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115 views

Richard Newton A

Uploaded by

manh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Available Formats
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‘An excellent guide that will appeal to anyone

involved in delivering projects - insightful,


interesting, relevant and very useful.’
Stephen Upton, Managing Partner, Farncombe

BUILDING A PLAN ESTIMATING RESOURCES LEADING AHIGH PERFORMING TEAM


UNDERSTANDING RISK KEEPING PROJECTS ON TIME AND TO BUDGET
MANAGING CHALLENGING PROJECTS DELIVERING RESULTS =

RICHARD NEWTON a
Award-winning author of The Management Book
The Project Management Book
provides solutions to the everyday
issues involved in managing
projects, including:

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project manager
e Dealing with external problems
e Learning from Lean and Six Sigma
e Aligning projects to
business needs
e Delivering projects in
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Also available:
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STRATEGY THANAGEMENT (anesiP BOOK


Essex County Council

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30130205669376
PEARSON
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our educational business, Pearson International.

Every day our work helps learning flourish, and wherever


learning flourishes, so do people.

To learn more please visit us at: www.pearson.com/uk


The Project
Management
Book

Richard Newton

PEARSON

Harlow, England + London * New York + Boston * San Francisco * Toronto * Sydney
Auckland * Singapore * Hong Kong * Tokyo * Seoul + Taipei * New Delhi
Cape Town * Sao Paulo * Mexico City * Madrid * Amsterdam * Munich + Paris * Milan
PEARSON EDUCATION LIMITED
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Harlow CM20 2JE
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1279 623623
Web: www.pearson.com/uk

First published 2013 (print and electronic)

© Richard Newton 2013 (print and electronic)

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.

Pearson Education is not responsible for the content of third-party internet sites.

ISBN: 978-0-273-78586-6 (print)


978-0-273-78880-5 (PDF)
978-0-273-78879-9 (ePub)

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data


A catalogue record for the print edition is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data


Newton, Richard, 1964-
The project management book / Richard Newton.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-273-78586-6 (pbk.)
1. Project management. I. Title.
HD69.P75N4947 2013
658.4’04--dc23
2013005064

The print publication is protected by copyright. Prior to any prohibited


reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, distribution or transmission in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, permission
should be obtained from the publisher or, where applicable, a licence permitting
restricted copying in the United Kingdom should be obtained from the Copyright
Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London ECIN 8TS.

The ePublication is protected by copyright and must not be copied, reproduced,


transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way
except as specifically permitted in writing by the publisher, as allowed under the
terms and conditions under which it was purchased, or as strictly permitted by
applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may
be a direct infringement of the author's and the publisher’s rights and those
responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

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Cover design by David Carroll & Co.

Print edition typeset in 9pt Stone Serif by 3


Print edition printed and bound in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press Ltd,
Gosport, Hampshire

NOTE THAT ANY PAGE CROSS-REFERENCES REFER TO THE PRINT EDITION


Contents

About the author ix


Preface / xi
Introduction / xili

WSS) The foundations / 1


Projects / 2
Project management / 8
The role of the project manager / 14
Customers, clients and users / 20

WS) Setting up your project / 25


Defining your project / 26
Objectives, deliverables and tasks / 33
Building a plan / 39
Estimating and resourcing / 46

4) Utilising the team, sponsor and


stakeholders / 53

The high-performance project team / 55


Global and offshore teams / 60
The effective sponsor / 66
A productive stakeholder community / 73
Delivering the project / 79
Managing progress: perform, deliver, accomplish / 80
What project managers need to know / 87
Understanding project risk / 94
Value-added project reporting 7 100

Practical project management / 107


Making risk management real / 108
The temptations and costs of multi-tasking / 113
The right and wrong uses of the plan on a page / 118
Audit, assure, control or coach the project? / 122

The project environment / 129


Prioritisation / 131
The culture of delivery / 136
The limits to planning and prediction / 142
Dealing with external problems / 148

Integrated project management / 153

The strengths and limits of project management / 154


Bridging the divide: project and change managers / 160
From delivery to benefits realisation / 166
The lessons from lean and six sigma / 172

