Mitacs Step workshop for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows: Foundations of Project Management

Description

Learning teams of approximately five people each will be formed at the beginning of this session and will work together throughout the session.  This will enable the participants to enhance their learning from each other, to experience the development of a strong team, and to develop a model of the culture that they will want to create and execute their projects.

Workshop Objective:

This 2-day workshop provides an experiential, collaborative learning experience to enable participants to integrate the principles of project management, team building, group dynamics and leadership that participants can apply immediately and in their future careers and lives. Participants experience the processes of collaborative planning and management and can see the benefits firsthand.

Learning Outcomes:

Through participating and completing this workshop, participants will:

• Gain a clear understanding of foundational project management principles
• Have an emphasized understanding of the importance of team and team dynamics within the context of project management and meeting project deadlines

Key Topics Areas:

Principles of project management and team building

• Forming new teams and learning from team members past experience
• Understanding self and others using the Strength Deployment Inventory, a self-scoring questionnaire that identifies, motivations, personal strengths in relating, causes of stress or conflict and each individual’s typical response to conflict
• Personal styles of learning and problem-solving
• Creating a team agreement on practices and processes that will enhance their work together
• Techniques and tools to increase team effectiveness at decision making
• Planning and conducting effective project meetings

Leadership:

• Role of the leader in decision making
• Modifying leadership behavior to meet the needs of the situation

Project planning concepts

• Developing and building effective project teams
• Project planning and scheduling: basics of the critical path method (CPM), work breakdown, time calculations, and shortening the project
• Collaborative techniques and processes for planning and scheduling projects, establishing positive project practices and procedures, and the monitoring and reporting of progress
• Risk assessment on the projects planned

Review and discussion of learning

• Providing constructive criticism for positive results

Cost: 

This workshop, as with all Mitacs Step workshops, is free for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. However, the preauthorization of a valid credit card is required as part of the registration process. A $50 penalty will be applied to all late cancellations (cancellations that are not made 5 days or more before the workshop date), no shows, or incomplete attendance. These penalties are only charged after the completion of a workshop and no charges are ever made to interns who participate in full. For answers to some frequently asked questions, please visit our help page: http://www.mitacs.ca/en/programs/step/faq

If you have any questions please contact the Step team at step@mitacs.ca.