What is Agile Project Management and will it bring my project in on time and budget? If you need a solid understanding of how Agile Project Management works so your projects can fully benefit from using this innovative and powerful approach, this book is essential reading. Brilliant Agile Project Management does more than just talk you through the techniques and processes - focussing on real-life use of Agile in business environments, it provides practical advice and techniques on how to implement and work with Agile, so you always know exactly what to do and say to make your project a success. * Assess whether your organisation or project is right for using APM * Understand how to implement APM into any project * Overcome common problems with APM Get up to speed with Agile Project Management and get ahead - fast!

This exciting new resource guides readers through a step-by-step process on how to deliver quality, robust products and services while strengthening teams and customer relationships. Drawing on the author's extensive knowledge in aerospace and defense contracting, Practical Project Management for Engineers shares real world examples to recover schedule, cost and performance, explaining the tools, techniques, and methodologies to ensure success. It compares NASA, Department of Defense (DoD), and Project Management Institute (PMI) processes and provides best practices that work in the real world to deliver quality products on time and on budget. This book applies the Pareto Principle, which focuses on the 20% of the material that contributes to the majority (80%) of success to help engineering managers to move a project from contract award to delivery while increasing productivity tenfold. This book is a "how-to" manual for those struggling to get their projects under control as well as for new project managers looking who need a holistic view of project management.

Innovation contributes to corporate competitiveness, economic performance and environmental sustainability. In the Internet era, innovation intelligence is transferred across borders and languages at an unprecedented rate, yet the ability to benefit from it seems to become more divergent among different corporations and countries. How much an organization can benefit from innovation largely depends on how well innovation is managed in it. Thus, there is a discernible increase in interest in the study of innovation management. This handbook provides a comprehensive guide to this subject. The handbook introduces the basic framework of innovation and innovation management. It also presents innovation management from the perspectives of strategy, organization and resource, as well as institution and culture. The book's comprehensive coverage on all areas of innovation management makes this a very useful reference for anyone interested in the subject.

This book aims to account for how project learning and adaptation occurs through Developmental Evaluation (DE), especially under conditions of uncertainty, complexity and change. Drawing on enactive cognitive science, the author presents a DE framework designed to augment traditional monitoring and evaluation activities. Discussing this framework in detail, the author also reports upon an extended case project investigating the sustainability of a market town in the UK. The framework aims to support the reader in capturing second-order learning and exploring opportunities for innovative responses to dynamic, uncertain and complex operational conditions. Recommendations are offered for future research, and how the framework might be incorporated into the design and funding of projects deployed to work with wicked problems.

Shadow Working in Project Management aims at contributing to our knowledge of all things unconscious and irrational in our behaviour. It takes the form of an empirical research, and therefore addresses mostly the tools and techniques available to get in touch with Shadow aspects of self and collective, to recognize how it manifests, how it can lead to conflict, and ways to address it. From that perspective, it advances on to question the underlying beliefs of current management practices. It explores as well the inherent need for control in projects, being those of a professional nature, or other ventures. It challenges the strength of the concept of the "rational man" and its protagonism. Joana Bertholo's work explores the role and nature of the Shadow in the context of projects and their management, with an emphasis on techniques to address it. Despite being directed to managers and dedicated to the analyses of the managerial discourse, the tools and processes it proposes have universal relevance, based on the fact that the Shadow is everywhere, within everyone, from the individual to the global scale.

Combined experience of well-regarded academic and professional author who has a long and illustrious career in the region Broad market across growing Australian construction sector, over 11000 students in any one year plus professionals starting careers Includes case studies, discussion questions, online support materials

