"This is the project management book I've been waiting a decade for! . . . The new world is the Project World, and this book gloriously shows the way."-Tom Peters

How to get beyond the formulas and succeed in real-world project management

Project Management Success Stories begins where most books on project management leave off-with the real-world experiences of professional project managers working without a net. From these stories and the lessons they teach, project managers emerge not as bureaucrats or technicians clinging to rules and formulas but as champions who challenge the status quo, set goals that extend the limits of their teams' capabilities, rely more on judgment and intuition than calculation, and are not afraid to take risks when necessary.

Based on a comprehensive, NASA-sponsored research project, this practical guide takes readers beyond textbook management systems and articulates the field-proven tacit knowledge that these veteran leaders have accumulated through years of experience under fire. These stories contain lessons that extend far beyond the field of engineering; they apply in any environment, from the government task force to the corporate boardroom to the shop floor. This remarkably unconventional how-to book:
* Features 70 firsthand project management success stories
* Presents actionable lessons demonstrated by these success stories
* Inspires and energizes readers to reach new heights in their own performance
* Conveys leadership principles and intangibles in a simple, nontechnical format
* Provides resources for creating success stories within any organization
* Includes profiles of five "star" project managers

Project management is not just for engineers anymore, and Project Management Success Stories is for anyone-engineer or generalist, project manager or team member-who wants to turn the tacit knowledge of proven professionals into hands-on solutions to the recurring challenges of a dynamic and constantly changing business and technological environment.

Research and Development is the vehicle by which organizations and economies create opportunity, innovation and secure a stream of future products and services.These outcomes are all critically important sources of sustainability in a world that is changing faster than most companies can keep up.The challenge behind them is the fundamental unpredictability of R which is why effective project management is so important. Ron Basu's Managing Projects in Research and Development explains how and why project management can provide a means of helping to plan, organise and control multi-disciplinary research activities without stifling innovation. Combining research with practical examples and experience from a career that has included blue chip organizations such as GSK, GlaxoWellcome and Unilever, Ron Basu offers a rigorous guide to the fundamentals of R&D project management including project lifecycle management, risk management, cost, time quality and other success measures as well as the keys to operational excellence in this complicated world.

If you have tried to implement Agile in your organization, you have probably learned a lot about development practices, teamwork, processes and tools, but too little about how to manage such an organization. Yet managerial support is often the biggest impediment to successfully adopting Agile, and limiting your Agile efforts to those of the development teams while doing the same old-style management will dramatically limit the ability of your organization to reach the next Agile level.

Angel Medinilla will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of what Agile means to an organization and the manager's role in such an environment, i.e., how to manage, lead and motivate self-organizing teams and how to create an Agile corporate culture. Based on his background as a "veteran" Agile consultant for companies of all sizes, he delivers insights and experiences, points out possible pitfalls, presents practical approaches and possible scenarios, also including detailed suggestions for further reading.

If you are a manager, team leader, evangelist, change agent (or whatever nice title) and if you want to push Agile further in your organization, then this is your book. You will read how to change the paradigm of what management is about: it is not about arbitrary decisions, constant supervision and progress control, and the negotiation of changing requirements. It is about motivation, self-organization, responsibility, and the exploitation of all project stakeholders' knowledge. We live in a different world than the one that most management experts of the 20th century describe, and companies that strive for success and excellence will need a new kind of manager - Agile managers."

Exercising Agency is a book about decision making. In particular, it looks in detail at how a very important type of organizational decision gets made: whether or not to initiate a project. Making strategic decisions of this kind can never be a wholly rational and scientific process. And Exercising Agency lifts the lid on many of the important behavioural factors that inform project decisions: power and politics, personality, the 'rules' of an organization. Mark Mullaly draws on his research to provide practical guidance for decision makers; project shapers, approving executives and those responsible for how initiation decisions are made. By explaining the influence, value and risks associated with the elements that inform the way we make strategic decisions he will help you identify how individuals and organizations can best support the process to ensure project initiation decisions are effective and most closely underpin the priorities of the organization. If you are involved in framing or making decisions about the future of your organization; the projects that you do or don't decide to initiate, then read this book. It won't make the decisions any easier but it will help you improve the quality of the decisions you make and over time, the effectiveness of your organizational decision making.

