General

Please note that I am currently offering any of my Face to Face Courses as an online course, delivered through Microsoft Teams (or similar tool of your choice). The content will remain the same, although the way the material is presented, and how activities are completed, may change.

Introduction to Project Management

Aims:

      • To illustrate the importance of good project management

      • To provide an overview of the key stages within the project – feasibility; initiation; live running; closure and review.

      • To illustrate the importance of the sponsor, project board, project manager and project team

      • To provide an overview of planning required; determining finance and resources; acquiring staff; and identifying potential risks to the project plan and ways of minimising these.

      • To provide an overview of project management tools available, including Gantt Charts

      • To discuss the differences between 'waterfall' and 'agile' projects

Content:

There will be a particular emphasis on the practicalities of project planning and management, and on learning from experience, from within the NHS and elsewhere. While Prince2, MSP etc are specific project management methodologies, this session will concentrate on the principles behind such methodologies.

Duration:

      • 3 hours

Pre-requisites:

      • None

John Varlow | Training and Consultancy - Introduction to Project Management

Presentation Skills

Aims:

      • To illustrate the importance of presentation methods when disseminating information

      • To illustrate the importance of body language, voice and and hand gestures in how your message is received

      • To look at the importance of understanding your audience, and protecting intellectual property

      • To examine different presentation methods and how they can be used most effectively

Content:

Seminar covering the principles of giving presentations, followed by group work to examine different presentation methods. Delegates will be asked to prepare a presentation of their choosing that they can work on during the session.

Duration:

      • 3 hours

Pre-requisites:

      • None

John Varlow | Training and Consultancy - Presentation Skills

Indicator Development

Aims:

      • To understand the difference between numbers, metrics and indicators

      • To understand the principles of good indicators

      • To understand the principles of reliability and validity

      • To understand the principles of sensitivity and specificity (and related Type I and Type II errors)

      • To understand the role of data quality

      • To discuss indicator construction, simple and compound measures

      • To discuss standardisation methods (direct and indirect), and when they should be used

      • To discuss presentation methods and the problems of ranking

      • To discuss the concept of gaming and perverse incentives

      • To discuss assurance of methods and what help is available

Content:

This session will look at the current state of indicator production within the system, and the related problems of having poorly defined, duplicate indicators. The session will enable participants to understand the role that indicators play and the importance of them being constructed properly and in a transparent manner. The key principles of good indicator development will be discussed, and related techniques for adjusting indicators will be explored. By the end of the session participants will not only know what makes a well constructed indicator but they will have the knowledge to access help that is available

Duration:

      • 3 hours

Pre-requisites

      • Basic Numeracy

John Varlow | Training and Consultancy - Indicator Development