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Silicon Beach Training now offers the increasingly popular range of Agile Project Management training courses – but what is Agile Project Management, and why is it such a big deal all of a sudden?
In March 2011 the government unveiled it’s new ICT Strategy which identified a number of problems (or challenges using their words!) with the method in which IT projects and programmes were managed and delivered, causing them to fail. The first of these challenges being:
- “projects tend to be too big, leading to greater risk and complexity, and limiting the range of suppliers who can compete”
Silicon Beach Training now offer accredited Agile Project Management training, including the Agile Project Management Foundation course and Agile Project Management Practitioner course.
For example, if a project to implement a large IT system is deemed to take 5 years to complete, it is very likely that, in those five years circumstances (e.g. technology, customer and business requirements, even governments!) will have changed, rendering the final solution based on the original specification unfit for purpose.
A number of strategies were identified to address these challenges, one of which is “by the application of lean and agile methodologies that will reduce waste, be more responsive to changing requirements and reduce the risk of project failure”.
Agile methodologies have been used in software development for some years, but are now being applied in project management as they offer a flexible process that can change according to customer or organisational needs.
How does Agile Project Management differ from traditional project management methodologies?
Traditionally a project manager may direct the project team using a ‘command and control’ style, actively directing their team towards the work that must be completed. Agile project management uses a different technique. At the beginning of an Agile project a high level plan will be created by the project manager, which is based around basic requirements and a high level vision of the solution. From there on the final project is created iteratively and incrementally, with each increment building on the previous increments. Agile Project management also differs in the way that team members create the plans for each increment, rather than the project manager themselves.
Read the rest of "What is Agile Project Management?"
Posted by Alistair Wylie in Agile Project Management, Business Skills, ITIL, MSP, MSP Training, News, PRINCE2, Project Management on May 11th, 2011| 3 Comments »
Update: Applications for the Leadership and Management Advisory Service training grant has now closed. We will make sure we announce the arrival of any similar schemes in the future.
£1000 Training Grants
Businesses who employ between 2 and 249 people can apply for up to £1,000 of matched funding towards any training courses that will help to develop their organisation’s people management skills. The new Leadership and Management Advisory Service (LMAS) is designed to help eligible employers fund training and development opportunities for their senior leaders.
This funding can be used towards a range of Silicon Beach Training’s courses, including our Management Training and Leadership Training courses, as well as other personal development programmes like our Appraisals Training and Change Management Training courses.
If you are interested in applying and would like to discuss the courses we have available, please call us on 01273 622272 or email info@siliconbeachtraining.co.uk
Is my Organisation Eligible for a Leadership & Management Training Grant?
The Leadership & Management Training Grants are open to any organisation which:
- has 2 to 249 full time equivalent employees
- can display the potential for high or fast growth, defined as:
- if trading for more than 12 months have the potential to increase turnover by 20% each year for three years
- if trading for less than 12 months have the potential to achieve a turnover of £500,000 within three years of trading
How Can I Apply for a Training Grant Towards a Course at Silicon Beach Training?
1) Identify Suitable Training
Identify the training course or courses that you would like to attend – remember, the courses must help you to increase your organisation’s people management skills – so the following courses would be applicable:
Read the rest of "£1,000 Leadership & Management Training Grants Available"
Posted by Andy Trainer in Business Skills, Leadership & Management Training Funding, Management & Leadership, New Free Resources, News, Personal Development, Train to Gain Funding on April 12th, 2011| 5 Comments »
Here at Silicon Beach Training we offer a wide range of Management Training & Leadership Training courses, and a topic that regularly appears in a lot of them is SMART objectives. So what are SMART objectives? In this post we take a look at how you can use them effectively.
Some of the training courses that look at SMART objectives in more detail include Management Skills for New Managers, Leadership Skills Training, Performance Management Training & Appraisals Training.
Goals, aims and objectives are often confused. All describe things that you want to achieve, however I see goals and aims as broader, more aspirational intentions whereas an objective is a narrower more defined task you need to achieve in order to meet your long term goals and aims.