Aligning projects to business needs / 177


High-speed project management / 179
Delivering in a cost-constrained environment / 185
Optionality in projects 7 190
Who has a valid interest in the project? / 196
Contents (ET)

WE Challenging projects / 203


Taking over the project no-one is running / 204
Not seeing the wood for the trees / 211
The customers who do not know what they want / 217
Delivering in times of change / 223

The improving project manager / 229


Learning from projects / 231
Best practice, continuous improvement and accreditation / 237
Adopting a new project management approach / 243
Building a project delivery capability 7 249

Glossary / 257
Index / 265
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2022 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation

https://archive.org/details/projectmanagemenOO0O0newt_b0b1
About the author

Richard Newton is the author of The Management Book, winner


of the 2013 CMI Management Book of the Year Award.

Richard has been managing projects for over 25 years, and for the
last nine years has run his own specialist consultancy. Richard
has a range of blue chip clients with whom he works worldwide
and has worked across a range of sectors including the public
sector, telecoms and media, mining, oil and gas, and financial
services.

He is the author of ten books, including The Project Manager:


Mastering the Art of Delivery.
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Preface

I have written several books on project management, and every


year many others are published. There is a rich seam of excellent
project management writing (and unfortunately some very badly
written books as well), so why another book?

I have written this for two reasons.

Firstly, as an evolving discipline, there is always something new


to say about project management. I am not an armchair observer,
but an active project manager. This book was written in evenings
and weekends whilst being involved in two complex, leading-
edge projects. I call myself a consultant, but my work is always as
a full participant in a wide variety of projects. I love experiencing
the project management discipline evolving to new challenges.

Secondly, I wanted to take advantage of a different format from


the normal project management books. The format is issues
based, enabling the reader to be able to dip into and read short,
sharp advice on a specific issue or area of interest. | hope you
read this book end to end, but it is not essential to do so to gain
value from it.

This is a book about projects as much as project management.


Project managers and project management sit at the heart of
projects, but there is much more to projects than simply project
management. Projects deliver outcomes that matter to people
who have little or nothing to do with the project itself. Projects
work in, are impacted by and impact environments, organisa-
tions, cultures and societies. Projects call upon and affect a wide
variety of people.
I expect many of the readers of this book will be project managers,
but it is not only for project managers. There is something here
for anyone who is involved in, interested in, or wants to improve
their capabilities in project management.

Any choice of contents is subjectively based on the author’s


experience and what he or she feels is important. A book cannot
fit everything in. I have tried to cover an interesting array
of issues facing projects - some are fundamental, others are
challenges in specific contexts. I have had to prioritise as there is
enough material for at least one more follow-up volume!

I have aimed for practical, readily usable advice that talks about
the real issues facing projects. The focus is simple: how to run
effective, efficient projects. You will find shortcuts to avoid some
painful situations, and lessons that I and others have learned
from trial and error.
Introduction

Project management is a great topic to write about, but it can


seem hard to say anything new, simply because there is so much
that has been written so far. However, it is an evolving discipline
and like anything that is evolving, there is always novelty and
innovation. This book combines essential proven fundamental
project management concepts with newer thinking. The format
aims to make the traditional advice more accessible than other
books, and provides the newer guidance in easy-to-digest, bite-
sized chunks.

The overall aim is to provide practical, comprehensible and


value-adding advice to anyone who is interested in or involved
in running projects. The advice is outcome orientated and can be
put to immediate use. The book aims to be an everyday guide and
a regular reference source.

The contents
The choice of this book’s contents follows a plan. I have kept
to the essential parts of project management, but look at them
from unusual perspectives. | have combined fundamentals of
getting projects right, with lessons and tips from experience —
shortcuts to avoid pitfalls and seize opportunities, along with
positioning of project management within the wider context in
which it operates.

It is an eclectic mix, based on my experiences of running projects


and my views of what is useful to know. Of course, there are
limitations to what can be contained in one book, but I hope

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