Are projects a problem for you? Do your projects cost too much, take too long, or are just not quite right? If so, Project Management Simplified: A Step-by-Step Process is the book for you. It applies well-defined processes for managing projects to managing change in our lives. It describes an approach modeled on a process used successfully in businesses, not-for-profit organizations, schools, and other organizations. The skills and techniques are not unique to businesses and organizations; they are life skills available to everyone. There are a number of structured approaches that guide the successful completion of projects in business environments. This book translates these processes and techniques such that nonproject managers can easily use these proven approaches in a nonbusiness context for their own projects. It removes technical jargon, the need for computer software and hardware, and complicated organizational environments, describing the essential project management processes in a simple, straightforward manner. As you progress through the book, you connect the dots necessary to complete your personal projects. A sample project in the text and a case study in the appendices further illustrate the concepts explained in the text. The author challenges you to select a project and, working along with the book, be the project manager and develop a project plan. By working with customers and funders of the project, defining the project, identifying how long it will take, and determining its cost, you will develop the expertise to define project goals and create a plan to reach them.

Project practice has undergone significant changes requiring new ways of thinking about and managing projects. The single focus on the staged delivery of artefacts is gradually being replaced by a wider interest in stakeholders, value, benefits, and complexity. As a result there is a growing interest in the development of practitioner capabilities, grounded in the recognition that dealing with permeable boundaries and unstructured situations transcends normative processes. Modern practitioners increasingly utilise deliberative and reflective approaches, often challenging received wisdom and traditional interpretations. This volume provides a sampling of some of the best writing in the project domain, enabling readers to access a wider group of authors, ideas, and perspectives. Key topics covered include agility and programme management, planning, people, business cases, contracts, teams, sponsorship, collaboration, strategy, patterns, context, change, and benefits. The main aims of the collection are to reflect on the state of practice within the discipline; to propose new extensions and additions to good practice; to offer new insights and perspectives; to distil new knowledge; and, to provide a way of sampling a range of the most promising ideas, perspectives and styles of writing from some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the discipline.

Project Management covers the full range of issues of vital concern to IT managers working in today's hurry-up, budget-conscious business environment. The handbook provides valuable advice and guidance on how to get projects finished on-time, within budget, and to the complete satisfaction of users, whether a high-tech, low-tech, financial, manufacturing, or service organization. Project Management Handbook brings together contributions from an all-star team of more than 40 of experts working at leading enterprise organizations and consulting firms across America, and around the world. With the help of dozens of fascinating and instructive case studies and vignettes, reporting experiences in a wide range of business sectors, those experts share their insights and experience and extrapolate practicable guidelines and actions steps that project managers can put to work on their current projects.

Leadership success depends on clarifying and simplifying complex problems while maintaining a positive outlook. Change or Die - The Business Process Improvement Manual provides you with the tools to do so. Packed with more than 70 pages of workshop tools, agendas, and activities that detail each of the six stages of the business process improvement (BPI) method, it presents a BPI method that promotes the use of facilitator-led workshops to help you and your team make better decisions. Developed from empirical research and bolstered by the results of client experience from hundreds of hours of facilitated workshops and BPI activity, Change or Die employs the authors' ENGAGE methodology. To ensure your team achieves its deliverables, the authors walk you through each BPI method. In each chapter you will find: Objectives and deliverables clearly identified Real-world examples from companies the authors have worked with-presented using a global manufacturer as an example Activities, questionnaires, and examples A self-assessment tool to help you measure progress, identify gaps in team performance, and determine team readiness for the next stage This resource-rich book includes downloadable resources with supplemental activities, challenges, facilitated workshops, templates, tables, and questionnaires-tools designed to ease each participant's path to project success.

