Valuable business skills from a leading project management expert To make the leap from average to superior, you must develop the skills to manage each project like a small business. The Business-Savvy Project Manager thoroughly explains key concepts, principles, and tools for project managers to provide organizations with superior return-oninvestment and top performance. From portfolio management and strategic alignment to calculation of economic metrics and effective use of both financial and nonfinancial criteria in project proposals, it gives you the business savvy for top-level performance and certain career success.
Business savvy does not mean a bagful of academic credentials, nor does it necessarily equate to a good deal of experience. Voegtli explains that a business savvy project leader is one who becomes an advocate for the project from the perspective of its end customers and its business value to the company and establishes herself or himself as leader from the starting line.
While project management has traditionally been concerned with the "hard skills" of the industry, the focus has shifted in the last three decades to include "soft skills," such as interpersonal relationshiop and behavioral concepts. Most recently, however, project management success is clearly related to an organization's business goals and objectives. In this paper, the author posits that project managers must develop business and political savvy in order to effectively fulfill their roles. The paper provides an overview of changing expectations for projects and project managers, as well as the changing definition of project success. In addition, the author outlines characteristics of the business savvy project manager, as well as guidance on developing and implementing a business savvy approach.
Project managers are no longer judged by the technical success oftheir projects alone. They're also held accountable for theircontributions to the company's financial goals. Yet most projectmanagers don't have the business knowledge necessary to makeproject-based decisions that lead to bottom-line success. In thisbook, Dennis Cohen and Robert Graham, both former universityprofessors and experienced project management consultants, providethe skills that, until now, could only be gained through a graduatedegree and years of hands-on experience. Cohen and Graham walk project managers through basic businessconcepts such as value creation, accounting and finance, strategy,and marketing. They connect these concepts to the decisions projectmanagers face every day. And they make it easy to apply theresulting solutions on the job through a unique business systemscalculator. Readers can use the online calculator in conjunctionwith the book to understand how different project variables affectbusiness outcomes, to determine the overall impact of proposedproject changes, and to evaluate the economic results of manydecisions they make. Cohen and Graham's principles apply equally to projects inbusiness, non-profit, and government organizations. And each one isillustrated through case studies drawn from a range of industries,including pharmaceuticals, the technology sector, even thewinemaking business. Whether the mandate is to get new products tomarket, improve the infrastructure, or better serve customers andclients, this book teaches project managers how to make day-to-daydecisions from an upper-management perspective. And it provides ablueprint for planning and pitching potential projects thatdemonstrates a higher level of business savvy.
Project management is the application of processes, methods, knowledge, skills and experience to achieve the project objectives. A project is a unique, transient endeavour, undertaken to achieve planned objectives, which could be defined in terms of outputs, outcomes or benefits. A project is usually deemed to be a success if it achieves the objectives according to their acceptance criteria, within an agreed timescale and budget. The core components of project management are: defining the reason why a project is necessary; capturing project requirements, specifying quality of the deliverables, estimating resources and timescales; preparing a business case to justify the investment; securing corporate agreement and funding; developing and implementing a management plan for the project; leading and motivating the project delivery team; managing the risks, issues and changes on the project; monitoring progress against plan; managing the project budget; maintaining communications with stakeholders and the project organisation; provider management; closing the project in a controlled fashion when appropriate.
The widespread adoption of a business-driven approach toward projects ultimately relies on executives. That reliance on senior management can be discouraging to an individual project management practitioner. This article gives examples of how a project manager can demonstrate personal knowledge of business and advance the cause of business-savvy project management. Furthermore, many organizations remain unaware of the techniques that comprise business-savvy project management. By taking advantage of this knowledge gap, project managers can lead their organizations into the future.
ON TIME, ON BUDGET . . . MANAGE EVERY PROJECT LIKE A PRO In today's environment of tight turnarounds and even tighter budgets, the effective project manager is often considered the most valuable member of a workplace team. Project Management, Second Edition, provides a step-by-step introduction to the tools and techniques necessary to successfully spearhead your next project. This new edition has everything that made the original so popular, plus it has been updated to reflect new principles and strategies in team building, planning, estimating costs, managing project interfaces, and more--providing you with the kind of business savvy today's project manager is expected to possess. Learn how to: Stay on top of all aspects of your project: process, interpersonal, and organizational Forge a spirit of cooperation--and achievement--among diverse team members Manage all the contingencies--foreseen and unforeseen--that come up in every project
Here Are the Tools to Achieve Project Management Success Buy both The Complete Project Manager and The Complete Project Manager's Toolkit and save $18 at checkout by entering coupon code COMBO1. This companion to The Complete Project Manager provides the tools you need to integrate key people, organizational, and technical skills. The core book establishes that success in any environment depends largely upon completing successful projects; this book gives you the means and methods to meet that goal. The hands-on, action-oriented tools in this book will help you develop a complete set of skills—the right set for you to excel in today's competitive environment. The Complete Project Manager's Toolkit will enable you to implement the easy-to-understand, universal, powerful, and immediately applicable concepts presented in The Complete Project Manager. You may already be aware of what you need to do; this book supplies the how through: • Assessments • Checklists • Exercises • Examples of real people applying the concepts. Use these tested methods to overcome environmental, personal, social, organizational, and business barriers to successful project management! Although The Complete Project Manager can be used as a stand-alone book, it is designed to complement The Complete Project Manager: Integrating People, Organizational, and Technical Skills.
Roughly half of all project managers have to lead customer projects as profit centers on contractor side with two big objectives: making the customer happy and bringing money home. Customer projects are a high-risk business on both sides, customers and contractors, but the dynamics of this business have so far been mostly ignored in literature. The book is intended to fill this gap. The book helps project managers better understand the dynamics of customer projects under contract from business development through handover and find solutions for common problems. A central aspect is international contract laws, an often underestimated factor in projects.
Your go-to project management guide! Project managers are among the most sought-after people in today's business universe. Here's your one-stop guide to all the information and advice you need for masterful project management! Hone your skills in sizing, organizing, scheduling, and handling projects to help teams maximize their productivity as you make yourself indispensible. Whether you're new to project management or an experienced pro, this book has the resources you need to get the job done. 7 Books Inside... Project Management For Dummies Agile Project Management For Dummies Project Management Checklists For Dummies PMP Certification All-in-One For Dummies Scrum For Dummies Microsoft Project 2019 For Dummies Enterprise Agility For Dummies
