- Hardcover
- Publisher: Financial Times/ Prentice Hall; 1 edition (23 Feb 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1405822201
- ISBN-13: 978-1405822206
- Product Dimensions: 24 x 17.2 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,829,879 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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More About the Author
Product Description
Book Description
Get the Financial Times at HALF PRICE for 4 weeks when you buy this Financial Times Prentice Hall book. Details of your exclusive money-saving voucher pack will be enclosed with your order.
Robert Buttrick's book is an invaluable, lucid and practical guide to a crucial area of management, which has been crying out for the treatment it receives in these pages" Robert Heller
Put yourself and your business through the Project Workout to direct and manage projects that will deliver results, drive change and improve the health of your business.
Supported by the Project Workout Live online resource, The Project Workout shows you how to-
Measure critical success factors in any project
Diagnose and address any potential difficulties of implementation
Master a staged framework for managing a successful project
Develop the soft (interpersonal) and hard (structured management) skills of the project manager
Analyze your project as a single entity, and also manage a portfolio of projects
Assess your resource strategy and management effectively
Improve your project tracking and delivery
This 3rd edition of the definitive book on business-led program and project management offers help at every stage, from building a project team right up to reaping the rewards of a timely and successful project. It will be a valuable companion for project managers and executives at any level, and a comprehensive resource for students of project management.
Projects are an important strategic management tool and a way of life for every businessperson. But how do you get started and ensure a successful outcome? This book takes the reader step by step through project management, acting as a companion and guide to ultimate project success.
"The Project Workout is an important book, taking a lead role in growing a new generation of professional project managers." Oded Cohen, The Goldratt Institute.
Terms and conditions apply. Subject to availability. Vouchers must be redeemed before 31/03/06. Only valid for non-subscribers. Offer is non-transferable and not to be used in conjunction with any other offer. No cash equivalent is available. Saving may differ in Scotland.
From the Author
If the world of projects and programs confuses you, read on!
This book is about driving change in your organisation by selecting the RIGHT projects and managing them in the RIGHT way. My approach is to keep things simple, stick to some basic principles and minimise the "rules". In this way, the liklihood of success is increased dramatically and you, as an executive, will have to freedom to direct and manage.
This book is about driving change in your organisation by selecting the RIGHT projects and managing them in the RIGHT way. My approach is to keep things simple, stick to some basic principles and minimise the "rules". In this way, the liklihood of success is increased dramatically and you, as an executive, will have to freedom to direct and manage.
I am not a consultant. I am not an academic. I work within one of the most challenging and high growth industries in the world - telemedia. Everything in the book I have put into practice, the methods work and are proving resilient.I live with the results of my own advice every day!
The approaches I introduce you to in the book are applicable to any industry. I have used them in banks, construction, manufacturing, retail finance, industrials and in the public sector.
Crucially, this book not only tells you about managing or directing a single project but also how to deal with the hundreds of projects that many organisations have. That is NEW and very few companies can honestly say they can handle this. We can usually afford a few projects to fail but, as organisations, it's how we choose and manage our complete portfolio of projects that makes the difference.
In the Foreward to the book Robert Heller, one of the UK's leading business gurus says this "book is an invaluable, lucid and practical guide to a crucial area of management which has been crying out for the treatment it receives in these pages. The companies and managers who best master the methods and maxims in this book will not only achieve their specific objectives, they will win the whole game."
I hope you enjoy the book and that it will indeed help you win "the whole game". --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
One of the striking qualities of this book is its presentation, it is one of those nice books to have. From its tactile pleasing cover to its easy to read lay out with clear headings and quality diagrams it leaps out from the book shelf with a buy me attitude. So many good business books fail with tiny myopic small print and "ants with inky legs" diagrams; this is one scores high in presentation.
So many project management textbooks focus on project management technical skills rather than conceptually what needs to be done. You can do the maths to forward and back compute PERT charts to your hearts content but equally fail to deliver any business benefits. However clever you are with PMW, MS Project or any other priesthood tool failure to deliver value from your project is the easiest thing to do as the IS industry fails to learn year in year out. This book tackles this head on as Robert comes across as a commercial chap with clear focus of why we do projects which is to deliver benefits. He does not get hung up on project management for its own sake; as so many people do as they try to self justify their professional ego's using and mystic terms and language.
This book is about what project management is about not the technical project management skills and therefore it appeals to business people who what to run business changes within a project framework.
It is useful for those who want to understand what project management is about, the controls and deliverables, it really achieves this well and gets to the point quickly and effectively.
This book is real world project management tool where the approach makes sense and does not put off the "non specialist project person" with bureaucracy and impractical ideology. So many firms loose out on not using project management because the gantt chart jockey's bore them to tears.
