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• Introduction
• About This Book
• Foolish Assumptions
• Icons Used in This Book
• Beyond the Book
• Where to Go from Here
• Part I: Understanding Projects and What You Want to Achieve
• Chapter 1: Success in Project Management
• Taking on a Project
• Avoiding the Pitfalls
• Deciding Whether the Job is a Project
• Understanding the four control areas
• Recognising the diversity of projects
• Understanding the four stages of a project
• Defining the Project Manager’s Role
• Looking at the Project Manager’s tasks
• Opposing opposition
• Avoiding ‘shortcuts’
• Chapter 2: Thinking Through the Life of Your Project
• Being Methodical
• Breaking the Project Down into Stages
• Appreciating the advantages of stages
• Deciding on the number of delivery stages
• Understanding the Four Main Stages
• Starting the Project
• Organising and Preparing
• Carrying Out the Work – delivery stages
• Closing the Project
• Chapter 3: Defining the Scope and Producing a Business Case
• Defining the Scope
• Managing expectations and avoiding disappointment
• Challenging the scope
• Understanding the dimensions of scope
• Being clear
• Requirements
• Producing a Business Case
• Getting to grips with the basic contents
• Keeping the Business Case up to date
• Figuring out why you’re doing the project
• Understanding project justification
• Understanding benefits
• Writing the Business Case
• Complying with organisational standards
• Going Back to the Scope
• Getting to Grips with Techniques
• Calculating return on investment
• Understanding cost–benefit analysis
• Chapter 4: Knowing Your Project’s Stakeholders
• Managing Stakeholders
• Identifying stakeholders – the ‘who’
• Analysing the stakeholders – the ‘where’
• Understanding positions – the ‘why’
• Deciding action – the ‘what’
• Working with stakeholders – the ‘how’
• Planning the work – the ‘when’
• Handling Opposition
• Solving the problems
• Focusing on the common areas
• Understanding that you’re a threat
• Spotting facts and emotions
• Overriding the opposition
• Handling Multiple-Stakeholder Projects
• Getting multiple approvals
• Developing management strategies
• Part II: Planning Time: Determining What, When and How Much
• Chapter 5: Planning with Deliverables First
• Seeing the Logic of Product Planning
• Thinking ‘product’ before thinking ‘task’
• Understanding the problems of an activity focus
• Knowing What a Product Is – and Isn’t
• Finding Good Product Names
• Using a Business Project Example
• Identifying the products
• Developing a sequence
• Defining the products
• Using a Structured Product List
• Unleashing the Power of the Work Flow Diagram
• Using the Work Flow Diagram for risk
• Using the Work Flow Diagram for control
• Using the Work Flow Diagram to show stages
• Using the Work Flow for progress reporting
• Getting a picture of the project
• Chapter 6: Planning the Activities
• Moving From Products to Activities
• Having multiple tasks to build a product
• Listing the activities or tasks
• Drawing Up a First Activity Network
• Seeing how you build up an Activity Network
• Using the Work Flow Diagram
• Putting in the time durations
• Calculating the length of the project
• Understanding Float and Its Impact
• Identifying the Critical Path
• Watching the critical path
• Finding a split critical path
• Being More Precise with Dependencies
• Understanding dependency types
• Staying in touch with reality
• Thinking a bit more about sequences
• Working with the Activity Network
• Working back to meet end dates
• Avoiding backing into your schedule
• Going for Gantt
• Estimating Activity Durations
• Getting the best information
• Using estimating techniques
• Putting a health warning on estimates
• Chapter 7: Looking At Staff Resources
• Seeing Why You Need to Plan Staff Use
• Dealing with resource conflicts
• Making sure that people are available
• Monitoring use of staff on the project
• Matching People to Tasks
• Working out the skill sets and knowledge that you need on the teams
• Growing your people
• Developing a Skills Matrix
• Honing Your Task Duration Estimates
• Documenting your estimates
• Factors in activity timing and estimates
• Estimating required work effort
• Factoring in productivity
