assessment is a measurement that is used to illustrate how an organisation’s project management procedures evolve. This process enables companies to learn from past projects to take a more “mature” approach to future projects.
This is the basic premise behind Project Maturity Assessment. Like anything in life, we learn lessons as we go and apply these to our future actions. Managing projects is no different, and the goal of Project Maturity Assessments is to formalise and understand these lessons and apply them to future projects.
Business Applications FAQs
A project is a complex puzzle made up of many components. Each of these components must work in unison if the puzzle is to be solved and the project successfully completed.
This is what project management software provides.
Project management software is a framework that brings together and links all the components of a project into a cohesive unit. Teams that use project management software benefit from better communication, effective resource management, live analytics and status reports, structured data organisation, and much more.
Good project management software should be a “multi-tool” that replaces calendar apps, remote meeting tools, inventory and resource management tools, office applications, and of course, post-it notes.
There are many benefits of project management software. The ultimate benefit is that project management software facilitates the smooth running of a project and greatly assists the team in achieving a project’s goals.
It achieves these results by being something of a digital toolkit for project managers and teams. Each of the tools in the toolkit is designed to help project teams achieve their goals, and among the overall benefits that these tools make available are:
- Better resource management
- Real-time reporting and analytics
- Process standardisation
- Data Management
- Improved risk management and mitigation
- Better team collaboration and communication
- Improved budget management
The process of selecting the best project management software begins with understanding the needs and expectations of the organisation. Amongst the points that should be considered when selecting project management software are:
- The features and functionality that the organisation requires
- The usage of the program, e.g., is it for a single project? Or is it to be used on an ongoing basis?
- Involve the project team in the decision as ultimately, they are the end-users
- Budget considerations
- Ease of use
- Scalability – Will it scale up to meet possible future demands?
- Size of organisation – small firms are going to have radically different requirements than that of large enterprises
Many software management programs allow potential users to try a demo version. Trying demos when they are available can also be useful for determining whether the software is suitable.
It makes sense to invest in project management software as soon as a project moves from the concept stage. Failed projects are often down to mismanagement. The root cause of failures is invariably because maintaining control of complex projects is incredibly difficult without software to assist in the process.
Investing in project management software is often seen as an unnecessary overhead. In reality, the opposite is true. Investing in project management software can reduce costs by ensuring that projects run on time, within budget, use resources efficiently, and are of paramount importance in bringing projects to successful conclusions.
The cost of project management software varies depending on a large number of factors. Amongst the common criteria that can affect the cost of the software are:
- Features – Some packages are priced depending on the features that the user requires. This is why it is always essential to understand the organisation’s requirements before selecting the appropriate package.
- Number of users – Many project management software packages have subscription tiers that increase with higher user numbers
- Frequency of billing – Paying annually as opposed to monthly for project management software will often reduce the cost of the package
Because there are so many differing price structures that range from limited-functionality free versions to premium packages that can cost thousands of dollars, understanding what is required of the software is critical.
Project management software packages are usually crammed full of features, not all of which apply to all projects or organisations. However, in most cases, the key features to look for when selecting project management software include: –
- Collaboration and Communication Tools – The ability to facilitate easy communication and collaboration within a project team is one of the cornerstone features of any project management package.
- Planning and Scheduling features – Good project management software should simplify the planning and scheduling process of a project. It should include task assigning and prioritisation, shared calendars, agile management tools and many more.
- Reporting and Analytics – Having access to all the required data to monitor the progress of a project in real-time is essential. It is also important that the application presents the data in a format that is simple to understand. Many project management applications will provide the same data in different formats to help team members and project managers to understand the status of the project.
- Financials – Project management software can look after the financial aspect of the project. This includes monitoring the project budget, time-tracking, and billing & invoicing
- Ease of use – Intuitive and easy to learn interfaces that are simple to use are essential. Not every staff or team member is necessarily an IT whiz, so look for software that is easy to master and use.
Business Resourcing FAQs
The resources referred to in project management terms differ depending on the scope, scale, and brief of the project. However, a simple definition of project resources could be – Project resources are the assets required to take a project from conception through to successful completion.
