Project Planning And Control

This fifth edition provides a comprehensive resource for project managers. It describes the latest project management systems that use critical path methods.

Project management is widely used in the construction industry and is central to planning and controlling time, costs and resources. This book enables readers to perform more effectively, to understand project planning and control procedures and to gain an insight into the associated skills. Numerous case examples from diverse industries and exercises support and illustrate important concepts. The result is a new perspective for project managers: planning can be shown to be a systems synthesis or an inverse problem, which provides a way to reach a satisfactory solution, avoiding the time-consuming or impractical search for the optimal solution.

Describes the latest project management systems that use critical path methods. A detailed examination of one widely used system illustrates the general characteristics of modern project planning software. Descriptions of Microsoft Project and the Hornet Project Management System are also featured, as well as a discussion of the importance of integrating Network Analysis with Earned Value Analysis (EVA), giving real life examples.

Critical Path Method (CPM) and Performance Evaluation and ReviewTechnique (PERT) are widely recognized as the most effectivemethods of keeping large, complex construction projects onschedule, under budget, and up to professional standards. But thesemethods remain underused because they are poorly understood and,due to a host of unfamiliar terms and applications, may seem morecomplicated than they really are. This encyclopedia brings together, in one comprehensive volume, allterms, definitions, and applications related to the time and costmanagement of construction projects. While many of these termsrefer to ancient and venerable building practices, others haveevolved quite recently and refer specifically to modernconstruction and management techniques. Sources include hundreds ofprofessional books, trade journals, and research publications, aswell as planning and scheduling software vendor literature. The detailed glossary of all applicable terms includes across-referenced listing of examples that describe real-worldapplications for each term supplied. An extensive bibliographycovers all applicable books, articles, and periodicals available onproject planning, scheduling, and control using CPM and relatedsubjects. This book is an important quick reference and desktop informationresource for construction planners, schedulers, and controllers, aswell as civil engineers and project managers. It is also theultimate research tool for educators, students, or anyone who seeksto improve their understanding of the management of modernconstruction projects.

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.

Project Management has been significantly revised to include important new developments in the field. The previous editions of this best–selling book from Rory Burke have been widely used on university degree programmes, executive management training courses, planning software courses and professional certification. Features: ∗ Reflects changes in the new versions of the bodies of knowledge of both the PMI (the American Project Management Institute) and the APM (the British Association of Project Managers). ∗ Provides coverage of improvements in communications through the Internet and mobile telephones, and the implications of these changes for project managers. ∗ Includes numerous worked examples and practical exercises, which introduce the reader to the latest planning and control techniques. A website, for lecturers adopting Project Management, containing additional worked examples and exercises, together with PowerPoint slides can be found at: www.wiley.co.uk/burke4ed .