In organizations these days, there are two cultures, two sets of expectations, two languages; that of the business-as-usual organization and separately that of projects. These cultures need to work together effectively. Unfortunately, the natural side-effect of two such different perspectives is misunderstanding, mutual incomprehension, and despite good intentions on both sides, failure to deliver desired benefits. In Bridging the Business-Project Divide John Brinkworth tackles these issues by examining: A*

The financing of modern construction projects reflects the need to address the costs and benefits of the whole life of the project. This means that end of life economics can now have a far greater impact on the planning and feasibility phases. During the project itself, decisions on construction materials and processes all influence the schedule as well as both immediate and down-the-line costs. Massimo Pica and his co-authors explain in detail the fundamentals of project life cycle economics and how they apply in the context of complex modern construction. This is an essential guide for those involved in construction project design, tendering and contracting; to help ensure the sustainability of the project or their contribution to it, from the start. It is also important for those involved in the delivery of the project to help them make the choices to keep the project on a financial even keel. Government, corporations and other organizations are looking for new models of collaborative working to fund their large construction and infrastructure projects in the face of changing attitudes to risk; a better educated and more demanding base of end-user clients and the increasing requirements for projects that are environmentally responsible and sustainable. Project Life Cycle Economics is a fundamental primer for those commissioning and those delivering construction.

There is often a deep disconnect between the project team's goals and those of the organization. Senior management wants "profitable" projects, but is only able to quantify its wishes in terms of the traditional project management elements: schedule and cost. To operate smoothly, the entire organization must be driven by the single goal of project profitability. Total Project Control presents valuable enhancements to the traditional project management approach, introducing new metrics and techniques for assessing the performance and profitability of projects. Demonstrating how to maximize the business value of a project, this book discusses new profitability-based data metrics, such as expected monetary value (EMV), expected project profit (EPP), Devaux's Index of Project Performance (DIPP), critical path drag, drag cost, and the cost of leveling with unresolved bottlenecks (CLUB). The impact of implementing these metrics can be far reaching. Not only will good management decisions, at both the project and executive levels, be supported by quantitative data, but bad decisions will become harder to justify. This book shows how to compute and use the new metrics to rightsize staffing levels for projects, programs, and organizations. It also explains what every project manager needs to know about earned value tracking: its uses, abuses, value, distortions, and potential fixes. The book then extends these metrics into techniques for indexing, tracking, progressing, and improving the business value of projects. See What's New in the Second Edition: Includes new diagrams and new ways of computing critical path drag in complex networks Introduces DIPP Performance Index tracking Offers new exercises in how to compute critical path drag and drag cost and use them to maximize project value Focuses on topics senior management needs to be assured the project team is using to maximize project profitability

The behaviour of people and their organisation are the primary drivers of a project's pace of progress. Methodology, tools and techniques are vital but subordinate to human endeavour; if only because their selection, deployment and application entirely depend on the abilities of the project players and their organisation. Performance ultimately rests on human and organisational behaviour: expressed by the players' experience, professional ability, resolve, dialogue and collaboration. Fresh approaches and methods help practitioners to address this reality productively. This book is written under nine headings: collaboration; able people; strength; connections; rigour; pace; persistence; adaptation; and maturity. The Single-Minded Project offers a new and convincing appreciation of project management that will harness players and their organisation. It recognises that at its heart, the management and leadership of a project regime relies on the choices, behaviours and decisions of its players and the organisation's freedom of action. It addresses the urgency of the project (the need for swiftness), coupled with the kind and degree of diligence (the need for rigour in the choice and management of method): referring to its Pace of Progress. The success of a project very much depends on the pace at which it is conducted to then deliver value. Projects find themselves in territory where methodology, tools and techniques are of little help. The Single-Minded Project fills that gap and more.