Typically, project resources would include:
- Funding and capital
- Facilities and premises
- Materials
- Personnel
One of the first tasks of the Project Manager is to establish what resources are required to take a project through to a successful outcome.
In simple terms, the project manager will assess the needs of the project based on 3 main factors:
- Budget
- Personnel
- Materials
Based on this assessment, the resources are then allocated to the project. This is an ongoing assessment that should be flexible to adapt as the project develops.
The first step in determining the resources required for a project is to gain a complete understanding of the scope and goals of the said project. This understanding is a critical foundation in determining the required project resources.
Once the scope of the project is clearly understood, the next step is to detail the required resources. In an ideal world, the project manager would simply allocate these as required, but the reality is that the resources are finite, and project managers have to balance their needs with factors that include – available personnel, budget constraints, and the timescale of the project.
Efficient management of resources is one of the primary responsibilities of a project manager. How the actual process of managing the resources can vary depending on the size and type of project, available data (e.g. have similar projects been undertaken recently?), and other factors like budget, schedule, etc.
Determining the required resources for a project is only the first step. Resources must be continually managed and optimised throughout the project. This includes monitoring aspects like:
- Ongoing assessments of the project schedule and resource usage
- Budget
- Personnel performance
- Resource availability
A simple definition of resource allocation could be – The process of allocating and managing resources to bring a project to a successful conclusion as efficiently as possible.
Resources in this context refer to the materials, funds, and personnel required to complete a given project.
Capacity Management is the procedure of organising a project’s resources to maximise the use of the resources allocated to the project. This usually involves a series of steps that are designed to ensure that the use of resources optimises capacity.
These steps include:
- Evaluating existing capacity and where there are likely to be shortfalls
- Estimating future capacity needs
- Identifying potential alternatives
- Financial analysis
In simple terms, resource planning in project management is the process of allocating the available project resources in a manner designed to facilitate the successful outcome of the relevant project.
Resources are the “elements” required to bring a project to fruition. The resources include personnel, funding, premises, and materials.
Steps involved in resource management include:
- Plotting the readiness of resources at given times
- Assigning the correct tasks to the right resources
- Predicting the future demand for resources
Project managers develop and utilise resource management plans as a tool to manage the project’s resources. Amongst the components of a good resource management plan are details of how resources should be allocated, categorised, managed, and released.
Typically resource management plans will include:
- Details of all required resources
- The timeframe of when and how long resources will be required
- The quantity of the required resources
A Managed Service Provider is a contracted third-party company that is used to manage a defined set of responsibilities. Typically, project managers will use MSPs as a resource to oversee complex tasks that the MSP has superior capabilities and experience with.
These may include such elements as network, infrastructure and security. This allows project managers to reap the benefits of expertise outside normal remits in a cost-efficient manner. Examples of areas where MSPs may be used include IT, Human resources, procurement & sourcing, and vendor management.
In the context of resourcing, Managed Service Delivery is the process of outsourcing functions to identify the resources required to deliver a project.
Typically, Managed Service Delivery will start by assessing a project’s resource requirements. After these are identified, the MSD process continues by selecting and provisioning the resources as well as managing the project and technical resources required to bring the project to a successful conclusion.
Managed Service Delivery professional services is the outsourcing of the management of a project to a third party. In simple terms, this means employing a specialist company that takes over responsibility for achieving agreed goals to successfully deliver a given project.
Put simply, Business Analysis in Project Management is the process of determining how current systems operate and what changes are required to streamline project and business processes.
Business Analysts use data analysis to assess processes and determine how these perform when compared with business requirements. Based on the outcome of the analysis, a business analyst may recommend changes to improve products, processes, hardware & software, and services.
Technology Resourcing FAQs
A simple definition of technology resourcing is – The tailored provision of all technology resources required to meet the demands of a project.
Technology resourcing requires an understanding of the technical requirements of a given project. Once this is established, a technology resource professional sets up a tailored suite of technological solutions designed to facilitate the successful conclusion of the project.
