Successful Project Management: Applying Best Practices and Real-World Techniques with Microsoft Project

Description

Learn best practices and proven methods from project management professionals-and apply these skills as you work with Microsoft(R) 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.

CONTENTS:

Acknowledgments; About the Author; Introduction; Companion Content; Support for This Book; Questions and Comments; Getting a Project Started; Chapter 1: Meet Project Management; 1.1 What Is a Project?; 1.2 What Is Project Management?; 1.3 The Benefits of Project Management; 1.4 Summary; Chapter 2: Obtaining Approval for a Project; 2.1 Summarizing a Project; 2.2 Defining the Problem; 2.3 Project Goal and Objectives; 2.4 Project Strategy; 2.5 Gathering Requirements; 2.6 Deliverables; 2.7 Success Criteria; 2.8 The Scope Statement; 2.9 Assumptions and Risks; 2.10 Working with Project Stakeholders; 2.11 The Project Charter: Publicizing a Project; 2.12 Summary; Planning a Project; Chapter 3: Planning to Achieve Success; 3.1 What Is Project Planning?; 3.2 Plans Change; 3.3 Summary; Chapter 4: Building a Work Breakdown Structure; 4.1 What’s a Work Breakdown Structure?; 4.2 The Benefits of a WBS; 4.3 Building a WBS; 4.4 When to Stop Building a WBS; 4.5 Building a WBS from the Bottom Up; 4.6 Recording a WBS; 4.7 Detailing Work Packages; 4.8 Summary; Chapter 5: Project Resources; 5.1 The Responsibility Matrix; 5.2 The Project Organization Chart; 5.3 Putting a Project Team Together; 5.4 Creating Resources in Project; 5.5 Summary; Chapter 6: Building a Project Schedule; 6.1 Estimating; 6.2 Top-Down Planning; 6.3 Defining the Sequence of Work; 6.4 Adding Schedule Milestones; 6.5 Assigning Resources to Tasks; 6.6 Building Reality into a Schedule; 6.7 Shortening a Project Schedule; 6.8 Summary; Chapter 7: Working with a Budget; 7.1 Understanding Financial Measures; 7.2 Understanding Capital Budgets; 7.3 Calculating Costs in a Project Schedule; 7.4 Comparing Project Costs with the Budget; 7.5 Exporting Costs from a Project Schedule; 7.6 Summary; Carrying Out a Project; Chapter 8: Executing the Project Plan; 8.1 Procuring Resources; 8.2 Kicking Off a Project; 8.3 A Final Checklist; 8.4 Summary; Chapter 9: Evaluating Project Performance; 9.1 Gathering Data; 9.2 Updating Tasks in Your Schedule; 9.3 Tracking Schedule Progress; 9.4 Reviewing Cost and Cost Variance; 9.5 Reporting on Project Performance; 9.6 Working with Visual Reports; 9.7 Summary; Chapter 10: Managing Project Resources; 10.1 Motivating Project Resources; 10.2 Developing a Team; 10.3 Evaluating People’s Performance; 10.4 Summary; Chapter 11: Communicating Information; 11.1 Knowledge Is Power; 11.2 The Communication Plan; 11.3 Guidelines for Good Communication; 11.4 How to Get Messages Through; 11.5 Meetings That Work; 11.6 Project Status Reports; 11.7 Taming Email; 11.8 Summary; Controlling Projects; Chapter 12: Managing Project Changes; 12.1 An Overview of the Change Management Process; 12.2 Summary; Chapter 13: Modifying the Project Schedule; 13.1 Simplifying Solution Hunting; 13.2 Shortening a Project Schedule; 13.3 Splitting Long Tasks into Short Ones; 13.4 Adjusting Resource Allocation; 13.5 Assigning Overtime; 13.6 Substituting Resources; 13.7 Modifying Baselines; 13.8 Summary; Chapter 14: Balancing the Budget and Other Project Variables; 14.1 Cost, Scope, Quality, and Schedule; 14.2 Balancing Acts; 14.3 Summary; Chapter 15: Managing Risk; 15.1 The Benefits of Managing Risk; 15.2 The Risk-Management Plan; 15.3 Identifying and Describing Risks; 15.4 Choosing the Risks You’ll Manage; 15.5 Responding to Risks; 15.6 Tracking Risks; 15.7 Summary; Closing Projects; Chapter 16: Learning Lessons; 16.1 The Importance of Lessons Learned; 16.2 Collecting Lessons Learned; 16.3 Documenting Lessons Learned; 16.4 Summary; Chapter 17: Closing a Project; 17.1 Obtaining Customer Acceptance; 17.2 Documenting the Project; 17.3 Closing Out Contracts; 17.4 Project Transitions; 17.5 Summary; Chapter 18: Archiving Historical Information; 18.1 Information to Store about Projects; 18.2 Ways to Build a Project Archive; 18.3 Microsoft Enterprise Project Management Software; 18.4 Summary; Beyond Projects; Chapter 19: Selecting and Prioritizing Projects; 19.1 Project Selection and the Project Manager; 19.2 Criteria for Selecting Projects; 19.3 How a Project Review Board Works; 19.4 Summary; Chapter 20: Other Project Management Approaches; 20.1 Managing the Critical Chain; 20.2 Agile Project Management; 20.3 Summary; Glossary;