This fifth edition provides a comprehensive resource for project managers. It describes the latest project management systems that use critical path methods.
This book presents an integrated approach to monitoring projects in progress using Earned Value and Earned Schedule Management combined with Schedule Risk Analysis. Monitoring and controlling projects involves processes for identifying potential problems in a timely manner. When necessary, corrective actions can be taken to exploit project opportunities or to get faltering projects back on track. The prerequisite is that project performance is observed and measured regularly to identify variances from the project baseline schedule. Therefore, monitoring the performance of projects in progress requires a set of tools and techniques that should ideally be combined into a single integrated system. The book offers a valuable resource for anyone who wants to understand the theory first and then to use it in practice with software tools. It is intended for students, professionals and academics with an interest and/or experience in running projects as well as for newcomers in the area of project control with a basic grasp of the Earned Value, Earned Schedule and Schedule Risk Analysis concepts.
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 systems approach to project management aims to develop the reader's professional skills and thinking in the planning and control component of project work.
There is a narrow view of control which is about delivering projects in accordance with their plans, using disciplines like earned value and risk management already championed by APM. That view is about doing projects right. This Introduction to Project Control offers a wider perspective, which includes doing the right projects. It involves integrating all the disciplines of project management.
The topic of this book is known as dynamic scheduling, and is used to refer to three dimensions of project management and scheduling: the construction of a baseline schedule and the analysis of a project schedule’s risk as preparation of the project control phase during project progress. This dynamic scheduling point of view implicitly assumes that the usability of a project’s baseline schedule is rather limited and only acts as a point of reference in the project life cycle. Consequently, a project schedule should especially be considered as nothing more than a predictive model that can be used for resource efficiency calculations, time and cost risk analyses, project tracking and performance measurement, and so on. In this book, the three dimensions of dynamic scheduling are highlighted in detail and are based on and inspired by a combination of academic research studies at Ghent University (www.ugent.be), in-company trainings at Vlerick Business School (www.vlerick.com) and consultancy projects at OR-AS (www.or-as.be). First, the construction of a project baseline schedule is a central theme throughout the various chapters of the book, and is discussed from a complexity point of view with and without the presence of project resources. Second, the creation of an awareness of the weak parts in a baseline schedule is discussed at the end of the two baseline scheduling parts as schedule risk analysis techniques that can be applied on top of the baseline schedule. Third, the baseline schedule and its risk analyses can be used as guidelines during the project control step where actual deviations can be corrected within the margins of the project’s time and cost reserves. The second edition of this book has seen corrections, additions and amendments in detail throughout the book. Moreover Chapter 15 on "Dynamic Scheduling with ProTrack" has been completely rewritten and extended with a section on "ProTrack as a research tool".
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.
Mastering Project Time Management, Cost Control, and Quality Management gives managers powerful insights and tools for addressing the "Triple Constraints" that define virtually every project: time, cost, and quality. This book is part of a new series of seven cutting-edge project management guides for both working practitioners and students. Like all books in this series, it offers deep practical insight into the successful design, management, and control of complex modern projects. Using real case studies and proven applications, expert authors show how multiple functions and disciplines can and must be integrated to achieve a successful outcome. Individually, these books focus on realistic, actionable solutions, not theory. Together, they provide comprehensive guidance for working project managers at all levels, including highly-complex enterprise environments. These books also provide indispensable knowledge for anyone pursuing PMI/PMBOK or PRINCE2 certification, or other accreditation in the field.
Whether organising an important event or heading up a large team, running a project can be a daunting process. Project management is fraught with perils; unfinished and unsuccessful projects are everywhere. In fact, it's more common than not for projects to fail. Effective Project Management reveals what the best project managers know, say and do. By condensing thirty years of hands on project management experience, it will show the reader what to do in simple, smart and practical steps. With essential advice that has been tried and tested in real businesses, it covers all the aspects of how to manage a successful project, including how to manage changing targets, how to plan quality, timescales and budgets, how to identify and manage risks and how to deliver your project. With practical, proven and effective measures to mitigate the risk of project failure, Effective Project Management will boost confidence and encourage the reader to develop an instinct to pursue the best solutions for any project.