FAQ’s

About Courses

Common questions about our courses

What is PRINCE2?

PRINCE2® is an acronym of PRojects IN Controlled Environments version 2. It is a de-facto standard project management method in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, and is also widely used internationally. Structured, yet highly adaptable, PRINCE2 can be tailored to meet the needs of any project in any industry. Whether you are sponsoring, governing, managing, working in or supporting projects, our PRINCE2 training courses are designed to improve your chances of individual and organisational success.

What is PRINCE2 Agile?

PRINCE2 Agile is an agile extensive to PRINCE2. We will have an eLearning course available ealry 2022. Please subscribe to our social media channels or our newsletter to be notified when this is made available online.

What is MSP?

Managing Successful Programmes (MSP), is a proven framework that organizes complex programs into manageable, interrelated projects. The MSP training teaches you better program management skills, improved adaptability, and flexibility when working in a volatile, ever-changing program environment.

The MSP framework has recently gone through an update. We are working to update our eLearning training content to reflect this recent update. We anticipate that this will be available mid 2022. Please subscribe to our social media channels and newsletter to be notified.

What is MoR?

Management of Risk (MoR), is an approach to the management of operational and project, programme and portfolio risk. It offers a standard recognised way of managing risk and it is based on a set of principles, an approach and processes. It is important that risk awareness is embedded in the organisation so as to assess the impact on the organisation.

What is AgilePM?

Agile Project Management delivers a more flexible and adaptive approach to projects. It is a new approach for business projects which strive for high-speed innovation. Agile projects focus on the delivery of the products and cut to a minimum the bureaucracy traditionally associated with some project management methods. 

Based on the proven agile project management approach developed by the Agile Business Consortium, our courses show you how to deliver agile projects in organisations requiring standards, rigour and visibility around Project Management, while at the same time enabling the fast pace, change and empowerment expected in an agile environment.

What is Better Business Cases (BBC)?
Better Business Cases (BBC) is guidance on how to build robust Business Cases to justify projects and programmes. It is based on the UK Treasury’s Green Book.
What is the PRAXIS Framework?
PRAXIS is an open source framework for the management of project, programme and portfolio initiatives. It includes a body of knowledge, process model, competency framework and capability maturity model. The framework is supported by a knowledgebase of resources and an encyclopaedia.

We will have an eLearning course available soon.

What is Change Management?
Change Management is guidance on the impact of change on organisations and individuals, and how to analyse, deliver and embed such change.
Who wrote your courses?
All of our courses are written by industry Practitioners and accredited Trainers with over 40 years of experience in the subject matter of each course.
Can I contact an approved trainer if I have any questions on course content?
No. Due to the high volume of people taking our online courses, it’s not possible for us to answer questions from individual students of our online courses.

Our business model is based on eLearning / Self learning to provide with you the flexibility of being able to study anywhere, anytime on any device – without the need of a classroom-based instructor

Is a “Virtual Online Class” better than a “Self-Learn”, eLearning course?
A virtual class is just like a classroom-based course but done online. You are restricted by a certain course schedule and times. Interaction with the instructor may be restricted (microphones turned off) or limited in how frequently you can engage with the instructor.

The benefit of eLearning (refer to our eLearning benefits section above) is that you can learn at a time that is convenient to you, on any device, anywhere. Self-learning courses tend to provide more content and information that you can refer to or revise at any time. It provides you with the flexibility that is difficult to find with classroom-based or virtual training courses.

Does my course fee cover the reference manual associated with the course?
No. Many people would prefer to borrow the reference manual from a colleague, rather than buy their own copy. For those who do wish to have their own copy of a reference manual, we provide you with links to the publisher’s website. Usually, these publishers can deliver their manuals to you in a matter of days.
Which Project Management Course should I enroll in - PRINCE2 or AgilePM?
There is no ‘correct’ answer to this question, it depends on your environment and your projects. If you work with organisations that use one or the other, then enroll in the corresponding course.

If you need a project management method that you can use throughout your career on any type of project in any domain, then you should take our PRINCE2 courses.

If you need a light-weight method for use in an agile domain, then take our AgilePM courses. We will soon be offering online training in the agile extension to PRINCE2, called PRINCE2 Agile. PRINCE2 Agile assumes a reasonably detailed understanding of PRINCE2.

