₦airaland Forum

aym tech: Please i need advice. I am a batch B corper passing out next month Jun. Was not paid my march 2013 allawee and was following it up. Just April i was informed that my redeployment letter frm Abia to kaduna has been ready and thats why i wasnt paid for march
although i wasnt informed till April, and i was asked to come n pick my redeployment
letter.how can i start relocating less than two months to p.o.p the problem now is that i dnt know where my discharge certificate will be sent to Abia or Kaduna am confuse pls frnds help me clarify this tnx.

I will advice you to go to your current state NYSC office because I am sure the letter for your redeployment was delivered there before it was handed over to you.

They should be able to clarify the issues you have for you!!.. Act fast because passing out is around the conrenr now!!

All the best.

Hello egbuchee,

Do you buy per kilo or do you have anyone that is ready to buy alrge stock at the kilo rate.

I have large stock of up to 5000birds of average 2kg to sell.

We can help you with the processing if you require that too.

Reach me let us discuss.

Afrocatalyst,

thank you so much for those pictures and enlightening us on your project. Indeed you are the very first to post photos of your kiln and smoking machine. you have also made the first post explaining in details quantity your machine can take at a time etc.

You are a great Nigerian Farmer!!

kudos to your elbow, i will connect you via whatsup soon!!

Regards.

Afrocatalyst, you started a very inspiring and almost undiscussed thread on Nairaland. Pl go on and tell us the details of your acquisition.

Can we have the price you bought it, its capacity and drying time. Uploading some fotos for us will also not be a bad idea.

It will further help others who are searching for similar things here to learn quickly.

Welldone.

bashexyz,

I like your analyses of professional courses breakdown.

Project Management skills are needed by all and sundry. It is the new trend to running and managing whatever job you take to do. So if you are a Corper who hopes to get on the job train or even go entrepreneurial, you should look towards project management training to give you that edge.

Project Management is an all-comers affairs and is not limited to any particular profession, course or field. We hope government will soon introduce it in the format GNS is been done by all in schools.

I can however assure you that at our project management training organisation, we have taken time to put corp members into consideration reason why we are promoting project management to them at the CAPM level.

The good option is that all corpers have the same opportunity to access the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) training irrespective of their PPA location.

This is because, we have developed Our Online portal, thereby making it possible to access your courseware once you have internet access either on your phones or on a regular PC.

The steps and procedure to register online are available on the website. We are currently running a promo for corp members at an unbelievable cheap price.

Visit www.pmnigeria.com/elearning-portal1

Project Management Training Course

For any project to be completed in a given time, proper planning and management are essential to the success. This is where PMP's or project management professionals come in to the picture. They are well-trained in all the aspects of the project life cycle and other matters. They know how to solve the problems and try to find a solution from different thinking perspectives and angles.

Project management training is critical to your organizational success because of so many reasons. Management staff that is properly trained in project management can perform the tasks in a professional way thus minimizing losses. This ultimately leads to the profit. When people are given opportunity to get trained well, it improves their confidence level and professional capabilities.

This ultimately results to better profit and revenue.

Another advantage of project management training is that it prevents employees from leaving the company. In other words attrition ratio will be decreased due to the continuous process of project management training. As part of this program, the company receives customer service support throughout the programme.

This way your customers get the care and attention about our services.

Another advantage of this course is that it will help you keep your projects on track, help to achieve complete efficiency in terms of optimum utilization of resources. Actually it will result in very less overhead costs thus increasing the revenue and profit.

If resources are utilized efficiently results will be optimum and it will help to minimize the wastage, there by increasing the profit.

These training course include project scope and gathering requirements, creating a project plan, accessing project risk, scheduling, controlling and managing contracts for repeatable success throughout the organization.

These course helps you to understand the what, why and how of the discipline. And also they teach about why business and management alignment is essential for project management success.

This course also helps you to understand on how to create the project plans that leverage the input, understanding and support of your stakeholders.