How technology resourcing works varies depending on the project but typically will follow the steps detailed below:
- Definition – This is the definition of the technical and of the role to be played by those tasked with technology resourcing.
- Selection Process – This stage looks at what resources are available in-house and which are external.
- Proposition – At the proposal stage, a report detailing the required resources is produced.
- Engagement – Once the proposal is accepted (or amended) the resources are allocated to the project and are monitored on an ongoing basis until the project is concluded.
A technical recruiter is a specialist recruitment professional. Technical recruiters are tasked with finding the ideal candidate to fill posts in technical fields, including IT and engineering.
Where they differ from “typical” recruiters is the blend of skills that technical recruiters must possess. Not only are they fully versed in the skills required by a regular recruiter, but technical recruiters must also have a full understanding of the technology niche they recruit for.
Included in a technical recruiter’s responsibilities are:
- Developing recruitment strategies
- Identifying recruitment sources
- Assessing potential clients
- Interviews
- Creating job descriptions
Aspira’s approach to technical recruitment is very different from traditional recruitment. We understand that getting the right people, particularly in the fields of emerging technologies, is difficult. Our specialist recruitment teams are shaped to have a deep understanding of the latest technology trends.
This allows us to fully understand each client’s needs and the required skill sets they are looking for when recruiting technical staff. To enable this, our consultants are all specialists in specific technical areas. This gives them complete insight into the skills the client requires and whether potential candidates fit this brief.
Aspira has fifteen years of experience in delivering high-quality resourcing and recruitment services globally.
Technology resourcing involves multiple skill sets that provide a suite of technological solutions required to bring a client’s project to completion. While the specific skill sets will vary from project to project and from client to client, typically, technology resourcing will involve the following skills:
- Software Development – Developing bespoke software solutions is a cornerstone skill in technology resourcing.
- Security – In the cloud-based world of remote working, where traditional internal networks are hybridised with cloud-based solutions, security is a critical technology resourcing skill.
- Cloud-based solutions – The requirement to provide tailored cloud solutions means skills like cloud architects and cloud networking experts are essential.
- Data Centre – Understanding the mechanics and architecture of complex data centres is a core technology resourcing skill.
- Business Applications – A thorough understanding of the latest generation of business applications is a required skill.
Today, hiring the right IT talent is incredibly difficult and becoming more challenging with each passing day. This is why many modern businesses have turned to technology resourcing to address these problems.
This method of recruitment can be used to address permanent requirements. But is also increasingly used as a method of bringing the right technical resources on board for a specific project or task.
An outline of the benefits that technology resourcing can provide for businesses is listed below.
- Flexibility – Technology resourcing allows businesses to take a flexible approach to addressing their IT and technical needs. Using technology resourcing allows them to easily scale their technical processes as business circumstances evolve.
- Access to Talent – Procuring the right talent is one of the biggest challenges facing businesses. Searching for personnel with the correct skillset is time-consuming and frustrating. Experienced professionals in technology recruitment can ease this burden by using their wide breadth of knowledge to find personnel that have the right qualities.
- Cost savings – Outsourcing the recruitment process frees up valuable staff that would otherwise be heavily involved in seeking the right candidates. It also reduces the physical costs of recruitment, e.g. screening and advertising.
A tech recruitment company can help your business in many ways. The most obvious benefit is tech recruitment ensures you get the perfect candidate for the vacant post. But there are also other benefits to consider, including:
- Faster access to talent – Finding the right candidate through traditional recruitment means can be slow, tech recruitment can slash the time.
- Reduced recruiting costs – by freeing up staff and cutting down on recruitment costs, tech recruitment can save your business money.
- Screened talent – All candidates are thoroughly screened.
- Access to a wide talent pool – Tech recruitment companies have access to the best talent.
Attracting the top tech talent to your company can be an exercise in frustration. However, some strategies can simplify the process and ensure your business has access to the best tech talent.
