Project Management in Practice

Cover......Page 1
Title Page......Page 3
Copyright......Page 4
Crystal Ball Trial Card......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Preface......Page 13
1.1 What Is a Project?......Page 19
Trends in Project Management......Page 21
Major Differences......Page 22
Negotiation......Page 23
1.3 What Is Managed? The Three Goals of a Project......Page 25
1.4 The Life Cycles of Projects......Page 28
1.5 Selecting Projects To Meet Organizational Objectives......Page 29
Nonnumeric Selection Methods......Page 30
Numeric Selection Methods......Page 31
1.6 The Project Portfolio Process......Page 39
1.7 The Materials in this Text......Page 43
Discussion Questions......Page 45
Incident for Discussion......Page 46
Case: Friendly Assisted Living Facility—1......Page 47
Case: Handstar Inc.......Page 48
Bibliography......Page 50
2 The Manager, the Organization, and the Team......Page 51
Facilitator......Page 52
Communicator......Page 54
Virtual Project Manager......Page 57
Meetings, Convener and Chair......Page 58
Acquiring Resources......Page 59
Leadership......Page 60
Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, and Persuasion......Page 62
2.3 Selection of a Project Manager......Page 64
Leadership, Style, Ethics......Page 65
Ability to Handle Stress......Page 66
2.4 Project Management as a Profession......Page 68
2.5 Fitting Projects into the Parent Organization......Page 69
Pure Project Organization......Page 70
Functional Project Organization......Page 71
Matrix Project Organization......Page 72
The Project Management Office and Project Maturity......Page 75
2.6 The Project Team......Page 77
Matrix Team Problems......Page 79
Intrateam Conflict......Page 80
Integration Management......Page 82
Discussion Questions......Page 84
Incidents for Discussion......Page 85
Case: The Quantum Bank......Page 86
Case: Southern Care Hospital......Page 87
Bibliography......Page 89
3.1 From the Project Charter to the Project Plan......Page 92
3.2 The Planning Process—Overview......Page 94
The Launch Meeting—and Subsequent Meetings......Page 95
Sorting Out the Project—The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)......Page 98
Extensions of the Everyday WBS......Page 101
The RACI Matrix......Page 104
A Whole-Brain Approach to Project Planning......Page 106
The Design Structure Matrix......Page 109
Agile Project Management......Page 110
3.5 Risk Management......Page 112
Discussion Questions......Page 119
Exercises......Page 120
Incidents for Discussion......Page 121
Case: Friendly Assisted Living Facility—3......Page 122
Case: John Wiley & Sons......Page 123
Case: Samson University......Page 124
Bibliography......Page 125
4 Budgeting the Project......Page 127
4.1 Methods of Budgeting......Page 128
Top-Down Budgeting......Page 130
4.2 Cost Estimating......Page 131
The Impact of Budget Cuts......Page 132
An Aside......Page 134
Activity versus Program Budgeting......Page 136
Learning Curves......Page 137
Other Factors......Page 141
Budget Uncertainty......Page 143
Project Budgeting in Practice......Page 146
4.5 Project Risk Simulation with Crystal Ball®......Page 147
Considering Disaster......Page 154
Discussion Questions......Page 155
Exercises......Page 156
Incidents For Discussion......Page 157
Case: Friendly Assisted Living Facility Project Budget Development—4......Page 158
Case: Photstat Inc.......Page 160
Case: Building the Geddy’s dream house......Page 161
Bibliography......Page 162
5 Scheduling the Project......Page 163
The Language of PERT/CPM......Page 164
Building the Network......Page 165
Finding the Critical Path and Critical Time......Page 167
Calculating Activity Slack......Page 169
Doing It the Easy Way—Microsoft Project (MSP)......Page 170
Calculating Probabilistic Activity Times......Page 173
The Probabilistic Network, an Example......Page 174
Once More the Easy Way......Page 176
The Probability of Completing the Project on Time......Page 177
The Case of the Unreasonable Boss......Page 180
A Potential Problem: Path Mergers......Page 181
5.3 Simulation......Page 182
Incorporating Costs into the Simulation Analysis......Page 184
Traditional Statistics versus Simulation......Page 185
The Chart......Page 188
5.5 Extensions to PERT/CPM......Page 190
Precedence Diagramming......Page 191
Final Thoughts on the Use of These Tools......Page 192
Review Questions......Page 193
Exercises......Page 194
Incidents for Discussion......Page 197
Case: Friendly Assisted Living Facility Program Plan—5......Page 198
Case: NutriStar......Page 200
Case: Launching E-Collar......Page 202
Bibliography......Page 203
6 Allocating Resources to the Project......Page 204
The Critical Path Method......Page 205
Crashing a Project with Excel......Page 209
Project Expediting in Practice......Page 213
6.2 Resource Loading......Page 214
6.3 Resource Leveling......Page 220
Resource Loading/Leveling and Uncertainty......Page 227
Some Priority Rules......Page 229
6.5 Allocating Scarce Resources to Several Projects......Page 231
Criteria of Priority Rules......Page 232
Resource Allocation and the Project Life Cycle......Page 233
6.6 Goldratt’s Critical Chain......Page 234
Estimating Task Times......Page 237
The Effect of Not Reporting Early Activity Completion......Page 238
Multitasking......Page 239
Common Chain of Events......Page 241
The Critical Chain......Page 242
Review Questions......Page 243
Exercises......Page 244
Incidents for Discussion......Page 246
Case: Friendly Assisted Living Facility Resource Usage—6......Page 247
Case: Charter Financial Bank......Page 249
Case: Rand Contractors......Page 250
Bibliography......Page 251
7.1 The Plan-Monitor-Control Cycle......Page 252
Designing the Monitoring System......Page 254
Data Analysis......Page 255
Reporting and Report Types......Page 256
Meetings......Page 258
Virtual Meetings, Reports, and Project Management......Page 259
7.3 Earned Value......Page 260
Purposes of Control......Page 267
7.5 Designing the Control System......Page 269
Types of Control Systems......Page 270
Tools for Control......Page 272
7.6 Scope Creep and Change Control......Page 275
Review Questions......Page 277
Exercises......Page 278
Incidents for Discussion......Page 279
Case: Friendly Assisted Living Facility Case—7......Page 281
Friendly Assisted Living Facility Construction coordination meeting 4/11/X8 ACTION ITEM LIST......Page 283
Case: Peak Lighting, Inc.......Page 284
Bibliography......Page 285
8.1 Evaluation......Page 287
Evaluation Criteria......Page 288
Measurement......Page 289
The Audit Process......Page 290
The Audit Report......Page 292
When to Close a Project......Page 295
Types of Project Closure......Page 296
The Closure Process......Page 297
The Project Final Report......Page 299
Discussion Questions......Page 301
Case: Friendly Assisted Living Facility Case—8......Page 302
Case: Datatech......Page 305
Case: Ivory Tower Systems......Page 306
Bibliography......Page 308
A.1 Probability......Page 309
A.2 Event Relationships and Probability Laws......Page 310
The Multiplication Rule......Page 311
A.3 Statistics......Page 312
Descriptive versus Inferential Statistics......Page 313
Measures of Central Tendency......Page 314
Measures of Dispersion......Page 315
Inferential Statistics......Page 316
Standard Probability Distributions......Page 317
Bibliography......Page 318
Index......Page 319
EULA......Page 329