Participants learn state of the art techniques for developing comprehensive project plans, estimation and scheduling project tasks with accuracy and sophistication. Here participants practice by examining the status of task details, and re-estimating milestones. This course also helps you to create a successful bridge between a project team, customers and sponsors. Because one of the most effective tool for achieving project success is our relationships.

Call in to learn how to become more efficient using Project Management Methodologies. 07026002609

www.pmnigeria.com

Que: What are the available Project Management Software available in the market to run your project?

Ans: MS-Project, Oracle's Primavera, BaseCamp, EGroupWare, Merlin, MS Sharepoint Server etc

We r winning this nations cup. Its already destined by God, with preparation of our team.

I would like Keshi through nff to use this team to play Bacerlona.

It will let us know how far this current team can go. Kudos boys

Hello everyone,

This is to inform all Project Management enthusiasts that the next PMP Exam preparatory class will be coming up on 4th-8th Febraury, 2013 (Weekday) and Jan 26 & 27, Feb 8 & 9, 2013 (Weekend Class)

The training course which is slated to hold during the week for Managers who are able to take the time off work and on weekends for busy professionals who are not be able to attend the weekday classes, will focus on:
* Project Management Body of Knowledge:
* Management Processes:
* PM Knowledge Areas:
* Examination Preparation towards passing the coveted PMI certification and attaining the PMP/CAPM status.

Participants will be taken through a rigorous training session on preparing and eventually passing the certification exams.

This Class is scheduled for Professionals/Business Managers from all sectors of the economy where projects are done and activities/processes can be run as projects.

We also have customised training classes for organisations that intend to provide their staff for Group trainings, this can be organized both in-house and offsite at the client’s premises.

For the two sessions of training holding at our site, a further discount of 20% is available for the first 10 participants to register for the class before 1th of February, 2013.

Heads of Human Resources in organisations that require our services are enjoined to reach us over phone or mail to discuss their requirements for their staff training needs.


Venue: 2nd floor, Gateway Savings & Loans Building, KM6, Idiroko Road, by Ogun State Industrial Estate, Ota

Accommodation: is available at very subsidized rates for participants who may require lodging.

Cost: N50,000

Email: info@pmnigeria.com
Phone: 039-600157, 07026002609

NB: If you are not able to make the venue due to distance factor, pl visit our online portal to run your course. The same certificate is awarded whether you attend the online course or the classroom course.
www.pmnigeria.com/elearning-portal1/

Q: Where can I Learn More?

A: Firstly, look inside your own organisation, you will be surprised at the knowledge and experience available to you if you just ask.

Other sources of help and learning about Project Management are:

• Project Management Institute, www.pmi.org
• King of CMS Consulting, (Managers of PMNigeria) www.pmnigeria.com

What is the Project Management Institute (PMI)?
The PMI is an international not-for-profit professional association for project management professionals. PMI’s vision is to be the leading worldwide professional association that develops and maintains standards for the practice of Project Managers and for the certification of practitioners.

What is King of CMS Consulting
KCMS is a Project Management consulting and training organization. Our focus is on providing world class project managers as Consultants to your projects to ensuring Project success with the required milestones achieved. Our core expertise is rooted in the field of IT/Telecoms Projects while not neglecting other fields where we possess the needed technical expertise to deliver to our clients using our soft skills to understand the Job.

We regularly provide training classes to aspiring project Managers towards securing their PMP/CAPM certification. We have our online portal, www.pmnigeria.com/elearning-portal1/ that provides remote Training for Participants from anywhere in Nigeria and around the world. We currently have promos running for NYSC corp members.

Q: Is there a hierarchy of project managers in project management?

Yes - depending on the size of the project and the number of projects in the portfolio, an organisation may require several people to lead different projects or significant stages of a major project.

There are generally 3 management levels but the title ‘senior’ may be added to differentiate between experienced (or full time) project managers and those who have less experience or are part time project managers.

