Project R.E.A.L. – Real Experience; Applied Learning Course Now...

Minneapolis, M.N. (PRWEB) December 12, 2010

Watermark Learning today announced the availability of its newest course, Project R.E.A.L. —Real Experience; Applied Learning.

Designed for Project Managers and Business Analysts, this advanced course expands on students’ previous learning and job experience in a robust, dynamic, and fast-paced environment using a hands-on, live project simulation.

Students are guided by an experienced Facilitator with extensive background in project management, business analysis and more than 20 years of experience in Corporate America. They take part in a full project life cycle playing multiple roles (PM, BA, QA, and Development) and tackling multiple methodologies, core components of artifacts, tasks, and deliverables of a real project.

“Students experience the pitfalls, roadblocks, curveballs, successes and celebrations that happen on every project as part of a working team,” said Chris Anderson, Vice President of Sales and Delivery at Watermark Learning. “There’s really no other training course like this in the market right now.”

Students learn how each project role thinks and what they are responsible for. The activities in the workshop will prepare them to handle obstacles that can impede your project success. Attendees don’t just hear about or practice what they might do; students experience it and actually do the work in an accelerated fashion.

“Students who attend Project R.E.A.L. come out better prepared to lead and make the tough decisions in moments of difficulty,” explained Anderson. “Mistakes, both common and uncommon, are rooted out in a safe learning environment."

Project R.E.A.L. is available in Watermark Learning classrooms worldwide or on-site via private delivery. For more information, visit http://www.watermarklearning.com.

About Watermark Learning

Founded in 1992, Watermark Learning conveys retainable real-world skills to motivate and enhance staff performance for enduring results. Watermark Learning provides public, Internet, and private training, and mentoring. They also provide CBAP® and PMP® Preparation products and related resources, as well as Masters and Associates Certificate Programs with their academic partner, Auburn University.

Watermark Learning is headquartered in Minneapolis, MN. Watermark is an original PMI Global Registered Education Provider, and a charter IIBA Endorsed Education Provider. Learn more at http://www.watermarklearning.com.

PMP is a registered certification mark of Project Management Institute, Inc.
CBAP is a registered certification mark of International Institute of Business Analysis

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Report Indicates Project Resource Management, Project Success is...

Austin, TX (PRWEB) November 11, 2010

Cognitive Technologies– a consulting firm specializing in project management, collaborative processes, and organizational effectiveness for federal and state government and Fortune 1000 companies – publicly released the findings of their annual Project Resource Management survey of project-centric U.S. organizations this week at the PMO Symposium in Dallas. Among the findings, the 2010 survey results confirmed a discrepancy between how upper-level executives and project management practitioners view resources management and how they perceive project success.

The full report on the findings, which can be downloaded at http://www.cognitive-technologies.com, also reveals the following project resource insights:

-- Organizations with higher project success rates are more likely to have standardized resource management tools and are more likely to believe their tools provide sufficient and timely information.

-- Upper-level executives are more likely to believe projects are more successful than their project management counterparts believe.

-- Executives are more likely to view project resource management-related challenges as less severe than project managers view them.

-- Executives in 2010 are less optimistic and more educated about current resource management challenges and processes than in 2009.

-- Respondents in 2010 ranked their projects as being less successful on average than respondents in 2009.

-- Larger organizations are more likely to have more sophisticated tools and processes, but are also more likely to experience project resource management challenges.

-- Organizations with fewer people working on projects are better able to track and status projects at the task level and are more likely to use past project data when planning future projects.

-- Since 2009, large organizations have decreased use of past project data when planning future projects and are now more likely to reallocate resources without permission from existing projects.

-- Organizations experiencing fewer resource management challenges are significantly more likely to employ standardized resource management tools and processes.

-- Organizations that report project managers “have a voice” when management wishes to move resources are more likely to report higher rates of project success.

One notable difference on this year’s results from last year, was an improved awareness of resource management challenges company-wide. This signifies that resource management has become a more conspicuous issue, and one that organizations are beginning to recognize to a greater degree.

However, while organizations in 2010 are more aware of resources management challenges than in 2009, there has been little to no improvement in the resources management processes employed. This year, organizations reported lower rates of project success, were more likely to agree that project managers struggle to find available resources, and exhibited higher levels of internal competition between managers for available resources.

“This report shows that, while project resource management is gaining respect, there is plenty of room for improvement,” states Bruce A. McGraw, PMP and executive vice president of Cognitive Technologies. “Organizations that embrace and employ mature resource management processes are succeeding, but those organizations are still outnumbered. On average, resource allocation is ad hoc at best – with little tool standardization and even less standardization of tool usage.”

About the Survey
This is the second annual Project Resource Management Survey that Cognitive Technologies has publically released. The 2010 Project Resource Management Survey included both upper-level executives (49 percent of respondents) and project management practitioners (46 percent of respondents) in the United States. A total of 250 complete surveys were analyzed. Of the responding organizations, more than 80 percent classified themselves as commercial companies (44 percent commercially public, 39 percent commercially private) and nearly half (44 percent) report annual revenues of more than $1 billion. The top four most represented industries were: Financial Services, IT/Technology, Healthcare/Pharmaceuticals and Consulting.

About Cognitive Technologies
Cognitive Technologies, Inc. is a certified WBE/DBE consulting firm specializing in project management, collaborative processes, and organizational effectiveness. Cognitive delivers appropriate solutions to improve the performance of business units through the application of expertise in projects, people and technology. We are a certified Microsoft Partner. Visit our blog at http://www.fearnoproject.com and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter (@cogtechinc).

Download the full report
The entire report can be downloaded at http://www.cognitive-technologies.com.

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