Project Management For Non Project Managers

This practical guide reveals the project management methodology and processes that will give you the advantage to ensure your projects’ success--and advance organizational goals. As a seasoned project management consultant and instructor for the American Management Association, author Jack Ferraro has gained years of experience bridging the gap between project managers and functional managers to help countless teams improve their performance. In this book, he demystifies the jargon and processes of project management, encouraging functional managers to jump into the PM arena and arming them with step-by-step guidelines for mastering the most critical PM skills. In Project Management for Non-Project Managers, you will discover: business analysis techniques, work breakdown structures, program sequencing techniques, and risk management methods. Great managers are experts at getting bottom-line results, but often do not understand their role in the success or failure of their organization's projects. As projects become more strategic and collaborative, managers with even basic project-management knowledge are most capable of keeping projects business-focused. By switching gears from passive bystander to active owner of project strategies, you’ll keep your team’s projects on track and, as a result, increase their business value.

Organizations are developing project managers from within more and more. Employees who are proficient in their area of expertise are being asked to take on project management.This book explores the basic concepts and fundamentals of project management.Project management processThe first lesson focuses on the project management process: highlighting the importance of effective project management, who's involved with projects, and an introduction to the four phases of the project management process.Project manager roleThe second lesson focuses on the project manager role: highlighting typical roles a project manager must fill to be successful, the value of the project manager, how to deliver the right amount of project management, and how to manage small to medium projects.This book will provide individuals who are not professional project managers with the knowledge required to build a solid understanding of the fundamentals of project management, helping them transition to the role of project manager.Today's business world is a complex and rapidly changing place. Organizations and individuals cannot survive without accepting and embracing change. Change involves your situation: something is different; a bigger office, a new colleague, the reorganization of staff responsibilities.Transition involves a journey; it is the process of disengagement, transformation, and acceptance of change.Put simply, change is the event and transition is the process that takes you there. While it is important to know the terms, concepts, techniques, and skills that are involved in project management, it is even more important to be able to put these to work on the job.A project manager is expected to deal with intangible issues such as human dynamics, establishing authority, and managing people and expectations. This often requires a complex balance of personal and practical skills.Project management is about the management of people, but it is also about managing the way an organization works, and the way the people within it work.As a project manager, you will need to realize that people are inseparable from process. It is not only practical skills, but leadership ability, management skills, and the ability to communicate that are imperative to successful projects.Benjamin Franklin wrote, "For want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy, all for want of care about a horseshoe nail."A small problem overlooked in the early stages of project management can grow to be a critical failure in the later stages.The Initiating and Planning phases of project management are vital to the success of the project. Without the proper tools and information, effective project management is impossible.Imagine what would happen if the head chef of a busy restaurant didn't have the right ingredients for the evening menu. What do you think would happen if she didn't have a plan for efficiently preparing all of the meals during the supper rush?If you don't initiate your project properly, you might not have everything you need to meet your goals. And if you don't plan your project well, you might not meet your goals on time - or at all.This book examines the importance of properly initiating and planning a project, and explores ways to make your initiating and planning efforts more effective.Your project plan is complete. Tasks are clearly outlined, the schedule is in place, and the money is budgeted to the cent. You're getting ready to dig in and start the actual work.You're feeling confident that the project is going to go exactly as planned. How could anything go wrong?Managing is the third phase of project management. You may be tempted to think now that the planning is over the rest of the project will be easy.

No project management training? No problem! In today’s workplace, employees are routinely expected to coordinate and manage projects. Yet, chances are, you aren’t formally trained in managing projects—you’re an unofficial project manager. FranklinCovey experts Kory Kogon and Suzette Blakemore understand the importance of leadership in project completion and explain that people are crucial in the formula for success. This updated and revised edition of Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager offers practical, real-world insights for effective project management and guides you through the essentials of the value, people, and project management process: Scope Plan Engage Track and Adapt Close If you’re struggling to ensure multiple projects are finished with high value and on time, this book is for you. If you manage projects without the benefit of a team, this book is also for you. Change the way you think about project management—"project manager" may not be your official title, but with the right strategies, you can excel in this project economy.