• Taking care with historical data
• Accounting for availability in estimates
• Smoothing the Resource
• Checking for resource conflict
• Resolving resource conflicts – the steps
• Co-ordinating assignments across multiple projects
• Chapter 8: Planning for Other Resources and Developing the Budget
• Determining Physical Resource Needs
• Identifying resource needs
• Understanding physical resources
• Thinking a bit more about timing
• Making Sense of Costs and Budgets
• Looking at different types of project costs
• Developing a project budget at three levels
• Refining your budget through the stages
• Creating a detailed budget estimate
• Avoiding drowning people in detail
• Chapter 9: Planning at Different Times and Levels
• Putting the Main Structure in Place
• Deciding on the stages
• Holding a Stage Gate
• Working with Planning Levels
• Drawing up new plans
• Keeping higher level plans up to date
• Planning at more than one level at once
• Chapter 10: Venturing into the Unknown: Dealing with Risk and Uncertainty
• Understanding Risks and Risk Management
• Seeing why you need risk management
• Managing, not necessarily avoiding, risk
• Keeping people informed
• Keeping risk in focus throughout the project
• Working Through the Risk Cycle
• Identifying a risk and its trigger event(s)
• (Re)analyse the risk and check existing actions
• Deciding risk management action(s)
• Add/modify risk management in the plans
• Take planned action(s) and monitor the risk
• Documenting Risk
• Risk Plan
• Risk Log
• Getting Some Help from Techniques
• Ishikawa (fishbone) diagram
• Work Flow Diagram
• Risk Checklist
• Decision Tree
• Part III: Putting Your Management Team Together
• Chapter 11: Organising the Project
• Designing the Project Organisation
• Understanding it’s about roles, not jobs
• Getting to grips with project roles
• Looking at the roles
• Influencing the selection of PSG roles
• Defining Organisational Structures
• The functional structure
• The projectised structure
• The matrix structure
• Taking note of the structure
• Chapter 12: Working With Teams and Specialists
• Looking At the Team In Context
• Working with Team Leaders
• Accepting That People Are Different
• Using the Controller–Analyst Matrix
• Building in or avoiding team conflict
• Using the model on the fly
• Thinking About Suitable Team Members
• Considering Performance
• Identifying the performance progression
• Monitoring performance
• Maximising performance
• Working with Senior Staff
• Being secure in your role
• Calling in the heavy guns
• Working with Technical Specialists
• Finding a translator
• Admitting your ignorance
• Being on-side
• Working with Supplier Teams
• Supporting supplier staff
• Choosing suppliers carefully
• Thinking ‘time’, not just ‘initial cost’
• Dealing With Discipline
• Maintaining some distance
• Owning the problem
• Avoiding jumping to conclusions
• Resolving problems – or trying to
• Treading the disciplinary trail
• Changing Staff
• Chapter 13: Being an Effective Leader
• Practising Management and Leadership
• Understanding what makes a good leader
• Developing personal power and influence
• Knowing What Motivates, and also What Demotivates
• Taking a lesson from Fred Herzberg
• Understanding points of demotivation
• Ensuring that others are on board
• Developing Your Teams
• Defining your project operating processes
• Helping your teams to function well
• Stoking the Boilers
• Letting people know how they’re doing
• Motivating people when they leave
• Keeping your finger on the pulse
• Part IV: Steering the Project to Success
• Chapter 14: Tracking Progress and Staying in Control
• Understanding What Underpins Effective Progress Control
• Having a reliable plan
• Having clear and frequent milestones
• Having an effective reporting mechanism
• Harnessing Product Power for Progress Control
• Compiling a Work Checklist
• Getting visual with the Work Flow Diagram
• Monitoring at project, stage and Work Package levels
• Taking Action When Things Go Off Track
• Finding out why the project is off track
• Thinking about what you can do to get back on track
• Deciding what you’ll do
• Taking action
• Monitoring the effectiveness of the action
• Monitoring Work Effort and Costs
• Keeping an eye on work effort
