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.

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.

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.

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 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.

The Third Edition of Essentials of Project and Systems Engineering Management enables readers to manage the design, development, and engineering of systems effectively and efficiently. The book both defines and describes the essentials of project and systems engineering management and, moreover, shows the critical relationship and interconnection between project management and systems engineering. The author's comprehensive presentation has proven successful in enabling both engineers and project managers to understand their roles, collaborate, and quickly grasp and apply all the basic principles.

Readers familiar with the previous two critically acclaimed editions will find much new material in this latest edition, including:

Multiple views of and approaches to architectures

The systems engineer and software engineering

The acquisition of systems

Problems with systems, software, and requirements

Group processes and decision making

System complexity and integration

Throughout the presentation, clear examples help readers understand how concepts have been put into practice in real-world situations.

With its unique integration of project management and systems engineering, this book helps both engineers and project managers across a broad range of industries successfully develop and manage a project team that, in turn, builds successful systems. For engineering and management students in such disciplines as technology management, systems engineering, and industrial engineering, the book provides excellent preparation for moving from the classroom to industry.

In this book, leading authorities on project organizing explore the growing deployment of projects and other types of temporary organizations, with a focus on the challenges created by projectification. The way projects are coordinated and handled influences the success of innovation and change within organizations and is critical for strategic development in our societies, yet it is often at odds with the institutions of traditional industrial society. Drawing on both theoretical perspectives and real-world cases, this book sheds light on the transformation toward a project society and explores the effects, opportunities, and conflicts it has created. As change continues, the authors make a case for renewing institutions and mind-sets and provide a foundation from which to discuss societal changes for the future. This is an invaluable book for researchers and students in project management and organizational theory programs, as well as professionals involved in the management of projects.

Strategic Excellence in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Industries is a process of applied strategic thinking designed to develop a strategy empowered with the agility to adapt to changing circumstances and to drive a high performing culture of ideal behaviors. It is infused with the insight and the thought leadership of the Shingo Model and the scientific thinking of Lean Six Sigma. The book goes beyond the classic approach to strategic planning by driving effective execution of the strategy through the embedment of collective ownership and organization-wide alignment into the entire process. Significant advances in strategic planning and management have been developed over decades of learning and practice. Many of those advances, however, have been developed in the manufacturing industry and have not been translated into terms easily applicable to the A/E/C (Architectural / Engineering / Construction) industry. This book incorporates current best practices from cutting edge organizations around the globe and presents those in a way that they can easily be applied to A/E/C organizations through an efficient and effective process.

This new textbook fills an important gap in the existing literature, in that it prepares construction engineering and built environment students for their first experience of the jobsite. This innovative book integrates conceptual and hands-on knowledge of project engineering to introduce students to the construction process and familiarize them with the procedures and activities they need to operate as project engineers during their summer internships and immediately after graduation. The textbook is structured into four sections: Section A: Introductory Concepts Section B: Field Engineering Section C: Office Engineering Section D: Advanced Project Engineering The emphasis on field tasks and case studies, questions, and exercises taken from across civil works and commercial building sectors makes this the ideal textbook for introductory to intermediate courses in Construction Engineering, Construction Engineering Technology, Civil and Architectural Engineering, and Construction Management degree programs.

In this very distinctive book, Images of Projects challenges how we think about projects in the most fundamental way: it rejects outright the idea of a one 'best way' to view all projects and also the idea of following a prescriptive approach. In contrast, Images of Projects seeks to encourage a more pragmatic and reflective approach, based on deliberately seeing projects from multiple perspectives, exploring the insights and implications which flow from these, and crafting appropriate action strategies in complex situations. Based on real examples and the authors' work over the last ten years, Images of Projects presents seven pragmatic images for making sense of the complex realities of projects. Illustrated using various models, these images are presented in ways that allow the reader to reflect upon their own mental models in relation to the different perspectives in this book.