All managers and leaders must be able to set effective objectives for their staff, whether they are to achieve project or task objectives, personal development objectives for people to grow in their role or performance standard objectives aligned with a competency framework, values or behavioural guidelines.
When setting objectives for your team you will need to ask yourself:
- What are my team’s targets and goals for the coming period?
- What standards do I need the team to maintain / improve?
Read the rest of "What are SMART Objectives?"
Posted by Alistair Wylie in Appraisal, Business Skills, Management & Leadership, News, Personal Development on March 14th, 2011| 3 Comments »
In April 2011, the Bribery Act becomes enforceable and that means all businesses should start thinking a bit harder. In laymen’s language it will be a criminal offence for someone to offer, ask for or accept an “inducement” that may be a reward for acting improperly. And organisations will be committing an offence if they fail to prevent bribery by someone associated with them. And the scope of the UK Bribery Act covers UK organisations even if the business is conducted outside the UK.
Are you aware of the NEW Pension Tax Changes? All you need to know here.
Silicon Beach Training provide Management Training, Leadership Training and Human Resources Training courses in Brighton, Sussex.
The UK Bribery Act is therefore a key piece of legislation for all senior managers and Human Resources departments to think about.
What does the UK Bribery Act mean for my Business?
Consider the following scenario:
You’re chatting to a colleague; in the conversation they mention one of the following.
- They had a client meeting in Starbucks and paid for both coffees.
- A supplier paid for their lunch at Pizza Express.
- A supplier sent them a lovely bunch of flowers on their birthday.
- A customer offered to make a donation to their favourite charity in return for a good deal.
- A supplier’s offered to let them use his villa in Tuscany for a holiday.
- They’re organising a 3 day “service users” conference in a 5 star hotel, all expenses paid; the “conference” bit is minimal.
- An employee of a major customer has asked them to arrange a large cash payment into an overseas bank account in her name to guarantee the company is shortlisted for a huge contract.
What’s your reaction? Of course it depends on exactly what your colleague said. It probably ranges from hardly noticing number 1 (having coffee or lunch with clients / suppliers is part of everyday business life) to finding number 7 very worrying. In the middle, your reaction probably also depends on the sort of organisation and sector you work in – what’s generally acceptable or not.
So how seriously do you need to take the UK Bribery Act? If you’re part of the senior team of any sort of organisation you should at least check how this may affect your business…
Read on for our Top Tips on how to prepare for the UK Bribery Act
Read the rest of "How to Prepare for the UK Bribery Act 2011 – Top Tips for Business"
Posted by Andy Trainer in Business Skills, Human Resources, Management & Leadership, News on January 26th, 2011| 3 Comments »
by Louise Docker on Flickr
PRINCE2 is a valuable method-based system for business management. PRINCE2 helps Project Managers to work out who should be involved in the project and what their roles and responsibilities within the project should be.
If you would like to learn more, Silicon Beach Training offers Management Training as well as accredited PRINCE2 Training and Project Management Training in Brighton, Sussex. We offer both the PRINCE2 Foundation Training and PRINCE2 Practitioner Training courses with hands-on workshops delivered by knowledgeable Project Managers with a vast amount of real-world experience.
Training is necessary as PRINCE2 is a system with many processes, with the right training, you will learn vital skills required to successfully complete a project and utilise your new understanding of the PRINCE2 processes.
The biggest plus point of PRINCE2 is its ability to be adapted to any size of business and project; even if your project lasts a few days, you can choose the appropriate processes from the PRINCE2 methodology and implement them successfully into your project.
When you are being taught PRINCE2, the principles sound logical, but it’s often a different story when you come to implement them into your own projects. If users don’t fully understand PRINCE2 then this can lead to excessive use of its processes, which wastes time and effort.
Why implementation is not simply training employees in PRINCE2?