Megaprojects, also referred to in the literature as Large Engineering Projects or Major Projects, are generally defined as large-scale investment initiatives worth 1bEURO/$ or more and, facing similar problems independent of the country where they are implemented and the industry they belong to. The common feature of most megaprojects is that they are difficult to design and manage so that their realization and completion is always extremely expensive, often over budget and delivery deadlines also are not met. In the worst-case scenario, they remain unfinished. This book, through its multidisciplinary approach, offers food for thought and alternative interpretations for the complex world of megaprojects. While much research has been conducted and differing approaches have been developed over the last 20 years, there is still a lot of debate surrounding the topic, and a holistic approach for effectively managing these initiatives is still missing. What is clear to all researchers and experts in the field is that a traditional-linear management approach is simply not sufficient, as at many stages of a megaproject, iterative and feedback effect occurs due to stakeholder involvement and increasing and continuous interaction between them. The book promotes the debate among all categories of stakeholders involved in the megaproject's supply chain, in order to increase the awareness of complex phenomena relating to the critical issues and common problems they face, all over the world, and to seek performance improvement across the whole life cycle of a megaproject, including the selection, design, construction, operation and de- commissioning. The multidisciplinary approach cultivated in the book conveys an innovative way to study megaprojects and their inherent complexities.

This book is an implementation guide for creating a Lean Culture from the ground up while gaining buy-in from key stakeholders and being able to sustain the results. Everyone talks about implementing a Lean Culture, but only provides Lean Tools for the implementation. This book discusses implementing the entire system from three main aspects. It covers the people (structural and cultural), the operation system, and the tools. Also included is a full set of case studies to show real-life implementations as well. FEATURES: Discusses Leader Standard work for all employees Covers the escalation process for tiers and daily accountability Shows how to deal with a change of SOP's and standardization within an organization Presents exercises for Lean Tools Implementation Offers real-life case studies of implementing a Lean Culture while sustaining it Building a Sustainable Lean Culture: An Implementation Guide discusses Lean Leadership from a managerial standpoint and ensures the Lean journey succeeds through accountability, standardized work, and technological advances utilizing Lean Systems. Useful in manufacturing, services, IT, and healthcare, this book includes the implementation of empowering employees to want to build a Lean Culture.

* 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

Every CEO in the world, if questioned, will always complain that there are a lot of ideas to implement, but, unfortunately, insufficient resources to accomplish them. This book provides a solution to this dilemma by supplying techniques to assess the value of projects, prioritize projects, and decide which projects to implement and which to postpone. In addition, it describes various methods of balancing project portfolios and different strategic alignment models. The book provides thirty real-life project portfolio management case studies from pharmaceutical, product development, financial, energy, telecommunications, not-for-profit and professional services industries.

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.

The book is a synthesis of the state-of-the-art in project management concepts and techniques. The author places particular emphasis on precedence diagramming (PDM), at present the most widely used schedulingmethod. New theoretical improvements of PDM are presented, several for the first time in a book, such as: maximal type of precedence relationships, calculating the minimal and maximal available project durations, levelingresources when maximal relationships are used, and precedence diagramming time-cost trade-off. Discussions of computer implementation are included throughout the book. A PC-based software package called ProjectDirector', containing the theoretical improvements described in the book, is available from the author. Audience: Researchers, and undergraduate and graduate students in civil engineering, industrial engineering and operationsresearch, as well as practitioners, managers, and contractors interested in project management.

Welcome to Project Management: It's All Bollocks! where two people who vaguely know each other and barely like each other will pick over the sadly inadequate body of knowledge that is project management today, and generally challenge just about everything, eliminating that which you don't need to bother to learn about, or should already know, leaving you only with the parts that will give you the results you want. This book is a shakedown of project management, the profession, the myths it creates and promotes, its great ideas and ambitions and a few ropey bits that we're just not convinced about. The project management profession continues to grow and mature, but is at risk of excluding those who don't fit the mould. There is a mystique out there that only certificated project managers can be project managers. This is nonsense. The project management skill set is accessible to anyone, and how you choose to access it and put it to use should remain the decision of the individual. There shouldn't be a right or wrong choice. This book is targeted at those 'projects as usual project managers' who will drive most of the change inside organisations tomorrow and beyond, and who really need help to do that. The authors offer up a selection of seven cracking ideas, that when applied to a project environment will ultimately result in you being a good manager of projects in this modern world of business complexity.

