How to Run Successful Projects in Web Time - Hardcover

Fergus O'Connell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1580531652 ISBN 13: 9781580531658

Publisher: Artech House Publishers, 2000

Synopsis

The author compares the movie industry and high-tech industries with regard to project management. He believes that the way to shorten projects is to find the critical path and often project management software doesn't provide such crucial information.

About this title

From the Author

About five years ago DEC Computing published an article I had written. In it, I tried to show that the problem of estimating, which still remains unsolved in the IT/software industry, has to a large part been solved in the film making industry. I believe that the film making industry is, if anything, even more complex than the software development industry. This is particularly true in terms of its being part art part science, and also in terms of the level of perfection that is required in the finished product.

I read Alan Cooper's book, The Lunatics Are Running The Asylum. In it I was delighted to find him making the same comparison. What's more, he was saying what I had been saying, that the key to the successful movie was not a successful production phase, but a comprehensively thorough pre-production phase. He speculated what I had been speculating - that if we were to put more time into the project planning, we could shorten and cheapen the development time.

At a European project management conference I attended I was fortunate enough to both hear a lecture by and have a two-hour conversation with Eli Goldratt. It turned out that the application of his Theory of Constraints to project management emerged with essentially the same conclusion. He commented on the fact that everyone at the conference seemed happy with the state of things, despite the fact that many more projects fail than succeed. I suddenly understood the reason why they were happy. Most project managers believe the project management war is unwinnable. They believe that provided they can hold the line and perhaps accomplish local successes now and again, that that is the best that can be achieved. In our small way, we had helped to stop the rout and stabilize the front. I now realized that not only was it possible to hold the line, but it was possible to win the war. This book is about winning the war.

About the Author

Fergus O'Connell graduated with a First in Mathematical Physics from University College Cork. Since founding ETP (Eyes on the Prize), his own project management company, in 1992, he has taught thousands of managers in his unique seminars and worked with major corporations around the world. With 24 years in the computer industry, 21 spent in project management roles, this best-selling author wrote the highly-regarded book How to Run Successful High-Tech Project-Based Organizations (Artech House, 1999).

Edition details

• Publisher: Artech House Publishers
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1580531652
• ISBN 13: 9781580531658
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 266