Project Management: It's All Bollocks!


Book Description

Welcome to Project Management: It’s All Bollocks! where two people who vaguely know each other and barely like each other will pick over the sadly inadequate body of knowledge that is project management today, and generally challenge just about everything, eliminating that which you don't need to bother to learn about, or should already know, leaving you only with the parts that will give you the results you want. This book is a shakedown of project management, the profession, the myths it creates and promotes, its great ideas and ambitions and a few ropey bits that we’re just not convinced about. The project management profession continues to grow and mature, but is at risk of excluding those who don’t fit the mould. There is a mystique out there that only certificated project managers can be project managers. This is nonsense. The project management skill set is accessible to anyone, and how you choose to access it and put it to use should remain the decision of the individual. There shouldn’t be a right or wrong choice. This book is targeted at those ‘projects as usual project managers’ who will drive most of the change inside organisations tomorrow and beyond, and who really need help to do that. The authors offer up a selection of seven cracking ideas, that when applied to a project environment will ultimately result in you being a good manager of projects in this modern world of business complexity.




AI and the Project Manager


Book Description

Enabling project managers to adapt to the new technology of artificial intelligence, this first comprehensive book on the topic discusses how AI will reinvent the project world and allow project managers to focus on people. Studies show that by 2030, 80 percent of project management tasks, such as data collection, reporting, and predictive analysis, will be carried out by AI in a consistent and efficient manner. This book sets out to explore what this will mean for project managers around the world and equips them to embrace this technological advantage for greater project success. Filled with insights and examples from tech providers and project experts, this book is an invaluable resource for PMO leaders, change executives, project managers, programme managers, and portfolio managers. Anyone who is part of the global community of change and project leadership needs to accept and understand the fast- approaching AI technology, and this book shows how to use it to their advantage.




Projects: Methods: Outcomes


Book Description

Matching the speed of change in modern business, this book takes readers on a two-year journey in building a project management office (PMO) for today and tomorrow and redefines the PMO as to what it should focus on: Projects, Methods, and Outcomes. Many organisations invest heavily in PMOs, but these are built on an outdated and static model that does not fit a hybrid, agile, AI-empowered, and rapidly changing business environment. Building on his renowned "balanced PMO" model, project management leader Peter Taylor tackles today’s challenges with this diary-style guide to inspire all PMO leaders, project managers, and business leaders, and provide a roadmap to follow to build (or rebuild) their own PMOs. He presents a completely new definition of "PMO", eliminating the traditional back-office concept of a centralised PMO, with his "Projects: Methods: Outcomes" construct that provides a truly business focused team to oversee the delivery of value to their organisation. Enriched with case studies and practical models, this book will benefit all PMO leaders, project management professionals, change and transformation leaders, and anyone interested in how to deliver business value through projects.




Make Your Business Agile


Book Description

Business Agility is an approach that gives the right business flexibility and fast decision-making in a volatile environment, providing a great capacity for innovation, adaptation and change. Businesses everywhere are trying to ‘get business agile’ – but it’s not easy to adapt to becoming this adaptive. How can conventional organisations succeed in this transformation? In this book, project and change management expert Peter Taylor walks you through the change process step by step, providing a tried and tested transformation roadmap: benefits are outlined, solutions to common challenges offered, and tried and tested methods and tools provided. He guides you towards a decentralised management style that offers more successful decision making through collaboration. By reducing processes, adjusting the governance and believing in ‘the power of the people’ to deliver simple success in a time of complex demand, the guidance in this book will help any manager get Business Agile.




Bare Knuckled Project Management


Book Description

"When the going gets tough, they call for the sons of bitches! - Admiral Ernest King (attributed) It's a sad fact that most projects fail - as many as 70% according to one well known study. Those failed projects cost billions of dollars. Perhaps they've even cost you or your company. You've hired certified project managers and implemented project management techniques, and yet you still don't have the success you need. BARE KNUCKLED PROJECT MANAGEMENT has the answer. Of course, there are lots of management philosophies that tell you that if you just follow a few simple rules, you'll have perfect results. But it's never that simple, and we know it. The bare-knuckled approach to project management is all about the people. Anybody can swing a bat, but that doesn't mean anybody can be a major leaguer. It's all about the person. It takes talent, temperament, training, experience, and aptitude to achieve greatness. And make no mistake, for great projects, you need a great project manager - someone who isn't afraid to do what it takes to get the job done. You need a Bare-Knuckled Project Manager, someone not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, make hard decisions, and speak unpleasant truths to people who don't always want to hear bad news. In this insightful and powerful book, you'll learn: *** The key reasons projects fail, and the simple steps needed to avoid the most common mistakes. *** How the "three sided table" approach empowers project managers, customers, and teams to do excellent work. *** How to become a Bare-Knuckled Project Manager, and how to groom others. *** How to handle conflict and communication like a pro. *** How the "Kranz Dictum" that saved NASA's Apollo Program can save your most troubled projects. *** How to transform the organization using the Bare Knuckle approach. For once, you'll experience the "no bullshit" approach to project management: what matters, what doesn't, and how to tell the difference. BARE KNUCKLED PROJECT MANAGEMENT is the one guide you need to achieve real project results!