Implementing PRINCE2 requires consistency of the application of project management processes throughout your business or organisation. The PRINCE2 implementations will vary according to the business as well as the project. Applying PRINCE2 effectively requires tailoring to fit into existing working practices.
The information learned on a PRINCE2 training course should not be applied in a rigid way, the PRINCE2 method should be tailored to suit the individual organisation and project.
When this does not happen PRINCE2 can be perceived as unwieldy and bureaucratic leading to the method being side stepped so that project managers can get on with managing. In fact this happens so often it even has its own acronym PINO (Prince in Name Only)!
You may need help with applying PRINCE2 if –
- This is the first time PRINCE2 has been used by your business.
- You feel PRINCE2 isn’t working for your business or you haven’t noticed an increase in performance.
- You want to make sure that all the PRINCE2 processes are being fully realised.
Assign a PRINCE2 Mentor
Many see the implementation of PRINCE2 as a venture; this can be completed within the company by a PRINCE2 mentor. The aim of the mentor is to ensure that PRINCE2 is successfully implemented into projects and can be used in the businesses future projects by the PRINCE2 accredited personnel.
A PRINCE2 mentor can help with advice and support by coaching and ensuring the appropriate processes are used correctly. They can help individuals and small groups by using their PRINCE2 knowledge and creating the right method for their businesses projects. This can be done in small work groups or over the phone or email depending on how much help is needed.
The mentor’s roles can differ with each case. A mentor is someone who helps and offers assistance to others less skilled than them. A great mentor will take a hands-on approach to your businesses project and they should have a large amount of experience and knowledge to help you succeed.
To Conclude
To attain good results when implementing PRINCE2, do not forget its great adaptability and its ability to be tailored to your specific needs, sometimes you don’t need to use everything that PRINCE2 has to offer as it may be irrelevant. Getting a PRINCE2 mentor to help your business is much more than just being provided with instructions; they are there to help create a structure for the very best way to go forward with your project, its also vital that you understand which areas need changing and why. PRINCE2 has the ability to add enormous value to organisations, but only if implemented effectively and intelligently.
Silicon Beach Training is also MSP and ITIL accredited. Please take a look at our ITIL Training and MSP Training courses.
Posted by Aaron Charlie in Business Skills, Management & Leadership, News, PRINCE2, Project Management on January 4th, 2011| 1 Comment »
XFactor Wagner
Are you amazed every week by the resilience of X Factor’s Wagner? From the boos emanating from the crowd we can guess that most people are. However according to last night’s vote the general public seem to think that Wagner is more entertaining than Cher and Paije. In fact it’s almost unbelievable that Wagner has never been in a sing off. If you would like to learn more about Marketing we offer great courses in Brighton – Email Marketing Training, Social Media Training and SEO Training and Google Analytics Training. in Brighton , Sussex.
Why is Wagner still in the X-Factor? – Good question
It’s definitely not about singing so it can only be about being more interesting. The lesson - if you are not the best at something then try and be totally different.
Wagner being odd to get noticed!
Being different to gain a marketing advantage is nothing new to Wagner! Here he is modelling with his pet lion to advertise his conservatory firm in Brazil! Wagner was given the lion as a cub, and brought it up at his house. Odd yes – different definitely!
Wagner is appealing to a large niche audience, whereas all the others are competing for the same voters. Last year we had Jedward and the year before Same Difference.
The trick is not to be the same as everybody else but appeal to a niche in order to capture a majority vote – or in business – the biggest slice of the sales cake!