This book outlines how to identify stakeholders, analyse theirs stakes, and plan and implement an engagement strategy to secure relevant input and dependable buy-in to assure the successful delivery of Large Infrastructure Projects. It also addresses common stakeholder management "inadequacies" and is supplemented with four extended practical exercises to help readers apply the principles to their own large, complex projects and ensure project success. The project management industry, particularly the Large Infrastructure Projects domain, has only recently awakened to the reality that failed Stakeholder Management probably leads to a failure of the project altogether. Due to the complexities involved, most traditional approaches to managing stakeholders have developed serious difficulties in dealing with large and complex projects. This book presents a Systems Thinking approach to managing stakeholders that accommodates these complexities and seeks to crystallise the notion that "managing projects means managing stakeholders", while also introducing an ethical perspective (i.e., stakeholders have legitimate rights regardless of their power to influence the project). This shifts the paradigm from "Management of Stakeholders" to "Management for Stakeholders". It is essential reading for all those involved with managing large projects including project managers, sponsors, and executives. It will also be useful for advanced students of project management and systems engineering looking to understand and expand their knowledge of infrastructure projects and Systems Engineering.

This book illustrates the agile transformation journey of a consulting organization. It consists of nine main chapters, each focusing on specific aspects of transformation. These include establishing value in business, holistic recruitment and retention, innovating performance appraisals, rethinking organizational structure, redesigning leadership roles, streamlining measurement and reward systems, and improving career paths. Some specific processes, such as corporate decision making, SMILE (budget for business improvement at employee discretion), project selection, holiday leave, and career coaching are also described. All of the transformations described build up on Management 3.0, a collection of management principles and practices that fit perfectly in an agile world.The book is of practical relevance for managers and agile coaches who want to learn how to approach agile transformation.

Solid requirements engineering has increasingly been recognized as the key to improved, on-time, and on-budget delivery of software and systems projects. New software tools are emerging that are empowering practicing engineers to improve their requirements engineering habits. However, these tools are not usually easy to use without significant training. Requirements Engineering for Software and Systems, Fourth Edition is intended to provide a comprehensive treatment of the theoretical and practical aspects of discovering, analyzing, modeling, validating, testing, and writing requirements for systems of all kinds, with an intentional focus on software-intensive systems. It brings into play a variety of formal methods, social models, and modern requirements writing techniques to be useful to practicing engineers. The book is intended for professional software engineers, systems engineers, and senior and graduate students of software or systems engineering. Since the first edition, there have been made many changes and improvements to this textbook. Feedback from instructors, students, and corporate users was used to correct, expand, and improve the materials. The fourth edition features two newly added chapters: "On Non-Functional Requirements" and "Requirements Engineering: Road Map to the Future." The latter provides a discussion on the relationship between requirements engineering and such emerging and disruptive technologies as Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, and Affective Computing. All chapters of the book were significantly expanded with new materials that keep the book relevant to current industrial practices. Readers will find expanded discussions on new elicitation techniques, agile approaches (e.g., Kanpan, SAFe, and DEVOps), requirements tools, requirements representation, risk management approaches, and functional size measurement methods. The fourth edition also has significant additions of vignettes, exercises, and references. Another new feature is scannable QR codes linked to sites containing updates, tools, videos, and discussion forums to keep readers current with the dynamic field of requirements engineering.

Large public projects represent major complex investment and whilst there has been much written about how to develop, manage and deliver such projects, practice still does not match up with expectations. In this book, researchers from the Norwegian Concept Research Programme explore the paradoxes between theory and practice in collaboration with experts in the field of project governance. This book delves into the reality of large public projects, to show how they can be managed effectively and efficiently, recognising the realities of their context. It offers a range of practical conclusions as to the paradoxes of the governance and management of public projects. The international spectrum of authors draw their examples from the UK, Norway, Canada, France, Australia and the Netherlands. Bridging the gap between research, theory and practice, this book will benefit academics and researchers in the field of project management and corporate governance as well as those in the practice of public project governance, civil servants and industry practitioners.

