Acknowledgments

In the evolution of this material over the last three years , I have learned much from many people, and there are some I would particularly like to acknowledge .

Dee Carri and Mary Martin at Elan Corporation; Michael Rice and Colm Quinn of the Kerry Group; Paul O'Dea and Paul Fox of Credo Group ; Dermot Gilson of Avid Technology; Tony Mulqueen at ISOCOR; Allan Young from Scottish Equitable in Edinburgh; Sacha Jovanovic of MPA Stuttgart; Guido Haesen and Peter Lowe of the European Commission in Luxembourg; my former bosses at Retix, Tony Fonze and Ron Rudolf; Russell Altendorff of Travelex Corp.; Jan Middleton of SSA Europe; Tim Greening-Jackson of KNX; Paul Renehan of ITP; Dermot Bolger and Redmond Sweeny at Telecom Ireland Software; and John O'Leary of BP Exploration in Colombia. All, whether they know it or not, helped me to see connections between things and gain new insights.

The material in Appendix 1 first appeared in an article entitled "How to become a world class estimator " in Issue 4 of the Journal of Structured Project Management . It was then further extended as part of an internal ETP project. However, I would like to acknowledge a number of contributions to its final shape from Telecom Ireland Software, a company which uses this procedure.

Sean McEvoy and David Conway prepared the Guide to MS Project included in Appendix 6.

The book is written, and then a small group of skilled, dedicated and talented people bring it to you. There are the production people, in my case, Ann Greenwood, Louise Wilson (for the last time!) and Val Jones. There are the editors “ three did time on this book: Viki Williams who did her usual highly professional job, was a pleasure to work with and then, just as I handed in the manuscript, upped and left. Good luck on your travels Viki. I guess I'll never get that & pound ;2 now! Christopher Glennie who held the fort; Jason Dunne, who was the best of project managers “ enthusiastic, helpful, creative, supportive and (best of all) gave me deadlines I could meet! (If only he'd give me that screen saver. I'd really be happy!!)

There are the cover designers “ Maurice Farrell, John O'Regan and Martin Swords. Who knows how many magazines they exhausted trying to get those holes just right!

Myles Dunne, technical author to the gentry, prepared the camera-ready copy with his customary skill and made a book out of a heap of paper, diskettes and garbled notes from me.

Also, the show's not over until the book lands in your lap. For this I have to thank the sales people: Alan, Craig, Delya, Karen, Lesley, Wendy and Sam. I know that books don't just sit there and sell themselves “ it's the reps who have to get out and push them. I sell myself , so I know how tough it can be. Thank you for all your hard work on my behalf . It was your commitment and dedication that made the first edition a success.

And finally, there are Hugh and Bernadette. Hugh wasn't old enough to read the first edition, so he had an excuse , Bernadette had none! I'm sure they'll both get endless hours of reading pleasure out of this one!!