MEET YOUR GOALS—ON TIME AND ON BUDGET.

How do you rein in the scope of your project when you’ve got a group of demanding stakeholders breathing down your neck? And map out a schedule everyone can stick to? And motivate team members who have competing demands on their time and attention?

Whether you’re managing your first project or just tired of improvising, this guide will give you the tools and confidence you need to define smart goals, meet them, and capture lessons learned so future projects go even more smoothly.

• The HBR Guide to Project Management will help you:
• Build a strong, focused team
• Break major objectives into manageable tasks
• Create a schedule that keeps all the moving parts under control
• Monitor progress toward your goals
• Manage stakeholders’ expectations
• Wrap up your project and gauge its success

Managing cost, time, and quality of a project can be a challenging task for any project manager, but especially in times of an ever-changing and burgeoning field of IT. Project Management Techniques and Innovations in Information Technology offers a vital compendium of the latest research, case studies, best practices, and methodologies within the field of IT project management. By collecting research from top experts around the world in a variety of IT project management applications and job sectors, this volume will serve as a critical reference manual and research guide for both practitioners and academics alike.

In recent decades, we have witnessed an increasing use of projects and similar temporary modes of organising in the public sector of nations in Europe and around the world. While for some this is a welcome development which unlocks entrepreneurial zeal and renders public services more flexible and accountable, others argue that this seeks to depoliticise policy initiatives, rendering them increasingly technocratic, and that the project organisations formed in this process offer fragmented and unsustainable short-term solutions to long-term problems. This volume sets out to address public sector projectification by drawing together research from a range of academic fields to develop a critical and theoretically-informed understanding of the causes, nature, and consequences of the projectification of the public sector. This book includes 13 chapters and is organised into three parts. The first part centres on the politics of projectification, specifically the role of projects in de-politicisation, often accomplished by rendering the political "technical". The chapters in the second part all relate to the reframing of the relationship between the centre and periphery, or between policy making and implementation, and the role of temporality in reshaping this relation. The third and final part brings a focus upon the tools, techniques, and agents through which public sector projectification is assembled, constructed, and performed.

The treatise supports understanding the phenomena of complexity in engineering, distinguishes complexity from other challenges and presents an overview of definitions and applied approaches.The historical background of complexity management is explained by highlighting the important epochs, their key actors and their discoveries, findings and developments. Knowing about the appearance of early system awareness in ancient Greece, the creation of mechanical philosophy in the 17th century and the discovery of classic physics enables the reader to better comprehend modern system sciences and management approaches.A classification of complexity management approaches by research fields indicates current focus areas and starting points for future discussions. In a comprehensive map, the classification points out mutual overlaps between engineering disciplines in terms of similar complexity management approaches.Finally, the treatise introduces a generic complexity management framework, which is based on structural management approaches.

Underline by the importance of sustainable quality management practices to contemporary organizations, this edited book complies best practice cases of leaders who have initiated and facilitated quality practices in their organizations. The cases highlight how these best practices manifested in their work cultures, values, and beliefs. Not only do they address organizational efforts towards implementation of quality practices, but they also discuss the challenges the leaders faced to instill a sense of quality in practices across the hierarchical structures of their organizations. The book highlights the profiles of quality leaders, their journey and their successes in leading quality in their organizations. A book would be an interesting read for those who are eager to integrate quality in their work culture. A key message emerging from these expertise is that 'passion' is truly behind the quality success!

This book describes how auditors exercise different levels of professional skepticism and how they are exposed to different types of affective information on clients' behavior. Based on the author's empirical study of 56 auditors, it shows that auditors' skepticism and affective reactions towards a client interact to influence their appraisal of valuation problems. It also suggests that the effects of auditors' affective reactions on their skeptical judgments depend on the level of risk in the audit engagement.