- Identify tech professionals’ needs – Attracting the top tech talent is difficult in such a competitive market. Paying a competitive salary used to be enough, but now many are seeking stock options and equity. Identify what the top tech professionals are looking for and draw up a recruitment policy that offers the right packages.
- Build a successful talent acquisition strategy – Partnering with a tech recruitment company is a proven roadmap to building a successful talent acquisition strategy.
- Target the right candidates – A broad-brush approach might produce the right results given enough time. But most successful tech recruitment strategies will directly target the perfect candidates. Using tech recruitment companies is a simple way to target the ideal candidates.
This can vary depending on the business and the post to be filled. But generally, any tech recruitment process will follow certain steps. These include:
- Identify your needs – Every recruitment process begins with identifying a business need that requires new talent within the organisation.
- Sourcing – The next stage involves sourcing a pool of talent that can be selected from.
- Screening – The screening process should whittle the potential clients down to a shortlist.
- Interviewing – Finally, the interview process is used to select the ideal person(s) from the shortlisted candidates.
This can be a time-consuming and frustrating process. This is why many companies are resorting to tech recruitment companies to simplify the recruitment process.
Tech resourcing is an efficient method of hiring tech talent. This can help reduce hiring costs in several ways. Below are a few of the cost-saving benefits of tech resourcing:
- Hire talent quickly – Using tech resourcing means you get faster access to the right talent.
- Hire the right personnel – Tech resource companies are experts at. identifying the right talent and matching them with the correct positions.
- Free up staff time – The recruitment process can be time-consuming and puts added pressure on existing personnel. Tech recruitment frees up staff time.
- Save on recruitment costs – Physical costs of recruitment like advertising, candidate screening, and staff costs are all reduced by using a tech recruitment agency.
Software Development FAQs
Bespoke or “off-the-shelf” software solutions are often compromised by the requirement to meet the varying demands of different types of users. Software development delivers highly tailored software solutions that are designed to exactly fit a client’s needs.
Software development services are a multi-step process that has an end goal of designing software that meets a business’s objective(s).
Although the steps vary from project to project, typically, software development stages will include the following:
- Analysis and planning
- Software design and development
- Testing and implementation
- Ongoing maintenance
A software development company is a business whose main focus is to develop, implement, and maintain bespoke software programs & applications for businesses and individuals.
Software development companies work closely with their clients to design and deliver software that has been developed to fulfil the demands of a client’s brief.
The benefits of employing the services of a software development company include allowing businesses to implement software solutions that are tailored to fit their needs exactly and giving clients access to a high level of skills that most businesses don’t have in-house.
Software development companies work with clients from the concept stage right through to implementation, testing and often beyond with ongoing maintenance and upgrade requirements.
Custom software development is the process of designing and implementing tailored software packages that fulfil a specific set of needs for an organisation or individual.
The process of custom software development is usually used where a very narrow set of requirements that can’t be serviced by off the shelf software solutions is identified by the client.
In these cases, a customised software solution that exactly fits these requirements can be designed and implemented. The process of custom software development normally follows a series of predefined processes that include: – Planning, design, testing, implementation, training, and maintenance.
The Agile software development method is a “working framework” followed by software designers. The framework is defined in the Agile Manifesto, which sets out a series of values and principles that were developed to simplify and speed up the software development process and, at the same time, deliver superior results.
Agility is unsurprisingly at the heart of Agile Methodology. Before the development of the method, software development was a rigid process that focused on documentation and sticking to plans over function.
The agile methodology encourages a flexible approach that allows plans to evolve during the process and promotes collaboration, learning, and ongoing assessments to continually improve performance.
The Manifesto for Agile Software Development is a framework of 12 principles and 4 key values that software developers use to guide their approach to a development project. Often referred to as the “Agile Manifesto”, it was created by software developers that were unhappy with existing software development processes.
They developed the Agile Manifesto to bring simplicity, flexibility, and standardisation into the software development process. The keyword is “Agile,” the manifesto aimed to make the process more flexible and to remove the existing over-rigid focus on documentation requirements.
