Over the last 20 years INDECO has helped over 60 blue chip enterprises improve their project and program management performance. From a training perspective, INDECO follows the classical Training and Development Lifecycle:

• Needs Analysis
• Learning Objectives development
• Course material design
• Pilot delivery and roll-out
• Evaluation

Training Needs Analysis

From INDECO's perspective, Training Needs Analysis (TNA) is all about:

• Identifying and agreeing key stakeholders.
  
• Clearly establishing their concerns and expectations.
  
• Gathering data by interview, skills profile or questionnaire (using the INDECO framework of 50 topics as a starting point)
  
• Understanding learning styles and support needs.
  
• Collating and reporting the data so that appropriate training/development action can be taken. For example, face-to-face training sessions, facilitated workshops, coaching interventions, mentoring, technology based learning (text based distance based, e-learning, simulation or blended learning).

Using a structured TNA enables INDECO to design/deliver a development intervention which is appropriately tailored to the needs of the individuals and the organisation.

Evaluation

INDECO uses an evaluation framework based on a combination of the Kerns and Kirkpatrick models (five levels of performance):

• Level 0: Baseline (as defined through the Gap Analysis and/or the Training/Learning Styles Analysis).
  
• Level 1: How did I feel (evaluation forms and 'hot wash-up'?
  
• Level 2: What was learnt?
  
• Level 3: What has been applied?
  
• Level 4: What has been the value to the business?

INDECO has extensive experience of working with Clients to establish the improvement achieved at each level in the evaluation framework. Joint evaluation (Client and INDECO) has always proved to be the most value added.

Competency Development

Competencies describe the knowledge, skills, experience and behaviours that people require in order to fulfil a role effectively and for the enterprise to perform effectively.

Too often project and program management competency is seen as merely a combination of planning and control topics (time, cost, quality), plus risk, with 'behavioural' factors (communications, decision making) added from another 'general' pool.

At INDECO, we draw on all the research relating to what needs to be managed in order to avoid failure and achieve success. We base our project and program management framework, in other words, on the same basic framework of approximately 50 topics that we use for the Gap Analysis and for our other competency development tools.

From this initial framework, INDECO tailors a set of role based competency definitions for individuals to use to assess their project and program management competency. INDECO are then in a position to provide targetted, cost effective competency development support.

In addtion to this traditional competency assessment and development approach, INDECO has a developed a web-based Project and Program Competency Assessment Tool (PCAT), which teases out individual behavioural responses to project and program management situations and probes skill requirements. Crucially, it also assesses how well the organisational context supports project and program management.

You can try a PCAT sample by clicking on the PCAT button on the 'Home' page of this website.