Dave Litten HOME

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Dave LittenDave Litten…

…Welcome To The Home Of My Project Management Primers – Training That Sticks!

I’m Dave Litten, and I’m glad that you’ve surfed around the wonderful World Wide Web and ended up in my little corner of the Interweb. This is the place where I’m aiming to help you in your life’s project management endeavours and achievements.

Any questions? – Email me at:  dave(at)davelitten(dot)com

Project Management Training

You know that investing in growing your knowledge, skills and experience is the single best personal objective to have, but much like me, it is sometimes difficult in our busy professional and personal lives to find the time (and money) to invest in ourselves.

Classroom training takes you away from your work and family, while books are harder to read and absorb, let alone have opportunities to apply the ideas within them.

Classroom training is always intensive and with a high learning curve – not to mention stressful as you try and cram in as much information as possible while competing for the tutors attention and time. Hungry and exhausted, you trudge back to your hotel for…homework assignments and more studying – OUCH!

project management trainingIf you are like me, you will often find yourself in the ‘best’ frame of mind to absorb new information, but ironically these times seem to occur at inconvenient points in your regular work week. If you do take off to attend classroom training there will inevitably be interruptions let alone calls and emails from questions and crisis back in the office! So you are distracted, with only half your mind and energy applied to the learning.

But what if you could have (on any of your devices – mobile, iPad or notebook for example), a set of structured easy to listen and absorb ‘how-to’ project management videos?

The Project Management Training Solution.

I have developed a wide range of project-related downloadable video training products under the PRIMER brand name. In addition, I also run project management training seminars across the world, and I am a prolific writer on the many topics of project management.

The PRIMER Range

dave litten primers

I founded the PRINCE2 Primer product way back in 1999 to promote and provide a step-by-step downloadable high quality video approach to provide PRINCE2 Practitioner candidates with a self-study preparation for the PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner exams. The PRINCE2 Primer has since been granted a License by the APM Group as the official approach to prepare for their exams.

PRINCE2 primer project management

Since that time I have created many more Primers – all specialising in downloadable, easy, step-by-step project management online training video courses.

I spent 25 years as a senior project manager for USA multinationals, and have deep experience in project management

I believe in challenging the current way that project management training is delivered. My video training Primers are beautifully designed, simple to absorb in easy steps, and are downloaded direct to your computer.

Project Management is a life-skill.

No matter what industry you work in, no matter what position you hold. No matter what specialist skills you have acquired. Project Management knowledge, skills and experience will help you become better at your life’s chosen profession.

Most traditional ’0ff-the-job’ project management training courses have been done in the classroom. Books may be used to supplement this, but it has been proven that face-to-face multimedia training works best in terms of the delegate absorption and their ability to apply it after the course.

The trouble is, that classroom training is expensive and intensive. It also has a very high learning curve. Add to this the fact that the individual delegate has to compete for tutor attention, and you can see how traditional classroom training has not always been effective.

This is where online training scores hands-down.

Creating high quality, high-definition, downloadable videos with clear and structured supporting documentation has been my objective since the year 1999. I call these Primers – want To Own One?

My list of available Primers covering many disciplines within project management leading to certification, grows every few months, and as I write, I am currently creating a new Agile Project Management Primer.

You can see a clickable link for each of them to the right and below.

Take Action Now – Click on a link to find out full details of each Primer.

I wish you Good Luck on advancing your project management career and salary!

dave litten

 

 

Want To Own One of my PRIMERS? >CLICK ON A LINK ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE: >>>

http://www.prince2primer.com
(Pass your PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner exams!)

http://www.pm-primer.com
(Pass Your PMP Exam First Time!)

http://www.directingaproject.com
(Learn the art of Advanced PRINCE2 Governance)

http://www.project-management-primer.com
(Introduction to Project Management)

http://www.apmic-primer.com
(Introductory Certificate exam for the Association Of Project Management)

http://www.msproject2010primer.com
(Master MS Project 2010 – comes with PRINCE2 Project Templates!)

http://www.taskpack.com
(Hone your personal assignment skills)

http://www.agileprojectmanagementprimer.com
(Coming Soon – prepare for your AgilePM Foundation and Practitioner exams)

 

Agile Project Management Primer

by Dave

Agile Project ManagementYes Folks, the launch date of my Agile Project Management Primer is still to come, and right now I estimate around June 2013.

