Just Enough Project Management: The Indispensable Four-step Process for Managing Any Project, Better, Faster, Cheaper

162 Pages·2004·1 MB·English

by  Curtis Cook

Plan
Initiate
Control
Execute Control
Close
Just Enough
Project
Management
The Indispensable Four-Step Process
for Managing Any Project Better,
Faster, Cheaper
Curtis R. Cook, Ph.D., PMP
McGraw-Hill
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Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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DOI: 10.1036/0071454519
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Dedication
T
his book is dedicated to my wife and best friend
Cindy, who for 25 years has supported and believed
in me when I said, “You know, I am going to write
a book on project management ....”
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Plan
Initiate
Control
Execute Control
Close
Contents
Foreword, Dr. David I. Cleland vii
Introduction ix
Is Just Enough Project Managementfor You? xi
Templates and Checklists xii
Acknowledgments xiii
1. Project Management Overview 1
Thanksgiving at Beech Mountain 1
Just Enough Project Management 2
Project Management as a Process 4
A Few Basics Before Proceeding 5
The Value of Project Management 6
Examples of Too Much Project Management 10
All Projects Need ProjectManagement—
But Just Enough to Get the Job Done! 13
2. Initiating the Project 14
Is It a Project? 16
Project Start-up 16
Establish the Project Repository or Binder 20
Before Proceeding, What Do You Need to Know? 20
The Project Charter 23
Transition to the Planning Phase 31
v
vi Contents
3. Project Planning Basics 32
The Planning Process 33
How Much Time Should Be Devoted to Planning? 34
Forming the Core Team 35
Planning Activities 36
A Plan for Tracking Task Completions 48
4. Advanced Planning Techniques 49
Ways to Display the Project Schedule and
Track Task Completions 49
“Advanced” Scheduling 53
Project Budgeting 59
Risk Planning 60
Communication Planning 63
Change Control Process 66
Approval of the Project Plan 68
Transition to Control Phase 70
5. Controlling the Project 71
Control Activities 71
Manage Technical Performance 73
Communicate Achievements and Project Status 74
To Meet or Not to Meet—That Is the Question 75
Manage Cost, Schedule, and Resource Variances 76
Control Changes 79
Manage Risks and Issues 81
Manage the Project Team 82
Manage the Customer Relationship 87
Transition to Project Closing Phase 89
6. Closing the Project 90
A Model for Closing a Project 93
Transition to Operations and Support
and Maintenance 104
Managing Multiple Projects 105
7. Juggling Multiple Projects and Dealing
with Project Overload 106
Overload as the Norm 107
The Interconnectedness of It All 108
Five Steps to Coping with Project Overload 111
Glossary 121
Further Reading 131
Index 137
Plan
Initiate
Control
Execute Control
Close
Foreword
I
N JUST ENOUGH PROJECT MANAGEMENT, CURTIS COOK HAS
successfully translated a body of knowledge meant for
large, complex projects into a language that everyone
involved with projects can understand and apply to their
everyday project work. While remaining consistent with A
Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge
(PMBOK Guide), the American National Standards
Institute standard for project management, the book
reduces its many processes to four easily understood and
practical steps.
Just Enough Project Management features templates
and checklists that can be put to immediate use. It is there-
fore a very useful guide to anyone who tackles short-term
activities with specific, measurable outcomes—in other
words, projects.
Beginning with an excellent introduction to projects
and project management, Just Enough Project Management
quickly gets down to business. Chapter 2 on initiating a
project provides a clear, concise Project Charter template,
complete with instructions on how to fill one out for the
reader’s own project. From there, the book delves into the
both the essentials of project planning in Chapter 3 and
vii
Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click here for terms of use.
viii Foreword
more advanced concepts of planning in Chapter 4. Chapter
4, especially, provides excellent guidance on how to create
realistic schedules, how to overcome political pressures,
how to anticipate risks, and how to account for statistical
realities so as to produce a project plan that may actually be
achievable (rare in our society).
Chapter 5 delves into the realities of controlling the
project once the baseline plan has been approved. There
the reader will find more on controlling changes, dealing
with team challenges, managing the customer relation-
ship, and keeping the project on track. Chapter 6 continues
the practical theme of the book by providing a simple,
easy-to-follow process for gaining customer acceptance of
the deliverable, capturing lessons learned, celebrating
team success, and transitioning the project to continuing
operations and support.
In Chapter 7, the book shifts gears to a much-needed
treatment of juggling multiple small projects. Cook pro-
vides an excellent, yet conceptually simple model for deal-
ing with project overload and managing multiple projects.
The book concludes with an excellent glossary of key
terms and an entertaining and highly informative anno-
tated bibliography.
In Just Enough Project Management Curtis Cook has
created a practical, easy-to-use guide for managing projects.
It will serve as an excellent handbook or resource for any-
one involved in managing projects, especially those with
little formal training or experience. Simply stated, this
book is a must read for anyone who manages projects and
wants to bring his or her projects in on time, within budget,
according to specifications—without all the red tape.
—David I. Cleland, Ph.D., PMP
Professor Emeritus
University of Pittsburgh