Run every project smoothly, successfully and on time This book contains a range of essential checklists for busy project managers, each one of which has been developed, tested and proven to work. Brilliant Checklists for Project Managers quickly provides hundreds of practical tips, techniques and strategies, based on proven insider knowledge and expertise to help you to deliver brilliant projects. Complete your projects successfully, on time and within budget Understand and master all aspects of any project Run any type of project, no matter what size Quickly find the answers you need just when you need them Everything you need to know, think about and do to run your project successfully and efficiently.

Sometimes unanticipated threats or opportunities create a situation in which work is required unexpectedly. On these occasions, such urgent and unexpected work demands an instant start, in contrast to the often lengthy processes of investigation, evaluation, development, selection and planning normal in businesses and public services before the start of a project. Managing the Urgent and Unexpected explores what is different managerially if work is unexpected, its implementation is urgent and an immediate start it is required. The authors draw on twelve cases ranging from the launch of the Freeview television system in the United Kingdom to the sifting and removal of the New York World Trade Center pile of debris following the 9/11 terrorist attack. They summarise how the response to each of these events was managed, demonstrate that opportunities may sometimes be created in the face of adversity and suggest how normal organizations can prepare to manage abnormal demands. Urgent and unexpected projects have to be rare in business or government to be economically and socially tolerable. And yet organizations can and should be prepared for the unexpected. The lessons offered here will help private and public organizations plan how to authorize and support future urgent work to take advantage of immediate new business opportunities or to protect or restore systems and services.

As executives build and nurture their organization's strategic agility in today's turbulent, uncertain business environment, the ability to lead strategic change has become more critical than ever. The Strategic Project Leader: Mastering Service-Based Project Leadership, Second Edition will help project managers lead with confidence in temporary, ambiguous team structures that execute risk-laden work in an increasingly agile project environment. Like the first edition, this edition encourages readers to take ownership of their leadership agenda and become disciplined in the processes of building a framework of leadership skills. Readers are introduced to a new role: the service-based project leader. This role serves the entire project organization by creating a meaningful experience for team members, customers, and critical stakeholders. The book provides practical guidance to help you move from project manager to service-based project leader. Detailing a framework for developing and refining leadership skills, it explains how to build a leadership competency pyramid and then execute a self-directed plan for building leadership competencies. The leadership competency pyramid includes an intuitive model that will be helpful to project managers at any level. The book elaborates on the components of each layer of the pyramid and how each layer relates to the others. A chapter is dedicated to each layer of the pyramid, with supporting evidence for the necessity of each of these layers, as well as practical advice on how to build and practice these component layers.

Concise, practical and entertaining to read, this excellent introduction to project management is an indispensable book for professionals and students working in or studying project management in business, engineering or the public sector.

This third edition contains expanded sections on programme management, portfolio management, and the public sector. An entirely new chapter covers the evaluation, analysis and management of risks and issues. A much expanded section explores the rise and utilization of methodologies like Prince2.

Bikash Chatterjee emphasizes the criticality of applying the principles of Lean and Six Sigma within the paradigm of the drug development process. His guide to operational excellence in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries is a focused summary of the application of Lean Six Sigma theory to the regulated life sciences. From molecule discovery to the application of PAT Applying Lean Six Sigma in the Pharmaceutical Industry will highlight the importance of framing these initiatives within the key deliverables of drug development manufacturing and quality. Challenging conventional wisdom the author offers a quality and efficiency perspective as a foundation for the principles of Quality by Design, PAT and the new philosophies underlying Process Validation. Each chapter includes discussion around the considerations for applying Lean manufacturing and Six Sigma principles and their tools, culminating in a case study to illustrate the application. The book is organized to reflect the major work centers involved in the drug development lifecycle. Each chapter is stand-alone but together they illustrate the necessary synergy between Lean, Six Sigma and compliance sensibilities required to be successful in the pharmaceutical industry. These design, manufacturing and management techniques are not without their challenges. Bikash Chatterjee's book offers the roadmap for an industry that is struggling to reinvent many of its development and business processes.

