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“Is it possible to learn how to be better at managing change in an agile world?”. This was the question Melanie Franklin, renowned Agile & Change Management expert, transformed into an answer. In 2014 she published the book “Agile Change Management – a practical framework for successful change planning and implementation”. The book provides an approach for managing transformational change initiatives, using a lot of the ideas from the agile methodologies. This book has led to the creation of the Agile Change Agent qualification. Two years ago we had the opportunity to interview Melanie Franklin and today we are proud to announce the launch of the Agile Change Agent courses.

Agile Change Agent: an agile approach to change

An Agile approach to change is about doing change in waves of change. According to Melanie Franklin, Agile Change Management is about accepting that in this world of very fast moving change, it is not a good idea to try and plan every single change detail upfront. The Agile Change Agent course & certification provides the participant with guidelines to those that want to work in a change. The course provides insight into how to plan and manage all the activities that are needed to design, deliver and adopt change in an Agile way. The course answers the questions “What makes a change successful?” “What is it that we really need to know to make a change successful?” “How can we manage our changes in an agile world?”. It is not about what you have to do but how you are supposed to do it, the techniques you can use.

Are you an Agile Change Agent?

You are a change agent if you are responsible for the creation of new ways of working as a result of a project investment. Or if you are in a change management role, where you are identifying what needs to be done by those who are going to have to work differently. But you are also a change agent if you are impacted by change in sales, marketing, HR, finance or other departments. You have daily priorities, you use existing ways of working to satisfy current customer demand and get the job done, but you are also mobilizing your colleagues and yourself to participate in the changes your organisation makes/decides. So you are acting as a change agent. Understanding activities for effective change management and including them in your Agile project plan increases the chances that the deliverables from your project will be adopted as new business as usual working practices. People may not be called Change Agents but the point is that on top of their daily job they have a role to help make change happen and ultimately integrate change into the current ways of working.

Why the Agile Change Agent course could be relevant for you?

• Agile and change explained on a practical level
• The course contains many problem solving techniques
• You can benefit from a practical kit of techniques, checklists and tools so you can start managing your change projects using what you have learnt from the moment you leave the course
• The course helps those who know about change understand Agile, and those who know about Agile learn about change
• You can get a qualification on your CV that proves you have skills in Agile and Change Management - hitting the two hottest topics in business today.

Want to know more? Visit our Agile Change Agent page

You know what we love to do? Invite you to grow professionally and help you decide on the Best Practice that will change your business forever. In order to do so, we provide quality content that will explain the differences between all the possibilities out there. We ask our trainers to communicate clear and profound what the benefits are of a certain certification.

We realized that the best way to communicate this information is by means of (online) events. Free of charge and without the aim of selling you a solution, we hope to reach you to start thinking about the different possibilities that fit your needs.

User Groups 

Different organisations and professionals continue to express their need for information, comparison and examples to us. In order to respond to these needs we invented the PMO User Group and the ITIL User Group. We communicate with our User groups by means of the PMO User Group Bulletin and the ITIL User Group Bulletin that we send out regularly. In these we refer to the latest dedicated blog posts, important certification updates/news and we try to increase the interaction between professionals. However, more importantly is that we also host User Group events. The PMO User Group events and the ITIL User Group events are held regularly and have the aim to discuss a broad range of topics related to either the PMO or ITIL. Not one of these events is the same, we constantly seek to offer an interactive and challenging event. We invite speakers that share a case study, set up break out rooms to discuss questions or host small workshops/games. Click here to register for the next PMO User Group - From Project to Portfolio Management and here for the next ITIL User Group - Using ITIL to improve co-creation game with business.

Events and event recordings

Every quarter we try to host at least one (online) event about one of the Best Practice methodology training we provide. This is an event that reaches a big group of people and is usually in a webinar format. We invite either our trainer or another expert to shine a light on a specific topic of interest. At the end of the event attendees are invited to ask questions and interact with the speaker. This way - we try to answer all doubts and really give an insight of how the best practice could possibly help sustain your business goals. We found that it was really helpful to record these events, in order to be able share the recording with those that missed the live events. I like to invite you to take a look at the event that we have organized in the past year. How to apply PRINCE2 virtually? We invited our expert Project Manager and accredited trainer Stijn Janssens to talk about Projects in a virtual environment, specifically with the use of PRINCE2. During this interesting webinar he covered topics such as communication, changes of processes and lessons learned. Watch the recording here. Agile Frameworks The term Agile always raises room for discussion, there are many different opinions and perspectives. We asked our expert and accredited trainer Kim Delgadillo to once and for all explain about the different Agile Frameworks. During his webinar, Kim touched upon Scrum, Kanban, Design thinking, SaFe and of course AgilePM. Watch the recording here. Scrum master by APMG SCRUM is a methodology that changed the way of work for thousands of organisations. It helps prioritize and deliver. One of the most important roles within the SCRUM set up is the SCRUM Master, but what does he/she actually do? In this webinar our expert Kim Delgadillo takes you on a journey into the world of the SCRUM Master, the role and responsibilities. Watch the recording here. What is PMP and why should I invest in it? The PMP certification is a very prestigious certification. PMP is not a methodology, but an approach to project management in general. Getting PMP certified is not easy and asks for perseverance. In this webinar our expert and accredited PMP trainer Xavier Heusdens explains the ins and outs of the PMP certification. Watch the recording here. PMP Panel discussion PMP is gaining more and more ground in Belgium and the certification really covers Project Management from beginning to end. With the launch of both the new exam and new PMBoK in 2021, the certification has become more relevant than ever. To show the wide reach and uses of the PMP knowledge we hosted a panel discussion. The experts discussed different topics amongst each other, but we also asked the audience to interact and ask questions. Watch the recording here.

