A Manager's Guide to Project Management: Learn How to Apply Best Practices

There are plenty of books about project management, but this is the first one written for the people who have the most at stake: the senior executives who will ultimately be held accountable for the successes of the projects they approve and supervise. Top enterprise project management expert Michael Bender explains project management from the perspective that matters most to executives: adding value. Most books view project management from the inside, focusing primarily on lower-level issues, such as the creation of Work Breakdown Structures. A Manager's Guide to Project Management views it from above, explaining how project managers can best achieve the strategic goals of the business; the executive's role in successful project management; and the tools available to executives who want to gain greater value from project management. Drawing on his extensive experience, Bender shows how to: make sure project and enterprise goals align; structure organizations to support more effective project communication and decision making; integrate project processes with other organizational processes; oversee projects more effectively. This book contains a full section on understanding and managing projects as capital investments, including detailed coverage of building balanced project portfolios. Bender concludes with a sophisticated discussion of managing projects in global environments and optimizing resources where multiple projects must be managed.

MICHAEL B. BENDER, PMP, is founder and CEO of Ally Business Developers, a consortium of world-class business, organizational, and professional development experts. Bender’s project/program management experience spans 30 years and several continents. He has applied his technical, leadership, and managerial skills to projects including the Hubble Space Telescope; NEXRAD (Next Generation Weather Radar); and air traffic control systems for the United States, UK, and Taiwan. Bender is a speaker for the American Management Association (AMA) and Global Knowledge, and a guest speaker at DePaul University and the Project Management Institute. He has authored many AMA project management seminars and recently completed a study of best practices in multiproject management.