You can however, download my free Agile Project Management Overview eBook HERE! but as yet, I’m still up to my ears in recording multiple video modules for my Primer…

Now you might be asking “If you’re such a great project manager, how come the launch date is slipping?”

Fair question.

The answer is ‘priorities’

See, I’m currently in the Philippines and due to return in 4 weeks and find a new home in Spain, as you may imagine, there’s lots of priorities being snatched from my time and energy, let alone the transition into a new timezone.

Add to that, there was a new PMBOK  launched in January of this year, and the new exams come into effect on 31 July – OUCH!

My PMP Primer is also being totally re-recorded in HD to ensure you pass the new PMI syllabus

So although I’m poised to start video recording on my Agile Project Management Primer, I’m quite rightly, getting bucket-loads of emails asking when I am going to update my PMP Primer…

You may know that the Agile Methodology takes the project requirements and prioritises them using the MoSCoW technique, but unfortunately, both are ‘Must Haves’. So I’m balancing my time between doing both at once, and as the 31 July comes closer, the PMP Primer update becomes ever more vital.

The one thing you can be sure of, is that my time and energy are working flat out on both of them…I’ll keep you all posted.

Professor PRINCE2 Gives His Best Practitioner Exam Tips!

by Dave

Learn to master PMP Critical Path questions in just 17 minutes flat!

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Check out my latest “how-to” video for caluclating the critical path of a project – AND passing this type of question in the PMP Exam….

 

Your Online Project Management Training Solution

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If you are looking for easy step-by-step project management online training that can be instantly downloaded onto your PC – then you’ve come to the right place!

Click on any of the button graphics to the right and find out more…

To Your Success!

Critical Chain – Common Sense By A Visionary?

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If you stumbled across this article thinking that this was going to be a technical synopsis of the art of critical chain application, then you would be dead wrong.

I would rather like to think that it is a large chunk of common sense applied to an innovative technique.

You see, up until now, project managers would determine the activities, their sequences and dependencies, in the form a project schedule with the focus on the time-critical aspects.

So far so good.

But here is the thing.  This schedule was the plan, and a good project manager would track what has actually happened, compare this to the plan, and based on any variance, take corrective action and forecast the future.  This still works.

The main problem with this approach was assuming that all resources were just robotic sheep.

Whereas critical path analysis focused on task duration and their scheduled start and finish dates, critical chain method for more emphasis on the resources – those are required to execute the plan, and also their availability. 

The ‘peaking’ of resource levelling is seen as a problem, and the focus is on levelling down while being flexible in their start times while being able to quickly switch between tasks to keep the whole plan on schedule.

So far still so good.  The secret all along was something that I had already learned many years ago from smart project managers.

And that was to keep some ‘time and effort fat’ up your sleeve as a contingency in times of need.

It turns out that at the heart of critical chain is the use of ‘buffers’ in the form of extra time that is kept secret from the specialist team.

This buffer time is either added as a time-chunk at the end of the project, at the end of the stage, or at the end of a package of work.  The key is in their flexibility on start times, and their ability to quickly switch between tasks when needed to do so.

All the time, the project manager has planned in some form of buffer at key points within the plan, so that the team are working to an agreed end date, while the project manager has this buffer in terms of time and effort, to apply as and when needed.

I have simplified the description of critical chain here, but its principle remains intact.

Our brains are hard wired to find food, to reduce risk, find partners, and to survive.  As part of being human we also have a tendency to use available time to fill the tasks and activities that we need to do.  A self fulfilling prophecy if you will.

Why should projects be any different?  And the answer is that they are not.

Give a team a critical week to carry out an activity, and they will creatively find the effort to fill it. If they finish early, they will ‘gold plate’ the task to use the time available.

Seth Godin tells of the lizard brain that we all have – surrounded by the evolutionary layers that separate human kind from animals – such as lizards and chickens…

Human-kind is creative and believes that this is the secret to success. Maybe it is.

But once we get near to task completion, Lizard Brain kicks in. We thrash around and do extra stuff that stops us completing. We are wired this way, and it gets in the way of success.

