Project Management For Dummies - UK

Stay on track and within budget with this accessible guide to project planning

Project Management For Dummies guides you to a thorough understanding of how to successfully manage projects--and the people who work on them--even if you're brand new to the project management field. You'll learn the basic concepts, key tips and tricks for making things go smoothly, and updated information relevant to today's UK business practices. Even if you aren't entering a project management role, you'll need to learn project planning skills to stay competitive in today's employment market. Now revised with fresh content on everything from a project's start to its finish, this friendly Dummies title will teach you to manage projects large and small.

• Learn the must-know concepts in project management
• Discover planning techniques that will enhance your effectiveness
• Manage projects with in-person or virtual teams
• Avoid common mistakes and know what to do when the unexpected happens

This guide is excellent for anyone in a project management role, students with an eye toward a career in project management, and anyone who needs to organize and complete large tasks.

Auteur

Nick Graham is an experienced project practitioner, trainer and author, with his clear explanations helped by also being a qualified teacher. His training work has taken him worldwide, and he has worked with the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Nick is also the author of Project Management Checklists For Dummies.

Résumé
Stay on track and within budget with this accessible guide to project planning Project Management For Dummies guides you to a thorough understanding of how to successfully manage projects--and the people who work on them--even if you're brand new to the project management field. You'll learn the basic concepts, key tips and tricks for making things go smoothly, and updated information relevant to today's UK business practices. Even if you aren't entering a project management role, you'll need to learn project planning skills to stay competitive in today's employment market. Now revised with fresh content on everything from a project's start to its finish, this friendly Dummies title will teach you to manage projects large and small. Learn the must-know concepts in project management Discover planning techniques that will enhance your effectiveness Manage projects with in-person or virtual teams Avoid common mistakes and know what to do when the unexpected happens This guide is excellent for anyone in a project management role, students with an eye toward a career in project management, and anyone who needs to organize and complete large tasks.

Contenu

Introduction 1

About This Book 2

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond the Book 4

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1: Understanding Projects and What You Want to Achieve 5

Chapter 1: Success in Project Management 7

Taking on a Project 7

Avoiding the Pitfalls 8

Deciding Whether the Job is a Project 10

Understanding the four control areas 10

Recognising the diversity of projects 12

Understanding the four stages of a project 13

Defining the Project Manager's Role 15

Looking at the Project Manager's tasks 16

Opposing opposition 17

Avoiding 'shortcuts' 18

Deciding On Your Approach 19

Chapter 2: Thinking Through the Life of Your Project 21

Using a Set Approach 21

Breaking the Project Down into Stages 22

Appreciating the advantages of stages 23

Deciding on the number of delivery stages 24

Understanding the Four Main Stages 25

Starting the project 25

The planning stage - organising and preparing 28

The delivery stages - carrying out the work 32

The closure stage 36

Chapter 3: Defining the Scope and Producing a Business Case 37

Defining the Scope 38

Managing expectations and avoiding disappointment 39

Challenging the scope 39

Understanding the dimensions of scope 40

Being clear 40

Considering the requirements 41

Producing a Business Case 41

Getting to grips with the basic contents 42

Keeping the Business Case up to date 42

Figuring out why you're doing the project 43

Understanding project justification 44

Understanding benefits 45

Writing the Business Case 49

Complying with organisational standards 50

Going Back to the Scope 50

Challenging the existing scope 51

Going the second mile 51

Getting to Grips with Techniques 52

Calculating return on investment 52

Understanding cost-benefit analysis 52

Chapter 4: Knowing Your Project's Stakeholders 55

Managing Stakeholders 56

Identifying stakeholders - the 'who' 57

Analysing the stakeholders - the 'where' 60

Understanding positions - the 'why' 62

Deciding action - the 'what' 63

Working with stakeholders - the 'how' 65

Planning the work - the 'when' 66

Handling Opposition 67

Solving the problems 67

Focusing on the common areas 67

Understanding that you're a threat 67

Spotting facts and emotions 69

Overriding the opposition 70

Handling Multiple-Stakeholder Projects 71

Getting multiple approvals 71

Developing management strategies 71

Part 2: Planning Time: Determining What, When and How Much 73

Chapter 5: Planning with Deliverables First 75

Seeing the Logic of Product Planning 76

Thinking 'product' before thinking 'task' 76

Understanding the problems of an activity focus 78

Knowing What a Product Is - and Isn't 79

Finding Good Product Names 80

Using a Business Project Example 81

Identifying the products 81

Developing a sequence 82

Defining the products 87

Using a Structured Product List 88

Unleashing the Power of the Work Flow Diagram 91

Using the Work Flow Diagram for risk 92

Using the Work Flow Diagram for control 92

Using the Work Flow Diagram to show stages 93

Using the Work Flow for progress reporting 93

Getting a picture of the project 95

Chapter 6: Planning the Activities 97

Moving From Products to Activities 98

Having multiple tasks to build a product 98

Listing the activities or tasks 99

Drawing Up a First Activity Network 101

Seeing how you build up an Activity Network 101

Using the Work Flow Diagram 103

Putting in the time durations 105

Calculating the length of the project 107

Understanding Float and Its Impact 109

Identifying the Critical Path 111

Watching the critical path 112

Finding a split critical path 113

Being More Precise with Dependencies 114

Understanding dependency types 114

Staying in touch with reality 117

Thinking a bit more about sequences 118

Working with the Activity Network 120

Working back to meet end dates 121

Avoiding backing into your schedule 122

Going for Gantt 123

Estimating Activity Durations 125

Getting the best information 126

Using estimating techniques 127

Putting a health warning on estimates 128

Chapter 7: Looking At Staff Resources 131

Seeing Why You Need to Plan Staff Use 132

Dealing with resource conflicts 132

Making sure that people are available 133

Monitoring use of staff on the project 135

Matching People to Tasks 135

Working out the skill sets and knowledge that you need on the teams 135

Growing your people 136

Identifying skills sets 137

Honing Your Task Duration Estimates 138

Documenting your estimates 138

Factors in activity timing and estimates 139

Estimating required work effort 140

Factoring in productivity 141

Taking care with historical data 144

Accounting for availability 145

Smoothing the Resource 146

Checking for resource conflict 146

Resolving resource conflicts - the steps 147

Co-ordinating assignments across multiple projects 149

**Chapter 8: Planning for Other Resources and Develo…