One of the most difficult, yet important, questions regarding projects is "What advantages will this project create for the investors and key stakeholders?" Projects and programs should be treated as investments. This means that the focus of projects shifts from delivering within the triple constraints (time-cost-quality) towards some of the more fundamental questions: What is the purpose of this investment? What are the specific advantages expected? Are these benefits worth the investment? Implementing Project and Program Benefit Management is written for executives and practitioners within the portfolio, program, and project environment. It guides them through the important work that must be addressed as the investment progresses towards the realization of benefits. The processes discussed cover the strategic elements of benefits realization as well as the more detailed requirements, which are the domain of the program delivery teams and the operational users. Using real cases to explain complex situations, operational teams and wider groups of stakeholders, including communities affected by infrastructure projects, will be able to engage in the conversation with the sponsors and delivery teams. Covering an area of program and project management that is rapidly becoming more widely valued, this book blends theory with practical experience to present a clear process flow to managing the benefits life cycle. Best practices are defined, and pitfalls and traps are identified to enable practitioners to apply rigor and structure to this crucial discipline.

The Definitive Guide to the Field's Best Practices In recent years, project management has become a profession unto itself. And with a membership numbering in the tens of thousands, the Project Management Institute is the organization that's setting the profession's standards. In this authoritative handbook, more than twenty-five top experts from academia, consulting, and private industry define the current state of project management and detail for readers all of the practical elements that constitute a superior practice. In clear, accessible language, these experts provide a comprehensive overview of the technical, organizational, administrative, and interpersonal elements of successful project management. They detail the essentials of project planning--from risk management to resource allocation to scheduling. They describe the team-building, motivational, and conflict-management challenges that project leaders face. And they delineate critical success factors as well as major pitfalls to avoid. At last, project managers across all industries can readily reference the best practices of their profession and benchmark their skills against those of their most accomplished colleagues.

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.

In today's business world, project managers not only have to be diligent in project planning and execution, but also need to have skills in persuasion, communication, and relationship management. Reflecting the changing landscape of projects today, Essential Project Management Skills empowers project managers to master the skills necessary to succeed in the current environment. Real case studies clarify concepts Divided into four sections by chapter and enhanced with tables and diagrams, the book begins by introducing the concepts related to the changing project landscape and their impact on projects. It then delves into the details of several trends within the project landscape, describes the challenges created by these trends for project managers, and provides illuminating case studies that elucidate each trend and its impact. Next, the book outlines the skills required to be successful in this new environment and offers techniques that can be applied to fully master them. Each of these skills is aligned with a case study in which the skills and techniques are used and the outcomes discussed. Finally, the book ties together the evolution of the project landscape, the challenges posed, and the new skills required to manage projects successfully in today's environment. The book also provides a checklist of the skills and techniques in the context of different project scenarios. Written by an expert in project management Written by an expert with a career of hands-on experience in the project management field, this volume is invaluable for project managers who have a fundamental background in project management principles and want to augment their toolbox of skills and techniques around the delivery of projects in today's complicated business environment.

The Professional Product Owner's Guide to Maximizing Value with Scrum "This book presents a method of communicating our desires, cogently, coherently, and with a minimum of fuss and bother." -Ken Schwaber, Chairman & Founder, Scrum.org The role of the Product Owner is more crucial than ever. But it's about much more than mechanics: it's about taking accountability and refocusing on value as the primary objective of all you do. In The Professional Product Owner, two leading experts in successful Scrum product ownership show exactly how to do this. You'll learn how to identify where value can be found, measure it, and maximize it throughout your entire product lifecycle. Drawing on their combined 40+ years of experience in using agile and Scrum in product management, Don McGreal and Ralph Jocham guide you through all facets of envisioning, emerging, and maturing a product using the Scrum framework. McGreal and Jocham discuss strategy, showing how to connect Vision, Value, and Validation in ROI-focused agile product management. They lay out Scrum best-practices for managing complexity and continuously delivering value, and they define the concrete practices and tools you can use to manage Product Backlogs and release plans, all with the goal of making you a more successful Product Owner. Throughout, the authors share revealing personal experiences that illuminate obstacles to success and show how they can be overcome. Define success from the "outside in," using external customer-driven measurements to guide development and maximize value Bring empowerment and entrepreneurship to the Product Owner's role, and align everyone behind a shared business model Use Evidence-Based Management (EBMgt) to invest in the right places, make smarter decisions, and reduce risk Effectively apply Scrum's Product Owner role, artifacts, and events Populate and manage Product Backlogs, and use just-in-time specifications Plan and manage releases, improve transparency, and reduce technical debt Scale your product, not your Scrum Use Scrum to inject autonomy, mastery, and purpose into your product team's work Whatever your role in product management or agile development, this guide will help you deliver products that offer more value, more rapidly, and more often. Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

