Project Management Demystified : Today's Tools and Techniques

Introduction. Setting the stage. Project management centres on avoinding problems. The invisible project manager. Project management is an emerging profession. Getting the words in the right order. Introduction to project management. What is project management? What is project planning? How do you project plan? Nine steps to a successful project. The scope of the project and its objectives. Defining the project. Changes to the project. Establishing key dates. Evaluation of potential risks. The cost/time/quality triangle. The spectrum of projects. The need for planning. Project planning. The bar chart versus network analysis. Network analysis - a primer. Activity-on-arrow plans. The precedence convention. Choosing the tasks. Drawing up the plan. A fly on the wall. Resource management. Resource definition. Resource allocation. Resource aggregation. Resource aggravation. Resource levelling. Resource smoothing. Resource hierarchies. Resource calendars. Money management. Progress monitoring and control. Concepts. Cost monitoring. Reporting. Computers and other boxes with many buttons. PERT - a potted history. Hardware and software. Types of software. Some words of advice. Advanced critical-path topics. Work breakdown structure and organizational breakdown structure. Merging plans, boiler plating, or task processing. Hammocks. Calendars. Constraint dates. Negative floats. Subprojects. Claims. The people issues. The role of the project manager. The classification of people. Decision making. Motivation. Choosing project-planning software. Hardware. Software criteria. Major software suppliers. Risk management. Qualitative risk. Quantitative risk. Case study: The british library. Contingency and insurance. Terminology Definitions. Alternative definitions. Further reading. Index.