Axelos recently published the 5th edition of the MSP guide, which had not been updated since 2011. The new edition therefore responds to a number of changes that have taken place in the world of program and project management since.

Indeed, a great deal of research has been published in recent years that points to the high failure rate of programs, whether they are transformational or large-scale programs. The digital revolution, the speed of change, the rise of agile working methods, as well as the increased volatility and uncertainty of diverse markets has sprung the need for programme management to evolve and meet these requirements.

This new edition will help current and future programme managers, and many other roles, design, plan, lead and execute their programs and thus help organisations make their transformation program a real success.

The approach to innovation

After several years without having undergone any updates, the new MSP guide has been completely rewritten by questioning the precepts of the fourth edition. Every single aspect has been revised and updated to be in line with today's context.

The new guide will support both Programme Managers and other key figures within different organisations and will help professionals design, plan, guide and deliver their programmes ensuring the success of organisations.

• The benefits of the MSP fifth edition method
• Align projects and programmes on organizational strategy
• Provides a rigorous approach to benefit management by facilitating role changes
• Ensures an appropriate division of responsibilities and obligations
• Facilitates organizational agility
• Helps understand the associated risks of a programme
• It is an exemplary practice tested in the successful implementation of an organizational change through the application of Programme Management.

MSP 4 vs MSP 5

The essence of what a program is remains the same as it was with the 4th edition: it is temporary, it is results and benefit oriented and it is concerned with leading several projects and other work. The basic concepts (principles, themes and processes) also always form the overall structure of the guide. However, these have been revised keeping the following principles in mind:

• Ensure that MSP remains adaptable and flexible and can be used in a wide range of organisations and environments. There are many and varied drivers of change, and the MSP approach to program management must ensure that the organisation's investment in change is managed wisely.
• Provide guidance for a wide range of investments that benefit from program management, recognizing that the word “program” has many different meanings for organizations, and that terms other than “programs” may be used by these organizations .
• Emphasize the incremental nature of a program and show how MSP enables cyclical progression to the desired future state. Organizations are complex, the external context is emerging, and the delivery of benefits and value creation generally cannot be achieved by a series of linear steps.
• Enable program teams to recognize the many ways in which outputs and changes can be delivered, including iterative (Agile), traditional and hybrid approaches.

QRP offers the MSP 5th edition training, you can read more about our course here. Other questions? Contact us directly.

Preparing for the PMP® exam is not an easy task. It requires commitment and dedication, plus you have to choose the right training provider.

The training provider will prepare you for the exam and will enable you to successfully submit your exam application. Indeed, in order to apply for the PMP exam, you should prove you completed 35 hours of project management training.

Why QRP?

QRP is a PMI Authorized Training Partner (ATP). To maintain this designation, we must continuously meet rigorous standards for quality and effectiveness. As ATP we completed the PMI Train the Trainer – PMP Exam Prep® program and we use PMI-developed training course content.

Training with an Authorized Partner will ensure you are trained:

• By an organization you can trust
• With high-quality PMI-developed course content
• By PMI-approved instructors

What you can expect from us:

• Quality training
• Licensed content for Project Management Professional (PMP)®
• Online learning assets like quizzes, knowledge checks and videos
• Trainers with a badge that shows they are PMI-approved instructors
• Assistance from the trainer for the exam subscription
• PMBOK (last edition)

Still in doubt?

