APMG Project Planning & Control Practitioner eLearning

Learners attending this course must have attended the APMG Project Planning and Control Foundation course, QAPPCFEL.

This course is most suitable for learners who:

• Work in, or plan to work in, a project environment
• Want to progress their career and improve employability
• Need a deeper understanding of how to apply and interpret inputs and outputs in project planning, monitoring, and control
• Want to develop Practitioner-level confidence in applying planning and control techniques

Target audience

This course is designed for professionals involved in planning, scheduling, monitoring, and controlling projects.

It is suitable for:

• Project managers who need to improve project definition, planning, and control
• Project planners and project coordinators responsible for supporting project delivery
• Project controls managers who need to apply monitoring and reporting techniques
• Senior project managers overseeing complex or high-value projects
• Consultants and engineers involved in project planning or delivery assurance
• Professionals responsible for developing standards for monitoring and controlling projects

By the end of this course, learners will be able to:

• Apply products used to gain a clear definition of a project
• Apply techniques used to plan, hand over, and close a project
• Select and use appropriate scheduling techniques for different project contexts
• Apply monitoring and control practices to support proactive project control
• Interpret project performance information and identify likely causes of variance
• Apply record-keeping practices that support feedback, lessons learned, and continuous improvement
• Analyse whether planning, scheduling, monitoring, and control activities are appropriate within a given project scenario
• Prepare for the optional APMG Planning and Control Practitioner exam

• The role of project definition in successful planning and control
• Factors that help ensure the works information and statement of work are fit for purpose
• Key elements needed for effective project planning
• The importance of stakeholder management
• How clear project definition supports scope, delivery, and control decisions
• How definition products contribute to a shared understanding of project expectations

• Activities, outputs, and roles involved in developing and maintaining project plans
• When to use top-down, bottom-up, and rolling-wave planning approaches
• How to interpret S-curves and identify effective planning strategies
• Creating and assessing a Product Breakdown Structure
• Creating and assessing a Work Breakdown Structure and Work Breakdown Structure Dictionary
• Creating and assessing an Organisational Breakdown Structure
• Creating and assessing Responsibility Assignment Matrix and RACI Matrix information
• Creating and assessing Cost Breakdown Structure and Resource Breakdown Structure information
• Identifying project interfaces that need to be monitored and controlled
• Selecting appropriate estimating approaches and techniques
• Assessing whether planning products are fit for purpose
• Assessing whether chosen delivery and planning strategies are appropriate
• Applying planning techniques to support handover and closeout

• The advantages and disadvantages of target schedules
• Steps involved in resourcing the project schedule
• The need to manage project interfaces
• Dependency identification, coding, integration, impact analysis, and impact resolution
• Activities involved in developing and maintaining the project schedule
• Types and levels of schedule required by a project
• Information that may be included in project schedules
• Schedule design elements and how they should be used
• How scheduling supports decision-making, monitoring, and performance reporting

• Developing and maintaining the project baseline
• Applying rules for project monitoring and control
• Selecting appropriate methods for reporting project performance
• Identifying the information needed in performance reports
• Interpreting performance reporting methods, including drop line method, activity weeks method, milestone monitoring, cash flow monitoring, resource monitoring, and network analysis
• Using float measurement to understand schedule performance
• Interpreting planned value, actual cost, earned value, cost variance, and schedule variance information
• Interpreting cost variance charts, schedule variance charts, and Bulls Eye performance charts
• Determining project status and identifying likely causes of reported performance

• The purpose, benefits, and limitations of earned value analysis
• Performing earned value calculations
• Interpreting cost variance and schedule variance
• Interpreting schedule performance index and cost performance index
• Producing project forecasts using estimate at completion, estimate to complete, and estimate time to complete
• Selecting appropriate earned value techniques for different project situations
• Assessing whether earned value information has been interpreted and applied correctly

• Applying short-term planning processes
• Identifying activities involved in high-density scheduling
• Information required in change requests, change logs, and monthly change reports
• Applying a project-level change control process
• Outputs of change control, including change requests, change logs, change orders, and change reporting requirements
• Assessing whether change control products and activities are fit for purpose

• The purpose of risk management in project planning and control
• Using the risk assessment matrix and risk log
• Planning and controlling funds for managing risk
• Methods for drawing down risk budget
• The purpose and key elements of Quantitative Schedule Risk Analysis
• The role of Monte Carlo analysis in schedule risk analysis
• Interpreting probability charts, tornado charts, and schedule uncertainty outputs
• The purpose and key elements of Quantitative Cost Risk Analysis
• Interpreting cost impact S-curves and cost impact severity tornado charts
• Using sensitivity analysis to understand risk exposure
• Assessing whether quantitative risk outputs are appropriate and accurate

• The purpose of forensic analysis
• As-planned versus as-built method
• Impacted as-planned method
• Collapsed as-built or as-built but-for method
• Time impact analysis method
• Requirements, advantages, and disadvantages of each method
• When different analysis methods may be appropriate
• Applying forensic analysis and delay analysis within project scenarios

• The role of records in project monitoring and control
• Using project information to support lessons learned
• Creating a reliable basis for feedback and learning
• Supporting continuous improvement across future projects
• Linking effective control practices to organisational objectives and value

Exams and assessments

• 3 hours
• 80 questions
• 80 marks available, with each question worth 1 mark
• Open book, using only Planning, Scheduling, Monitoring and Control – The Practical Project Management of Time, Cost and Risk
• Delivered in English
• Available online in a classroom setting with QA, or at home using a remote live invigilator
• Passed by achieving 40 marks out of 80, equal to 50%

Hands-on learning

• 12 months of access to digital learning content
• Approximately 12.5 hours of online content
• Multimedia case studies designed to embed theory
• Sample questions and quizzes to support exam readiness
• Content aligned to the APMG Planning and Control Practitioner syllabus
• A practical focus on planning, scheduling, monitoring, control, and continuous improvement
• Flexible study designed for busy project professionals