Doing more with less is a skill mastered by entrepreneurs. Budgets are tight, deadlines are short, and time is of the essence. Entrepreneurial project managers use these parameters to their benefit. Hurdling over obstacles with the bare minimum of effort makes their projects and teams stand out. Focusing inward to develop the skills and mindset necessary to accomplish anything with anyone sets an entrepreneurial project manager apart from the group. This book builds on the basics of project management knowledge with tools and techniques to get you as well as your projects and teams performing on an advanced level. No matter your industry or experience level, this book gives you practical ways to improve any project. More importantly, it shows how you can improve your own performance. The biggest improvements a project manager can make are about him- or herself. Personal limitations can be the hardest obstacle to overcome, and this book explains how to overcome them. The techniques have been tried and tested by the author who shares them with you in this book. Whether in your projects or career, all the right things can be said and done, yet the results are always unpredictable. We all have little control over events. This book's tools and techniques give you the ability to handle anything that may come your way. Entrepreneurs are constantly changing and adapting to the world around them. They must stay cutting-edge to make their businesses thrive. This book explains how to take a cutting-edge approach to project management. The goal is to take your technical skills as a project manager, add the elements of an entrepreneur, and create a high-powered team around you as well as become the best project manager you can be.

Innovation Project Management Handbook provides organizational leaders and decision-makers with a cadre of agile, disciplined, and transformational tools and processes for improving innovation opportunity outcomes and achieving sustained innovation project success. The authors introduce new tools and processes developed over their decades of work in the field of innovation that assist organizations in aligning innovation opportunity decisions with their core competencies, business objectives, and strategic vision. In concert with accepted tools already in use today, you are provided a detailed description of each tool and process in an "easy to follow" format with actual application scenarios and exercises. The handbook begins with an innovation primer and introductory discussion on how the authors evolved the original ENOVALE model into the N2OVATE methodology. An overview of how to select a project for each type of innovation opportunity is provided, followed by an in-depth, step-by-step discussion on how to implement each innovation process type. Based on innovative outcomes, the authors identify seven unique processes, each having its own unique circumstances. This allows you to tailor the processes and associated tool-sets to the needs of your organization and situation. After selecting one of the seven processes that fit your desired innovation outcome, you simply follow the detailed process maps provided in the applicable chapter to achieve a desired outcome. In doing so, you will learn how to use, adapt, and improve the tools and techniques offered in the handbook to achieve a positive innovation outcome and add value to your organization, customers, stakeholders, and shareholders.

This book's author, Byron Love, admits proudly to being an IT geek. However, he had found that being an IT geek was limiting his career path and his effectiveness. During a career of more than 31 years, he has made the transition from geek to geek leader. He hopes this book helps other geeks do the same. This book addresses leadership issues in the IT industry to help IT practitioners lead from the lowest level. Unlike other leadership books that provide a one-size-fits-all approach to leadership, this book focuses on the unique challenges that IT practitioners face. IT project managers may manage processes and technologies, but people must be led. The IT industry attracts people who think in logical ways analytical types who have a propensity to place more emphasis on tasks and technology than on people. This has led to leadership challenges such as poor communication, poor relationship management, and poor stakeholder engagement. Critical IT projects and programs have failed because IT leaders neglect the people component of "people, process, and technology." Communications skills are key to leadership. This book features an in-depth discussion of the communications cycle and emotional intelligence, providing geek leaders with tools to improve their understanding of others and to help others understand them. To transform a geek into a geek leader, this book also discusses: Self-leadership skills so geek leaders know how to lead others by leading themselves first Followership and how to cultivate it among team members How a geek leader's ability to navigate disparate social styles leads to greater credibility and influence Integrating leadership into project management processes The book concludes with a case study to show how to put leadership principles and practices into action and how a

Project managers who lead globally dispersed teams face unique challenges in managing project stakeholders, scope, knowledge sharing, schedules, resources, and above all team execution in a global business environment. Finding timely solutions to challenging events becomes more difficult in a global project environment. This book presents more than 80 case studies designed to help project managers craft solutions to the typical problems that can occur in global projects. The author describes surprising, unexpected, and catastrophic cases that he encountered during his 35 years of project management experience in the global arena. The author details the background of each challenging case and then explains how he remedied the issue at hand. Some cases involve a logical step-by-step approach toward a solution, while others require unorthodox steps to get the project on the right track. The book includes lessons learned after every case. This book is designed to help global project managers become more proactive, careful, disciplined, and ready for sudden surprises that can affect their projects. The project cases detailed in this book support and guide the strategizing process that occurs during the execution of global projects. The book emphasizes the importance of documenting lessons learned after each project to prevent making the same mistakes in the future.