Complexity theory is a great, untapped resource in the field of management. Experts agree that it can be a powerful tool for managing complex and virtual programs, but there is little material available to guide program managers on how to use complexity theory to communicate and lead effectively. Filling this void, Successful Program Management: Complexity Theory, Communication, and Leadership identifies the best leadership types for complex program environments. It goes beyond what is currently available in program management standards to outline powerful solutions to the macro and micro program issues facing program managers. Using language that is easy to understand, the book describes practical complexity theory techniques for establishing clear and effective communications in a virtual environment. It explains what it takes to communicate strategically to all parties involved and addresses the communication issues common to most programs, including stakeholder communication, project team communication, and shareholder communication. The information presented in this book is supported by peer review research. Each section includes a case study, section quiz, and discussion questions to reinforce learning. The book includes numerous tools, templates, and techniques that can be helpful to the seasoned program manager as well as program managers who are leading for the first time. Clarifying the nuances of complexity theory, the text will help you focus your strategic energies on the right things and arm you and your team with the skills, tools, and techniques needed to succeed in today's program environment.

Based on the author's real world experience during the course of her career in supply management, engineering, and as a project management professional, this unique guide demonstrates a practical and proven approach to using project management strategies, tools, and techniques to consistently create successful procurement practices that go beyond mere cost savings. Procurement Project Management Success integrates supply management best practices and processes with those applicable from the field of project management. It explains how to initiate, plan, manage, and complete both simple and complex procurement projects successfully. Through the use of scheduling, communication plans, risk management and other project management processes, these procurements satisfy stakeholders by setting expectations, continuously communicating status, and getting the best value for the dollar. This book shows project managers all the steps and processes used in procurement, and details for procurement professionals how adding and applying a few project management processes and techniques to their skill set can substantially improve both their company's results and their career opportunities.

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK (R)) Guide is the go-to resource for project management practitioners. Over the past few years, the project management profession has significantly evolved due to emerging technology, new approaches and rapid market changes. Reflecting this evolution, The Standard for Project Management enumerates 12 principles of project management and the PMBOK (R) Guide - Seventh Edition is structured around eight project performance domains. Both the standard and the guide reflect the wide range of development approaches that lead to value delivery. This edition is designed to address practitioners' current and future needs and to help them be more proactive, innovative and nimble in enabling desired project outcomes. This edition of the PMBOK (R) Guide: Reflects the full range of development approaches (predictive, adaptive, hybrid, etc.) Provides an entire section devoted to tailoring the development approach and processes Includes an expanded list of models, methods, and artifacts Focuses on not just delivering project outputs but also enabling outcomes; and Integrates with PMIstandards+ for information and standards application content based on project type, development approach, and industry sector.

There is considerable connection between growth of the personnel in the organization and the ability for the company to compete over time. Looking outside for help training may be required but looking within for opportunities for enhanced training and growth, will foster a continually improving and growing organization. This book examines the opportunities for learning, within the organization and its' activities, along with the connection to motivation. Additionally, it provides information on the characteristics of organizations that are able to quickly disseminate, along with approaches for improving this distribution of that learning throughout the organization.

Although project team members play crucial roles in projects, they often do not possess the required mastery of project management methodologies. As a result, dialog between project managers and team members is not as effective as it can be and can quickly become a source of stress and tension. Empowering Project Teams: Using Project Followership to Improve Performance improves on this situation by presenting the project environment from the perspective of project team members. Re-interpreting project management methodologies and behaviors using a bottom-up approach, it explores the application of project followership in the key stages of project management. It details the methods and techniques that all project team members need to know and outlines the behaviors they should adopt to be successful in each stage of the project. The book is divided into five sections: Introduces and explores the basic concepts of project management and project followership Examines project start-up-the all too often underestimated set of activities that make it possible to make future activities less problematic Highlights the importance of project planning Focuses on execution and control of the project Considers project closure and transfer and explains why this is an ideal time to determine if efforts invested have been rewarded Despite an understanding that project success is directly proportional to the entire team's ability to act as a managerial center of excellence, there has long been a need for a book dedicated to the individuals that participate in projects. Filling this need, this book is an ideal resource for anyone who regularly works as a member of a project team. Complete with case studies in each chapter, the book also includes exercises on the topics covered to facilitate understanding.

