Project Management All-in-One For Dummies

Your ultimate go-to project management bible

Perform Be Agile! Time-crunch! Right now, the business world has never moved so fast and project managers have never been so much in demand--the Project Management Institute has estimated that industries will need at least 87 million employees with the full spectrum of PM skills by 2027. To help you meet those needs and expectations in time, Project Management All-in-One For Dummies provides with all the hands-on information and advice you need to take your organizational, planning, and execution skills to new heights.

Packed with on-point PM wisdom, these 7 mini-books--including the bestselling Project Management and Agile Project Management For Dummies--help you and your team hit maximum productivity by razor-honing your skills in sizing, organizing, and scheduling projects for ultimate effectiveness. You'll also find everything you need to overdeliver in a good way when choosing the right tech and software, assessing risk, and dodging the pitfalls that can snarl up even the best-laid plans.

• Apply formats and formulas and checklists
• Manage Continuous Process Improvement
• Resolve conflict in teams and hierarchies
• Rescue distressed projects

Auteur

Stanley E. Portny, PMP Mark C. Layton, MBA2, CST, PMP, SAFe SPC Steven J. Ostermiller, CSP, PMP Nick Graham Cynthia Snyder Dionisio David Morrow, CSP, ICP-ACC Doug Rose, CSP-SM, PMI-ACP, PMP, SAFe SPC

Texte du rabat

Your ultimate go-to project management bible Perform Be Agile! Time-crunch! Right now, the business world has never moved so fast and project managers have never been so much in demand--the Project Management Institute has estimated that industries will need at least 87 million employees with the full spectrum of PM skills by 2027. To help you meet those needs and expectations in time, Project Management All-in-One For Dummies provides with all the hands-on information and advice you need to take your organizational, planning, and execution skills to new heights. Packed with on-point PM wisdom, these 7 mini-books--including the bestselling Project Management and Agile Project Management For Dummies--help you and your team hit maximum productivity by razor-honing your skills in sizing, organizing, and scheduling projects for ultimate effectiveness. You'll also find everything you need to overdeliver in a good way when choosing the right tech and software, assessing risk, and dodging the pitfalls that can snarl up even the best-laid plans. Apply formats and formulas and checklists Manage Continuous Process Improvement Resolve conflict in teams and hierarchies Rescue distressed projects

Contenu

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 2

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 3

Book 1: In the Beginning: Project Management Basics 5

Chapter 1: Achieving Results with Project Management 7

Determining What Makes a Project a Project 7

Understanding the three main components that define a project 8

Recognizing the diversity of projects 10

Describing the four phases of a project life cycle 10

Defining Project Management 12

Starting with the initiating processes 13

Outlining the planning processes 14

Examining the executing processes 15

Surveying the monitoring and controlling processes 16

Ending with the closing processes 17

Knowing the Project Manager's Role 17

Looking at the project manager's tasks 18

Staving off excuses for not following a structured project-management approach 18

Avoiding shortcuts 19

Staying aware of other potential challenges 20

Chapter 2: Involving the Right People 23

Understanding Your Project's Stakeholders 24

Developing a Stakeholder Register 24

Starting your stakeholder register 25

Ensuring your stakeholder register is complete and up to date 28

Using a stakeholder register template 30

Determining Whether Stakeholders Are Drivers, Supporters, or Observers 31

Distinguishing the different groups 32

Deciding when to involve your stakeholders 33

Using different methods to involve your stakeholders 36

Making the most of your stakeholders' involvement 37

Displaying Your Stakeholder Register 38

Confirming Your Stakeholders' Authority 39

Assessing Your Stakeholders' Power and Interest 40

Chapter 3: Developing Your Game Plan 43

Divide and Conquer: Breaking Your Project into Manageable Chunks 43

Thinking in detail 44

Identifying necessary project work with a work breakdown structure 45

Dealing with special situations 53

Creating and Displaying Your Work Breakdown Structure 57

Considering different schemes to create your WBS hierarchy 57

Using one of two approaches to develop your WBS 58

Categorizing your project's work 60

Labeling your WBS entries 61

Displaying your WBS in different formats 62

Improving the quality of your WBS 66

Using templates 66

Identifying Risks While Detailing Your Work 68

Documenting What You Need to Know about Your Planned Project Work 70

Book 2: Steering the Ship: Planning and Managing a Project 71

Chapter 1: You Want This Project Done When? 73

Picture This: Illustrating a Work Plan with a Network Diagram 74

Defining a network diagram's elements 74

Drawing a network diagram 76

Analyzing a Network Diagram 77

Reading a network diagram 77

Interpreting a network diagram 79

Working with Your Project's Network Diagram 84

Determining precedence 84

Using a network diagram to analyze a simple example 87

Developing Your Project's Schedule 92

Taking the first steps 92

Avoiding the pitfall of backing in to your schedule 93

Meeting an established time constraint 94

Applying different strategies to arrive at your destination in less time 95

Estimating Activity Duration 102

Determining the underlying factors 103

Considering resource characteristics 103

Finding sources of supporting information 104

Improving activity duration estimates 104

Displaying Your Project's Schedule 106

Chapter 2: Starting Your Project Team Off on the Right Foot 111

Finalizing Your Project's Participants 112

Are you in? Confirming your team members' participation 112

Assuring that others are on board 114

Filling in the blanks 115

Developing Your Team 116

Reviewing the approved project plan 117

Developing team and individual goals 118

Specifying team-member roles 118

Defining your team's operating processes 119

Supporting the development of team-member relationships 120

Resolving conflicts 120

All together now: Helping your team become a smooth-functioning unit 123

Laying the Groundwork for Controlling Your Project 125

Selecting and preparing your tracking systems 125

Establishing schedules for reports and meetings 126

Setting your project's baseline 127

Hear Ye, Hear Ye! Announcing Your Project 127

Setting the Stage for Your Post-Project Evaluation 128

Chapter 3: Monitoring Progress and Maintaining Control 129

Holding the Reins: Project Control 130

Establishing Project Management Information Systems 131

The clock's ticking: Monitoring schedule performance 132

All in a day's work: Monitoring work effort 138

Follow the money: Monitoring expenditures 143

Putting Your Control Process into Action 147

Heading off problems before they occur 147

Formalizing your control process 148

Identifying possible causes of delays and variances 149

Identifying possible corrective actions 150

Getting back on track: Rebaselining 151

Reacting Responsibly When Changes Are Requested 151

Responding to change requests 152

Creeping away from scope creep 153

Chapter 4: Bringing Your Project to Closure 155

Staying the Course to Completion 156

Plann…