If you want to be a successful project manager, you need to become a person of influence. Without influence, there can be no success as a project manager. And, although all key success criteria point to the importance of developing soft skills as a project manager, few books exist about how to develop the power of influence for achieving better project and business results. Filling this need, The Influential Project Manager: Winning Over Team Members and Stakeholders supplies detailed guidance on how to improve your influence skills to achieve better business results. It explains how to set and meet ambitious goals for you, your team, and your stakeholders. The book describes how to listen actively to influence others and details how you can build partnerships that can pay dividends for a lifetime. Each chapter highlights real-world scenarios about a particular subject linked to the influencing skill being covered. Each chapter also includes practical forms, templates, helpful tips, and best practices to help you develop and refine your skills of influence. Details the ten keys to influencing others to support you and your ideas Outlines techniques for improving your listening skills Includes a trust assessment for determining your level of influence and if others see you as trustworthy Demonstrates how to build a network of informal alliances to achieve success Supplying you with the vision of influence from an experienced project manager's perspective, this book will help you procure the informal power required to become a successful influencer. After reading the text and performing the trust assessment, you will gain the understanding required to lead project members down the path to project success.

Why is it that some improvement efforts succeed while others fail despite robust change management programs and the often do-or-die pressure to improve? Quite simply, there are three elements that separate those that succeed from those that fail. They are the 3Ms Measure, Manage to Measure, and Make-it-Easy. Complete with forms, templates, and case studies from the aviation and manufacturing industries, Utilizing the 3Ms of Process Improvement supplies step-by-step guidance on how to use the 3Ms to achieve performance excellence that lasts. Suitable for a wide audience including suppliers, manufacturers, and those who work in service organizations, schools, healthcare, and government it is as much about the science of process improvement as it is about how to lead process improvement utilizing the 3Ms. Illustrating applications of the 3Ms across a range of industries, the book weaves stories throughout about role models who have succeeded, as well as those who have failed. It identifies the specific elements that were missing or defective in the failed attempts to provide a clear understanding of how the three elements work together. Arming you with a culture change method based on changing behaviors, it provides a leadership and management guide to achieving your objectives. The 3Ms have worked for Ben Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, and the author's teams across the globe. Now, with this book, you can put the power of the 3Ms to work for you in your quest towards improving processes and reducing costs. The author encourages reader interaction and feedback on his website: www.rpmexec.com. He also provides you with access to the forms and templates described in the book.

With the rise of "design and build" many more organisations are having to undertake design work; new project organisational structures are developing and many people are migrating into new roles. As a result of these changing times it is more important than ever that we understand that design work needs managed in a different way to many other construction operations. Planning and Monitoring of Design Work describes how to plan and control the progress of design work in the construction industry. It considers how the input of different design specialists should be integrated, from inception to site operations, to meet cost, time and quality objectives. The book provides a practical guide to the methodologies for the better planning of construction projects, and explains how planning and monitoring can help a construction organisation obtain good quality design information for tendering and construction purposes.

Without sustained innovation, most organizations will simply fade away. Explaining how to achieve sustained innovation success in today's increasingly competitive global environment, ENOVALE: How to Unlock Sustained Innovation Project Success provides a validated strategy for implementing innovation projects following the ENOVALE methodology: envision the need, nominate, objectify, validate, align and adapt, link, and execute.The authors first book, Chance or Choice: Unlocking Innovation Success, introduced a proven management process, using the ENOVALE methodology, for identifying innovation opportunities through validated outcomes. This book takes the outcome and provides a method from project initiation to completion. Goes beyond the typical innovation book to outline specific solutions and strategies Includes templates, flow charts, tools, and strategies for each "means" of innovation Provides business examples of the philosophy, strategic elements, and success criteria that readers can easily relate to The text begins by explaining what strategy means in terms of innovation and how it can be transformative for products, processes, and services. After an overview of innovation, the book discusses a series of strategies for each of the three means of innovation. These strategies outline a systematic process you can use to initiate and conduct your own innovation projects.The book includes numerous business examples that illustrate the authors philosophy, strategic elements, and success criteria. After reading this book you will gain a solid understanding of five time-proven implementation strategies that can be applied to any type of innovation project.

