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Practical Project Management for Managers and First Time PMs (Udemy.com)

Learn Project management so you can deliver your next project be on time, on budget, and to requirements.

Created by: Mike Clayton

Last updated December 2025

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What you will learn

  • Understand how projects work and be able to control your project process
  • Deploy some of the main ways to avoid budget and schedule over-runs
  • Define your project precisely, for your benefit and everyone else's
  • Establish a clear scope, so you can combat the dreaded 'scope creep'
  • Deal effectively with supporters, critics and bystanders
  • Create time scales for getting the job done using milestone planning
  • Be able to use the world's favourite project planning tool: the Gantt chart
  • Achieve fair and effective allocation of project responsibilities
  • Get the most from your team: motivation, collaboration and communication
  • Predict problems and plan your responses
  • Be able to assess which risks to deal with first
  • Apply all six strategies for action on risks available to use
  • Stay in control when people change their minds

How it compares

Against the other 243 rated Udemy courses in Project Management on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.7 out of 5higher than 85% of them
  • Reviews5,399#33 of 244 by number of reviews
  • Length3.3 hoursshorter than 52% of them
  • Last updatedDecember 2025more recently than 59% of them

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Course Description

Do you need to manage a project?

And do you want to deliver it on time, on budget, and to requirement?

If you are new to project management - or just want a refresher, this course will give you all the basics and more.

Project Management has become a vital element of business life. Success for both you and your organization will depend on good project management skills.

How do you set up to succeed? This seminar shows you the practical tools, techniques, and advice you need.

What will I get?

You will get over two and a half hours of high-quality video - not just a PowerPoint with a voice-over.

It is based on Mike's best selling three-hour live seminar and contains over two and a half hours of video, and a wealth of additional templates for you to download and adapt to your work. These will help you to manage your projects practically, for greater control and more success.

If you want to deliver your next project on time, on budget and to specification, you can't afford not to take this course.


What people say about Mike's live seminar...

“This did what it said on the box – a great deal of practical ideas for planning and managing tasks, along with understanding of key principles for successful delivery"

Andrea Duncan, PDP Co-ordinator – University of Northampton

“One of the best seminars I've attended in the last 17 years. Enjoyable practical and useful. I would highly recommend this course"

Diane Massey – DSM Legal Solicitors

“If you've never had formal training in project management – you'll learn a huge amount about processes and the secrets to succeeding in your projects"

Paul Foxall, Senior Project Officer – Sandwell MBC

“Excellent seminar. I have been on previous project management course. This one seemed very different and much better due to brilliant examples Mike gave."

Emma Oliver, Marketecture

“Excellent content, clearly delivered. Really enjoyed Mike's course and found it exceptionally useful."

Nick Osborn, Fenland RP Ltd

“Very useful. Many excellent strategies to help guide project managers."

Rob Simpson, Basis (Registration) Ltd

“A great overall introduction to project management. I learnt a lot and have a lot I can start to implement tomorrow!"

Catherine Mendham, Content Consultants

“Very practical, very useful. Gives confidence in knowing what is important and what is not. Mike is a very engaging speaker."

Louisa Davison, Secret Agent Marketing

“An excellent introduction and reminder of some of the fundamentals of project management."

Chris Price, Pulse PM Ltd

Dr Mike Clayton

Mike is on of the UK's leading project delivery experts. He has many years experience of managing projects and integrating change in many companies of varying sizes. Mike has had key roles in managing multi-million pound projects for Vodafone, General Motors, BAA and Transport for London. Organisations of all sizes have benefited from his skills in integrating complex change. You will get real results as his highly practical approach simplifies complex ideas.

Mike also has over 20 years' experience of training project managers, throughout the UK and in Europe and the US. He is the author of thirteen top-selling business, management, and personal effectiveness books, including four on project management topics:

  • How to Manage a Great Project    On budget. On target. On time.   (Pearson, 2014)

  • The Influence Agenda    A systematic approach to aligning stakeholders in times of change   (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)

  • Brilliant Project Leader   What the best project leaders know, do and say to get results, every time   (Pearson, 2012)

  • Risk Happens!    Managing risk and avoiding failure in business projects   (Marshall Cavendish, 2011)

Your Unconditional, No-questions, 30-Day Guarantee

The best way to assess how valid this material is in your culture is to try it out. I am so confident that this course will change your life that I offer you an unconditional, no questions asked, full 30-day money-back-in-full guarantee. If you don't think this will give you a real sense of understanding and being in control of your project, then just ask me for your money back.

What if you have questions?