Providing in-depth analysis, this book enables readers to understand the theoretical aspects of personal selling and explores the difficulties of selling services which are sensitive to cultural, age and gender differences, and to customers originating from diverse cultural zones. Agents and personal sellers must be aware of these differences and be familiar with the expectations of customers. Cross-cultural Personal Selling provides extensive empirical research results with special emphasis on competences, skills and qualifications of personal sellers which are necessary for successful, effective and efficient promotion campaigns aimed at customers from different cultures. Academics of international marketing and promotion will find this study extremely useful, as well as practitioners looking to expand their knowledge on personal selling.

Chris Termeer is said to be one of the few people that can clearly explain the vast complexities of the oil and natural gas industry in non-technical language for an average person. His book, Fundamentals of Investing in Oil and Gas, uses 250 + detailed pictures, graphs, and necessary visual illustrations, combined with thorough, comprehensive descriptions and details to aid the reader.

Managers in organisations must make rational decisions. Rational decision making is the opposite of intuitive decision making. It is a strict procedure utilising objective knowledge and logic. It involves identifying the problem to solve, gathering facts, identifying options and outcomes, analysing them, considering all the relationships and selecting the decision. Rational decision making requires support: methods and software tools. The identification of the problem to solve needs methods that would measure and evaluate the current situation. Identification and evaluation of options and analysis of the available possibilities involves analysis and optimisation methods. Incorporating intuition into rational decision making needs adequate methods that would translate ideas or observed behaviours into hard data. Communication, observation and opinions recording is hardly possible today without adequate software. Information and data that form the input, intermediate variables and the output must be stored, managed and made accessible in a user-friendly manner. Rational Decisions in Organisations: Theoretical and Practical Aspects presents selected recent developments in the support of the widely understood rational decision making in organisations, illustrated through case studies. The book shows not only the variety of perspectives involved in decision making, but also the variety of domains where rational decision support systems are needed. The case studies present decision making by medical doctors, students and managers of various universities, IT project teams, construction companies, banks and small and large manufacturing companies. Covering the richness of relationships in which the decisions should and must be taken, the book illustrates how modern organisations operate in chains and networks; they have multiple responsibilities, including social, legal, business and ethical duties. Nowadays, managers in organisations can make transparent decisions and consider a multitude of stakeholders and their diverse features, incorporating diverse criteria, using multiple types and drivers of information and decision-making patterns, and referring to numerous lessons learned. As the book makes clear, the marriage of theoretical ideas with the possibilities offered by technology can make the decisions in organisations more rational and, at the same time, more human.

* Takes the reader through the entire development process from land acquisition to completion and refinancing or sale * Aimed out aspiring professionals looking to move into development from other areas * Includes a glossary of terms

Davanti Nella Gara, an Italian bicycle company, makes the best racing bikes in the world. But after decades of market dominance, competitors have brought the industry leader back to the Peloton. The company's second-generation owner longs for retirement, but a tired product lineup is pushing down profits and the firm's market value will never support his ride into the sunset. The flawed but beloved owner seeks out the counsel of an old friend and successful businessman, who steers him toward a fast and remarkable transformation, one fueled by a relentless focus on innovation excellence. An engaging business novel, Winning Innovation dives into the art and science of innovation; the thrills of the European bike-racing circuit; the vibrant landscape and cuisine of Italy; and a cast of intriguing characters who work to put Davanti on the road to sustained prosperity. The company's leader isn't afraid to learn and apply new ideas to reenergize his company, and finds he cares more about his employees than he could ever imagine. A young innovator struggles to see a product idea to fruition as well as rise into management - and he falls in love along the way. A newly promoted R&D director brings teamwork and transparency to product development and aligns the entire company around innovation. With the help of a seasoned and persistent change agent, in just a year, Davanti deploys a well-defined and -sequenced transformation - a complete and seamless process that can be replicated and scaled by most companies. The leader engages associates in pursuit of the right vision and strategy, candidly supporting them all as they unleash their creative sparks, work through personality conflicts, and take on real-world challenges faced by companies every day. They learn and apply traditional R&D principles in new ways (e.g., cost of delay, sprints, fail fast, late start) and successfully leverage emerging innovation and change-management principles (e.g., idea-creation events, knowledge management, workplace humility, visual management, lean project management). And an aligned, three-phase innovation process - from idea creation to technology development and product design - provides the innovation infrastructure the company needs for revenue creation and success beyond racing bikes. From a top-heavy organization dominated by power struggles and finger-pointing emerges a new Davanti Nella Gara - a flattened, innovative company with: Clear vision and endorsed goals and strategy Speed, responsiveness, and agility Widespread, successful creativity Collaboration and teamwork Superior risk management Respect for people Unquestionable ethics Changed leadership and associate behaviors Project management excellence Rapid problem-solving and experimentation Not just the story of an R&D transformation, Winning Innovation illustrates a companywide transformation of a magnitude that only superior R&D can make possible. It may well be the first book to chronologically introduce the principles for a complete innovation excellence transformation along with the parallel people transformation that is necessary for real change to occur. The end result for Davanti Nella Gara is a dominant new culture based on respect and humility, highly efficient processes that will deliver a wealth of innovations, sales, and profits for many years to come, and an owner who leaves a bright future for the people and company he's known and loved his entire life.

