E2 overview - managing projects

In this lesson

1. 0:00 Managing Projects Overview
2. 1:05 Critical Path Analysis Fundamentals
3. 2:16 Calculating Earliest Starting Times
4. 4:03 Understanding Float and Slack
5. 7:01 Project Leadership Roles and Accountability

About this lesson

You'll discover how to use scheduling methods to keep projects on track, identify which activities can be delayed without affecting the overall timeline, and understand the key roles—project sponsor, project owner, and project board—that drive successful project delivery. This is core material for E2, where project management forms a significant part of the syllabus and often challenges students during their exams. Critical path analysis is explored in considerable detail here because it's a framework you'll need to master. You'll learn how to map event nodes and activities, calculate earliest and latest starting times, and determine which activities are critical to your project's completion. The concept of float or slack—the amount of time non-critical activities can be delayed without extending the project—is explained clearly with worked examples, helping you understand why some paths through a project network have flexibility while others do not. Beyond scheduling, this lesson covers project leadership and stakeholder management. You'll see why distinguishing between the project sponsor (who secures resources), the project owner (who the project serves), and the project board (to whom you as project manager are accountable) matters in practice. Understanding these roles and managing relationships carefully is essential for leading projects successfully and is directly relevant to what E2 assessments expect you to know.

Duration: 10m