Programme Manager (sometimes known as a Change Manager)
The Programme Manager is responsible to the Senior Management for the portfolio of projects under his control. The role is a strategic one. He or she will have command of Project Managers and Project Leaders who report for individual projects. The Programme Manager is responsible for ensuring that the portfolio of projects deliver the beneficial business gain intended.

Project Manager
A Project Manager is experienced in the skills and disciplines of project management, may manage more than one project at a time and may have Project Leaders as directly reporting staff.

Project Leader
A project leader usually manages a project stage or a small project where his or her particular skills or expertise are a large part of the work. A Project Leader may report to a Project Manager or to the Programme Manager.

Q: What are the main roles and responsibilities?

A: There are three key roles in the management of projects whether they are service development projects, organisational change projects,IT, TQM projects, or facilities projects.

Top Management
Setting the conditions and culture such that the business can select and implement appropriate projects to support the business.

Middle management
Ensuring that all projects are selected, allocated, steered and closed down satisfactorily. Ensure that projects that are not approved are not worked on.

Operational staff
To use the tools and techniques to manage projects effectively.

Q: Who else is involved in Project Management & What would they do?

A: A number of people may be involved depending on the size of the project. They fall into a number of groups.

The Project Sponsor
The project sponsor should be a senior person in the organisation who has the most to gain from the project’s success and the most to lose if it fails.

The Steering Team
The steering team may only be one person on a small project (perhaps the project sponsor) who meets informally with the project manager. On a large project a formal cross functional senior team will be set up to meet regularly to review progress and provide strategic guidance.

Functional or line managers
The line manager of each team member will want to be kept informed about the progress of the project and be involved in setting of individual objectives.

The project customer
The project ‘customer’ should either be a member of the steering team or represented on that team.

All in All, all of these people are Called Project Stakeholders because they are one way or the other affected by the results of the project.

I hope aspiring project managers are learning a thing or two from my content. The essence is to bring to fore, the value and importance of project management and its methodologies in our everyday lives and activities.

It is hoped that this will help ginger both experienced and up coming project managers to better understand Project Management from a global point of view.

More FAQs and Answers to them on the way!!

cfola, PMP

Q: What tools and techniques are used?

A: Project managers use a number of tools and techniques during a project life cycle such as:-

Verifiable objective setting
This ensures that the objectives for the project can be measured and verified to ensure that they have been met.

Brain storming
This technique is used at all stages of the project to encourage creative thinking and solve problems.

Work Breakdown Structures
This is a technique to analyse the content of work and cost by breaking it down into its component parts. It is produced by :-
• Identifying the key elements
• Breaking each element down into component parts
• Continuing to breakdown until manageable work packages have been identified. These can then be allocated to the appropriate person.

Below is a work breakdown structure for the recruitment of a new person to fill a vacant post.



Project Evaluation Review Technique (PERT)
Network analysis or PERT is used to analyse the inter-relationships between the tasks identified by the work breakdown structure and to define the dependencies of each task. Whilst laying out a PERT chart it is often possible to see that assumptions for the order of work are not logical or could be achieved more cost effectively by re-ordering them. This is particularly true whilst allocating resources; it may become self evident that two tasks cannot be completed at the same time by the same person due to lack of working hours or, conversely, that by adding an extra person to the project team several tasks can be done in parallel thus shortening the length of the project.
Below is the PERT chart of the WBS shown above after network analysis as been applied.



Critical path analysis (CPA)
CPA is used in conjunction with PERT analysis to identify the tasks that are critical in determining the overall duration of the project.

Milestone Planning
Milestone planning is used to show the major steps that are needed to reach the goal on time. When several tasks have been completed the milestone is reached. It is often used at senior manager reviews.

What are Milestones? Why are they called Milestones?
Imagine you are walking along the road and you see a milestone that says 20 miles to London so you keep walking and later you see one that says 10 miles to London. Now you know that you are going in the right direction and you have made some progress. That is the principle of project milestones. For example, if the project is to build a house then completing each significant chunk of work could be considered a milestone on the road to building the house. For example the milestones might be:-
• Planning permission granted
• Foundations laid
• Walls constructed
• Roof built
• Fixtures, fittings and services completed
• Garden landscaped
• House inspected and approved
• House sold

For simple projects, a milestone plan may be the only plan required.