Organizations of every type struggle to remain relevant in their marketplace. They continuously strive to introduce new products and services at a rate that satisfies their customers. In their search for fresh ideas, organizations often overlook the most significant source of new thought their employees. Today s employees are knowledgeable and able to see opportunities or solutions to problems. This book describes a process for turning "great ideas" into actionable proposals. It presents a simple, but powerful set of questions that has proven to deliver a never-ending stream of inspiration to an organization. Although formal processes for project initiation, execution, and completion may be firmly embedded in an organization s project life cycle, little is said about project origins. In Project Identification, the author provides a formal process that encourages and enables all of your employees, from the corporate suite to the college hire, to participate in the innovation process. The book presents a mechanism for identifying and capturing great ideas and inspired thought as new project proposals. It provides you with a repeatable process to organize, evaluate, and then select candidate projects for initiation. In the first part of the book, the author describes the complete project life cycle and explains how the Project Identification process complements the formal Project Management methodology. The book then presents a series of questions that guide the decision-making process for identifying new projects. For each question, the author includes an example from a real proposal that demonstrates how to craft useful content. The book concludes by explaining how to capture and manage each of the formal proposals and make sure they are properly considered. It details the transition of a candidate project to a live effort, ready for project initiation. This book can help streamline how your organization conceptualizes and approves

Business-Driven IT-Wide Agile (Scrum) and Kanban (Lean) Implementation: An Action Guide for Business and IT Leaders explains how to increase IT delivery capabilities through the use of Agile and Kanban. Factoring in constant change, communication, a sense of urgency, clear and measurable goals, political realities, and infrastructure needs, it covers all the ingredients required for success. Using real-world examples, this practical guide illustrates how to implement Agile and Kanban in software project management and development across the entire IT department. To make things easier for busy IT leaders and executives, the text includes two case studies along with numerous templates to facilitate understanding and kick-start implementation. Explaining how IT and business management can work together to determine business goals that drive this IT-wide undertaking, the book arms you with actionable solutions that can be put to use immediately in any IT department, regardless of size.

Whatever their discipline, engineers are routinely called upon to develop solutions to all kinds of problems. To do so effectively, they need a systematic and disciplined approach that considers a range of alternatives, taking into account all relevant factors, before selecting the best solution. In Problem Solving for Engineers, David Carmichael demonstrates just such an approach involving problem definition, generation of alternative solutions, and, ultimately, the analysis and selection of a preferred solution. David Carmichael introduces the fundamental concepts needed to think systematically and undertake methodical problem solving. He argues that the most rational way to develop a framework for problem solving is by using a systems studies viewpoint. He then outlines systems methodology, modeling, and the various configurations for analysis, synthesis, and investigation. Building on this, the book details a systematic process for problem solving and demonstrates how problem solving and decision making lie within a systems synthesis configuration. Carefully designed as a self-learning resource, the book contains exercises throughout that reinforce the material and encourage readers to think and apply the concepts. It covers decision making in the presence of uncertainty and multiple criteria, including that involving sustainability with its blend of economic, social, and environmental considerations. It also characterizes and tackles the specific problem solving of management, planning, and design. The book provides, for the first time, a rational framework for problem solving with an engineering orientation.