Whilst innovation remains of course an approach, a process, and is still often even reduced to a set of results, it essentially reflects a way of thinking evolution. Time is up for varying the thinking methods according to capacities and learned and available competencies with a view to change the thinking level. No domain and no sector is immune to this transformation in todays world Having clarified our ideas through this book, we remain ever more convinced that the leveled maturity approach will lead to real advances in innovation over the 2020 years. Hence the competitive capacities of organizations must evolve. As we strive in our quest for new inspiration sources in business, let us reckon that all is bound to evolving including the way to evolve. In that resides the very capacity to innovate.

This groundbreaking book introduces you to a comprehensive approach to implementing Project Portfolio Management (PPM) to support and prioritize IT projects in both large and small companies. Although there are many books on the market that describe how to manage individual IT-based projects or several projects with a common goal, this is the first book to show you how to manage the portfolio of all IT-based projects in an organization. It details how a portfolio of projects can be aligned with the ever-changing marketplace via a central strategy, maximized for overall return on investment, and balanced for risk across an organization. CD-ROM Included! Contains valuable supplementary material for IT project management professionals, such as marketing presentations, ROI and portfolio management tools, direct links to regulatory acts and much more!

Originally created for agile software development, scrum provides project managers with the flexibility needed to meet ever-changing consumer demands. Presenting a modified version of the agile software development framework, Scrum Project Management introduces Scrum basics and explains how to apply this adaptive technique to effectively manage a wide range of programs and complex projects. The book provides proven planning methods for controlling project scope and ensuring your project stays on schedule. It includes scrum tracking methods to help your team maintain a focus on improving throughput and streamlining communications. It also demonstrates how to: Combine traditional project management methods with scrum Adapt the familiar work breakdown structure to create scrum backlogs and sprints Use a scrum of scrums to manage programs Apply earned value management, critical path, and PERT in the context of scrum Having successfully deployed and implemented scrum across multiple companies and departments, the authors provide valuable insight into how they achieved their past successes and how they overcame the trials involved with the deployment of a scrum environment. Throughout the text they discuss improvisation, creative problem solving, and emergent phenomena-detailing the methods needed to ensure your team achieves project success.

Projects are an important strategic management tool and a way of life in every business. But how do you get started and ensure you realize the benefits you need? Now in its 5th edition, the Project Workout is the definitive book on business-led project management. It is a valuable companion for every executive and project manager as well as a comprehensive resource for students of project management. Projects are a way of life in every business and an important strategic management tool. But how do you ensure a project realizes the benefits you need? The Project Workout provides practical advice and techniques to direct and manage a project. Aimed at both project sponsors and project managers, it works through the life cycle of a project from initial idea to successful result. The practical approach is enhanced throughout with a series of "Workouts": exercises, techniques and checklists to help you put the book's advice into practice. The Workouts are supported by an on-line resource of tools, including MS project views, project logs and templates. This expanded edition contains a wealth of new information, including how to work with standards and methods, such as ISO 21500, BS6079 and PRINCE2 and PMBoK. The companion to this book, The Programme and Portfolio Workout, deals with directing and managing whole portfolios of projects, making sure everyone in your organization is working towards the same goals; together these books give you what you need to ensure all your projects succeed.

This book reports on new theories and applications in the field of intelligent systems and computing. It covers computational and artificial intelligence methods, as well as advances in computer vision, current issues in big data and cloud computing, computation linguistics, and cyber-physical systems. It also reports on data mining and knowledge extraction technologies, as well as central issues in intelligent information management. Written by active researchers, the respective chapters are based on papers presented at the International Conference on Computer Science and Information Technologies (CSIT 2017), held on September 5-8, 2017, in Lviv, Ukraine; and at two workshops accompanying the conference: one on inductive modeling, jointly organized by the Lviv Polytechnic National University and the National Academy of Science of Ukraine; and another on project management, which was jointly organized by the Lviv Polytechnic National University, the International Project Management Association, the Ukrainian Project Management Association, the Kazakhstan Project Management Association, and Nazarbayev University. Given its breadth of coverage, the book provides academics and professionals with extensive information and a timely snapshot of the field of intelligent systems, and is sure to foster new discussions and collaborations among different groups.

