FastPLAN Workshops

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FastPLAN Workshops

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Leverage our expertise for just three days...and come away with a solid plan that can be implemented immediately!

FastPLAN^® workshops from IPS are highly interactive, expertly facilitated planning sessions. Each workshop is geared to produce what you need now, whether that's:

A baseline plan for launching a mission-critical project

A high-level plan for an entire complex program

A detailed recovery plan for getting a troubled project back on track

A strategic plan for a complete portfolio of projects and programs

How does FastPLAN work?

IPS' FastPLAN workshops bring together all core project team members for three intensive, highly productive days. Stakeholders are also brought in at key decision points. An experienced IPS lead professional works closely with the project or program manager and sponsor to prepare for the workshop—defining the objectives, process, agenda, and deliverables, as well as identifying the participants.

During the workshop the IPS lead acts as facilitator—guiding progress, maintaining focus, providing coaching, and highlighting critical information and decisions. Work specifications, deliverables, task dependencies and interfaces, project or program schedules, and risk management plans are all addressed. An IPS technical analyst also assists—capturing key information in Microsoft Word^® and Microsoft Project^®, providing additional coaching, and overseeing logistics.

After just a few action-packed days, participants emerge with a firm, agreed-upon, actionable plan that might otherwise have taken months to develop—or never come about at all. In the process they build a thorough, shared understanding of objectives, criteria, roles and responsibilities, schedule, risk, and contingencies. They are prepared to move forward with a sense of clarity and collaboration—aligned on a common purpose and motivated by the actual results they've produced.

All FastPLAN workshops utilize the same proven, streamlined process models—including IPS' own Strategic Execution Framework— taught in the Stanford Advanced Project Management program. And all are expressly tailored to your requirements, ensuring the most efficient use of your participants' time and energy.

How will a FastPLAN workshop benefit my organization?

FastPLAN workshops offer significant advantages over traditional planning approaches, yielding better plans faster, at considerable cost savings.

Your key stakeholders contribute their best thinking to the plan—helping to ensure their understanding, their buy-in, and their commitment.
The workshop is facilitated by a seasoned IPS professional who ensures that an actionable plan is produced in just days.
The workshop provides a safe environment where tough issues and risks can be raised early on.
Participants acquire new capabilities while they get the work done. They benefit from real-time coaching and skill development in leading practices of project, program, and portfolio planning—including scope definition, integrated schedule development, and risk management.
Participants experience the genuine teamwork of solving problems together, and they carry better focus, lines of communication, and energy into the next phases of the work.

What tangible deliverables result from a FastPLAN workshop?

A comprehensive program or project definition document that captures all workshop planning results, documenting them in easy-to-read tables and lists
A complete, optimized Microsoft Project schedule
A log that captures all open issues, along with owners and due dates
A complete debriefing on workshop outcomes and next steps

What other benefits can we expect?

Your project manager comes away with a validated plan that will provide a solid foundation for managing the program or project at its optimal level.
All workshop participants emerge with a thorough understanding of roles and responsibilities, objectives, target schedule, and key risks and contingencies.
The project team is poised for increased efficiency and productivity, due to the common understanding and teamwork generated.
Your organization benefits immediately and over the long term from the business decision-making abilities and leading-practice–based project management skills that all workshop participants acquire.

Which FastPLAN workshop is right for you?

FastPLAN workshops can be applied at the project, program, or portfolio level—or we can show you how to apply this proven process to every project your organization tackles. Each of these workshops addresses critical questions that could undermine or threaten an initiative's success if not resolved up front:

FastPLAN Project Workshops define the key dimensions of projects, including: What is the objective? What must be delivered? Who does what? What schedule are we working to? What threatens our success?
FastPLAN Program Workshops address the additional strategic complexities of a multi-project endeavor: What is the high-level time line, and what major milestones must be achieved? How should the constituent projects be defined? What are the major interdependencies that might cause a breakdown?
FastPLAN Portfolio Workshops help you manage your resource investments across a collection of projects and programs by answering questions such as: Which initiatives will help you achieve your business strategy, and how? Which are most important? How can you manage your portfolio for maximum value and strategic balance?
FastPLAN Train-the-Facilitator Workshops enable your project and program leads to apply the proven FastPLAN® process to all of your projects. In-depth classroom training and personal coaching by our experienced professionals ensure that your in-house facilitators have all the tools they need to help start every project off on the right foot.