The Lost Art of Planning Projects
The Lost Art of Planning Projects

Author: Louise Worsley

Publisher: Business Expert Press

Published: 2019-02-13

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 1948580705

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Appropriate planning of a project is the hallmark of a professional project manager. Good planning is what sets apart great projects from accidents. Purposeful planning is what ensures that the executive actions undertaken remain connected to the goals and outcomes expected by the stakeholders. There is no single approach to planning a project, but neither is project planning a free-for-all. This book takes you through many of the common planning situations you will meet, addressing how planning decisions alter depending on the project context. It also discusses how resource-constrained planning differs from end-date schedule planning. The authors look at what is different between cost-constrained plans and time boxing and they discuss why you must plan when using Agile, and how to plan for innovation, as well as planning when managing a project portfolio, and what planning means in a program. To tell this story, we have distilled over seventy years of our combined personal experience of supporting project managers deliver, and thousands of person-years of others’ practical knowledge to illustrate tools, models, and approaches that suggest what to do in what circumstances. Also available are supplementary materials and tools, on a website associated with the book, which we hope you find useful when you plan your next project!

Adaptive Project Planning
Adaptive Project Planning

Author: Louise M. Worsley

Publisher: Business Expert Press

Published: 2019-01-29

Total Pages: 149

ISBN-13: 1949991008

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The text explores why you must plan when using agile approaches, how to approach the planning in stakeholder complex projects, and how to plan for innovation. Despite claims to the contrary, there is no single approach to planning a project, but for a given project, there is a best one. This book takes you through many planning situations you will meet. The authors use stories of real projects to show how planning decisions alter depending on the project context. They discuss how resource-constrained planning differs from end-date schedule planning and look at what is different between cost-constrained plans and time boxing. The text explores why you must plan when using agile approaches, how to approach the planning in stakeholder complex projects, and how to plan for innovation. For project managers, getting involved with increasingly complex projects, it’s all about developing your judgment. The crucial judgments remain how to plan and structure a project. Through the exploration of many types of projects and the introduction of models and an approach to planning this book will aid your journey into high performance project management.

Elevating Construction Superintendents
Elevating Construction Superintendents

Author: Jason Schroeder

Publisher:

Published: 2020-11-28

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13:

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To be a great superintendent, you need training. Without this, you may become defensive, learn to accept waste and low standards, or even espouse false concepts that will lead to certain failure. However, with proper fundamental training, learning from the best builders throughout history, and effectively using the modern concepts of lean, we can guide superintendents to have the best trained role in construction. Right now in our industry, project managers and project engineers are better trained, better paid, and are becoming leaders of the entire team. The positions of superintendents and project managers should be equal, but to be equal, we need to step up and take our place as the driving force of the project. This book will help you to do that and bring respect back to field positions everywhere. Before writing Elevating Construction Superintendents - The Art of the Builder, I had never found a book available for the art and form of being a superintendent. Yes, there are books about lean; yes, there are books about construction management; and yes, there are books about the skills of a superintendent, but there are none that cover the art of the builder in construction and the back-to-basics fundamental attributes of a true leader in the field. This is the first revision of the book we need and want for our wonderful builders in the field of construction. This book is filled with principles and actionable steps for assistant superintendents. I invite you to learn these, take massive action, and implement each step one-by-one. Please keep driving until everything on your project brings you joy. That is the measure of success. Expect more - Step up - Let's go

Quantitative Tools of Project Management
Quantitative Tools of Project Management

Author: David L. Olson

Publisher: Business Expert Press

Published: 2020-06-01

Total Pages: 134

ISBN-13: 1951527844

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This book addresses the use of quantitative tools to support general project management. Part I of the book deals with critical path modeling. Part II discusses risk modeling tools to include Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT), critical chain modeling, and agile/scrum approaches. Project control through earned value analysis is also covered. Part III is a Microsoft Project orientation. A feature of the book is an effort to tie content to that of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). Each chapter includes reference to how each chapter relates to the PMBOK structure and its relationship to the 2020 Project Management Professional (PMP) Exam Outline.

