Project Managers – No time for learning?

The benefit of learning from expert’s and peers appears frequently in this blog because I believe it is important for project managers to continue building their knowledge and skills. Our project-based world not only changes frequently with the addition of new tools, techniques and processes, but many of the challenges we encounter in our own projects have been and are being dealt with by other project managers.

I confess that my belief about the importance of ongoing professional education will sometimes collide with the reality of my schedule. Like many of you, perhaps, I have a stack of articles, blog posts and books to-be-read (Of course be sure to read my posts first!). So that is why I am always on the lookout for ways to improve the efficiency of training time — including viewing professional webinars available online or downloadable to portable devices I can take with me for those times I spend sitting and waiting (Don’t you love airports?).

Here are a few (out of many) free webinars for project managers. I intentionally did not include product specific webinars. However, many companies provide webinars on their products so, depending on your tools and processes, check this venue for training videos, too.

Software Engineering Institute Carnegie Mellon

“The SEI is a federally funded research and development center conducting software engineering research in acquisition, architecture and product lines, process improvement and performance measurement, security, and system interoperability and dependability.” Here are a few of their webinar offerings that may be relevant to your project, personal and team training:

  • Engineering Improvement in Software Assurance: A Landscape Framework
  • Agile Development & Software Architecture – Crossing the Great Divide
  • Maximizing the Investment from Your Software Product Portfolio
  • SoS Architecture Evaluation and Quality Attribute Specification
  • How Unstated Customer Needs May Drive Innovation
  • Cloud Computing

Stanford University Strategic Decision Making

“The Stanford Strategic Decision and Risk Management Certificate Program teach participants to establish clear value metrics to untangle conflicting goals, embrace risk and uncertainty, and avoid common behavioral and analytical decision mistakes.” Available free webinars cover the following topics:

  • The Decision Leadership Dilemma:
  • Decision Leadership
  • Destructive Decision-Making Habits
  • Better. Cheaper. Faster — How Value-Based Management Delivers Vastly Improved Portfolio Results

American Management Association (for-profit organization)

AMA offers webinars directed at more at general personnel and organization management than software projects. The site organizes webinars into categories including leadership, communication, planning and project management. There are several hundred to choose from on their site – registration required. Examples:

  • How to Navigate Through Office Politics and Achieve Your Goals
  • Managing Your Workload: How to Prioritize When Everything Is Important
  • Communication Skills How to Write a Darn Good Email
  • Creating Friction-Free Relationships: Tools for Working with Anyone How to Exert Your Authority to Lead
  • Tips & tactics for successfully developing your staff when you have absolutely no training background
  • Difficult Performance Reviews: How to Turn Painful Conversations into Positive Results
  • How to Effectively Lead Virtual Team Meetings

Association for Information and Image Management

The Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) is a non-profit organization founded in 1945 to help users understand the challenges associated with managing documents, content, records, and business processes. Registration is required to view their webinars including:

  • How Text Analytics, Content Analytics, and Business Intelligence Can Help You Find the Information You Seek
  • Automate Key Processes to Extend SharePoint
  • Real-Time Working with Collaboration
  • Make Better Decisions: Content in Context
  • Speed Content Delivery into SharePoint

Please take this opportunity to share your favorite webinars with other project managers by leaving them in a comment.

One Response to “Project Managers – No time for learning?”

  1. Picking a Project Manager Successor « Fear No Project – A Project Management Blog Says:

    […] Question 3:  What training opportunities should potential PMs be given? Since as a forward thinking PM, you have considered the possible need to recommend a successor before the event actually happens, you need to recommend training opportunities and growth experiences for potential candidates. Formal training in PMBOK certainly provides an overview of the responsibilities of a project manager.  Your role as a “coach” is to help with your team members’ development.  This should include basic training project management as well as tools like MS Project.  IN an earlier post I gave some ideas for training (PMs – No Time for Learning). […]


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