Not only will being different attract more viewers for your marketing endeavours, it will get you talked about, tweeted about, linked to etc… all great SEO and Social Media tricks of the trade. Some of the headlines in the last few weeks:
- Wagner Carrilho banned from groping X Factor dancers – Metro
- Flamboyant Wagner Carrilho has been threatened with the axe from X Factorafter being branded a “sex pest” – The Mirror
- X Factor: Wagner ‘warned after walking in on half-naked Mary Byrne’ - Metro
- I’m leaving! Wagner moves out of the X Factor house after falling out with EVERYONE – The Mail
- Wagner’s living off Incapacity Allowance – The Sun
- Hell of X Factor stars Missus – The Sun
- X Factor: Wagner rants Cheryl Cole is ‘a council estate girl who got lucky’ – The Mirror
- X-Factor: Facebook campaign backs Wagner – The Telegraph
OOOOh and the Latest ! Furious Matt Cardle ‘dragged off’ Wagner in X Factor brawl
It’s also about having a sense of humour, people vote for Wagner because he makes them laugh, squirm and gives them something to talk about. If Wagner won XFactor and Anne Widdicombe won strictly come dancing, it would prove that the great British public have an amazing sense of humour. It’s not all about skill it’s about personality – if you go to Wagner’s Facebook page 54,325 People “Like This”.
The get X Factor Wagner to Number One this Christmas Campaign
There is even a Facebook campaign being run by a group of people who are clearly not massive fans of Simon Cowell. The objective is to use Facebook to catapult Wagner to number one this Christmas.
One commentator wrote on the site: “If you just fancy a really crazy Xmas number 1 this year… vote Wagner!!! If you despise all what the X Factor stands for vote Wagner!
“If you hate Simon Cowell and want to p*** him off vote Wagner! If you want to help run the X factor into the ground and cause mayhem vote Wagner!”
Another commentator added: “I actually think Wagner would make for a really fun Xmas number 1, gotta be better than the alternative romantic slushy s***e that one of the other contestants would bring out!”
Great Internet marketing skills may help get you established, but is that enough?
Not really – you need to be able to
- connect with your audience
- have empathy with your audience
- know your audience
- be able to relate to your audience
- entertain and surprise your audience
- be different – get noticed
Social Media makes it much easier to understand what makes your audience tick – seek them out and listen to them. Maintain a dialogue with them. Ask them questions.
Finally learn this from the X Factor – there are Internet marketers much more skilled than you, and with bigger budgets that you but you can still be more successful. All you need to do is connect with your audience, show your personality and be different.
We don’t just do Marketing and Sales training here we also to Microsoft Office Training including Access Training and Excel Training as well a a great range of Management Training courses.
Posted by Heather Buckley in Business Skills, News, Sales & Marketing, SEO, Social Media on November 22nd, 2010| 1 Comment »
think outside the box
Great leadership is not just about managing and maintaining what is. To be a Great Leader you need not to be afraid to make mistakes. Leaders have the confidence to take risks. Our Leaderships training in Brighton, Sussex, will help you develop your outside of the box thinking. We also offer a range of Management Training, and Project Management Training courses, including PRINCE2 Training.
Consider the following quotes:
“Theoretically, television may be feasible, but I consider it an impossibility -a development which we should waste little time dreaming about.”
- Lee de Forest, 1926, inventor of the cathode ray tube
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
- Thomas J. Watson, 1943, Chairman of the Board of IBM
“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.”
- Western Union internal memo, 1876
“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”
- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962
“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?”
- H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927
“640K ought to be enough for anybody.”
- Bill Gates, 1981
Leadership Skills and Thinking Outside the Box
It is important not to look beyond the present and into the future. Today organisations need to be organic, adaptable in order to grow and change. When the movie camera was introduced, the camera did not move! The actors would run around the static camera like they were on a theatre stage. The idea that the camera could move around the actors took time to realise. To identify great opportunities you need good leadership skills. Great Leaders look beyond current practises and markets.
leadership test
Try this test to see if you can think outside the box! – Draw nine dots to make a square – three rows of three. Try and join the nine dots with 4 straight lines.
Do you need 5 lines?
The correct answer is shown here in this diagram
Did you restrict yourself?
Did you impose the restriction that lines cannot go outside the box?
Try not to give yourself self imposed restrictions that prevent you and your organisation from reaching your goals and developing new ideas, as mentioned before businesses need to be adaptable, to be open to change and be continuously developing in order to survive and grow.
