This is the most complete guide to all the principles and techniques you need to successfully schedule projects and control their costs. Not a broad project management guide, it offers focused coverage of every essential aspect of scheduling and cost control -- including key issues ignored by typical PM guides. Expert project manager and long-time instructor Randal Wilson makes scheduling and cost control intuitive through the extensive use of graphs, charts, and case studies, and provides all the formulas and worked examples you need to succeed. Writing for both newcomers and working project managers, Wilson covers all this, and more: Project structures, including differences between projects and programs, and how those differences affect costing and scheduling Initiation: how projects start, how to develop project charters and stakeholder registers, and how to manage stakeholders Planning, in depth: what costs must be addressed, and what schedule constraints must be considered Project schedule analysis: activity definition, WBS, and work packages; activity sequencing and diagramming; proven methodologies for estimating resources and activity durations; and schedule development Project cost analysis: gathering and estimating all project costs, including labor, materials, vendor bids, subcontractors, contracts, equipment, facilities, and direct/indirect costs. Budgeting via top-down, bottom-up, and activity-based methods Project monitoring and control: earned value, tracking Gantt, S-Curves, performance reviews, milestone analysis, change control systems, estimate at completion, forecasting, and much more.
Keep Control of your Large, Complex Projects. Proper Cost Control and Forecasting must support the Project Manager's decision making; unfortunately, that is still rarely the case. This handbook explains how to improve significantly the odds of maintaining projects under control and taking the right decisions at the right time.
Keep Control of your Large, Complex Projects! Already more than 1,000 copies sold to leading global project-driven companies! This must-have practical handbook for Large, Complex Projects originated in the trenches of actual project execution. It is not a heavy and detailed bible, but rather a practical reference for project practitioners to understand the principles and traps of Cost Control and Forecasting and be able to raise the right challenges to their teams. Proper Cost Control and Forecasting must support the Project Manager's decision making; unfortunately, that is still rarely the case. This handbook explains how to better implement these key processes, thereby improving significantly the odds of maintaining projects under control and taking the right decisions at the right time.
The practical approach that Colin Dobie prescribes is as applicable to the experienced project manager as it is anyone entering the field.' Ernest J. Nielsen, Brigham Young University, USA A no-nonsense approach to project management. Essential reading for all project managers and project team members.' Peter Dechaineux, Inaugural Chairman, Australian Institute of Project Management, Australia Excellent coverage of all the material required in easy to follow steps. It places activities in logical context. Essential reading for China's many project managers.' Professor Yuan, Chairman, Asia-Pacific Federation of Project Management.' Colin Dobie has very comprehensively detailed out the intricacies needed to manage projects. Well done.' Adesh Jain, President, PM Guru Inc. and President, IPMA Whether you are creating a new product or building a power station, you need to know how to manage the myriad elements in a project to ensure it is completed on time, on budget and to a high standard. A Handbook of Project Management is a practical and comprehensive guide for project managers working on small and large projects in any field. Colin Dobie systematically maps the four phases in the project lifecycle: initiation, planning, implementation and finalisation. He outlines the processes and techniques of the nine functions of project management, and how they are applied during the project lifecycle. He also explains what a project manager is expected to deliver, and the roles of team leaders and team members. Drawing on international standards and bodies of knowledge, as well as Colin Dobie's extensive industry and training experience in several countries, A Handbook of Project Management is an indispensable guide for anyone who wants to develop their skills in project management. It is extensively illustrated with examples, templates, exercises and checklists, making it valuable resource for experienced project managers.
The key to successful project control is the fusing of cost to schedule whereby the management of one helps to manage the other. Project Control: Integrating Cost and Schedule in Construction explores the reasons behind and the methodologies for proper planning, monitoring, and controlling both project costs and schedule. Filling a current void the topic of project control applied to the construction industry, it is essential reading for students and professionals alike.
This fifth edition provides a comprehensive resource for project managers. It describes the latest project management systems that use critical path methods.
A must-read for any project management professional or student. Projects are the life blood of any organization. Revised to reflect the latest changes to A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK(R)) and the Project Management Professional Exam(R), the fourth edition of The AMA Handbook of Project Management provides readers with a clear overview of a complex discipline. Covering everything from individual projects to programs and strategic alignment, it addresses: Project initiation and planning Communication and interpersonal skills Scheduling, budgeting and meeting business objectives Managing political and resource issues Implementing a PMO Measuring value and competencies. The book compiles essays and advice from the field's top professionals and features new chapters on stakeholder management, agile project management, program management, project governance, knowledge management, and more. Updated with fresh examples, case studies and solutions to specific project management dilemmas, it remains an essential reference to the critical concepts and theories all project managers must master.
