The Manager's Guide to Program Evaluation


Book Description

Your Guide to Getting a Useful Evaluation Evaluation is vital and beneficial to any nonprofit organization. An effective evaluation can help identify an organization's successes, share information with key audiences, and improve services. It can confirm that an organization is truly making a difference. This book is for: organization managers and decision makers, policymakers, funders, researchers, and students studying applied social service research. Benefits you'll get: describes what types of information to collect and what questions this information can answer; details the four phases of evaluation and the steps involved in each phase; and information on various types of research consultants and advice selecting one.




Making Process Improvement Work


Book Description

Software process improvement too often reflects a significant disconnect between theory and practice. This book bridges the gap—offering a straightforward, systematic approach to planning, implementing, and monitoring a process improvement program. Project managers will appreciate the book’s concise presentation style and will be able to apply its practical ideas immediately to real-life challenges. With examples based on the authors’ own extensive experience, this book shows how to define goals that directly address the needs of your organization, use improvement models appropriately, and devise a pragmatic action plan. In addition, it reveals valuable strategies for deploying organizational change, and delineates essential metrics for tracking your progress. Appendices provide examples of an action plan, a risk management plan, and a mini-assessment process. You will learn how to: · Scope and develop an improvement plan · Identify and prioritize risks and mitigate anticipated difficulties · Derive metrics that accurately measure progress toward business goals · Sell your improvement program in-house · Initially target practitioners and projects most-open to new approaches and techniques · Stay focused on goals and problems · Align the actions of managers and practitioners · Delay major policy documents and edicts until solutions have been practiced and tested · Use existing resources to speed deployment · Incorporate improvement models, such as SEI CMM® and CMMISM, into your improvement program For those managers who are tired of chronic project difficulties, constant new improvement schemes, and a lack of real progress, this easily digestible volume provides the real-world wisdom you need to realize positive change in your organization.




Manager's Guide to Contingency Planning for Disasters


Book Description

With the help of an implementation strategy, guidelines for minimizing development costs, and insight into a proven plan development methodology, Manager's Guide to Contingency Planning for Disasters: Protecting Vital Facilities and Critical Operations helps you to: * Establish a corporate contingency plan policy and strategy that will ensure timely completion of a plan with minimal disruption to operations. * Minimize plan development costs * Understand the importance of conducting briefings to communicate the proper mindset before the plan development process begins. * Save time and money by avoiding the consultant's traditional approach of extensive information-gathering that contributes little to the development of practical solutions Remember that you have good people on your management team who don't need a lot of detailed instruction on how to do things in an emergency situation. Precisely "how" they do anything will depend on the specific nature of the disaster and the extent of the damage. Addressing complex hypothetical disaster combinations does not make good business sense. Just prepare "what if" strategies for a worst case and rely on the judgment of your line managers to cope with less severe incidents.




The Manager's Pocket Guide to Strategic and Business Planning


Book Description

Enterprises in today's Global Information Age must keep up with rapid changes in technology while overhauling businesses, programs, and operations to meet the changing values and demands of customers and employees. This guide will aid you in applying the Systems Thinking Approach to your strategic and business planning by explaining how to develop a strategic plan, ensure successful implementation of the plan, and build and sustain high performance over the long haul.







The Manager's Path


Book Description

Managing people is difficult wherever you work. But in the tech industry, where management is also a technical discipline, the learning curve can be brutal—especially when there are few tools, texts, and frameworks to help you. In this practical guide, author Camille Fournier (tech lead turned CTO) takes you through each stage in the journey from engineer to technical manager. From mentoring interns to working with senior staff, you’ll get actionable advice for approaching various obstacles in your path. This book is ideal whether you’re a new manager, a mentor, or a more experienced leader looking for fresh advice. Pick up this book and learn how to become a better manager and leader in your organization. Begin by exploring what you expect from a manager Understand what it takes to be a good mentor, and a good tech lead Learn how to manage individual members while remaining focused on the entire team Understand how to manage yourself and avoid common pitfalls that challenge many leaders Manage multiple teams and learn how to manage managers Learn how to build and bootstrap a unifying culture in teams




The Complete Software Project Manager


Book Description

Your answer to the software project management gap The Complete Software Project Manager: From Planning to Launch and Beyond addresses an interesting problem experienced by today's project managers: they are often leading software projects, but have no background in technology. To close this gap in experience and help you improve your software project management skills, this essential text covers key topics, including: how to understand software development and why it is so difficult, how to plan a project, choose technology platforms, and develop project specifications, how to staff a project, how to develop a budget, test software development progress, and troubleshoot problems, and what to do when it all goes wrong. Real-life examples, hints, and management tools help you apply these new ideas, and lists of red flags, danger signals, and things to avoid at all costs assist in keeping your project on track. Companies have, due to the nature of the competitive environment, been somewhat forced to adopt new technologies. Oftentimes, the professionals leading the development of these technologies do not have any experience in the tech field—and this can cause problems. To improve efficiency and effectiveness, this groundbreaking book offers guidance to professionals who need a crash course in software project management. Review the basics of software project management, and dig into the more complicated topics that guide you in developing an effective management approach Avoid common pitfalls by perusing red flags, danger signals, and things to avoid at all costs Leverage practical roadmaps, charts, and step-by-step processes Explore real-world examples to see effective software project management in action The Complete Software Project Manager: From Planning to Launch and Beyond is a fundamental resource for professionals who are leading software projects but do not have a background in technology.




The Budget-Building Book for Nonprofits


Book Description

This best-selling nuts-and-bolts workbook, now in its second edition, has become the gold standard for nonprofit managers and boards who must work through the budget cycle. The book offers practical tools and guidance for completing each step of the budgeting process. Designed to be comprehensive and easy to use, The Budget-Building Book for Nonprofits provides everything budgeters and nonfinancial managers need to prepare, approve, and implement their own budgets. Includes new chapters on Zero-Based and Capital Budgeting as well as an accompanying website with spreadsheets, worksheets and a new budget-building software, the CMS Nonprofit Budget Builder, designed to help you implement the concepts in the book. The software includes an expandable standard chart of accounts (COA) and will aid in building, organizing, tracking and planning budgets.