Synopses & Reviews
As a manager, you may feel that “project teams” brought in to accomplish goals and objectives affecting your department may as well have crash-landed from another planet, speaking a jargon-filled language all their own, and referring to complex-looking graphs and charts you don’t recognize. Yet it’s your responsibility to ensure that the results of a project initiative have a positive effect, benefiting your department, your customers, and ultimately, your organization. You may not be a certified project manager – or even have been trained in the basics of project management – but without an understanding of how project management works, you may be doing a disservice to your department, your company and even your career.
As a seasoned project management consultant and instructor with over two decades of experience, Jack Ferraro has witnessed countless functional managers who have been thrust into project teams – or even project leadership positions – desperate to gain an understanding of PM fundamentals. Project Management for Non-Project Managers is a simply written, down-to-earth guide that will help you understand your role in any project, and enable you to use project management techniques to actively participate in and ensure the successful completion of any project initiative.
Featuring step-by-step guidelines and enlightening stories from the project trenches, this easy-to-understand book introduces you to critical project management skills. You’ll learn how to:
• Engage productively with project managers and teams to increase the probability of real business value being created from the project.
• Eliminate the unnecessary work that often slows projects down.
• Play an aggressive role in the initial planning process.
• Understand what a project team should be providing and when, what you need to provide the project team, and how to interpret schedule and cost information.
• Manage risk, and prevent changing requirements from derailing the completion of important milestones.
Illustrated by case studies, and filled with helpful checklists and exercises, the book clearly explains project management tools including business analysis techniques, work breakdown structures, program sequencing techniques, and risk-management methods. You’ll learn everything you need to know to articulate effectively real business needs to the project team, and use quantifiable action steps to ensure real results.
Whether you’re being asked to work together with a project management team, or are eager to put proven project management techniques to work for you, this book will enable you to use the tools that will help you become a productive spearhead of change in your organization.
JACK FERRARO, PMP, is president of MyProjectAdvisor®, a company that provides project management consulting, coaching, and training. He has 22 years of experience working with project teams and managing complex projects. He lives in Washington, DC.
Synopsis
Great managers are experts at getting bottom-line results, but often do not understand their role in the success or failure of their organization’s projects. They balk at the arcane terminology and are unaware of how to use valuable project management techniques and tools—a knowledge gap that can be a serious career barrier!
Functional managers with even basic project management (PM) knowledge are the best people for keeping projects business-focused. This new book demystifies the jargon and processes, encouraging managers to jump into the PM arena and arming them with strategies for increasing the business value created by their company’s projects. Readers will discover:
• Advice for switching gears from passive bystander to active owner of projects
• Insights into four critical PM skills, including business analysis techniques, work breakdown structures, program sequencing techniques, and risk management methods
• Step-by-step guidelines, case studies, and illustrations for mastering these skills
Project Management for Non-Project Managers provides easy-to-read, in-a-nutshell explanations of all the PM basics that managers need to achieve project success.
Synopsis
“Project Management for Non-Project Managers is a great book that will enable managers to understand the value of project management and how they must contribute to a successful project, and educate future business leaders to drive positive organizational change.”
— John M. Muraski, MS, University of Wisconsin College of Business Faculty
“Jack Ferraro’s book presents key project management principles and teaches core skills for business managers engaged in projects. You’ll have your own ‘ah ha’ moments with this engagingly written commonsense approach to managing business change.”
— Lee Richards, President, Dominion Project Management
“Projects require unprecedented collaboration across the enterprise, and this book is a must-read for functional managers who want to remain relevant with today’s pace of organizational and technology changes.”
— Aaron Miller, Program Manager, Wright State Research Institute
Project management can seem mysterious with its complicated-sounding processes, charts, and terminology – but in order to truly ensure that an initiative affecting your department delivers real results, you need to understand the basics.
Filled with step-by-step guidelines, case studies, and illustrations for mastering project management skills including business-analysis techniques, work-breakdown structures, program-sequencing techniques, and risk-management methods, Project Management for Non-Project Managers demystifies the proven strategies used by certified project management professionals. You’ll learn how to:
• Define your project mission
• Take an active role in the initial planning process
• Control the sequence and timing of events
• Articulate a compelling story of the project, and keep it on track
• Continuously manage risk, as well as changing requirements and resources
• Effectively communicate with the project team
Giving you insights into four critical PM skills, the book helps you provide substantial benefits to your organization by improving your ability to ensure that projects ultimately translate to quantifiable, real-world benefits. The book uses real-world case studies to exemplify how you can hold project teams accountable for usable deliverables; enable customer-centric thinking; and focus relentlessly on business value. This is the one guide you need to take ownership of any project, and let your business expertise translate to project success.
About the Author
JACK FERRARO, PMP, is president of MyProjectAdvisor®, a company that provides project management consulting, coaching, and training. He has 22 years of experience working with project teams and managing complex projects.
Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART ONE:
The Critical Role of the Functional Manager in Project
Success
Chapter 1 What the Functional Manager Should Know
About the Project Organization
Who Is the Functional Manager?
The Challenge of Integrating the Project Team into the Organization
The Functional Manager’s Role in Creating an Integrated Project
Organization
The Three Types of Organizational Structure
The Functional Manager’s Impact on Project Success or Failure
Chapter 2 The Importance of Project Planning
Creating Foresight
Why Do You Need a Plan?
What Is a Good Plan?
Basic Steps to Planning Projects
Summary of Project Planning
Project Plans and Vendors
Project Planning Tools: What They Do and What They Don’t Do
Challenges to Getting a Good Plan
Multi-Project Systems
Chapter 3 Understanding the Business Side of the Project
The Connection Between Business Knowledge and Requirements
Writing Good Requirements
Scope Creep
Stabilizing Requirements Through the Business Process
Chapter 4 The Ideal Functional Manager in the Project
Organization
‘‘Get It’’ . . . or Risk Getting Moved Out
PART TWO:
Four Critical Project Management Skills for Functional
Managers
Chapter 5 The Project Management Mystique Unveiled
A Shared Language
Project Management Demystified
Demystifying Methodologies
Chapter 6 Articulating the Real Customer Need and Business
Case for the Project
Producing a Mission Statement That Conveys Urgency and Vision
Creating a Meaningful Current and Future State Comparison
Base Your Requirements on the Business Process
Prepare a Realistic Business Cas
Chapter 7 Staying Focused on Project Deliverables
The Deliverable Structure: A Portrait of the Work
Creating Deliverable Structures
Case Study
Chapter 8 Understanding Key Project Dependencies
Telling Your Story of the Work
Case Study
Chapter 9 Being Proactive About Project Risk
Basics of Risk
Pushing the Risk Discussion
Case Study
Chapter 10 The Power of the Principles
Index