When Fortune Magazine estimated that 70% of all strategies fail, it also noted that most of these strategies were basically sound, but could not be executed. The central premise of Strategic Project Management Made Simple is that most projects and strategies never get off the ground because of adhoc, haphazard, and obsolete methods used to turn their ideas into coherent and actionable plans. Strategic Project Management Made Simple is the first book to couple a step-by-step process with an interactive thinking tool that takes a strategic approach to designing projects and action initiatives. Strategic Project Management Made Simple builds a solid platform upon four critical questions that are vital for teams to intelligently answer in order to create their own strong, strategic foundation. These questions are: 1. What are we trying to accomplish and why? 2. How will we measure success? 3. What other conditions must exist? 4. How do we get there? This fresh approach begins with clearly understanding the what and why of a project - comprehending the bigger picture goals that are often given only lip service or cursory reviews. The second and third questions clarify success measures and identify the risky assumptions that can later cause pain if not spotted early. The how questions - what are the activities, budgets, and schedules - comes last in our four-question system. By contrast, most project approaches prematurely concentrate on the how without first adequately addressing the three other questions. These four questions guide readers into fleshing out a simple, yet sophisticated, mental workbench called "the Logical Framework" - a Systems Thinking paradigm that lays out one's own project strategy in an easily accessible, interactive 4x4 matrix. The inclusion of memorable features and concepts (four critical questions, LogFrame matrix, If-then thinking, and Implementation Equation) make this book unique.
“Whether you are managing your first project or your hundredth, you are likely to face new challenges. Project Pain Reliever offers guidance you'll cherish and want to keep close by.” —Kevin Murphy, Managing Partner, Conner Partners “This book is like a therapy session for project managers. I'm prescribing this to my team. No more guesswork for new PMs. Project Pain Reliever lays it all out, with a 360 degree view on all the possible scenarios a PM will face, and prescribes a strategy to deal with them. As a project manager, I'm often trying to help my team members understand why we cannot do certain things — like scope-creep. This book will serve as a great tool to educate and re-enforce!” —Laureen Heinz, PMP, CSM, Six Sigma Blackbelt, Managing Consultant, Practice Services, CA Technologies “This is a wonderful and thorough overview of a number of very common, yet complex, problems and solutions that project and functional managers of all levels can benefit from. The honest writing style and poignant anecdotes also make this an enjoyable read. I've added Project Pain Reliever to my team's professional reading list... it is equally applicable to everyone on my team — from the greenest summer intern to my most seasoned business leader.” —Aaron Hall, PMP, Vice President, Program Management and Product Development, K12 Inc. Much of the work performed in organizations around the world today is project oriented. Those responsible for leading the majority of these projects to successful results have varied educational backgrounds, knowledge, skill sets, and experiences gained over the course of their lives and careers that do not include the professional discipline known as project management. Most are managing projects as part of their role, not their profession. However, these accidental project managers frequently run into the same sort of issues and problems faced by those whose profession is project management, but they lack the education or training to properly address them. As a result, more projects run by accidental project managers fail than succeed.This handbook was developed specifically for those accidental project managers and for the relatively new project managers within the profession. It is uniquely organized in a manner designed to help these project managers quickly find specific solutions to the problems they are desperate to fix right now! The text is divided into two broad categories: the Art of Project Management and the Science of Project Management. Each part is divided into chapters to narrow the user's search by type of issue that project managers encounter, such as Planning and Managing Risks. These are then further divided by specific problems labeled as sub-chapters, such as 'The company's project management process doesn't work for me' and 'My project is too dependent on a few key people'. Project Pain Reliever: A Just-In-Time Handbook for Anyone Managing Projects is essentially a plug-and-play answer to the accidental project manager's problems, and a valuable desk reference for all project managers. Key Features: Presents insights and specific guidance from more than 30 leading project management experts that were sourced from around the world for their specialized knowledge and experience Provides quick references to problems often encountered by anyone managing projects and specific solutions to these problems using language that is easy to understand and techniques that can be applied immediately Each of the 93 sub-chapters brings clarity to the perceived problem, describes warning signs, includes a sidebar example, explains what will happen if you do nothing, and outlines a best practice solution and specific steps for solving the problem WAV offers handy "What you have learned" summaries for addressing problems contained within the book, additional problems with solutions, and other useful resources — available from the Web Added Value Download Resource Center at www.jrosspub.com
"In this book, you are taken through a pragmatic practitioner's journey of how to establish and run Project Control to give reliable management information enabling timely management intervention. The Project Control Manager Handbook is both informative and easy to read. It would sit comfortably in any Project Delivery professional's bookcase." - Jonathan Crone, Director of the Programme Management Office, High Speed 2 Ltd. Practical Project Control Manager Handbook: From Back-Office Manager to Trusted Project Strategist Project Control Managers when they exist in Projects are still too often focused on data-crunching and reporting. They do not deliver the potential immense value they could provide in terms of analysis, forecasting and strategic support. The ambition of this must-have handbook is to change this situation. It may well be the first ever Project Control Manager Handbook published. It originated in the trenches of actual Project execution: it is not a heavy and detailed bible, but rather a practical reference for Project practitioners to understand the principles and traps of of Project Control Management over the entire lifecycle of Large or Complex Projects. In addition, the handbook details best practice roadmaps for Project start-up, monitoring and close-out. This handbook complements our trilogy of Advanced Handbooks on Project Control functions (Cost Control, Schedule and Project Risk).
