Project Manager: Mastering the Art of the Delivery

281 Pages·2005·4.127 MB·English

by  Richard Newton

PROJ_A01.QXD 02/02/2006 10:18 AM Page i
The Project Manager
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The Project
Manager
Mastering the art of delivery
Richard Newton
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PEARSON EDUCATION LIMITED
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Harlow CM20 2JE
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Website: www.pearsoned.co.uk
First published in Great Britain in 2005
© Pearson Education Limited 2005
The right of Richard Newton to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a
licence permitting restricted copying in the United Kingdom issued by the Copyright
Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. This book may not be
lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form of binding or
cover other than that in which it is published, without the prior consent of the Publishers.
ISBN-10: 0-273-70173-8
ISBN-13:978-0-273-70173-6
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Newton, Richard, 1964 ––
The project manager : mastering the art of delivery / Richard Newton.
p. cm.
Includes index.

ISBN 0-273-70173-8 (alk. paper)
1. Project management. 2. Leadership. I. Title.
HD69.P75N496 2005
658.4’04––dc22
2005040030
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
09 08 07 06
Typeset in Galliard with Frutiger by 70
Printed and bound by Bell & Bain Limited, Glasgow
The Publisher’s policy is to use paper manufactured from sustainable forests
PROJ_A01.QXD 02/02/2006 10:18 AM Page v
Contents
Preface ix
Introduction 1
The secret art 1
Why read this book? 1
A brief word on job titles 5
Work-streams, projects, programmes and portfolios 6
A short overview of the contents 7
1 Some basics 10
What is a project? What is project management? 11
What is a project manager? 12
Who are projects for? 13
What is success? 15

2 Listening and talking 19
The most important chapter in the book 19
Your audience – who you must listen and talk to 20
Listening – learning to understand what the customer wants 27
Communicating with your audience 35
3 What actually is your project? 59
The importance of understanding scope 59
The key scoping questions 61
4 Some key traits 77
The sense of ownership and involvement 78
Good judgement – project management style 81
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vi Contents
Project management judgements – summary 98
A touch of creativity 99
5 Getting your project started 103
Planning 104
Resourcing 109
Budgeting 113
Thinking about contingency and risk 114
Mobilising 117
Projects in the real world – common practical issues to overcome 118
6 Personal styles 122
Styles to avoid 122
Styles to encourage 128
7 Managing your project 139
What should you manage? 140
How do you know to take management action? 141
How should you manage? 143
Change control and management 146
Decision making 148
8 The team 150
Getting the best from the project team 150

9 The limits of knowledge 171
The generalist vs the specialist 172
What should project managers not do? 176
Specialist skills that should be recognised as not being the
project manager’s job 178
10 The mechanics of project management 187
The project manager’s toolkit 187
What more can you learn? 218
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Contents vii
11 Knowing when to say ‘no’ 220
When do you actually need a project manager? 221
Knowing the danger signals 222
Constructively killing projects off 226
Just say ‘no’ 228
12 Closing thoughts 230
Quick reference guide – summary contents 232
Index 261
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Preface
I HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN PROJECTS for about twenty years. Starting as a
project team member, I have made the transition through being a project
manager of various hues, to running teams of project managers, finally to
being a project customer and a sponsor. It has had its ups and downs – but
overall it has been great fun. I enjoy tremendously the challenge of complex
delivery.
As part of this fun I have been responsible for work to improve various
organisations’ delivery and implementation skills. Doing this I have recruited
and built teams, set up and arranged training, read and shared the contents
of lots of books, and sought outside consultants to help. I have seen project
managers gradually become more accredited with industry-recognised
qualifications. And yet I have not fundamentally seen a real shift in reliable
delivery skills. Perhaps the standards and my expectations have kept on rising,
perhaps the projects are getting harder – or maybe something is wrong!
I put this at least partially down to three things. Firstly, whenever I look

at books, attend courses and talk to project management trainers almost the
whole time they refer to what I call the ‘mechanics’ of project management.
By mechanics I mean the processes, systems and tools that form the core
body of knowledge of project management. What I have realised is that these
mechanics are important, but they are not the only factor in ensuring
successful delivery. There is a range of other skills and competencies required
in addition. In fact, when I have watched really successful project managers
I have seen that though they may understand and use the mechanics well –
it is not the differentiating factor that makes them successful. Yet rarely does
anyone look at these differentiating factors. Most of these factors are about
the person who is the project manager more than the specific variant of
project management approach used. Secondly, when I look at books on
project management they are often poorly targeted. They can be overly