Introducing ICS-TRAINING

What ICS-Training Is All About

Whereas ICS-Institute’s Construction PTM educational programs target specific individuals who would apply acquired knowledge to specific projects, ICS-Training adopts a much broader perspective. For one, its target customer is the construction Owner or Contractor organization, not the individual. For another, its range of products and services are intended for multi-project application, at the corporate or program level.

Think of ICS-Institute as providing “canned” Construction PTM content, whereas ICS-Training provides customized, made-to-order Construction PTM training programs. Most often, these are presented at the client’s facility, in person, or via web-based training.

Most customized training programs are part of a more-encompassing Construction PTM Process Development/Improvement program conducted by ICS-Consulting. Quite often, we are retained to study how things are currently done, and then make recommendations on how they might be improved. Once these changes are approved by the client, we then develop training content meant to bring staff up to speed on the new processes.

Why ICS-Training Was Created

Construction Project Time Management is far more than just construction planning and scheduling, as we have stated repeatedly. In fact, it has taken us four courses to properly explain it for benefit of Owners and Contractors of construction projects in North America.

The best way to explain why we established ICS-Training is to make passing reference to the four core courses that comprise ICS-Institute’s academic programs of Construction PTM and then ask you: where else have you seen a similarly comprehensive treatment of a subject so critical to successful Construction Project Management?

To repeat, here are the four courses:

  • CPM Mechanics (DPM001): This Technology course teaches the raw mechanics of the Critical Path Method, which is the very foundation of Construction Planning and Scheduling.
  • Understanding Project Time Management (DPM002): This Ideology course explains all that is entailed in the art and science of Project Time Management.
  • Construction Planning and Scheduling (DPM003): This Methodology course delves into all aspects of schedule design, development, maintenance, and usage – within the context of Project Time Management.
  • Understanding Construction Project Management (DPM004): This Ecology course teaches how Construction Project Time Management supports Construction Project Management processes.

Whom ICS-Training Is Intended to Serve

Because not everyone has time, patience, or energy to plow through four courses, ICS-Training also offers several had-hitting seminars meant to expand the broader understanding of Construction PTM. These seminars are aimed at the prime consumers and providers of Construction PTM products and services.

While we struggle to keep our seminars professional, entertaining, and engaging, we admit to having smashed the mold with our Straight Talk series. This series of half-day seminars are designed to forego political correctness and boldly inform the emperor that he is naked!

Let’s face it: Knowing what works, and what doesn’t work, translates into a richer bottom line, and Projects that run more efficiently, with less conflict, and a positive track-record:

  • Straight Talk for Owners: The #1 cause of projects missing their contractual completion dates is Owner ignorance. How is that for tact? The Owner does more to delay the project than any other party to the project.
  • Straight Talk for Project Managers: The #2 cause of projects missing their contractual completion dates is Project Manager ignorance. Consistently, Project Managers fail to ask for what is possible from their Project Schedule, all the while demanding what is impossible to deliver. Ignorance is not always bliss.
  • Straight Talk for Scheduling Apprentices: We are seeing an epidemic of under-qualified Junior Schedulers. Since more than half of the schedules in operation in the construction industry are either created and/or maintained by Junior Schedulers, the need for these novices to relearn (or learn for the first time) the basics is essential. Ignorance of CPM basics, scheduling basics, and even construction basics are killing our schedules!
  • Straight Talk for Scheduling Journeymen: Even Journeymen-level Schedulers cannot seem to agree on basic methodology, notwithstanding the latest rush of credentials and standards. That is because those recent standards and best practices do not comport with what Schedulers in the trenches know works, or doesn’t work. There are so many conflicting concepts and philosophies floating around, it is difficult to know what is right.
  • Straight Talk for Scheduling Masters: Seemingly “seasoned” schedulers have been hoodwinked by the runaway institutions pushing credentials and sweeping concepts that have yet to show that they are worth the incredible cost of application. There is strong evidence to show that Earned Value, Critical Chain, Earned Schedule, and a variety of other project management “breakthroughs” have yet to stem the tide of projects finishing beyond their contractual deadlines.

How ICS-Training Is Organized and Functions

Because not everyone has time, patience, or energy to plow through four courses, ICS-Training also offers several had-hitting seminars meant to expand the broader understanding of Construction PTM. These seminars are aimed at the prime consumers and providers of Construction PTM products and services.

ICS-Training’s key feature is its tailored approach to training. Our process, therefore, begins with candid discussions that probe the client’s informational needs and wants. Sometimes they just want basic Construction PTM training. Often, our pre-developed programs at ICS-Institute are more than sufficient.

But other times, the client wants tailored training that interweaves their unique “way of doing business,” including terminology, processes, and even specific project details. Based on the client’s wishes, we design and deliver customized training at the location of the client’s choosing. We also offer our Straight Talk Series when requested.