I guess we would not need critical chain if we could stifle Lizard Brain from mouthing off…

So, I celebrate critical chain, not from the perspective of the brilliant mind that thought it up, but rather to celebrate the pragmatic thinking that lay behind it…

How To Projectize Work Assignments

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I was surfing Google the other day, and ended up looking at discussions on the ‘next big thing’ in project management. Turns out that the world of quality has its fair share of gurus with the likes of Demming and Juran, but the world of projects does less well – Henry Gantt is about the only one that comes to mind…

But what piqued my interest was a statement not pointed directly about projects at all.

It talked about the need for a generally transferrable organizational model for projectizing work. It was something I had dabbled with years ago, but had not fully nailed down…

My subconscious must have picked up on this, because I awoke very early for several mornings thinking about how that could come about. I did some research, and found out  that although a typical organization might have a handful of high visibility projects, it also had a whopping 90% of its enterprise success coming from simple personal assignments given to individuals just like you.

This type of thing, “Dave come into my office for a moment, I’ve got something I want you to take a shot at”. Maybe you’ve been asked to write a report, give a presentation, resolve some operational problem or prepare for a special event. Whatever.

These are certainly not projects, but you know full well that the equation:

Your Career = Assignment Success is at play here….

Goof it up and your reputation and career are lower than the stomach contents of a whale.

It doesn’t matter what your job or position is within an organization – you’ll get assignments at many points in your professional life – do them right and you’ll become the Assignment Hero!

Over a period of two weeks sweat, blood and toil, I knew I had found and developed it – a universal model for projectizing work assignments. I harnessed a tailored and simplified version of the framework and controls that projects used, but one which will bring success to any personal assignment, and I named it TaskPack. It takes just moments to apply and is an easy to follow step-by-step system.

It will put you ahead of the pack and turn you into the ‘go-to guy or gal’ – the person who gets things done and delivers every time.

You can find the result and see how it works HERE

 

Sculpture Gareth Knowles iTribute to Steve Jobs

by Dave

There were many good rerasons for me to live on one of the three Montepego mountains in the mediteranean Spanish costas, lifestyle, climate and the views for a start. But the micro-climate that engulfs the mountains seems to atract it’s own share of celebrities too…

A few doors up from my villa is the amazing comedian Dave Spikey, and yet further up the mountain lives the music producer who introduced the UK to reggie via the likes of Desmond Dekker.

But I want to talk about my near neighbour buddie the sculpter Gareth Knowles who was born with  an incredible talent, and with the very recent passing of Steve Jobs has created a sculpture bust of Steve. He started by taking a bite out of an apple, and built the sculpture around it.

I couldn’t believe my luck when I discovered that Gareth had been time-lapse videoed as he sculpted Steve Jobs ‘back to life’ via his iTribute creation.

You really should check out Gareth’s website at http://www.garethknowles.com, but first enjoy his video here:

S-M-A-R-T

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I’ll be brief.

Amongst the first activities a project manager will normally be focussed on with a new project, is determining what its scope and objectives are. And this is usually the first point at which confusion arises – mainly because different folks have different opinions, but also because your customers/users will not have thought this through.

Typically in the world of IT, the project will have been based on a pile of requirements or functionalities. This is fine and good as these will lead to determining the design, but they are downright dangerous if used alone.

A good mental approach here is to use the “So What?” test. For each specification or requirement, ask ‘so what?’ This is lead to articulating what the end game is for each. Take for example a system needing a certain speed of response. Asking ‘so what?’ repeatedly, will lead to an understanding of why such speed is critical.

But what I really want to talk about is the nest step. Writing S-M-A-R-T project goals and objectives (these also work brilliantly to develop you as an individual too!).

So for each project goal or objective, you write down clearly:

  • Specific. describe exactly what this goal is…
     
  • Measurable. capture the measurable units, how you will measure and who will measure
     
  • Attainable. discus with customer/team and ensure that this objective is realistic
     
  • Relevant.  this ties back to the scope, make sure it is within the boundaries of the project
     
  • Time Bound. state the time frame of the objective itself as well as any timings within the objective

These are often best obtained in a workshop where discussion/trade-offs, and ultimately agreement between the stakeholders, can be agreed.

 

 

PMP Certification Is Now Within Your Grasp!

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Watch This 10 Minute Video To See How
YOU Can Gain PMP Certification:

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