This book provides a new approach to systems architecting not previously available. The book provides a compact innovative procedure for architecting any type of system. Systems Architecting: Methods and Examples describes a method of system architecting that is believed to be a substantial improvement over "methods" previously covered in other systems architecting books. Incorporates analytic procedure (decision analysis) Defines and evaluates alternative architectures Improves upon existing architecting methods Considers cost-effectiveness of alternatives Provides for competitive analysis and its advantages Shows alternatives on one simple and easily understood page With the book's relatively straightforward approach, it shows how to architect systems in a way that both developers and clients/customers can readily understand. It uses one of the essential principles suggested by Rechtin and Maier, namely, Simplify, Simplify, Simplify. Systems engineers as well as students taking systems engineering courses will find this book of interest.

Product Information Management is the latest topic that companies across the world are deliberating upon. As companies sell online, they are confronted with the fact that not all information necessary to sell their products is available. Where marketing, sales and finance have been core processes of the corporate world for a long time, PIM is a new business process with its own unique implementation and management challenges. The book describes the core PIM processes; their strategic, tactical and operational benefits and implementation challenges. The book has been written for managers, business users as well as students, and illustrates the different concepts with practical cases from companies like Coca Cola, Nikon and Thomas Cook.

The need for enterprise flexibility in an era of rapidly advancing technology, increasing competition, and globalization, is apparent. Flexibility can be thought of as an ability of the enterprise to quickly and efficiently respond to market changes and to bring new products and services quickly to the market place. Beyond this definition, a truly flexible enterprise should proactively change the market through its ability to create new and innovative products and services. The proposed book is intended to provide a conceptual framework of 'Flexible Enterprise' supported by researches/case applications in various types of flexibilities exhibited by a flexible enterprise. The selected papers from a variety of issues concerning the planning and operation of a flexible enterprise are organized into following four parts: I Enterprise and Strategic Flexibility II Organizational Flexibility III Business Process and Information Systems Flexibility IV Operations Flexibility

This book provides the much-needed, no-nonsense guidance crucial for project managers - that is, the type of guidance that is missing from every major body of knowledge and educational offering for working project managers. This very practical book identifies the activities that influence project success and focuses the limited time and energy available towards just those activities. The Project Management Institute (PMI) and most literature on project management discusses all aspects of project management under the assumption that project managers will narrow down focus because they cannot be expected to use every process outlined by PMI to manage every project. This book uses the concept of "hacking" our standard conventions of project management and outlines a standard path identified by conventional wisdom, an evil path that project managers frequently resort to under time/quality pressures, and a hacker path that provides a better way to look at the challenge. This book equips project managers with streamlined approaches to refocus their efforts on factors that matter while spending less time doing it. Project management is a demanding discipline with a growing body of knowledge with few instructions on how to do it all. The author provides humorous anecdotes and examples while teaching readers how to save time, improve quality, and advance their career. The primary sections of the book cover how to approach the most common certifications in project management; continuing education; leading project teams; initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, and controlling projects; general life skills; and taking on additional responsibilities. Hacking project management is about focusing the limited bandwidth a project manager can give a project towards the activities that drive success.

This book will guide financial institutions in developing new approaches and solutions for handling perennial issues. Emphasizing the value of creativity for project management in the banking sector, the author provides new insights for all those working in banking and finance. Presenting a number of new, outside-the-box ideas, the book can be regarded as the missing spice that will creatively transform all other ingredients in the monetary world.