With all signs pointing to an increased use of and interest in project-based work in modern organizations, the better scholars are able to make sense of the current state of the field through theory development and empirical investigation, the more successful projects promise to become. This book is a welcome addition to our field and will be, I am sure, an important work and source for future reference well into the future. -Dr. Jeffrey Pinto, Pennsylvania State University The goal of practicing project managers and scholars alike lies in solving the puzzle of how to manage projects toward successful completion. However, understanding what comprises project "success"-seemingly such an innocent question-has come to represent one of the most challenging problems for project managers and scholars. Who determines success? At what point in time is success best measured? How do diverse stakeholders define success? What happens when their perspectives collide? What is the difference between project success and project management success? These are surprisingly complex problems. For every principle or rule posited, a brief investigation reveals that there are numerous exceptions, muddying the waters and making these ideas increasingly opaque. Project Management Methodologies, Governance and Success addresses this challenge head-on, putting into proper context the critical issues that shape our understanding of the project management research process. Employing a concept referred to as "philosophical triangulation," the book shows how to overcome the weaknesses or intrinsic biases that disrupt and minimize the impact of so much organizational research. It places organizational governance and success within their proper context allowing scholars to identify the best methods for investigating project-based work. It links together in a cogent manner the diverse themes of research theory and design, projects and project success, and organizational governance. In effect, this book demonstrates that to fully understand how to undertake research in projects, theory and method are inextricably interwoven.

Drawing on more than twenty-five years experience consulting and training on project management in companies such as NCR, AT&T, and 3M, J. Davidson Frame updates and expands what he introduced in the first edition of The New Project Management in 1994-a set of core competencies for managerial success in a corporate climate where downsizing, outsourcing, and employee empowerment are a way of life. This new edition focuses on the hottest areas in project management today-augmenting and expanding the existing coverage of risk management and estimating, and including three all-new chapters on critical issues that did not even exist in 1994.

The book presents the development of the Construction Quality Assessment System (CONQUAS), Singapore's de facto quality performance measurement system, explains the application of the Quality Management System (QMS) to manage CONQUAS and identifies 33 critical success factors (CSFs) for achieving high CONQUAS scores. Through CONQUAS, the reader benefits from understanding how the Singapore government developed and implemented the first objective system for measuring what many building professionals have perceived to be elusive quality standards in the construction industry. The book presents both the theoretical concepts as well as the practical aspects to achieving strategic Project Quality Management that is anchored on the CSFs to building best practices. To realistically reflect the practical aspects and challenging issues faced by stakeholders in the construction industry, questionnaire surveys were conducted with building professionals to distinguish the importance level and extent of adoption of the 33 CSFs (identified from a comprehensive review of the extant literature) in influencing and affecting the achievement of high CONQUAS scores. These were further anchored by in-depth interviews with quality experts in the Singapore construction industry to provide a better understanding of issues relating to strategic Project Quality Management. Collectively, the empirical findings collated from the building professionals suggest that while the CSFs identified are known tenets of quality, these were still not being followed in their totality. A further case study was conducted through a formal set of in-depth interviews with the quality assurance team of a construction company who has direct involvement before, during and after their tremendous improvements in the CONQUAS scores attained. The strength of this book therefore represents a true account and reflections of real-life practices and experiences in the construction industry for contractors, quality managers and policy-makers to learn from. Although the context of this book relates to the Singapore experience, the lessons and recommendations are equally relevant and applicable to the global construction industry in both the developing and developed countries whose stakeholders (in both the public and private sectors) wish to understand how CONQUAS works, and how the CSFs identified can likewise be implemented for strategic Project Quality Management to building best practices. The book is therefore of interests to researchers, academia and practitioners in the construction industry as well as in other sectors of the economy (in Singapore and other countries) where learning points may be used for enhancing project quality management for buildings.

By bringing together various current direc tions, Software Project Management in a Changing World focuses on how people and organizations can make their processes more change-adaptive. The selected chapters closely correspond to the project management knowledge areas introduced by the Project Management Body of Knowledge, including its extension for managing software projects. The contributions are grouped into four parts, preceded by a general introduction. Part I "Fundamentals" provides in-depth insights into fundamental topics including resource allocation, cost estimation and risk management. Part II "Supporting Areas" presents recent experiences and results related to the management of quality systems, knowledge, product portfolios and glob al and virtual software teams. Part III "New Paradigms" details new and evolving software-development practices including agile, distributed and open and inner-source development. Finally, Part IV "Emerging Techniques" introduces search-based tech niques, social media, software process simulation and the efficient use of empirical data and their effects on software-management practices. This book will attract readers from both academia and practice with its excellent balance between new findings and experience of their usage in new contexts. Whenever appropriate, the presentation is based on evidence from empirical evaluation of the proposed approaches. For researchers and graduate students, it presents some of the latest methods and techniques to accommodate new challenges facing the discipline. For professionals, it serves as a source of inspiration for refining their project-management skills in new areas.