To achieve this flexibility, the Agile Manifesto framework is based on the following 4 key values:
- Functioning software over thorough documentation
- Individuals and interactions ahead of tools and processes
- Customer collaboration above contract negotiation
- Flexible response to changes over rigid adherence to a plan
The Agile methodology is more accurately described as a series of methodologies that fall under the “Agile” umbrella. As such, there are slight variations in how the Agile Software Development Life Cycle is described.
However, typically any agile software development cycle will follow the format detailed below:
- Concept – The initial concept of a project is envisioned, and the scope of the project is determined
- Inception – At this stage, the project team is put together, and resources, tools and budget are allocated
- Iteration – This is the main stage of the project. At this point, the designers work closely with the stakeholders to produce the code for the design
- Release and Testing – The code is thoroughly tested by team members, and any bugs are rapidly addressed. Once the code is “clean”, it is released to the customer, often accompanied by a user training phase
- Maintenance – Once the software is “live”, the maintenance phase begins. Initially, this will involve ongoing support and addressing any new bugs, should they arise. As the project matures, it may also involve implementing updates as required.
- Retirement – This phase occurs after the software has reached the end of its useful life. This could involve migrating data to a replacement software package, notifying users of the decision, and removing support for the package.
The Agile approach to software development is based on the Agile Manifesto. This sets out a working framework of values and principles that all Agile Software Development projects follow.
This is a flexible system that was developed to simplify and improve existing software development frameworks. Although there are variations depending on the type of Agile methodology, typically, the system relies on short development cycles or “iterations.”
These iterations will typically take between two to four weeks and can be considered a series of building blocks that come together to form the completed project. The flexibility of Agile methodology can be attributed to these short cycles that allow team members regular opportunities to assess progress and implement improvements where required.
Software development services can be considered as a series of complementary areas of expertise that combine to deliver the end goal of implementing a customised software solution.
The services typically include analysis and planning, software design, testing and implementation, training, and maintenance. Software Development companies provide the entire range of services required to take a software project from concept to completion.
Open-source software development is the process of developing software that is based on existing software whose source code is publicly available. This source code is designed to fulfil a certain purpose, e.g. operating system, office suite, etc.
Using open-source code as a foundation, software developers can customise the existing code to tailor the package to a business’s requirements. This can deliver bespoke software that delivers the required goals with reduced development costs.
Common examples of open-source software include WordPress, Open Office, Mozilla Firefox, Ubuntu, and even the ubiquitous Microsoft Notepad.
Training FAQs
Choosing the right project management training course is largely dependent on an individual’s existing experience and qualifications in the field.
For instance, for those who have little experience and want a grounding in the basics of Project Management, we would recommend a short Project Management Essentials course. A follow-on course in Practical Project Management provides all the tools needed to deploy these skills in the workplace.
For more advanced project managers looking for certifications, then a fantastic option is the PM Agile Certified Practitioner. This is excellent for those wanting to implement the Agile approach to their projects.
If you have any doubts about which course is best for your needs, then please contact us. Our expert team will be delighted to help.
This is largely down to the individual and what they are looking to gain from the qualification. However, regardless of whether you are looking to achieve an “entry-level” qualification or become a professional scrum master, it is important to check whether the qualifications are industry recognised.
That being said, the most recognised Project Management qualification is the Project Manager Professional. This is recognised worldwide as the most important industry recognised certification and proves the individual’s ability to work on any project using any methodology.
The Project Management Institute (PMI) are the main industry body for Project Managers, and to guarantee your qualifications are industry recognised, always opt for a training company that is a PMI Authorised Training Partner.
Being a certified Project Manager instantly tells relevant people that you are thoroughly versed in the successful running and completion of projects.
Industry recognised qualifications like the Project Management Professional allow the holder of the qualification to be recognised as a professional expert in project management.
Certification also enhances career prospects, and of course, it also provides all the tools and skills to see projects through to completion.
The Scrum Master (PSM 1) certification is an industry recognised certification that is awarded by scrum.org. While it is perfectly possible to sit the exam based purely on one’s experience in Project Management, this isn’t recommended.