This way of thinking is commonly called thinking outside of the box. Inside the box thinkers are very skilled at killing ideas. For example, Charles H. Duell, Director of the US Patent Office, said in 1899, “Everything that can be invented has been invented.”
Here’s a list of ways in which Leaders think outside the box:
- Listening to others
- Supporting others when they come up with new ideas and respecting them
- Valuing new ideas and not being afraid to act on them
- Willingness to look at new perspectives to day to day work
- Openness to different things
- Openness to doing things differently
Posted by Heather Buckley in Business Skills, Human Resources, Management & Leadership, New Free Resources, News, Personal Development on November 22nd, 2010| 3 Comments »
Melissa Cohen from the Apprentice
I couldn’t resist the opportunity to use Miss Cohen to surreptitiously tell you about our Business Training in Brighton, Sussex, like Management Skills for New Managers and Management Training.
But first what can we learn from Mrs. Malaprop … I mean Melissa Cohen?
Well some some unique vocabulary for a start! She flaunted her “proffesionality”, demonstrated a fierce negotiation style that offered ‘no room for manoeuvrement’, and though she couldn’t work out the price of a bread roll she professed to have an exemplary capacity for ‘analyisation’. Watching Melissa was excruciating, it challenged my ‘comfortability’ as she continuously praised herself and over estimated her capacity to ‘conversate’. Wednesday night she was yet again blathering on about a task speaking to her skillset, em … remind me what skill set that is.
Melissa also taught us that “babies cannot speak” and that Debenhams definitely doesn’t sell DIY and Gardening gear, no Melissa that is “does’t sell”, no we said “doesn’t sell”…..and how not to pitch.
Mellisa wasn’t the only contender in the “most excruciatingly painful to watch” stakes on Wednesday. For me, she was most closely followed by Stuart Baggs, who was also excited by the shower head, breaking into a remarkable David Brent impersonation: ‘Would you like some free money? Oh yes, please!’.
We thought that we could actually teach Melissa a few things:
She could start with some Active listening skills Training – Karren Brady, Lord Sugar’s aide, looked embarrassed when Melissa ploughed through her inadequate pitch. ‘She just doesn’t listen – she just talks and talks,’ said Brady after Melissa had failed yet again to drum up any business.
Then she could do with some Team Building Training – Over the last few weeks Melissa Cohen has horrified us with non-stop aggression. She could start a fight in an empty room, yet feels she’s a great team player. We know this because she tells us.
Then she should look into Assertiveness Training – I know this may sound odd but being assertive is about being able to communicate and put your point across without aggression, and her tendency to exaggerate her talents is a sure sign of lack of confidence.
Assertiveness and Confidence Building Training would also teach her how not to take everything personally and to accept constructive criticism, a skill she is obviously lacking after we watched her throw a massive strop when her team wisely decided against making her project manager again, instead opting for Jamie.
She also demonstrated a touch of the “everyone is against me” syndrome – again a sign of lack of confidence displayed during her exit interview. Her grounds for appeal included an accusation of “ganging up on me” by the “horrible people”, aka Jamie and Stuart.
Lord Sugar described before he fired her: ‘You’re like knock-off DVDS. At first glance you’re quite convincing, but then you’re impossible to follow…
She also provided us with another cringe worthy tantrum in the reception area when she refused to shake hands with her colleagues, and iced the cake with a threat to the others as she was driven away in the cab. ‘Some people set out to get me – karmically they will be retributed. The universe speaks louder than I do.’
Yesterday on BBC Breakfast she explained how much she’s changed after hearing Lord Sugar’s dreaded words “you’re fired”. Blimey that was quick we didn’t even have time to sell you any Business Skills Training courses.
But quite honestly, Jaime doesn’t seem too bothered!
.
Posted by Heather Buckley in Business Skills, Human Resources, Management & Leadership, News, Personal Development on October 29th, 2010| 7 Comments »