Accrued cost and earned value analysis
These measures enable the progress of the project to be monitored in financial terms.

Gantt charts
Gantt charts (named after the inventor) or bar charts, as they are sometimes called, are used to display and communicate the results of PERT and Critical Path analysis in a simple bar chart format that can be readily understood by those not involved in the detail of the project.

Q: What skills does a project manager need?

Very broad skills and a deal of experience are needed to manage a large project successfully. They include business knowledge, technical skills and individual and team leadership skills.

Individual Skills
The personal skills are likely to include good presentation and persuasive skills, good written skills but allied to goal orientation, high energy and credibility.
Note that Having high energy does not mean you play football five times a week but that you have the intellectual energy and commitment to deliver the project with a positive ‘we can do it’ team approach. Good project managers know their own strengths and weaknesses and will compensate for these in selecting the team.

Team Skills
They will appreciate the differing needs of both individuals and the project team at different stages of the project. They will be aware of different team types.

Technical Skills
They will have technical skills in setting objectives, planning complex tasks, negotiating resource, financial planning, contract management, monitoring skills, managing creative thinking and problem solving, as well as their own specialist topic.

Q: So what does a Project Manager do?

A: Typically a project manager will be nominated to lead a project and will be expected to be fully accountable for meeting its objectives. The project manager will be the leader of the project team and will be responsible for ensuring the following are completed in a timely way:-
• Gaining approval for the project aim and terms of reference
• Selecting and leading the team and setting individual objectives.
• Ensuring a feasibility study is in place and completed.
• Ensuring that the project is planned in appropriate detail.
• Allocating and monitoring the work and cost.
• Motivating the team.
• Reporting progress back to the organisation.
• Helping the team to solve project problems.
• Achieve, through the team, the goals for which the he was put on the project.
• Reviewing and closing down

Q: Doesn’t Project Management stifle creativity?

A: No - in fact a well managed project will encourage cross functional creativity because that is what is needed in ‘change projects’. An experienced project manager will know when to tap into this creativity and when to drive the project forward. It is only when project methodologies become bureaucratic and override common sense that creativity can be stifled.

Q: What is the Project Management Methodology?

A: If a project has a beginning and an end, what is its life cycle and how is it managed?
To be effective and workable project methodologies should be appropriate to the task and the organisation.
For simple projects in a small organisation, agreed milestones, a few checklists and someone to steer the project are all that are required.
For complex projects in a large organisation a more structured approach is needed, to set up and approve the project, monitor and guides its progress, solve its problems, deliver the end product (or gain) and close it down.
In order to understand the methodology we need to look at the project life cycle. The detailed life cycle will be dependent upon the size and type of organisation and the size and type of the project. However, in outline they all have very similar elements.

Q: Is Project Management relevant to me?

A: If you have been given a specific job to complete then you should consider using the principles of project management if it has the following features:-
A defined goal
Time, cost and quality (or functionality) constraints
Requires expertise and support from other functions
Involves a unique scope of work. There is a terminal date to complete the work and an expectation.
You should be able to do this with you project management skills..

Question: How is a project different to any other work?

Ans: A continuous process is not a project. The development of a new rent or lettings policy is a project but the subsequent day to day operation of that policy is a continuous process that is usually managed by an individual or a department. Initiation and close up of a Manufacturing site or building is a Project, but the daily process of production is not.

However one can however split these processes (wbs) to smaller projects to improve on results and management processes.

Question: What is a project?

ANS: A project is generally defined as a programme of work to bring about a beneficial change and which has:-
o a start and an end
o a multi-disciplinary team brought together for the project
o constraints of cost, time and quality
o a scope of work that is unique and involves uncertainty

Examples of a project:-
The development and introduction of a new services
The development of a management information system
The introduction of an improvement to an existing process
Setting up a new care initiative
The creation of a large tender or the preparation of a response to it.
The production of a new customer newsletter, catalogue or Web site

Dee60: WHAT ABOUT OZUMBA MBADIWE STREET IN VI/LAGOS? SHEER INSENSITIVITY TO LEAVE SUCH A MAJOR ROAD CLOSED DOWN FOR MORE THAN 12 MONTHS.