The main goal of this book is to help organizations improve their effort estimates and effort estimation processes by providing a step-by-step methodology that takes them through the creation and validation of models that are based on their own knowledge and experience. Such models, once validated, can then be used to obtain predictions, carry out risk analyses, enhance their estimation processes for new projects and generally advance them as learning organizations. Emilia Mendes presents the Expert-Based Knowledge Engineering of Bayesian Networks (EKEBNs) methodology, which she has used and adapted during the course of several industry collaborations with different companies world-wide over more than 6 years. The book itself consists of two major parts: first, the methodology's foundations in knowledge management, effort estimation (with special emphasis on the intricacies of software and Web development) and Bayesian networks are detailed; then six industry case studies are presented which illustrate the practical use of EKEBNs. Domain experts from each company participated in the elicitation of the bespoke models for effort estimation and all models were built employing the widely-used Netica (TM) tool. This part is rounded off with a chapter summarizing the experiences with the methodology and the derived models. Practitioners working on software project management, software process quality or effort estimation and risk analysis in general will find a thorough introduction into an industry-proven methodology as well as numerous experiences, tips and possible pitfalls invaluable for their daily work.

This book of proceedings collects fifty-one papers presented at the inaugural Colloquium of Administrative Science and Technology (CoAST 2013) event, held at Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. It has been reviewed by 750 experts world-wide and covers three main areas - Administrative Science and Technology, Management, and Arts and Humanities. The papers in this volume reflect: * the importance of the social sciences in academia and in the nations' social-economic growth; * the multi-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary nature of academia that transcends the broad areas of the social sciences; * the increasing trend towards fundamental studies in the social sciences, management, and the arts and the humanities, which have been characterized under the overarching theme of administrative science and technology; * the growing demand for research outcomes affecting the public and private sectors' service processes. The other overlapping niche areas affecting the civil service scope will ensure more interest in and readability of the findings showcased in this proceedings book; * the popular and contemporary measurement techniques and methodologies employed within the scopes of the social sciences and humanities; * the noticeably changing trends in administrative science and technology, which will greatly impact the governments of the world, allowing the development of a better understanding of governmental processes and their impact on key performance and e-service deliveries. The reporting on technology-based services will improve the public sector's agility; * a knowledge-sharing agenda for other developing and less developed nations to emulate; * some of the major generic developments that have taken place in these thematic areas of CoAST 2013.

Written by two leading experts, this is a compact guide to the key tools and methods necessary to carry out cost-benefit analysis (CBA). The authors use modern economic tools to obtain general equilibrium cost-benefit rules that can be used to evaluate small projects, as well as large and even mega projects. Intertemporal issues like discounting, the shadow price of capital, and the treatment of risk are covered, and a state-of-the-art summary of available methods for the valuation of unpriced commodities is also included. In addition, the book provides detailed expositions of the marginal cost of public goods (MCPF), the marginal excess burden of taxes (MEB), and second-best evaluation rules, and shows how these concepts are interrelated. The importance of undertaking due diligence in evaluations is highlighted. This is an excellent toolkit for graduate students learning about the principles of CBA, and is a useful guide for government officials and policymakers.

This research-based book takes an organization-wide perspective to describe the governance and governmentality for projects in organizations. Governance of projects defines and directs the ways managers of projects, programs, and project portfolios carry out their work. Governmentality is the way the managers of these managers present themselves to those they lead. Governance and Governmentality for Projects starts with introducing existing theories, models and paradigms for governance and governmentality. It then develops a chronological framework of the ways governance and governmentality for projects is enabled in organizations, how it subsequently unfolds in organizations of different types and sectors, and the consequences of different governance approaches for project results, trust, control, and ethical issues in projects. Special emphasis is given to the link between corporate governance and the governance of project, programs and project portfolios. Three real-life case studies exemplify the research findings described in the book. Through its structure this book describes the development of governance and governmentality in the realm of projects from its organizational origins, via observable practices, to expected consequences of different implementations. Aimed at academics, post-graduate students in business and management, reflective practitioners, standards or policy developers, those in governance roles and others in need of a detailed knowledge of the spectrum of project related governance in organizations, this book will help develop a comprehensive understanding of the theoretical and practical underpinnings of the subject, their interaction, and implications for implementation. This allows for understanding and developing of both generic and idiosyncratic governance structures, such as those needed in project-based organizations.