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Aviation project management: delivering projects that must be approved

Plan, schedule, cost and risk-manage aviation projects whose finish line is an authority's approval, under ICAO, EASA, FAA and UAE GCAA rules

By Aerospace Garage Desk · Introductory · 45 minutes · 24 narrated pages · Updated October 2026

What you will be able to do

  • ✓ Explain why an aviation project is complete only when the relevant authority approves the result, and treat approvals as critical-path milestones.
  • ✓ Identify the approval route for changes to maintenance organisations, type designs, CAMOs and aerodromes under EASA, FAA and UAE GCAA rules.
  • ✓ Build a work breakdown and schedule that include compliance evidence, long-lead items and slots, and track them with earned value.
  • ✓ Manage project risk with ISO 31000 concepts and link every change to safety risk assessment under the safety management system.
  • ✓ Control configuration, records, contracts and supply chain risks, and communicate with stakeholders and the authority through to project closure.

Course content

Session 1 · Why aviation projects are different

1.1

  1. A project that ends in a permission · free preview
  2. Four families of aviation project
  3. The approval on the critical path
  4. Worked example: dating an approval milestone
Session 2 · The approval gates

1.2

  1. Changing an approved maintenance organisation
  2. Changing a type design: minor, major and STC
  3. Continuing airworthiness and aerodrome changes
  4. Worked example: classifying a galley oven change
Session 3 · Scope, schedule, cost and earned value

1.3

  1. Scope: build the compliance work into the breakdown
  2. Schedule: milestones you do not control
  3. Cost and earned value
  4. Worked example: earned value for a cabin refit
Session 4 · Project risk and safety risk

1.4

  1. Project risk: uncertainty you can manage
  2. Safety risk: management of change in the SMS
  3. Working beside live operations
  4. Worked example: scoring a project risk and a safety hazard
Session 5 · Configuration, contracts and supply chain

1.5

  1. Configuration and records: knowing exactly what you have
  2. Contracts that share the work, and the risk
  3. Long-lead parts and a strained supply chain
  4. Worked example: checking a part that arrives with an EASA Form 1
Session 6 · People, communication, lessons and trends

1.6

  1. Mapping the people who can stop the project
  2. Talking to the authority, and closing well
  3. Trends: digital tools and data-driven planning
  4. From the investigation file: the entertainment system on Swissair Flight 111

Who this course is for

Upskill courses are for professional development and are not approved by any aviation authority. Learner Terms

Course content © Aerospace Garage Limited. All rights reserved.