Effective Project Management

Traditional, Agile, Extreme, Hybrid

Robert K. Wysocki

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781119562733
• Edition: 8
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Software Development
• Index: Computer Science

The popular guide to the project management body of knowledge, now fully updated

Now in its eighth edition, this comprehensive guide to project management has long been considered the standard for both professionals and academics, with nearly 40, 000 copies sold in the last three editions! Well-known expert Robert Wysocki has added four chapters of new content based on instructor feedback, enhancing the coverage of best-of-breed methods and tools for ensuring project management success.

With enriched case studies, accompanying exercises and solutions on the companion website, and PowerPoint slides for all figures and tables, the book is ideal for instructors and students as well as active project managers.

• Serves as a comprehensive guide to project management for both educators and project management professionals
• Updated to cover the new PMBOK® Sixth Edition

• Examines traditional, agile, and extreme project management techniques; the Enterprise Project Management Model; and Kanban and Scrumban methodologies
• Includes a companion website with exercises and solutions and well as PowerPoint slides for all the figures and tables used
• Written by well-known project management expert Robert Wysocki

Effective Project Management, Eighth Edition remains the comprehensive resource for project management practitioners, instructors, and students. (PMBOK is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.)

Part I
Understanding the Project Management Landscape

This part introduces the complex and uncertain world of projects and their effective management. If you expected to learn a magic recipe that works for all projects, you will be disappointed because every project is different. Being an effective project manager is a creative and challenging experience.

Chapter 1: What Is a Project? defines a project. The chapter defines the simple concept of what a project contains and how to recognize that you have a project. However, the definition is complex as well because there are many types of projects that populate the landscape. It is in that complexity of projects that the real challenges to effective management will arise.

Chapter 2: What Is Project Management? illustrates that project management is not a cookie‐cutter experience; rather, it is a creative experience. Rather than having just one approach, you now have a variety of approaches. The purpose of this chapter is to establish a landscape that categorizes projects and then define project management life cycle (PMLC) models that align with each type of project.

Chapter 3: What Is Strategic Project Management? explains that strategic project management is a top‐down model for identifying and planning projects that align with the strategic plan of the enterprise. All projects are aligned to the strategic plan, prioritized, and resources assigned.

Chapter 4: What Is a Collaborative Project Team? discusses collaboration today. The selection of project team members is no longer based on availability. Availability is not a skill; it is a convenience. Collaboration has become an essential requirement of project team success. To that end, this chapter introduces the co‐manager team. It is not the traditional matrix environment because all decision‐making is equally shared between both managers. The primary benefit is that the process knowledge and product knowledge are brought into the decision‐making and management activities.

Chapter 5: What Are Project Management Process Groups? discusses the 10 project management knowledge areas, the 5 process groups, and the 49 processes that populate the sixth edition of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK^®) Guide. However, don't expect the PMBOK^® Guide to be your silver bullet. It isn't. Rather, the PMBOK^® Guide describes processes, not methodologies. Your management must define the methodology or methodologies you will use to manage your projects.

CHAPTER 1
What Is a Project?

Things are not always what they seem.

—Phaedrus, Roman writer and fabulist

CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After reading this chapter, you will be able to

• Express a business need in terms of a problem or opportunity
• Understand how goal and solution can be used to define project types
• Appreciate the challenges of the complex project landscape
• Define a project, program, and portfolio
• Define a complex project
• Understand the Scope Triangle
• Envision the Scope Triangle as a system in balance
• Prioritize and apply the Scope Triangle for improved change management
• Know the importance of classifying projects
• Understand the project landscape and how it is applied

To put projects into perspective, you need a definition—a common starting point. All too often, people call any work they have to do a project. Projects actually have a specific definition. If a set of tasks or work to be done does not meet the strict definition, then it cannot be called a project. To use the project management techniques presented in this book, you must first have a project.

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UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITIONS

The classification of a project based on a clear or not clear statement of the project goal and solution is the foundation for the learning and discovery of effective project management. Every project falls in only one quadrant of the four‐quadrant matrix at a time and establishes the issues and opportunities for solution discovery.

The new systems‐oriented definition of the Scope Triangle creates a unique tool for understanding the relationships between the scope variables including risk and offers help with problem‐solving and decision‐making.

This chapter introduces a different definition of a project—one that focuses on the generation of business value as the only success criteria. To that end we are redefining the project as a business‐focused definition.

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Defining a Project

Projects arise out of unmet needs. Some projects have been done several times under similar situations and are relatively risk free. Others can be quite complex for a variety of reasons. Those unmet needs might be to find a solution to a critical business problem that has evaded prior attempts at finding a solution. Or those needs might be to take advantage of an untapped business opportunity. In either case, a sponsor or customer prepares a business case to advocate approval to pursue the appropriate project. Beginning with the projects that fall somewhere between these very different types of projects, the main focus of this book is to develop the best‐fit project management approaches. This is and will continue to be a major challenge even for the most skilled and creative project teams. The formal definition of that effort follows.

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DEFINITION: PROJECT

A project is a sequence of unique, complex, and connected activities that have one goal or purpose and that must be completed by a specific time, within budget, and according to specification.

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This definition works well for simple projects, but we will find reason to modify it for more complex projects. It is a commonly accepted definition of a project and tells you quite a bit. Let's take a closer look at each part of the definition.

Sequence of Activities

A project comprises a number of activities that must be completed in some specified order, or sequence. For now, an activity is a defined chunk of work. Chapter 7, “How to Plan a TPM Project,” formalizes this definition.

The sequence of the activities is based on technical requirements, not on management prerogatives. To determine the sequence, it is helpful to think in terms of inputs and outputs. The output of one activity or set of activities becomes the input to another activity or set of activities.

Specifying a sequence based on resource constraints or statements such as “Pete will work on activity B as soon as he finishes working on activity A” should be avoided because this establishes an artificial relationship between activities. What if Pete wasn't available at all? Resource constraints aren't ignored when you actually schedule activities. The decision of what resources to use and when to use them comes later in the project planning process.

Unique Activities

The activities in a project are unique. Something is always different each time the activities of a project are repeated. Usually the variations are random in nature—for example, a part is delayed, someone is sick, or a power failure occurs. These random variations are the challenge for the project manager and what con...