Project or program health checks provide tremendous value to businesses and pay for themselves by multiples of magnitude. No matter how well a project or program is performing, there are always activities that can provide better value, reduce costs, or introduce more innovation. IT project and program health checks can help organizations reach their goals and dramatically improve Return on Investment (ROI). IT Project Health Checks: Driving Successful Implementation and Multiples of Business Value offers a proven approach for evaluating IT projects or programs in order to determine how they are performing and how the eventual outcome for the initiative is currently trending. The project or program health checks provide a set of techniques that produce actionable recommendations that can be applied for any combination of the following outcomes: Drive more business and technical value from a program Set a project or program back on track for successful implementation as defined by executive management Rescue a program that is heading towards failure Act as additional insurance for initiatives that are too important to fail Protect executive careers by creating transparency within the inner workings of complex initiatives. The book shows how a review can quickly identify whether an initiative needs to be rescued even when the project team is not aware that it is hurtling towards failure. It also provides techniques for driving business value even when a project team believes it's been stretched as much as possible. Other outcomes covered in this book include: Objectively develop a project Health-Check Scorecard that establishes how well a project is doing and the direction it is headed Demonstrate how to drive business value from an IT program regardless of how well or badly it is tracking Provide surgical advice to improve a project's outcome How to use the many templates and sample deliverables to get a quick start on your own health check. Designed to provide significant value to any member of a project team, program team, stakeholders, sponsors, business users, system integrators, trainers, and IT professionals, this book can help find opportunities to drive multiples of business value and exceed project success metrics.

Project or program health checks provide tremendous value to businesses and pay for themselves by multiples of magnitude. No matter how well a project or program is performing, there are always activities that can provide better value, reduce costs, or introduce more innovation. IT project and program health checks can help organizations reach their goals and dramatically improve Return on Investment (ROI). IT Project Health Checks: Driving Successful Implementation and Multiples of Business Value offers a proven approach for evaluating IT projects or programs in order to determine how they are performing and how the eventual outcome for the initiative is currently trending. The project or program health checks provide a set of techniques that produce actionable recommendations that can be applied for any combination of the following outcomes: Drive more business and technical value from a program Set a project or program back on track for successful implementation as defined by executive management Rescue a program that is heading towards failure Act as additional insurance for initiatives that are too important to fail Protect executive careers by creating transparency within the inner workings of complex initiatives. The book shows how a review can quickly identify whether an initiative needs to be rescued even when the project team is not aware that it is hurtling towards failure. It also provides techniques for driving business value even when a project team believes it's been stretched as much as possible. Other outcomes covered in this book include: Objectively develop a project Health-Check Scorecard that establishes how well a project is doing and the direction it is headed Demonstrate how to drive business value from an IT program regardless of how well or badly it is tracking Provide surgical advice to improve a project's outcome How to use the many templates and sample deliverables to get a quick start on your own health check. Designed to provide significant value to any member of a project team, program team, stakeholders, sponsors, business users, system integrators, trainers, and IT professionals, this book can help find opportunities to drive multiples of business value and exceed project success metrics.