By far, the easiest way to prepare for the Scrum Master Certification is to undertake a course that teaches all the material required to pass the Professional Scrum Master Exam.
As a Project Management Institute Training Partner, Aspira’s PSM-1 course is the perfect preparation for sitting the Professional Scrum Master exam.
Gaining Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) status shows an individual has the necessary skills and dedication to work at the highest levels of Project Management.
For those taking the exams, what areas to focus their studies on is one of the biggest unknowns. The easiest way to prepare for CAPM certification is to undertake a course that covers all aspects of the field and is specifically designed to aid students seeking Industry Certification.
If you are looking to get certified in Agile Project Management, there are many options to consider.
For those without a huge amount of experience in the field, then it may be beneficial to take a short PM Agile Certified Practitioner course. This gives you the skillset to apply for certifications. At Aspira, we can advise which is best for you.
For more experienced practitioners of Agile Project Manager, the Professional Scrum Master (PSM 1) certification is an industry recognised qualification that is highly sought after by employers.
Although formally, there is no official need for training as many project managers worked their way up a career ladder, this isn’t always an option. For those wanting to begin or further a career in Project Management, then training should be a prerequisite.
The best option when looking for the right training course is to check that it can lead to industry certifications. Qualifying as a Certified Associate in Project Management is an excellent starting point. Ultimately for those wanting to reach the top of the ladder, the training you undertake should be aimed at achieving a higher-level qualification, such as the prestigious Project Manager Professional (PMP) certification.
This depends on the level of qualification being sought and the starting point as far as the experience, and existing qualifications of the candidate go.
Depending on these variables, training can be as short as a couple of days for those just wanting to brush up some skills or add a new skill set to their armoury. For more advanced training, it can take from a few months upwards.
Many courses allow you to work at your own pace and can be undertaken in your spare time.
Plenty of experience backed up by high-quality training is the easiest path to improving one’s project management skills.
For those already in the industry, appraising where your skillset is weakest allows you to target areas that can benefit from further training. For example, if you have little practical experience with projects that use the Agile methodology, then it makes sense to improve your skills using a course that is geared specifically to teach Agile.
At the very start of a career in Project Management, a more general course that covers a wider scope is a better way to improve project management skills. A course such as Project Management Essentials is an ideal foundation for those new to the field and wanting to improve their skills.
Project Management Professional (PMP) certification is an industry recognised qualification that proves the recipient is qualified in all aspects of project management.
As such, achieving the qualification brings a host of benefits to the recipient, including:
- Improved career prospects
- The skillset to manage any project using any methodology
- Improved salary
- Industry recognition
- A grounding in all the appropriate skills
No, there is no requirement to become a PMI member before booking the PMP exam. However, there are advantages to becoming a PMI member that are worthwhile considering.
For starters, membership of the PMI will qualify you for a substantial discount on the PMP exam fees. It also demonstrates a commitment and dedication to career furtherance that adds value to any CV and job application.
The PMBOK Guide could be described as a bible for project managers.
It provides a framework of globally recognised standards and guides for project managers. The standards and knowledge within the PMBOK guide are representative of the accumulated experience of senior project managers from across the globe.
Using the standards, processes, guidelines, and terminology contained within the PMBOK guide allows project managers and organisations to adopt a standardised approach to project management that is understood industry wide.
The easy way to get a project management certification is to undertake a relevant course in your preferred area of Project Management. Depending on your existing skills and career goals, the desired level of project management certification will vary.
As far as certifications go, the industry standard is the Project Management Institute. The Project Management Professional certificate issued by them is considered the gold standard in project management certification. To qualify for this, you need to be registered with the PMI and sit the exam they set.
There are quite a few prerequisites required before applicants can sit the PMP exam, but there are plenty of other certifications available for less experienced project managers or for those looking to get into the industry.
It is always a good idea to undertake a training course that aims to teach everything you need to know before sitting any project management certification exam. At Aspira, we can help advise which certification is best for you and then help to ensure you are fully prepared for the upcoming exam.