QRP aims to develop professionals, but we also constantly develop ourselves. That means that we constantly aim to offer the best service to our customers. As ATP of PMI we are able to offer you the a top of the notch training course. We will guide you in getting your PMP certification by:

• Our PMP courses include the PMBoK (Project Management body of Knowledge) in its last edition (6th edition for now, 7th edition as soon as it will be launched) which represents good practice for most projects most of the time.
• Any PDU claim made against a course delivered by QRP will automatically be accepted by PMI without audit.
• You can choose between different course formats: we offer classroom, virtual and corporate training.
• QRP has 20 years’ experience delivering Project Management training across the world.
• Our trainers are carefully selected from our specialized network. Most trainers are accredited on multiple Best Practices.
• We continually develop challenging content and events about PMP and related practices in order to shine a different light on the course material and increase peer-to-peer learning and widen your PM horizon. Register here for our upcoming panel discussion about PMP related practices.

QRP offers classroom, virtual and corporate training. Visit our PMP exam preparation course page to know all details! For any questions, feel free to contact us directly.

2020 has almost finished and has exceeded all of our expectations. Nobody could have predicted how our daily lives would change due to COVID-19. All professionals were suddenly put in a digital, remote working environment and organisations had to adapt their business models. Our working lives have changed immensely and nobody knows what ‘the new normal’ will look like or when we can expect this. For now, all we can do is look back on an intense 2020. We like to offer you the possibility to look back, together with QRP, by the means of 5 characterizing Q&A sessions with Belgian professionals. Read along with us!

Agility to the core, how Agile can drive an organisation

Liza Andersson works as Global Sales Operations Project Manager at FLIR. FLIR works Agile in the deeper sense of the word. FLIR does not just say they work Agile, agility is one of their core mind sets. It took FLIR just four days to shift from office work to remote work, for the entire international business. Curious how agility can help overcome obstacles? Read in the full blogpost here.

Project management should fit the organisation’s maturity

Shana Coenen works as Team Lead Pool Project Leaders, at the Federal Public Service Finance. She realizes that the biggest challenges in her network all regard the different skill levels of the PMO roles and project leaders. She realized that a ‘one size fits all’ training approach does not work and is now looking to offer a wider range of training possibilities and workshops and hopes to go as far as individual coaching and customized learning paths. Wonder what she says about the project's maturity? Read the full blogpost here.

Agile systems are great tools to build productivity on trust

Eralp Tezcan works as Scrum Master at Realdolmen-Inetum and cooperates daily with other Scrum Masters to work wonders in their teams. Eralp witnessed many organisations that started applying more agile frameworks due to external factors of the pas year. Now that almost all professionals work outside of environments potentially designed for control (offices), both the individual and organisations are learning to trust each other again. Agile systems offer great tools to build productivity on this regained trust. Read the full blogpost here.

Project management in the hospital sector

Maddy Silverans is a staff member of Process and Project Management of the Quality and Strategy department of AZ Sint-Maarten, a hospital. She opens up about Project Management in the Hospital sector, where, unless in many other sectors, project management is not the top priority. 2020 resulted in delay in many projects, because a delayed project definition automatically means a delayed start date of the project. Read the whole blogpost here.

How to create awareness of the positive impact of P3O structure

Davina Leysen works as Programme and Project officer at Belnet. At the time of the installment of the PMO, there were many skeptical reactions. However the trust of colleagues and the change in perceptions of the project management approach shifted the tables in Belnet. Davina shares how to get everybody involved to create a common approach. Read the full blogpost here.

In order to fit your needs, QRP offers multiple training formats. We offer our training on-site, virtual and in e-learning. However, our on-site training, while still taking place, is heavily influenced by the COVID-19 virus. Today we live in a world where the COVID-19 virus is not to be missed and where you should try to avoid having too much contact.

While our on-site trainings are being planned and take place, it is obvious that QRP has to adhere to some rules. In order to provide the training, QRP follows the COVID safety-guidelines that the government provided. These guidelines have a big impact on our training and can also limit certain parts of it. For example, you will be required to wear your face mask in the training room all day long, which can limit communication. To see the full list of rules and regulations, please click here.

Our advice?

While we always search to provide just what you are looking for, we do like to also share our opinion regarding the current COVID-19 situation. We noticed that there is still a very high request for open classroom training. Normally we support this choice, but seeing the limitations the rules have upon the training we now highly recommend our Virtual Classroom.

QRP strongly advises virtual live training for the following society reasons:

• Less travel and less contacts with other people is better
• Home office is still the norm for many organisations

QRP strongly advises virtual live training for the following personal reasons:

• A live virtual saves you money (10-20% cheaper than onsite courses)
• A live virtual saves you time (no commuting time)
• Easy combination with work in our half day program

Not to forget

If you want to follow our PRINCE2 or ITIL 4 Foundation courses, you can also choose for our e-learning solution. This will give you the opportunity to follow the course at your own pace and with your personal rhythm!

For more information or if you need help to choose the right format for you and/or colleagues, do not hesitate to reach out to us. You can email or call us directly, here you will find our contact details.