Few people realise how many projects people actually manage. Or how many of the theoretical approaches to Project Management do not meet the test of the real world. This intensive look at Project Management teaches people what they need to know to lead, or be a member of, a project team. Most Project Management texts deal predominantly with technical areas, leaving readers ill-prepared for the real world. Managing Projects Well looks closely at the behavioural aspects of project management and project team participation. Managing Projects Well shows:What happens when your boss decides the project's schedule and budget, and you have to work backwards to make things fitHow to communicate and present effectively within and beyond the teamHow to cope when you do all the work, and have to manage multiple projects and non-project time as wellHow to organise people for success , and develop ideal methods for team member motivationHow to change your own bad habits quicklyWhat to do when things go wrong More traditional areas of project management, such as planning, organising, leading, and controlling a project, are also covered.Stephen Bender has many years experience managing projects, both small and large. He specialises in teaching professional, technical and clerical staff the techniques of workflow management and project management.

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 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 qualityor 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."

Although there are many books of methods and tools in different areas, few books actually give detailed tips and lessons on how to effectively set up and manage projects. Most books on project management devote all their space to specific methods. Breakthrough Technology Project Management, Second Edition provides tangible guidelines through examples and suggestions to help people participate in and manage projects more effectively. The authors' techniques and guidelines have been proven over the past 15 years in courses and counseling. This book is a valuable tool for those working in information systems, engineering, computer science, operations and production, and other environments involving project management.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a global phenomenon which is gaining significant momentum across the world. Currently there is little information on how to realise and monitor benefits from implementing BIM across the life-cycle of a built environment asset. This book provides a practical and strategic framework to realise value from implementing BIM by adapting Benefit Realisation Management theory. It presents an approach for practitioners aiming to implement BIM across the life-cycle of built environment assets, including both buildings and infrastructure. Additionally, the book features: wide-ranging information about BIM, the challenges of monitoring progress towards benefit goals and the greater context of implementation; a set of dictionaries that illustrate: how benefits can be achieved, what the benefit flows are and the enabling tools and processes that contribute to achieving and maximising them; a suite of measures that can serve to monitor progress with examples of how they have been used to measure benefits from BIM; real-world examples from across the world and life-cycle phases that show how these benefits can be achieved; and information on international maturity and competency measures to complement the value realisation framework. Including a blend of academic and industry input, this book has been developed in close collaborative consultation with industry, government and international research organisations and could be used for industry courses on BIM benefits and implementation for asset management or by universities that teach BIM-related courses.

Carrying out a project as planned is not a guarantee for success. Projects may fail because project management does not take the requirements, wishes and concerns of stakeholders sufficiently into account. Projects can only be successful through contributions from stakeholders. And it is the stakeholders that evaluate whether they find the project successful - an evaluation based on criteria that go beyond receiving the project deliverables. More often than not, the criteria are implicit and change during the project course. This is an enormous challenge for project managers. The route to better projects, say Pernille Eskerod and Anna Lund Jepsen, lies in finding ways to improve project stakeholder management. To manage stakeholders effectively, you need to know your stakeholders, their behaviours and attitudes towards the project. The authors give guidance on how to adopt an analytical and structured approach; how to document, store and retrieve your knowledge; how to plan your stakeholder interactions in advance; and how to make your plans explicit, at the very least internally. A well-conceived plan can prevent you from being carried away in theheat of the moment and help you spend your limited resources for stakeholder management in the best way. To make this plan, you need to agree on the objectives of your stakeholder strategy and ways to achieve them. Project Stakeholder Management offers tactics and tools founded on established marketing communications theory as well as strategic management for doing just that. This book is part of Gower's Fundamentals of Project Management Series.

From the perspective of delivering successful projects, the value of a skilled project sponsor and project manager outweighs many other factors. Projects need leaders who can give them vision, identity, keep the stakeholders and the project team on board and make the difficult decisions that will enable the project to continue (or, if necessary, be terminated). These are human skills that don't necessarily feature large in the project management bodies of knowledge. Ralf Muller and Rodney Turner's Project-Oriented Leadership explains the key leadership models of managerial, intellectual and emotional leadership and shows how they can be applied within projects to lead processes, functions and people, and ensure an ethical and inclusive approach within projects and programs.

