Managing Projects In Trouble

Whether you use budget, schedule, quality, or other criteria, the statistics by think tanks, institutes, associations, and other trade organizations all point to one inescapable conclusion: your project has a greater chance of getting into trouble than staying out of it. Based on the lessons learned by the author during a quarter of a century of leading projects to successful conclusions, Managing Projects in Trouble: Achieving Turnaround and Success unveils the five secrets to ensuring success—even for projects seemingly doomed to fail. Using numerous flow diagrams and checklists, it explains how to take action in ways that will increase the likelihood of success and minimize the possibility of failure. Specifically, it shows you how to: Recognize the symptoms of troubled projects Revisit your project’s vision and execute an improved vision Examine all options for turning your project into a reality Choose the options most appropriate to your situation Supplying step-by-step guidance through each phase, the book explains how to spot the symptoms of troubled projects early on and arms you with time-tested techniques to address the problems that will inevitably emerge. Each chapter includes a case study that illustrates real-world implementation of the actions and steps discussed as well as a checklist to help ease the transition from project failure to surefire success. Learn the five secrets for turning troubled projects around detailed in this book—or continue what you’re doing at your own peril.

Whether you use budget, schedule, quality, or other criteria, the statistics by think tanks, institutes, associations, and other trade organizations all point to one inescapable conclusion: your project has a greater chance of getting into trouble than staying out of it.Based on the lessons learned by the author during a quarter of a century of lea

The influences of modern technology and competitive environments have a direct impact on the outcomes of projects, irrespective of project type. This text is a response to the growing need for better management which many people find necessary when leading or working within teams or groups undertaking a project. Increasingly, people in a working environment are engaged in organised practices and utilising resources, facing the challenge of having to meet, or better, predetermined cost budgets and strict timetables. The fact that most work is organised into programs or singular projects means that people require increasing guidance in project management.

Managing Projects provides proven strategies for making sure any size task achieve its goal - on time and on budget Covering the gamut of tasks involved in managing any project, this portable guide develops ideas about planning, team building, motivation, mid-course assessment and correction, and after-project review. It helps managers determine whether and how to make the critical tradeoffs between time, cost, and quality that are the essence of project management. Managers at any level can use this portable guide to become more efficient and effective multi-taskers. Key features Instructs readers how to: Scope out a project and identify resources needed Develop schedules and set deadlines Monitor budgets and keep projects on track Communicate progress and problems to stakeholders Overcome some typical project snags

“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

Whether you use budget, schedule, quality, or other criteria, the statistics by think tanks, institutes, associations, and other trade organizations all point to one inescapable conclusion: your project has a greater chance of getting into trouble than staying out of it.Based on the lessons learned by the author during a quarter of a century of lea

Managing the Unknown offers a new way of looking at the problem of managing projects in novel and unknown environments. From Europe's leading business school, this book shows how to manage two fundamental approaches that, in combination, offer the possibility of coping with unforeseen influences that inevitably arise in novel projects: * Trial-and-Error Learning allows for redefining the plan and the project as the project unfolds * Selectionism pursues multiple, independent trials in order to pick the best one at the end Managing the Unknown offers expert guidelines to the specific project mindsets, infrastructures, and management methods required to use these project management approaches and achieve success in spite of unforeseen obstacles. This book equips readers with: * Causal explanations of why unforeseeable factors in novel projects make traditional project planning and project risk management insufficient * Directly applicable management tools that help managers to guide novel and high-uncertainty projects * Real-world case studies of both successful and unsuccessful approaches to managing high uncertainty in novel projects

In this helpful how-to, author Tom Kendrick reveals field-proven principles for navigating high-pressure situations, so you can overcome any obstacle. Even with a terrific project management program in place, problems can arise to derail your team’s hard work. This book explores a wide range of challenging scenarios and practical solutions and is packed with insightful answers to over 100 of your most urgent project management questions. In 101 Project Management Problems and How to Solve Them, you’ll learn how to: keep a project on track despite unavoidable interruptions; how to prevent unreliable outside collaborators from jeopardizing the entire project; how to manage project teams who have little or no project management experience; how to make up for lost time without cutting corners; and how to succeed--even in the face of threatened budget cuts. The last thing you need in the heat of battle is to dive into project management theories. While there’s no one right answer to the challenges you face as a project manager, 101 Project Management Problems and How to Solve Them has a plethora of actionable guidelines that help you troubleshoot quickly so you can get back to doing what you do best.