CohenJane: You are merely showing your ignorance guy.

The work for OZUMBA, at the moment, is off site. Dust your project management book for better understanding of that

CohenJane, I sincerely hope our friend dee60 can lay his hands on those books you have asked him to dust. You also seem to be so close to government to know when they are are running projects onsite or offsite.

Your comment is a clear call for practising project managers to be on their toes with understanding government projects and also a call to government to involve certified and professional project managers in handling of their projects.

My line of thoughts is for the sponsors (the governor, his executives, assembly members) and stakeholders to be actively involved through having their own project teams to monitor the projects. This way, everyone knows what is expected from the Contractor at every point in time. This will serve as a check and balance for their excesses.

Seun, you have done well for yourself, you remain a force to be recorned with in the field of web successes.

The younger generation and even some older ones in the industry are looking up to you for direction.

You r boththe google and facebook of nigeria. You know what I mean!

We still need a face with an office for NL just as we have for google and the others.

All the best for your consistency!

Nobody has mentioned KING, the king of SHILOH ( silas ) and david sheperd. A very wonderful and interesting series. Its fashioned along the biblical story of king saul, his son Jonathan and David the sheperd boy.

Its a must watch.

sashbaby: festus keyamo where u dey oooo. the bereaved need ur service ooo

Do we realli have animal activists in this country. It is only when we are able to deal with human insecurity that we can even think of animal rights.

However, if we are able to start with animal activisim and we make a breakthrough, that will assure us that if we can have animal rights, it won't be difficult to have human rights.

Just yesterday, some gays (human beings like us) were paraded naked like dogs on the streets of the east.

Its high time we looked at the rights of animals of which we are a part of.

If we can break through this shackles of primitive animals like the western world have done, then its time to break through human rights dibacle.

Everyone reading this, its serious business..osun must pay for this inhumanity.. Tomorrow, I will setup a website tagged' sososo' will update u guys afta the site is ready.

Regards.

zibe: The owners should demand for an autopsy

If the state government authority can so demand that goats should be remanded in custody, there is no reason why the owner of the goats that died should not ask for an autopsy. They should sue in return for their loss.

This is calling on human or is it animal rights activists in Nigeria to ensure justice is done.

Why should an animal die in custody?.. Where is the carcass?..

There are loads of anti society vices pervading our country. Lesbianism, Corruption, adultery, armed robbery, smoking, drinking shepe and driving, driving shepe and not driving, boko haram, occultism, bribery, ritual killings ..and so on!.

If we can handover jungle justice to these vices on our own, then the Judiciary arm of government should be scrapped and the police used only as escorts for politicians.

The Nigerian people are so backward, we lack all sense of decency for humanity. Even those guys parading them are guilty of jungle justice vice!

We r in a sorry and sick state!

Emmysteve: After noon pple. I just got employed as a secondary teacher in one small secondary school like that (teaching three subjects). The pay is not much but i see it as an opportunity to keep me engage for the mean time, improve my teaching skills and to share my knowledge with the student. I am loving it. No more idleness and browsing the internet 24/7.... To me, the days are running rather too fast, i hope to cover their syllabus before then tho.

You are indeed lucky with the teaching job. The Job of impacting is one I always love to do. I remember initially during my service year, i refused to be posted to a teaching position and got a job with a bank. However after the one year, we were called to come and do SHELL test.

All the questions were pure secondary school physics, chemistry, so the guys that taught in secondary schools during the service year were more able to easily pass the test than those of us that served at the banks. It was then I regretted not serving as a secondary teacher.

Bottomline: If you are a teacher during your service year, chances are that you will get to work with an oil company. If you dont believe me ask the MD of LNG where he served.