I will be on hand to answer your questions if you get stuck, puzzled, or just want to know more. As a professional trainer, this is what I do, and I promise to respond within 24 hours of your question arriving with me from Udemy.

Enroll Now

Enroll for this course now, so you can start to gain control of your projects straight away.

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Instructor Details

Mike Clayton

        Dr Mike Clayton is a business trainer, author and speaker. Since 2002, he has been helping professionals, managers and leaders to excel in their roles with management, leadership, and personal effectiveness training. 

        Mike has written over a dozen books for major publishers like Wiley, Macmillan and Pearson, including: Powerhouse, How to Manage a Great Project, How to Speak so People Listen, Brilliant Time Management, and The Influence Agenda. 

        Mike's professional background is 12 years as a project management professional with the London office of international management consultancy Deloitte. Prior to that, Mike had an academic career in Physics, working at the world renowned Schuster Laboratory of The University of Manchester.

Mike currently has 14 courses on Udemy, with a long list of successful seminars and training courses to convert into video format.

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Reviews

4.7

5,399 ratings on Udemy

Select a bar to show only those reviews.Select the bar again to show every rating.

By Kathryn L Rose on 6/5/2026

This course covered key concepts such as project lifecycles, goals vs objectives, in scope/out of scope (scope creep), stakeholder (engagement/analysis), planning, and risk management - all in a clear & actionable way. I thought it was the most practical and engaging training I have found, and I would recommend this course to anyone new to project management or looking to build structured, consistent project management practices.

By Francis Raymond S. Balitaan on 3/19/2021

Dear Mike, I have been a government employee for more than 13 years, and projects are the lifeblood of our organization. In those years, however, I was seldom involved on a full basis that I rarely learned anything from my involvement in such projects. Hence, the application of your course comes to me 'in hindsight", but hopefully this is temporary. Spending one morning taking your course was both an epiphany and a validation -- that I really did not know anything at all when it comes to managing projects. So even If I am nearing the age of 40, I now officially consider myself a BEGINNER of this field, and yet my appreciation is now deeply engraved on how important this field is to my profession...and again hopefully the impending experience from project management would not be as difficult as I thought it to be. P.S.: Thumbs up on the intro music/beat ... :D

By Jair Cuervo Ramírez on 7/1/2020

Great course! This has been my first approach to PM, and it has surprised me that at first there is no need to go through difficult processes, assessments or methodologies to manage project, the only thing you need is to have some common sense. All this is stated clearly during the course. It is important to say that in general the approach is to "traditional" project management. At the end there are some remarks about agile methodologies and scrum. I would suggest to add a practical example on how both approaches can coexist (if so is possible) in the same project.

By Anonymized User on 5/8/2020

The instructor, Dr. Mike Clayton explains the whole project life cycle in a very detailed way and with very simple words. Excellent course and excellent instructor for the ones we are just starting. Thanks for this great instructional course. Above expectations!

By Sam Tobs on 2/27/2019

I did enjoy the course. I'm new to Project Management courses and found the explanations very helpful and straight to the point. Dr Clayton did break down concepts sufficiently. Audio towards the end of the course was very difficult to deal with. A clip-on mic would have been very helpful.

By Thomas Roberts on 11/29/2017

I originally scored this course 2 stars, however I've upgraded it to 4.5. While sound issues continue to plague the sections, they are usually not terrible and now at the halfway point I'm very impressed with how the course has progressed. The information provided is very thorough and well explained. My only current wish would be that the instructor would outline his notes on the screen instead of me trying to guess what the outline looks like and where we're at in it.

By Stephen Hills on 11/9/2017

A practical introduction to the basic concepts of project management. A helpful guide for people who need project management basics. General concepts that can be put into practice for small, just getting started professionals in need of some basic project management skills.

By Eitan Gross on 10/5/2017

I liked very much the way Mike is presenting the different subjects. In addition, I had all the time the feeling, that he and me are working during the training on a real project, and mike it is teaching me what is required to do to be successful. Well done Mike Eitan

By Anna Montoya on 2/9/2017

Very helpful. There are a lot of great takeaways and the length of each lesson is just right. The speaker balances delicately some technical aspects of project management, including concepts and models, with practical applications such as questions to ask, frameworks for thinking and assessing the situation, which I find very helpful. Thanks!

By Diana Wilcox Layman on 11/17/2016

The beginning was a bit slow, but the level of important information grew as the instructor went on. I found immediately usable information as well as food for thought. At the end, I found the time very well spent. I would recommend this course.

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Overall Score : 94 / 100