Learn best practices and proven methods from project management professionals—and apply these skills as you work with Microsoft® Project. In this practical guide, project management expert Bonnie Biafore shows you how to manage projects efficiently and effectively, sharing the real-world experiences of project managers in several industries. You'll learn how to put the best practices and hard-won lessons of experts to work on your critical projects.
Sharpen the skills you need to manage projects expertly—from start to finish
Communicate effectively with project stakeholders, management, and team members
Apply methods to break down the project into small, manageable pieces
Define work assignments, choose resources, and build project schedules
Accurately estimate project costs and work with a budget
Identify project changes and manage risks
Track progress and balance priorities without sacrificing quality
Document project history and lessons learned to help improve future projects
Project files available on the companion website.
Getting a Project Started
Chapter 1 Meet Project Management
What Is a Project?
What Is Project Management?
The Benefits of Project Management
Summary
Chapter 2 Obtaining Approval for a Project
Summarizing a Project
Defining the Problem
Project Goal and Objectives
Project Strategy
Gathering Requirements
Deliverables
Success Criteria
The Scope Statement
Assumptions and Risks
Working with Project Stakeholders
The Project Charter: Publicizing a Project
Summary
Planning a Project
Chapter 3 Planning to Achieve Success
What Is Project Planning?
Plans Change
Summary
Chapter 4 Building a Work Breakdown Structure
What’s a Work Breakdown Structure?
The Benefits of a WBS
Building a WBS
When to Stop Building a WBS
Building a WBS from the Bottom Up
Recording a WBS
Detailing Work Packages
Summary
Chapter 5 Project Resources
The Responsibility Matrix
The Project Organization Chart
Putting a Project Team Together
Creating Resources in Project
Summary
Chapter 6 Building a Project Schedule
Estimating
Top-Down Planning
Defining the Sequence of Work
Adding Schedule Milestones
Assigning Resources to Tasks
Building Reality into a Schedule
Shortening a Project Schedule
Summary
Chapter 7 Working with a Budget
Understanding Financial Measures
Understanding Capital Budgets
Calculating Costs in a Project Schedule
Comparing Project Costs with the Budget
Exporting Costs from a Project Schedule
Summary
Carrying Out a Project
Chapter 8 Executing the Project Plan
Procuring Resources
Kicking Off a Project
A Final Checklist
Summary
Chapter 9 Evaluating Project Performance
Gathering Data
Updating Tasks in Your Schedule
Tracking Schedule Progress
Reviewing Cost and Cost Variance
Reporting on Project Performance
Working with Visual Reports
Summary
Chapter 10 Managing Project Resources
Motivating Project Resources
Developing a Team
Evaluating People’s Performance
Summary
Chapter 11 Communicating Information
Knowledge Is Power
The Communication Plan
Guidelines for Good Communication
How to Get Messages Through
Meetings That Work
Project Status Reports
Taming Email
Summary
Controlling Projects
Chapter 12 Managing Project Changes
An Overview of the Change Management Process
Summary
Chapter 13 Modifying the Project Schedule
Simplifying Solution Hunting
Shortening a Project Schedule
Splitting Long Tasks into Short Ones
Adjusting Resource Allocation
Assigning Overtime
Substituting Resources
Modifying Baselines
Summary
Chapter 14 Balancing the Budget and Other Project Variables
Cost, Scope, Quality, and Schedule
Balancing Acts
Summary
Chapter 15 Managing Risk
The Benefits of Managing Risk
The Risk-Management Plan
Identifying and Describing Risks
Choosing the Risks You’ll Manage
Responding to Risks
Tracking Risks
Summary
Closing Projects
Chapter 16 Learning Lessons
The Importance of Lessons Learned
Collecting Lessons Learned
Documenting Lessons Learned
Summary
Chapter 17 Closing a Project
Obtaining Customer Acceptance
Documenting the Project
Closing Out Contracts
Project Transitions
Summary
Chapter 18 Archiving Historical Information
Information to Store about Projects
Ways to Build a Project Archive
Microsoft Enterprise Project Management Software
Summary
Beyond Projects
Chapter 19 Selecting and Prioritizing Projects
Project Selection and the Project Manager
Criteria for Selecting Projects
How a Project Review Board Works
Summary
Chapter 20 Other Project Management Approaches
Managing the Critical Chain
Agile Project Management
Summary
Glossary
Title:
Successful Project Management: Applying Best Practices and Real-World Techniques with Microsoft® Project
Bonnie Biafore has always been fascinated with math in its practical and more esoteric forms. She writes excellent and entertaining books about personal finance, investing, accounting, and project management. Her NAIC Stock Selection Handbook won major awards from the Society of Technical Communication and APEX Awards for Publication Excellence (but the raves she receives from beginning investors mean much more to her).
Bonnie is also the author of O'Reilly's Online Investing Hacks, QuickBooks 2011: The Missing Manual, and Microsoft Project 2010: The Missing Manual. She writes a monthly column called WebWatch for Better Investing magazine and is a regular contributor to http://www.interest.com. As a consultant, she manages projects for clients and wins accolades for her ability to herd cats.
