QRP International Belgium launched its Best Practices Blog on June 14, 2019 and it has already collected more than 15,000 views. A big thank you for your loyalty throughout this past year. Would you like to know the 10 topics that interested you most in 2021 on our Best Practices Blog? Here are the top posts of this year. The opportunity for you, we hope, is to (re)discover some of them:

1. Who is the Scrum developer?
2. Output, outcome and benefits of a project: what are the differences?
3. ITIL 4 Specialist Create, Deliver & Support Exam
4. How to write a PID? (Project Initiation Documentation)
5. What makes Project Management in the Hospital sector unique?
6. 8 Common Causes of Project Failure (and how to avoid them!)
7. AgilePM versus Scrum
8. Who is the PMO Manager: role & responsibilities
9. The New PMBoK 7: the Dawn of a New Era
10. What is PRINCE2?

The new year is already approaching and we will continue to offer you more and more relevant articles to best meet your expectations. If you have any questions that you would like us to answer, topics that are of particular interest to you, or if you would like to collaborate with us in writing blog posts, please contact us at belgium@qrpinternational.com. We would like to take this opportunity to inform you that each new post is announced on our  QRP International BelgiumLinkedin page. You can also subscribe to our monthly if you prefer. We wish you all a very Happy New Year 2022.

Take advantage of -30% on your favorite courses! Discount valid from the 15th till the 30th of November 2021. As every year, Black Friday takes place around the world the day after American Thanksgiving: in 2021, it is therefore Friday, November 26 that this great day of promotions falls. This year has been difficult enough for everyone and we have decided to take the opportunity to offer you a 30% reduction on some of our training courses;

Virtual classroom

• PRINCE2 Foundation English: January 24-25-26-27-28, 2022 => €805 + VAT instead of €1,550 + VAT
• PRINCE2 Foundation French: 24-25-26-27-28 January 2022 => €805 + VAT instead of €1,550 + VAT
• PRINCE2 Combi English: 24-25-26-27-28 January 2022 – 16-17-18 February 2022 => €1,397 + VAT instead of €1,995 + VAT
• PRINCE2 Combi French: January 24-25-26-27-28 – February 9-10-11, 2022 => € 1,397 + VAT instead of € 1,995 + VAT
• AgilePM Foundation English: January 18-19-20-21, 2022 => €735 + VAT instead of €1,050 + VAT
• AgilePM Foundation French: January 18-19-20-21, 2022 => €735 + VAT instead of €1,050 + VAT
• ITIL Foundation French: January 17-18-19-20, 2022 => €735 + VAT instead of € 1,050 + VAT
• ITIL Foundation English: February 8-9-10-11, 2022 => €735 + VAT instead of €1,050 + VAT

E-learning

• PRINCE2 Combi English => €735 + VAT instead of €1,050 + VAT
• PRINCE2 Combi French => €735 + VAT instead of €1,050 + VAT

97% of decision makers and 84% of individuals said obtaining certification had a positive impact, improving efficiency and employee satisfaction, so what are you waiting for ?! It is time to have some fun and end 2021 on a high note!

The time of good weather, long evenings and outdoor activities is upon us. Summer is somehow always paired with reaching goals. ‘The perfect summer body’, ‘the nicest vacation’ or finishing all the ‘left up chores’. What if this year you consider reaching a professional goal? The summer months seem short and are always packed with fun weekends, vacation and outings. But at the same time, summertime is also the time where there is more time to relax and time to get you prepared for the busy last months of the year. So, how do we combine all this, a goal, a relaxed mindset and some more time on your hands. What about getting a certification that will help sustain your career and improve your capabilities? It is to be imagined that nobody wants to spend their summer day in a classroom or behind closed doors in their home-office. So what if you could study in the evening, the early morning or a quick hour at lunch? E-learning could be your summer solution!

PRINCE2 and ITIL 4 Foundation E-learning

QRP Belgium currently has two courses that we offer via E-learning, others are in full development and will launch later this year. Currently we offer PRINCE2 E-learning, the Foundation, Practitioner and Combi courses and the ITIL 4 Foundation. Both courses are available in English and in French and provide the voucher for the online exam. You have six (ten in case of the PRINCE2 combi) months to complete the course and the exam and can schedule your learning whenever you want.

PRINCE2

PRINCE2 (Projects IN Controlled Environment) is a structured method for the effective and efficient management of projects. The PRINCE2 methodology is widely adopted around the world, used by people and organisations in wide-ranging industries and sectors. PRINCE2 helps to successfully deliver projects of any size or complexity. Built from a wealth of experience and knowledge, PRINCE2 provides the essentials for managing any project. PRINCE2 provides a common language across a project and the necessary controls and breakpoints to work successfully within a contractual framework. PRINCE2 is a flexible method that guides you through the essentials for managing successful projects, regardless of type or scale. Built upon seven principles, themes and processes, PRINCE2 can be tailored to meet your specific requirements.

ITIL 4 Foundation

ITIL is the most widely accepted approach to IT Service Management in the world, and is used globally by millions of practitioners. For over 25 years, ITIL has been providing organisations with practical guidance to improve IT services. ITIL is fundamental to businesses, enables transformation and helps organisations realize value. The last version of the framework, ITIL 4, is built on established ITSM practices and expands itself to the wider context of customer experience, value streams and digital transformation, as well as embracing new ways of working, such as Lean, Agile, and DevOps. ITIL 4 provides a practical and flexible basis to support organisations on their journey to the new world of digital transformation. ITIL provides an end-to-end IT/digital operating model for the delivery and operation of tech-enabled products and services and enables IT teams to continue to play a crucial role in wider business strategy.

2021 Summer deal

QRP has the objective to help professionals grow and develop constantly. That is why we want to sustain your professional goals for this summer. In order to do so, we now provide a 10% discount on all E-learning. Available for July & August, do not miss your opportunity to learn and improve your skills!

“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.