• Follow the money: Monitoring expenditure
• Dealing with Change and Avoiding Scope Creep
• Understanding different types of change
• Looking at impacts – the four dogs
• Responding to change requests
• Eliminating scope creep – well, almost
• Chapter 15: Keeping Everyone Informed
• Looking Underneath Communications Failure
• Communications breakdown – the big project killer
• Communicating Effectively
• Distinguishing between one-way and two-way communication
• Can you hear me? Listening actively
• Choosing the Appropriate Medium
• Writing reports
• Meeting up
• Setting up a project website
• Making a business presentation
• Preparing a Communications Plan
• Identifying the communications
• Writing a Communications Plan
• Chapter 16: Bringing Your Project to Closure
• Staying the Course to Completion
• Thinking ahead about project closure
• Dealing with a crash stop
• Planning Closure
• Outlining closure activities
• Motivating teams to the finish line
• Providing a Good Transition for Team Members
• Reviewing the Project
• Beginning with the end in mind
• Recording project information
• Learning lessons – and passing them on
• Measuring benefits
• Planning for Things After the Project
• Part V: Taking Your Project Management to the Next Level
• Chapter 17: Managing Multiple Projects
• Talking the Talk
• Defining a programme
• Defining a portfolio
• Deciding on a Programme
• Understanding programme roles
• Fitting in with Programme Plans
• Mapping interdependencies by product
• Controlling a programme
• Managing a Portfolio
• Understanding the project implications
• Maintaining the portfolio
• Chapter 18: Using Technology to Up Your Game
• Using Computer Software Effectively
• Seeing what software you need
• Understanding where to use software
• Having Your Head in the Clouds
• Getting Really Good Stuff for Free
• Supporting Virtual Teams with Communication Technology
• Saving Time With Software
• Chapter 19: Monitoring Project Performance with Earned Value Management
• Understanding EVM Terms and Formulas
• Looking at a project example (1)
• Looking at a project example (2)
• Looking at a project example (3)
• Getting the three key figures
• Working with Ratios and Formulas
• Investigating Variances
• Deciding What to Measure for EVM
• Chapter 20: Project Governance and Why It’s Really Important
• Seeing Why It’s a No-brainer
• Looking At Other Guidance
• Understanding What’s Involved
• Understanding the Organisational Level
• Standards and approaches
• Reviewing governance and standards
• Checking an Individual Project
• Checking the project’s Outline Charter
• Checking the Charter and PMP
• Checking the project while it’s running
• Evaluating the project at the end
• Maintaining the ‘Big Divide’
• Coordinating Your Project Training
• Chapter 21: ISO 21500:2012
• Seeing the Place of ISO Standards
• Knowing What ISO 21500 Covers
• Understanding the Structure of 21500
• Getting into the subject areas
• Drilling deeper into the processes
• Minding the Gap
• Boggling Your Mind . . . Just a Bit
• Part VI: The Part of Tens
• Chapter 22: Ten Questions to Ask Yourself as You Plan Your Project
• What Are the Objectives of Your Project?
• Who Do You Need to Involve?
• What Results Will You Produce?
• What Constraints Must You Satisfy?
• What Assumptions Are You Making?
• What Work Has to Be Done?
• When Does Each Activity Start and End?
• Who Will Perform the Project Work?
• What Other Resources Do You Need?
• What Can Go Wrong?
• Chapter 23: Ten Tips for Writing a Convincing Business Case
• Starting with a Bang
• Spelling out the Benefits Clearly
• Pointing Out the Non-quantifiables
• Being Prudent
• Considering Three-point Estimating
• Making Sure Benefits Aren’t Features
• Avoiding Benefits Contamination
• Making Sure You Can Deliver Benefits
• Supplying Evidence or Referencing It
• Using Appendices
• Chapter 24: Ten Tips for Being a Better Project Manager
• Being a ‘Why’ Person
• Being a ‘Can Do’ Person
• Thinking about the Big Picture
• Thinking in Detail
• Assuming Cautiously
• Viewing People as Allies Not Adversaries
• Saying What You Mean, and Meaning What You Say
• Respecting Other People
• Acknowledging Good Performance
• Being a Manager and a Leader
• About the Authors
• Cheat Sheet
• More Dummies Products