The People Project Triangle
The People Project Triangle

Author: Stuart Copeland

Publisher: Business Expert Press

Published: 2020-04-03

Total Pages: 137

ISBN-13: 1951527615

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The People Project Triangle refers to the trade-off between the project, the ongoing business, and the people working in them. Driven by rapid external change, the modern corporation is lean and cost conscious. A consequence is an increasingly common project management situation of a medium important, medium complex business change project that cannot justify a full-time team. Consequently, it is resourced by in-house staff working on the project as homework, meaning in addition to their normal responsibilities. The authors term this a composite project. This book postulates that composite projects are increasingly used to meet the demands of rapid business change. However, they are largely unrecognized as a separate organizational category of project, with particular characteristics, management needs, and risks. The People Project Triangle refers to the trade-off between the project, the ongoing business, and the people working in them. When pressure mounts it is often the people who bear the brunt, risking stress and burnout. The authors assert that with better recognition, clearer understanding and appropriate measures, many of the common problems with composite projects can be foreseen and avoided or mitigated.

Hybrid Project Management
Hybrid Project Management

Author: Mark Tolbert

Publisher: Business Expert Press

Published: 2020-10-08

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 1952538351

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Compared to a few decades ago, companies today are faced with a much more challenging environment providing successful products and solutions for their customers. They are dealing with global competition, very rapid change in technologies, and tremendous volatility in economic conditions. As project managers, we are helping our companies survive in this difficult landscape. We are “agents of change” and “drivers of change.” The most important project management methodology today that will help us deal with this change and this volatility is Agile. However, no one process or project management methodology fits all situations! Agile is not a panacea for all projects. Many times, our projects are large enough and complex enough that some parts of the project are best suited to using a predictive planning approach, and other parts are more suited to using Agile. Therefore, a hybrid approach that mixes the traditional, waterfall approach with Agile is really required in many situations today. The agile community oftentimes has quite a negative view of hybrid approaches. Key writers on Agile often say that attempting to use hybrid will corrupt all attempts to use Agile, and will result in failure. In this book, the argument is made that integrating these methodologies can be done if approached the right way, and in fact, this is necessary today.

Core Concepts of Project Management
Core Concepts of Project Management

Author: David L. Olson

Publisher: Business Expert Press

Published: 2020-03-03

Total Pages: 102

ISBN-13: 1951527577

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This book addresses project management in the context of general project management. An introductory chapter discusses project features in general. Part I of the book focuses attention on the important human element in project management. Part II discusses two processes involved in the initial project definition stage, as well as covering estimation. Part III involves planning and project risk and implementation. A feature of the book is an effort to tie content to that of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). Each chapter includes reference to how each chapter relates to the PMBOK structure, and relationship to the 2020 PMP Exam Outline.

Project Communication from Start to Finish
Project Communication from Start to Finish

Author: Geraldine E. Hynes

Publisher: Business Expert Press

Published: 2019-06-13

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 1949991555

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Research shows that 90 percent of a project manager’s time is spent communicating with various stakeholders. This book offers strategies that enhance communication throughout the project cycle and describes innovative techniques for bridging cultural gaps, increasing understanding, and ensuring project success.

Capital Project Management, Volume III
Capital Project Management, Volume III

Author: Robert N. McGrath

Publisher: Business Expert Press

Published: 2019-11-21

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 194999189X

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As an extension of Volumes I and II of this series, this book contains a detailed elaboration of the Tesla story, in a way that also serves to examine the interaction of technology and economic forces that determine the structural profitability of any industry, especially capital-intense industries. The economics are the “five forces” introduced to the management lexicon by strategic management scholars. Here there is strong emphasis on the interplay among product technology, production and supply chains, and “Wall Street.” The author is a retired business professor; his research interest has been the management of technology and innovation. For this book, he double-checked none of the 1,250 media items collected, accepting their overall veracity at face value. This approach advocates no one person, no one company, no one technology, and no portion of the global automobile industry. Analysis and practical application came foremost.

Project-Led Strategic Management
Project-Led Strategic Management

Author: James Marion

Publisher: Business Expert Press

Published: 2021-01-06

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 1952538912

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Strategic management is very well documented in business books and in the literature, but that does not make the task any easier. Because formulating and implementing strategy is so taxing, and the environmental signals are so intangible, strategic planning is a responsibility that is easy to avoid. The solution proposed in this book is a project management framework to advance organizational strategy. In this book, you’ll find not only a description of how use the project management framework to advance strategic management, but also a case study that illustrates the positive impact.