Dealing effectively with uncertainty requires today's project manager to be familiar with a broad spectrum of strategies, encompassing both 'hard' and 'soft' methods. This theme of unified thinking (i.e. the need to selectively draw upon a wide range of strategies in any given situation) will differentiate the book from its contemporaries. By picking up where traditional risk management techniques begin to fail, it brings together leading-edge thinking from a variety of disciplines and shows how these techniques can be used to conquer uncertainty in projects. The ability to make good decisions when faced with uncertainty is the real challenge. It is a universal truth that a decision is only as good as the information it is based on. But good information is often hard to come by, and all projects are vulnerable to the unknown and the unknowable. Thus, uncertainty becomes the sworn enemy of the project manager. Wherever we try to analyse, quantify, plan and act, uncertainty lies in wait to surprise us with its ambiguity and unpredictability. It lurks in every stage of the project lifecycle: in the planning (how long will this really take?), the initiation (this isn't the situation I expected!), the execution (who could have foreseen that happening?), and even the completion of a project (where are the expected benefits?). But managing uncertainty is a lot more than just applying risk management techniques. It requires a deep appreciation of how uncertainty arises and, by recognising its different guises, the appropriate strategies can be formulated. If we can learn how to reduce uncertainty, we can make better management decisions and increase the chances of the project succeeding. This book addresses five key questions: Why is there uncertainty in projects? How do you spot the symptoms of uncertainty, preferably at an early stage? What can be done to avoid uncertainty? What strategies can be used to deal with project uncertainty? How

The Net Present Value (NPV) forecast lies at the heart of the business case on many projects. Martin Hopkinson's guide explains when, why and how NPV models should be built for projects and how this approach can be integrated with the risk management process. NPV models tend to be used during the earliest phases of a project as the business case is being developed. Typically, these are the stages when uncertainty is at its highest and when the opportunities to influence the project's plan are at their greatest. This book shows how project financial forecasting and risk management principles can be used to both improve NPV forecasts and to shape the project solution into one that is risk-robust. The text is sufficiently broad to be practicable for first-time users to employ the methods described. But it also contains insights into the process that are likely to be new to the majority of experienced practitioners. All users should find that the models used in this book will help to provide useful templates for exploiting the techniques that are used.

In recent years organizations of all kinds have learned that project working, once considered significant only for engineering and construction companies, can help to ensure that the intended benefits of business change will be realized in full and on time. This development means that more people than ever before need to understand the basic process, language and purpose of project working. That awareness is important not only for those actually engaged in project work, in all sectors of industry and commerce, but also for senior managers, project sponsors and the other stakeholders. The fourth edition of Essentials of Project Management is the junior complement to Dennis Lock's comprehensive, successful and encyclopaedic textbook, Project Management (now in its Tenth Edition). Essentials provides a concise, straightforward account of the principles and techniques of project management, designed to meet the needs of the business manager or student. Using examples and illustrations, the author introduces the key project management procedures and explains clearly how and when to use them. The Essentials of Project Management remains the ideal first text for anyone new to project working or students studying project management as part of a wider business qualification or degree.

There has been a sea-change in the focus of organizations - whether private or public - away from a traditional product- or service-centricity towards customer-centricity and projects are just as much a part of that change. Projects must deliver value; projects must involve stakeholders, and Elizabeth Harrin and Phil Peplow demonstrate convincingly that stakeholders are the ones who get to decide whatvalue actually means. Customer-Centric Project Management is a short guide explaining what customer-centricity means in terms of how you work and its importance for project performance; using tools and processes to guide customer-centric thinking will help you see the results of engagement and demonstrate how things can improve, even on difficult projects. The text provides a straightforward implementation guide to moving your own business to a customer-centric way of working, using a model called Exceed and provides some guidance for ensuring that customer-centricity is sustainable and supported in the organization. This is a practical, rigorous and well-researched text. It draws on established models and uses the example of project implementation in a healthcare environment to demonstrate the impact of this significant way of thinking about value. The authors can't guarantee that the Exceed process will radically improve project success rates, and no process can. Adopting a customer-centric mindset and using the Exceed process to measure and monitor customer satisfaction will, however, help you move towards working with happier, more engaged stakeholders.