Master of Science in Project Management - City of London College of Economics - 10 months - 100% online / self-paced


Book Description

Overview A MScPM (or Master of Science in Project Management) is a degree that will prepare you for a role as (Senior) Project Manager/Director Project Management. Content - Building the action plan: scheduling, estimating and resource allocation - Achieving stakeholder satisfaction through project control - Project risk management - A model for building teamwork - New project development processes - Enterprise project management - Quick tips - Speedy solutions - Cutting-edge ideas - Making good decisions - Ideas and what to do with them - Leadership and trust - What to do when things go wrong - Over 120 new exercises to practice what you’ve learnt Duration 10 months Assessment The assessment will take place on the basis of one assignment at the end of the course. Tell us when you feel ready to take the exam and we’ll send you the assignment questions. Study material The study material will be provided in separate files by email / download link.




Managing Humans


Book Description

Read hilarious stories with serious lessons that Michael Lopp extracts from his varied and sometimes bizarre experiences as a manager at Apple, Pinterest, Palantir, Netscape, Symantec, Slack, and Borland. Many of the stories first appeared in primitive form in Lopp’s perennially popular blog, Rands in Repose. The Third Edition of Managing Humans contains a whole new season of episodes from the ongoing saga of Lopp's adventures in Silicon Valley, together with classic episodes remastered for high fidelity and freshness. Whether you're an aspiring manager, a current manager, or just wondering what the heck a manager does all day, there is a story in this book that will speak to you—and help you survive and prosper amid the general craziness of dysfunctional bright people caught up in the chase of riches and power. Scattered in repose among these manic misfits are managers, an even stranger breed of people who, through a mystical organizational ritual, have been given power over the futures and the bank accounts of many others. Lopp's straight-from-the-hip style is unlike that of any other writer on management and leadership. He pulls no punches and tells stories he probably shouldn't. But they are magically instructive and yield Lopp’s trenchant insights on leadership that cut to the heart of the matter—whether it's dealing with your boss, handling a slacker, hiring top guns, or seeing a knotty project through to completion. Writing code is easy. Managing humans is not. You need a book to help you do it, and this is it. What You'll Learn Lead engineers Handle conflict Hire well Motivate employees Manage your boss Discover how to say no Understand different engineering personalities Build effective teams Run a meeting well Scale teams “/div>divWho This Book Is Fordiv Managers and would-be managers staring at the role of a manager wondering why they would ever leave the safe world of bits and bytes for the messy world of managing humans. The book covers handling conflict, managing wildly differing personality types, infusing innovation into insane product schedules, and figuring out how to build a lasting and useful engineering culture.




Management Control and Creativity


Book Description

Innovation is an essential growth lever for organizations. Like any strategic element, it must be managed to ensure the right decision is made at the right time. When we talk about management, we naturally also consider management control. However, using management tools can be a danger to developing creativity – an essential element of innovation. This book examines the interdependencies between management control and creativity. By comparing two organizational contexts, we highlight the vital role of organizations as generators of creativity. We also underline the acceptance of an imbalance between the elements in tension, which can lead to the questioning and fostering of innovation; and the role of senior management as mediators between organizations and local actors.




Project Management Hacking


Book Description

This book provides the much-needed, no-nonsense guidance crucial for project managers – that is, the type of guidance that is missing from every major body of knowledge and educational offering for working project managers. This very practical book identifies the activities that influence project success and focuses the limited time and energy available towards just those activities. The Project Management Institute (PMI) and most literature on project management discusses all aspects of project management under the assumption that project managers will narrow down focus because they cannot be expected to use every process outlined by PMI to manage every project. This book uses the concept of "hacking" our standard conventions of project management and outlines a standard path identified by conventional wisdom, an evil path that project managers frequently resort to under time/quality pressures, and a hacker path that provides a better way to look at the challenge. This book equips project managers with streamlined approaches to refocus their efforts on factors that matter while spending less time doing it. Project management is a demanding discipline with a growing body of knowledge with few instructions on how to do it all. The author provides humorous anecdotes and examples while teaching readers how to save time, improve quality, and advance their career. The primary sections of the book cover how to approach the most common certifications in project management; continuing education; leading project teams; initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, and controlling projects; general life skills; and taking on additional responsibilities. Hacking project management is about focusing the limited bandwidth a project manager can give a project towards the activities that drive success.




The Friction Project


Book Description

The definitive guide to eliminating the forces that make it harder, more complicated, or downright impossible to get things done in organizations. Find out why Adam Grant says "If every leader took the ideas in this book seriously, the world would be a less miserable, more productive place." Every organization is plagued by destructive friction. Yet some forms of friction are incredibly useful, and leaders who attempt to improve workplace efficiency often make things even worse. Drawing from seven years of hands-on research, The Friction Project by bestselling authors Robert I. Sutton and Huggy Rao teaches readers how to become “friction fixers.” Sutton and Rao kick off the book by unpacking how skilled friction fixers think and act like trustees of others’ time. They provide friction forensics to help readers identify where to avert and repair bad organizational friction and where to maintain and inject good friction. Then their help pyramid shows how friction fixers do their work, from reframing friction troubles they can’t fix right now, so they feel less threatening, to designing and repairing organizations. The heart of the book digs into the causes and solutions for five of the most common and damaging friction troubles: oblivious leaders, addition sickness, broken connections, jargon monoxide, and fast and frenzied people and teams. Sound familiar? Sutton and Rao are here to help. They wrap things up with lessons for leading your own friction project, including linking little things to big things; the power of civility, caring, and love for propelling designs and repairs; and embracing the mess that is an inevitable part of the process (while still trying to clean it up).