Traditional costing models for new systems and new buildings in industry, defence or government, have tended to focus on the costs of acquisition and implementation, with scant regard for the costs of running the system or decommissioning after use. The pressure to minimize expenditure and provide value for money from reduced resources means that complex projects have to encompass a wide range of often conflicting issues and interests. Systems Lifecycle Cost-Effectiveness shows how to manage the difficulties that can arise. Optimizing the system lifecycle cost-effectiveness is complex and influenced by many factors. Massimo Pica presents a variety of models for calculating cost, benefits and risk in projects, and explains how the human factors associated with a system's design and consequent value are as important as the technical costs associated with its construction or creation. This comprehensive text can be used by students, experienced system engineers, cost analysts and managers to improve their understanding of the wide range of issues involved in the evaluation of system life cycle cost-effectiveness.

In Project Risk Governance, Dieter Fink breaks new ground in two ways. Firstly, he places project risk management in the context of today's organisations in which objectives are increasingly implemented through projects to better respond to fast-changing markets. Secondly, he applies a governance perspective to examine project risk at the project and corporate levels, an approach which is significantly under-researched and for which theoretical knowledge and professional practice are at an early stage of maturity. Project risk governance falls between corporate governance and project governance and is attracting increasing attention. The author argues that there are two reasons for this. The first is the 'projectisation' of organisations, in particular within organisations conforming to the Project-Based Organisation (PBO) model. The second is the prevalence of a strategic approach to managing risk for the purposes of protecting organisational values and creating competitive advantage. The book addresses governance, strategy, value management and building enterprise-wide Project Risk Governance (PRG) capabilities. Chapters examine the role of projects in organisations and the need to integrate project and business strategy within the framework of the Project-Based Organisation. PRG is introduced via its links with corporate and project governance and its scope is covered in chapters that identify relevant processes, structures and relationship mechanisms. Contextual influences such as the professionalisation of project management are recognised and insights provided to increase readers' understanding of uncertainty, risk events, and probabilities and of the essential requirements of managing risks at project level. The final chapter provides a roadmap to the stages and dimensions of a PRG maturity model.

To many program, project, or construction managers, a complex project seems to be a labyrinth with many hidden dangers. This book is a guide through that labyrinth. It explains best practices and provides insight so they cannot only identify hidden dangers but also effectively manage the construction process to either mitigate or eliminate these risks.

The book presents a systems-based approach to construction project management that can facilitate a greater understanding of the complexity inherent in large construction projects and how that complexity can be effectively managed. The systems approach permits the onsite construction project manager to take a complex construction project, break it down into manageable pieces, and ensure that all systems are in alignment with the original goal of the project. This approach combines industrial engineering, project management, and finance into a unified approach for effective management of complex construction projects, ranging from a power plant to a highway project.

The book explains how to manage construction projects successfully through an approach based on the three following systems:

Project Management System

Work Management System

Quality Management System

The problem with complex programs and projects is that many managers are only equipped with a knowledge of project management. A system for construction is a collection of many processes effectively working together to produce a specific deliverable, which is usually defined in the program or project’s contract. This system has a series of specific inputs and outputs, which are what the customer expects from the company or companies performing the work. This book develops checklists based on these inputs and outputs, which managers can use when first arriving onsite, and provides a "nuts and bolts" approach for managing a complex construction project onsite.

