Introduction

In today's highly competitive market, project management has become one of the most valued skills in all types of organizations. To thrive, it is essential that organizations deliver their projects on time. No matter what method organizations choose, they rely heavily on the expertise of skilled project managers. This is especially the case when organizations undertake a major project where they need project managers with advanced skills.

This book has been written to help project managers to revise and advance their skills. It is for project managers who are or will be managing projects involving multiple disciplines and substantial resource. You will be taken through all of the key skills that you will need to ensure that you deliver your project successfully. The book covers all of the key areas of project management with a particular focus on the perspective that a project manager should have at any moment in time.

Whilst many of the skills learnt by intermediate-level project managers still apply, such as basic Gantt chart manipulation, there are new skills to learn. This book explains those skills, setting out processes, methods and tools to enable a smooth and successful project delivery, for example how to handle the much larger volume of requirements and change that occurs in complex projects, and what to do when you can no longer deal with every change personally .

Key topics that will be blended throughout the book include how to handle the many stakeholders who will undoubtedly have an interest in the project. In particular it explains the difference between gathering information for managing the project and gathering information for managing stakeholders. Project managers can gain control not only of their projects but also of their organizations' needs.

Projects follow a natural series of steps that takes them from their inception to their close. These natural steps have been used as the basis for the order of this book. Each chapter takes you closer to the end of the project. At each stage the key concepts and techniques are introduced and often examples are given. The chapters are:

• Chapter 1: Starting an Advanced Project Successfully;

• Chapter 2: Building the Macro Plan;

• Chapter 3: Building the Detailed Project Plan;

• Chapter 4: Building the Project Team;

• Chapter 5: How to Run the Project on a Day-to-Day Basis;

• Chapter 6: Monitoring and Controlling the Project;

• Chapter 7: Successfully Shutting Down the Project;

• Chapter 8: Emergency Actions.

Chapter 1: Starting an advanced project successfully covers the initiation of the project. At this stage in the project's lifetime it can seem impossible that the project will ever start, much less complete. This chapter explains how to overcome the mass of ideas and work that could be undertaken and shows you how to focus on four key themes. These themes are the underlying themes for the majority of project life cycles. They are:

1. Stakeholder management.

2. Build the business case.

3. Start long-lead activities.

4. Define early roles and responsibilities.

Correct management and control of these themes will ensure successful transition through the early project stages. In practice these themes occur throughout the project in some guise and therefore they are returned to several times during the text.

Chapter 2: Building the macro plan explains how to move past the initial stages where there are only ideas and no plans. It describes how to set out a macro plan that explains the detail and the strategy associated with that detail. This chapter covers how to gain the commitment of managers and the buy-in of staff to the plans. Taking forward the initial themes, the chapter shows you how to change them into a work breakdown structure and then how to manage the completion of the work breakdown structure.

Chapter 3: Building the detailed project plan builds on Chapter 2 and explains how to develop a much more detailed analysis of how the project should be managed. Without a well-written plan you will find it difficult to manage an advanced project. This chapter sets out how to go about the production in a sensible manner. It points out pitfalls and sets out techniques that will save you time and effort. Specifically it sets out how to gather requirements, the building of the associated schedule and finally the production of the project plan.

Chapter 4: Building the project team covers perhaps one of the most important aspects that you can undertake in any project. Initially the text leads you through the way of identifying your team. However, this is quickly developed into methods of motivating the team. It explains the key aspects of successfully dealing with team issues and concludes with how to gain the respect of the project team.

Chapter 5: How to run the project on a day-to-day basis explains the basic fundamentals of what to do day to day. It covers the different ways that a project can be set up and run. In particular, it sets out how to tackle an implementation strategy and then how to execute that strategy. This chapter additionally covers how to ensure that quality remains on the agenda during the execution of the project, an aspect that you should be keen to discover.

Chapter 6: Monitoring and controlling the project covers an area that can prove to be difficult when it is an advanced project you are running. To be successful you need to gather together sufficient information to enable you to understand what is going on but not so much that you stifle those trying to do the work. This chapter explains how to achieve this without ruining all of the hard work undertaken so far.

Chapter 7: Successfully shutting down the project explains an aspect that can be surprisingly difficult. Often those who commissioned the project can find it difficult to allow the project team to move on to other work. They feel that when you and the team move on to other work they will be unable to resolve the numerous tidying-up activities. This chapter shows you how to achieve closure effectively.

Chapter 8: Emergency actions concludes by covering actions that are often necessary in advanced projects. These allow you to recover the project timescales and delivery when things go wrong. This chapter shows you how to run these actions and how to use them successfully.