If you don’t have this background in PRINCE2, AgilePM would therefore be more useful to you. And it’s easy to use AgilePM in an organisation that uses PRINCE2 (our course will show you how).

Should I do the “Combined” Foundation & Practitioner course together or do them one at a time ?
For one, the combined Foundation and Practitioner course is significantly cheaper.

A Foundation course gives participants an understanding of the key concepts, whereas a Practitioner course ensures that participants can apply these concepts.

From an employer’s point of view, a Practitioner certificate is far more valuable.

Is the PMI’s PMBoK ‘better’ than PRINCE2 or AgilePM?
There is no ‘correct’ answer to this question; it depends on your environment and your projects.

PRINCE2 is the most robust of these methods. It is suitable for use with customer-led projects because of its guidance on governance and the use of the Business Case as the primary project control. PRINCE2 says that a successful project is one that delivers business value in the live environment; delivery of full scope on time and within budget is important but not the primary business concern. PRINCE2 expects that a project would comply with the sponsoring organisation’s HR and procurement approaches.

The PRINCE2 process model has two early steps (not present in the PMBoK’s process model) that ensure the project’s scope and approach are thoroughly investigated before expensive delivery planning commences, so organisations are much less likely to end up with runaway projects. PRINCE2 also features a rolling wave approach to planning, that significantly improves project success rates. PRINCE2 can also be used for supplier-led projects, with suitable tailoring.

The PMBoK is not useful for customer-led projects but is OK for supplier-led projects. The PMBoK says that a successful project is one that delivers full scope on time and budget. The PMBoK covers several areas not covered by PRINCE2, such as HR management and procurement. However, the PMBoK’s guidance on procurement is seriously out of date and does not reflect modern public sector procurement practices. This may be OK in a supplier-led project but is not acceptable in a customer-led project.
A wide variety of techniques are mentioned in both PRINCE2 and the PMBoK, but these techniques are not formally part of the method. Those taking PMP training must learn how to apply several of these techniques.

AgilePM is a light-weight project management method suitable for use in an agile environment, where teams are using agile product development techniques such as Scrum.

Why should I get certified in Change Management?
Almost all major projects these days result in some sort of organisational change, with impacts on individuals and the organisation. If these impacts are not carefully managed, the business objectives of these projects are unlikely to be met. Increasingly, organisations are seeing the value in carefully planning and managing these impacts in parallel with the technical aspects of the projects. This is the role of the “Change Manager”.

Our courses are aligned with the Change Management Body of Knowledge.

Why Should I get certified in Risk Management?
Risks are the “known uncertainties” that may impact on the ability of a project, programme or operational activity to meet its objectives as planned.

Getting a globally recognised certification in Risk Management will ensure you have the credentials required for managing risk within your organisation. It will enable you to design, implement and manage your organisations risk in an efficient and effective manner. An essential requirement for building a career in Risk Management.

Too many projects populate their project or porganisational Risk Register with poorly understood entries, but then don’t take any action to mitigate these risks; these projects are not managing their risks.

The role of a Risk Manager is to ensure that risks are actually managed, and mitigation strategies are in place to implement corrective actions for organisational and project risks. Reducing the  ‘surprises’ to the Business Sponsor or organisation.

Our courses are aligned with the ISO standard on risk management.

 

Why should I get certified in Better Business Cases (BBC)?
Whether you are an individual writing a Business Case for your project or for a new investment to be made by you or your organisation, having a proven successful methodology would ensure that funding could be be approved more readily vs a poorly written one. This course will provide you with the tools required to ensure you write a successful Business Case adressing all the criteria looked at by Business Sponsors or Investment Managers.

In many organisations, the Business Case is seen as simply being a funding acquisition tool, that is forgotten as soon as the budget is approved. These Business Cases do not fully explore potential options, nor do they consider the overall achievability of the initiative.

Better Business Cases (BBC) regards the Business Case an an initial and ongoing tool providing comprehensive high-quality information to support decision-making by the sponsoring organisation at every step.

BBC guidance represents the leading edge on thinking about business justification of proposed investments; it is based on the approach developed by the UK Treasury.