Project Management for Non-Project Managers - Hardcover

Ferraro, Jack

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814417361 ISBN 13: 9780814417362

Publisher: Amacom Books, 2012

Synopsis

A seasoned project management consultant introduces critical project management skills, tools and techniques. Includes case studies, checklists and exercises.

About this title

About the Author

JACK FERRARO, PMP, is president of MyProjectAdvisor®, a company that provides project management consulting, coaching, and training. He has 22 years of experience working with project teams and managing complex projects.

From the Back Cover

“Project Management for Non-Project Managers is a great book that will enable mana­gers to understand the value of project management and how they must contribute to a successful project, and educate future business leaders to drive positive organizational change.”

— John M. Muraski, MS, University of Wisconsin College of Business Faculty

“Jack Ferraro’s book presents key project management principles and teaches core skills for business managers engaged in projects. You’ll have your own ‘ah ha’ moments with this engagingly written commonsense approach to managing business change.”

— Lee Richards, President, Dominion Project Management

“Projects require unprecedented collaboration across the enterprise, and this book is a must-read for functional managers who want to remain relevant with today’s pace of organizational and technology changes.”

— Aaron Miller, Program Manager, Wright State Research Institute

Project management can seem mysterious with its complicated-sounding processes, charts, and terminology – but in order to truly ensure that an initiative affecting your department delivers real results, you need to understand the basics.

Filled with step-by-step guidelines, case studies, and illustrations for mastering project management skills including business-analysis techniques, work-breakdown structures, program-sequencing techniques, and risk-management methods, Project Management for Non-Project Managers demystifies the proven strategies used by certified project management professionals. You’ll learn how to:

• Define your project mission

• Take an active role in the initial planning process

• Control the sequence and timing of events

• Articulate a compelling story of the project, and keep it on track

• Continuously manage risk, as well as changing requirements and resources

• Effectively communicate with the project team

Giving you insights into four critical PM skills, the book helps you provide substantial benefits to your organization by improving your ability to ensure that projects ultimately translate to quantifiable, real-world benefits. The book uses real-world case studies to exemplify how you can hold project teams accountable for usable deliverables; enable customer-centric thinking; and focus relentlessly on business value. This is the one guide you need to take ownership of any project, and let your business expertise translate to project success.

From the Inside Flap

As a manager, you may feel that “project teams” brought in to accomplish goals and objectives affecting your department may as well have crash-landed from another planet, speaking a jargon-filled language all their own, and referring to complex-looking graphs and charts you don’t recognize. Yet it’s your responsibility to ensure that the results of a project initiative have a positive effect, benefiting your department, your customers, and ultimately, your organization. You may not be a certified project manager – or even have been trained in the basics of project management – but without an understanding of how project management works, you may be doing a disservice to your department, your company and even your career.

As a seasoned project management consultant and instructor with over two decades of experience, Jack Ferraro has witnessed countless functional managers who have been thrust into project teams – or even project leadership positions – desperate to gain an understanding of PM fundamentals. Project Management for Non-Project Managers is a simply written, down-to-earth guide that will help you understand your role in any project, and enable you to use project management techniques to actively participate in and ensure the successful completion of any project initiative.

Featuring step-by-step guidelines and enlightening stories from the project trenches, this easy-to-understand book introduces you to critical project management skills. You’ll learn how to:

• Engage productively with project managers and teams to increase the probability of real business value being created from the project.

• Eliminate the unnecessary work that often slows projects down.

• Play an aggressive role in the initial planning process.

• Understand what a project team should be providing and when, what you need to provide the project team, and how to interpret schedule and cost information.

• Manage risk, and prevent changing require­ments from derailing the completion of important milestones.

Illustrated by case studies, and filled with helpful checklists and exercises, the book clearly explains project management tools including business analysis techniques, work breakdown structures, program sequencing techniques, and risk-management methods. You’ll learn everything you need to know to articulate effectively real business needs to the project team, and use quantifiable action steps to ensure real results.

Whether you’re being asked to work together with a project management team, or are eager to put proven project management techniques to work for you, this book will enable you to use the tools that will help you become a productive spearhead of change in your organization.

JACK FERRARO, PMP, is president of MyProjectAdvisor®, a company that provides project management consulting, coaching, and training. He has 22 years of experience working with project teams and managing complex projects. He lives in Washington, DC.

Edition details

• Publisher: Amacom Books
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0814417361
• ISBN 13: 9780814417362
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 242