Guide to Project Management: Achieving lasting benefit through effective change

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Many organisations do not change when they need to, nor do they change when they have to. If they did, fewer would fail. Like people, organisations, whether they are businesses or government departments, only change when they want to. Projects are embarked upon to bring about change and as such often involve a cultural shift ? a new way of looking at things, adjustments to values and behaviours, even the abandonment of norms and sacred cows. Managing projects cannot be separated from managing the whole of an organisation?s business. Effective management of "business as usual" brings about evolutionary improvements. Good project management brings about step changes in performance. Experience demonstrates that a project requires the collaboration of many, including those who commission and finance it, those who will use the end product and those who build it. Yet project management is often delegated to people who struggle against sometimes impossible odds with little support to deliver a successful outcome. History is full of examples of projects that damaged organisations because they were late, over budget, failed to deliver what they were meant to, or didn?t achieve the lasting change which was hoped for. This guide explains the principles and techniques of project management and how they are interconnected with the day-to-day management of a business. With the aim of helping firms deliver successful project outcomes, it is an invaluable handbook for all organisations that want to achieve lasting benefit through effective change. This guide sets out to show how to manage projects effectively in parallel with "business as usual" and emphasises how crucial it is to the success of a project that all the stakeholders in it collaborate.

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Paul Roberts has been managing projects for over 20 years and is a founding director of Fifthday Longview Limited (www.fifthday.com), a provider of project management expertise, education and resource. He has acted as a consultant to major international companies, as well as public-sector bodies in the UK, helping them to embed the principles, techniques and culture of effective project management. Table of Contents Introduction The components of effective project management Conceiving projects Project roles and responsibilities Project organisation and resource management Planning: risks and rewards Planning: quality Planning: time and cost Initiating projects Project delivery Support and assurance Project closure and beyond Embedding effective project management