Project Management Survival

This book is written for the person who finds themselves handed a major corporate project and is wondering how to see it through successfully without ending up on the candidacy list for the sack.

Written from a real-world perspective, this book provides you with a template for success based on project management techniques from the school of corporate hard knocks. Author Richard Jones shows you how to avoid project killers, such as inheriting an incompetent, scared, or doomed team. He also gives practical advice on getting to the truth of a project, getting the right initial plan, developing a genuinely workable plan, and reveals how to manage people so the project stays on track.

If you are tasked suddenly with managing a project in-house, the likelihood is that you will find that you are dumped in an impossible situation. This book shows you how to control the situation and come out on top.

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Table of Contents:

  • UNDERSTANDING PROJECTS. What are projects and why do they fail? Dead project walking – why you need to kill projects.
  • WHERE ARE WE? Diagnosing an existing project.
  • GETTING THE RIGHT INITIAL PLAN. Leading projects. Project scope and initialisation. Agreeing objectives. Milestones. Refining milestones. Activities/work breakdown structure. Assigning resources. Time estimation. Resource availability. Dependencies. Risk and mitigation.
  • GETTING THE PLAN RIGHT. Optimising the plan.
  • STAYING ON TRACK. Roles, responsibilities and communication. Updating the plan. Monitoring progress. Handling issues. Controlling change. Project closure.
  • APPENDICES. The changing nature of projects. About project software. Project management approaches and methodologies

Testimonial

“ Richard Jones has produced a clear, comprehensive and insightful guide to successful project management. This book should be of equal interest to those who have responsibility for significant projects and senior managers anxious to ensure the success of a major project. ”

Hans Kuropatwa – Former CEO within Vodafone

“ Full of techniques that can be applied straight away and memorable anecdotes to illustrate the key points, this is a very practical guide to successfully delivering projects in the real world ”

Richard Wilson, Head of Optimise Products, Cable & Wireless