Business Driven PMO Success Stories was written by and with over two dozen contributing authors from the worldwide project management and project management office (PMO) community. It offers executives, managers, and all those involved in the projects of the organization, an understanding of the value a PMO can provide, the knowledge they need to determine the purpose of their PMO, and how to craft a PMO best suited to fulfill that purpose.

Making It Happen: A Non-Technical Guide to Project Management provides a fresh and clear approach to project management. Written in the form of a novel, it covers the basics of project management in a friendly, interesting, and memorable way. Will Campbell, a reasonably competent middle manager, is suddenly thrust into managing a high-profile project that could make or break his career. With no project management experience, and armed only with the guidance of his eccentric menror, Martha, Will learns the hard way. As Will navigates the rough seas of company politics, treacherous competition, and a project swirling out of control, he narrowly evades many pitfalls, and masters some indispensable project management tools along the way. Against the backdrop of this personal drama, a simple, rational approach to project management unfolds. Will's ability to grasp these principles is the key to his survival, and could be the key to yours. Making It Happen enables the reader to transform risky, real-life situations into success. Provides a simple, non-technical approach, useful to any business person involved in teams or managing projects Offers practical tools and principles that will make any project a success: from office moves to product roll-outs, systems implementations to training program delivery, and everything in between Boxes, definitions, and charts highlight key points and practical project management tips.

When Fortune Magazine estimated that 70% of all strategies fail, it also noted that most of these strategies were basically sound, but could not be executed. The central premise of Strategic Project Management Made Simple is that most projects and strategies never get off the ground because of adhoc, haphazard, and obsolete methods used to turn their ideas into coherent and actionable plans. Strategic Project Management Made Simple is the first book to couple a step-by-step process with an interactive thinking tool that takes a strategic approach to designing projects and action initiatives. Strategic Project Management Made Simple builds a solid platform upon four critical questions that are vital for teams to intelligently answer in order to create their own strong, strategic foundation. These questions are: 1. What are we trying to accomplish and why? 2. How will we measure success? 3. What other conditions must exist? 4. How do we get there? This fresh approach begins with clearly understanding the what and why of a project - comprehending the bigger picture goals that are often given only lip service or cursory reviews. The second and third questions clarify success measures and identify the risky assumptions that can later cause pain if not spotted early. The how questions - what are the activities, budgets, and schedules - comes last in our four-question system. By contrast, most project approaches prematurely concentrate on the how without first adequately addressing the three other questions. These four questions guide readers into fleshing out a simple, yet sophisticated, mental workbench called "the Logical Framework" - a Systems Thinking paradigm that lays out one's own project strategy in an easily accessible, interactive 4x4 matrix. The inclusion of memorable features and concepts (four critical questions, LogFrame matrix, If-then thinking, and Implementation Equation) make this book unique.

Important New Tools for Managing Your Small Projects As Part of a Larger Program! The first edition of Project Management for Small Projects introduced project management processes, tools, and techniques that are scalable and adaptable to small projects. Project managers learned a structured, disciplined approach to managing small projects sensibly and realistically. This new edition is updated throughout to reflect the PMBOK® Guide, Fifth Edition, balancing the particular needs of small projects with the project management methodology. Project managers who are proficient at managing and leading their own projects are increasingly being called upon to work collaboratively with other project managers to lead components of a program. In addition to knowing how to manage processes and how to lead the team, project managers must now also know how to collaborate and share knowledge with other project managers. A new chapter on program management offers important insights and guidance for managing a group of related small projects in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually.

A detailed guide to successful, efficient project management, written by two pros with a combined 55 years "in the trenches!" Project management is a vital and growing component of many organizations and can literally make or break a company. In this step-by-step guide, two project management consultants present a comprehensive guide to effective project management, complete with real stories and case studies from actual project managers. This straightforward guide cuts through the technical jargon to present an easy-to-follow, easy-to-learn approach to executing any project from beginning to end. Project managers, as well as those who want to learn more about project management, will find this guide to be an indispensable resource for all their projects.