Systems Thinking for a Turbulent World will help practitioners in any field of change engage more effectively in transformative innovation. Such innovation addresses the paradigm shift needed to meet the diverse unfolding global challenges facing us today, often summed up as the Anthropocene. Fragmentation of local and global societies is escalating, and this is aggravating vicious cycles. To heal the rifts, we need to reintroduce the human element into our understandings - whether the context is civic or scientific - and strengthen truth-seeking in decision-making. Aided by appropriate concepts and methods, this healing will enable a switch from reaction to anticipation, even in the face of discontinuous change and high uncertainty. The outcome is to privilege the positive human skills for collaborative navigation through uncertainty over the disjointed rationality of mechanism and artificial intelligence, which increasingly alienates us. The reader in search of new ways of thinking will be introduced to concepts new to systems thinking that integrate systems thinking and futures thinking. The concept of anticipatory present moment (APM) serves as a basis for learning the cognitive skills that better enable navigation through turbulent times. A key personal and team practice is participative repatterning, which is the basis for transformative innovation. This practice is aided by new methods of visual facilitation. The reader is guided through the unfolding of the ideas and practices with a narrative based on the metaphor of search portrayed in the tradition of ox herding, found in traditional Far Eastern consciousness practice.

This book examines the link between change and project management and how creating a closer alignment between these two methodologies can yield greater benefits and mitigate elements of failure of information systems (IS) projects. This study explores the underlying challenges and practicalities of closer integration of the two disciplines and asserts that such a successful change goes beyond the simple training of project managers in the practitioner context. Instead, it requires organizations to conceptualize the necessary challenges to realize the potential benefits of this recommended integrated approach. The integration of both project and change management has been advocated in existing research, but the challenges of moving from a current position of separate methodologies, different standards bodies and in some cases totally separate organizational structures, is a step change for many organizations. Change initiatives where good change management practices are implemented, can increase the probability of successful organizational change. The tasks of leading and sustaining change can be complex and often entail the interplay of multiple factors involving action by people at every level of the business. This book offers a guide that identifies the barriers and major challenges that may arise in the development of the closer integration of change and project management. With a better understanding of these issues, organizations can avoid such pitfalls when establishing their own integrated approach.

* Reveals the unacknowledged truth behind organizational resilience: it's not about 'grit' or cybersecurity * Explores the four essential organizational components of resilience -- crews, capital, culture, and leadership * Maps 14 distinct elements of resilience that can be used as a framework that any organization can replicate * Includes real-world insights from leaders at organizations such as NBCUniversal and The Ohio State University

There is a much better chance to politically establish a strategy in your company if strategy development is already tactically thought-out and all involved persons are included in an intelligent manner. This book demonstrates how to shape this process to ensure that a sustainable strategy is generated that ensures economic stability, uniquely positions the company and can readily be implemented. After all, strategy for its own sake is worthless - what counts is implementation and results. The centre stage of strategy process is taken by the intelligent use and combination of methodological tools. Numerous case studies from enterprises and medium-sized businesses illustrate strategy work in a vivid and clear manner.

This book attempts to reflect the project reality as closely as possible, covering the ISO 21500:2012 standard that has just been introduced and the benefits from the best contributions worldwide and also providing the concise yet powerful tool box. It shall be easy to use and intuitively supportive of project managers. So far, evidence indicates that these targets are successfully met. One of its key recognitions, and in consequence a distinctive feature of this book, is the impact that the project manager's personality has on the fate of the project. The project manager's successful self-management in work & life and in leadership processes should be considered as important in any endeavor as all other project management processes, covered by the new standards and guidelines.