If you are thinking of getting in a project management methodology to run a big change initiative and paying consultants a fortune to re invent the wheel then this book will save you thousands. It explains a structured approach in perhaps the best way I have seen and gets to the point much faster than 100's of pages of Prince2 manuals.
So much literature looks at the minutia of project management activity promoting forms and charts and lets the reader become immersed in material that eventually makes him forget what its all about "delivering the benefits" . A lot of IS so called professional project managers could learn a lot form this book, let Robert get you away from low level gantt charts and back into the real world of commercial delivery.
The CD ROM is useful although the work outs never seem to fit exactly to what you want to do and although nice I am not 100% sure that its that helpful and if it puts the price of the book up that is a shame.
The only criticism is that it fails to tackle pre project work well and is not really a book on change management. I found the programme management section much weaker than the project section although this is common as project management is the easier discipline.
This is definitely a book on the practical theory of project management rather than a book on change management, if your looking for that I would buy something else.
This is not a cheap book but then it is well put together. If trying to decided which book on project management to buy then you can't go wrong with this one. I liked it and it takes a prime position on my shelf.
Format:Paperback
This book really helped me pass my APMP exam. I was studying via distance learning and found the modules very uninspiring. I noticed this was recommended reading in the APM BOK and bought it. It's incredibly easy and insightful reading ( a rare combination in business books ) The workouts are great and memorable too. The CD is a nice touch and the risk calculator is clever but not too clever to understand.
Many thanks to the author I'll look out for his other titles.
Many thanks to the author I'll look out for his other titles.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Superb book for PM processes and PMO
12 Jun 2002
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is one of the few books that covers project management as a coherent process while providing detailed guidance for enterprise-level program management.
The project management processes covered are strikingly similar to PRINCE2 (the UK PM standard), especially with respect to organizational structure. If your approach is aligned to the US standard set forth in the Project Management Institute's PMBOK you discover that you'll have to compensate for gaps between the author's approach and the PMBOK. An example of where such a gap exists is in the chapter on project accounting, where status reporting is not consistent with earned value, which the PMBOK now covers. There are other such gaps in the way process flows are presented. However, this book contains so much valuable information and such a strong approach to managing projects at the enterprise level that the effort to fill in the gaps will be repaid many times over with an approach to project and program management that is absent in the PMBOK.
What distinguishes this book and why I think it's invaluable include:
(1) Strong emphasis on making a business case quantifying project benefits up front, and managing stakeholder expectations.
(2) Focus on deliverables instead of managing to a Gantt chart.
(3) Viable approach for managing project portfolios, which is a true enterprise-approach to program management and an excellent framework for establishing and managing a PMO.
(4) Copious details about the important aspects of project management, including handling issues, quality, and resources.
I particularly like the staged approach to managing projects, which is consistent with PRINCE2, and the use of 'quality gates' as stage entry and exit criteria. I also like the way the book steps you through how to properly set up and manage a single project, then a collection of projects, and finally a portfolio of projects. It is here that the PMO concept starts to become clear and structured, and where the book has the most value to organizations that are struggling with establishing a PMO.
The CD ROM that comes with the book is, in my opinion, more of a novelty than a collection of useful artifacts. The documents are in Acrobat format, making them nearly useless you have the full version of that program, and cumbersome to modify if you do. I would have preferred documents in rich text format, which can be edited by any word processor (MS Word, StarOffice, etc.). However, the forms and checklists are also provided in the book and can be easily replicated.
If your goal is to establish and manage a PMO this book is worth its weight in gold. It's also valuable to project managers who are seeking advanced, proven techniques for single project management. If you fit either of these criteria I also recommend TOTAL PROJECT CONTROL by Stephen A. Devaux, which contains advanced PM and PMO techniques that complement this book nicely.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
A real gem from Buttrick - the project management guru
9 Jun 2001
Format:Paperback
Having followed Buttrick's guidelines on project management for many years I know they work, even in the most complex and rapidly changing business environments. The most innovative chapters, though, are those on programme management. No other reference deals with this difficult subject so well. Buttrick explains the different types of programmes and how each need to be managed. This book is a `must have' for anyone trying to ensure that their projects meet their company's objectives.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Practical ideas and processes - not just concepts
10 May 2001
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have spent the last year looking for good project management books. I have found several good ones; however, this one surpasses them all for usability and practicality. If your projects are not overly technical, this could be the only PM book you need. (If your projects have a significant technical component, take a look at Visualizing Project Management for its description of the technical part of projects. But still look at this one for its practicality and directness.)
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