- Great project management is a defining feature of successful projects. In the most recent iteration of their internationally recognized project management qualification, the Association for Project Management have brought together years of knowledge and experience, to help you upskill. In this video, we'll cover the qualification from the highest level possible, to give you a taste for what this course is all about. To get the most out of this course though, you'll need to work your way through the QA, APM PMQ ebook. We worked with some of our best trainers, and project management experts to put it together. And it will help you learn everything you need to become a better project manager, and to pass the final exam. Projects are usually programmed to deal with or bring about change. Internal or external, team or organizational. But what is a project? According to the APM body of knowledge seventh edition, projects are unique transient endeavors, undertaken to bring about change, and achieve planned objectives, which can be defined in terms of outputs, outcomes, and benefits. Change is an established part of life, especially in modern organizational context. They go on to say that change is often needed to ensure continued survival, or business relevance. Avoiding stagnation and maintaining the relevance of strategies, approaches, and capabilities, often requires processes of renewal and update. In other words, change is natural, and if you want to keep moving forward, it's also necessary. Lifecycle is a framework that outlines the key stages you need to complete in order to transform your idea or concept into reality. There are four different lifecycle kinds. In linear lifecycles, you complete the project within one pass through the cycle. Projects are broken up into a sequence of stages you complete in order. These stages usually span from concept development, all the way to the output or outcome being deployed, or the benefits being realized. In incremental lifecycles, you achieve the target by completing a series of small steps. This philosophy is good for delivering early benefits, or quick wins, and conserving resources. In iterative lifecycles, you work through a few smaller cycles in parallel, completing different development stages at the same time across teams. Working in this way, you can produce a minimum viable product. MVP. The most basic version of what you need to produce, and then build on it to produce something of higher quality with each iteration. In evolutionary lifecycle, each stage is based on user feedback from the previous stage. This is particularly useful when you're in a period of innovation, or if the work you're doing is time-critical, such as entering a new market. There is no right way, these lifecycles are context dependent, and you can even draw on different kinds of frameworks as required. Decision gates. Decision gates are points during the lifecycle, where you review the work that you've done, and confirm its viability. In linear lifecycles, decision gates occur at the end of a phase of work. So they're event-based. In iterative lifecycles, they're time-bound. You can have decision gates at any of the following stages. Gate review, between phases. Stage review, at key points during deployment. Post project review, shortly after transition. And benefits reviews, during the benefits realization phase. Once a gate is passed, the sponsor and governance board is accountable for the decision to continue work. Scope is defined as being the totality of the outputs, outcomes, and benefits, and the work required to produce them. You need to be able to identify, define, and control the scope of your project. This is called scope management. Product breakdown structure. What outputs will be delivered? Work breakdown structure. Work packages showing the activities to be completed. Organizational breakdown structure. The labor or non-labor resources needed to do the work. Cost breakdown structure. The cost of the labor or non-labor resources needed. And that's it for this video. Great project management is crucial if you want to run a successful project. Change is a good thing, and should always be at the forefront of the project. Other elements, like the project lifecycle, are more structure, but should still be tailored to fit the project you're working on. In this way, you'll reach decision gates more naturally. This course will cover everything you need to know about project, program, and portfolio management from a lifecycle perspective. This means we'll start with the external environment, and move on through the concept definition and deployment phases. Finally, we'll end on discussions around the people and behaviors.