The author shares valuable lessons learned during a career of more than thirty years of working on various construction sites around the world. These lessons learned are filled with valuable information to aid readers become more effective as a program, project, or construction manager of complex construction projects.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Project Management System: Part I

Chapter 3: Project Management System: Part II

Chapter 4: Project Management System: Part III

Chapter 5: Work Management System

Chapter 6: Quality Management System

Chapter 7: Bringing It All Together

Chapter 8: Lessons Learned from the Field

Glossary

Index

For many organizations, the way in which projects are managed is a fundamental factor in how well they can prosper in today's marketplace. Unfortunately, the current solutions available to companies for managing projects are proving to be increasingly ineffective in a complex world that is becoming more and more dynamic and unpredictable. Organization's pay for this complexity in delayed time-to-market, slow response to customer needs, and decreased productivity. While tweaking the current project management paradigm may provide some minimal gains, to have a real impact requires a fundamental change in mindset. New business models like Uber and AirBnB show us that the most efficient operations in today's business environment behave like complex adaptive systems (CAS) where self-managing participants, following a set of simple rules, organize themselves to solve incredibly complex problems. Instead of trying to function like a "well-oiled machine" where things "work like clockwork", companies like Uber function more like an organism that is alive and constantly changing. They fully embrace the characteristics of a CAS. Viewing an organization as a complex adaptive system drives a radically new philosophy of project management that is much better suited to the needs of the 21st-century organization and can provide the quantum leap improvement in project production that we are looking for. This book exposes the assumptions underlying the accepted paradigm of project management, describes the common practices that are based on those assumptions, analyzes why these practices are unhelpful and even harmful, and proposes an alternative, sometimes seemingly counter intuitive approach to project management based on CAS thinking. By the end of the book, the reader will have a completely new perspective on the way projects can be managed in their organization, and how they can quickly start reaping the benefits provided by a CAS-driven management methodology and supporting toolset that is more in tune with today's business demands - and that turns complexity into a competitive advantage.

The track record of IT projects is poor. Less than a third of IT projects deliver what they said they would, on schedule and on budget. The major cause of IT project failure is not, as you might expect, poor IT leadership or difficult technology but poor business leadership. One of the reasons for this is that, unlike their IT peers, business managers often get little training or education in project delivery, let alone the special case represented by an IT project. Business Leadership for IT Projects addresses the gap by providing tools and ideas that are applicable to all sizes of IT projects, from those in large multinational corporations, down to small growing businesses. It sets out the key project touchpoints where business leadership can have a major impact on project success. The book combines psychological research and project best practice to create a practical toolbox that can be dipped into, as needs arise, or followed as an overall approach to IT project leadership. The toolbox weaves together three key strands of thought. First, that the concept of value should be at the forefront of project design and delivery. Second, that business managers need to take active leadership of IT projects to secure value. Third, that project teams need tools to slow down their thinking and ensure that actions and decisions are well thought through.

Projects are constantly beset by problems, often caused by seemingly small mistakes which collectively lead to larger issues. Why do project managers and teams appear to repeat the same mistakes? Can they make better choices without introducing complex decision analysis processes? How can they make better estimates? Project management is the art and science of human interactions. Project Think identifies and explains the paths of those intentional and unintentional actions that lead to trouble. It provides advice and guidance in analysing information and risk and explains how 'choice-engineering' can facilitate decision-making and encourage everyone involved in a project to follow the right procedures and work collaboratively.

Success in program management requires discipline, complete plans, well-run meetings, accurate record keeping, and adherence to global best practices. Implementing Program Management: Templates and Forms Aligned with the Standard for Program Management, Third Edition (2013) and Other Best Practices provides the templates and guidelines for the plans, forms, agendas, registers, and procedures you will need. Ginger Levin and Allen Green wrote Implementing Program Management Templates and Forms Aligned with the Standard for Program Management - Second Edition (2008) in 2010. Since then it has become the go-to reference for program practitioners, colleges, universities, and those studying for the Program Management Professional (PgMP (R)) credential from the Project Management Institute (PMI (R)). Based on PMI's Standard for Program Management-Third Edition (2013) and other best practices, the updated edition of this bestselling reference provides a program management methodology consisting of reports, forms, templates, and documents. It includes identifiable documents referenced in the latest Standard for Program Management as well as other helpful ones omitted from prior editions. The book deals with the full program management life cycle-program definition, program benefits delivery, and program closure-to support the documentation requirements for your programs. The authors have updated the templates and forms in this book to complement what is included in the Third Edition and to include what they feel are best practices for managing programs. All the templates included in the book can be accessed online and can be easily customized to meet the unique requirements of your organization.