Gazza's Guide to Practical Project Management


Book Description

Life is complicated. If we can simplify the job of getting things done, the better off we usually are. This is particularly important in managing projects. In this book, Gary (Gazza) tackles the complexity of managing projects by breaking the essential components of Project Management down into practical, simple concepts. Whether you simply have an interest in Project Management or are already managing them, this book has something for you. For most people, we remember things best when they are accompanied by music, or are part of a story. While there is no musical score to this book, there are plenty of project management lessons wrapped in entertaining stories to help the concepts stick. Featuring popular episodes from Gazza's Corner blog and all-new content, this book addresses the four main stages of typical projects: Initiation/Planning, Execution, Closeout and Project Control. What you will find in this book: Learn about the importance of the Project Kickoff - and why you need a Monkey to help you through it. Need to create a new Project Plan? Learn to write it as a story based on lessons learned from a famous author. Writing requirements? Learn how to develop exceptional ones through lessons learned from Ice Cream - and the Spice Girls. Implementing Organizational Change? Learn how to do it successfully by growing a Desert. Learn about the essentials of Risk Management from a pocket umbrella in the heart of the Australian Desert. You can't get there from here: tips on getting things done, in spite of it all. A playful theory on the origin of writing - and why it is so important that we write stuff down. Working with Virtual Teams or Volunteers? Read key lessons on working with both types of teams. And many other topics. From managing hundreds of small, concurrent projects to multi-year, multi-million dollar ventures, Gazza shares his 20+ years of experience and lessons learned to help you along the project management journey.




The Scariest Haunted House Project - Ever!


Book Description

With last summer’s adventure in the Ultimate Tree House now a fading memory, Amanda is finding it hard to adjust to Middle School. New faces, new teachers, stuck in a different class than her friends - and if that wasn’t bad enough, now she is a “little kid” again. How much more of this could she take? Meanwhile, Ben is on top of the world and enjoying school with his friends. His sister is in a different school and finally out of his hair - life was great! All of this changes when a surprise announcement brings the Project Kids back together in a two-school competition to build the best Halloween display. Armed with Vampires, Goblins, Zombies, Ghosts and the lessons they learned on their previous adventure, it seems like there is no way they can lose! This book builds on the Project Management concepts learned in The Ultimate Tree House Project, with a few more key lessons to help them handle more complex projects. Forced to handle constant changes, near-disasters and an immovable deadline, it is going to take their very best to get their project completed on time. Join the Project Kids as they embark on their bravest adventure yet – to build the Scariest Haunted House – Ever. The kids get started on the project and soon learn that it is not just Haunted Houses that can be scary!




The Amazing Science Fair Project


Book Description

Amanda was terrified. Sure, she and her friends had built a huge tree house and an awesome haunted house together - but now she was in way over her head. Those projects had been for fun - but this one was going to be marked! She and her lab partners have to do a class project for the School Science Fair - but they have absolutely no idea where to start or even what to do. Have they finally met their match? Meanwhile, the boys have big problems of their own, and the outcome of their project could mean life or death! OK, maybe not actual death, but they could end up cold, wet and hungry, and with no electronics…for a whole weekend! Join the Project Kids in their third big adventure as they come together to unravel the mysteries of Mice, Men…and Marshmallows. Parent/Teacher Note: In this next adventure, the skills the Project Kids learned on their first two big projects are reinforced and expanded as the girls and boys separate to work on distinctly different projects. The book will also cover practical steps and strategies to plan, research, run experiments and report on findings for a Science Fair project.







The Ultimate Tree House Project


Book Description

10 year old best friends Ben, James, Tim & Tom find the perfect tree in a forest near their school and begin to build the Ultimate Tree House. Things start with a bang, and get even worse when Ben's sister Amanda discovers them working on their secret tree house. Next thing they know, the girls are building their own - in the same tree - and it looks even better than the boy's! How are they doing it? What is their secret weapon? After the accident, everything changes and the boys are forced to team up with the girls - as if that would ever work! This book introduces basic Project Management concepts to children through an entertaining, funny story and simple lessons taught to one of the children by her father who is (of course) a Project Manager. She applies what she has learned and suddenly the girls are leaping ahead of the boys who had just "started building" - without a plan. Come join this unlikely band of tree house builders - four girls, four boys - as they end up working together to try and complete the Ultimate Tree House Project!




The Manager


Book Description

From the post room to the board room, everyone thinks they can be the manager. But how do you manage outrageous talent? What do you do to inspire loyalty from your players? How do you turn around a team in crisis? What's the best way to build long-term success? How can you lead calmly under pressure? The issues are the same whether you're managing a Premier League football team or a FTSE 100 company. Here, for the first time, some 30 of the biggest names in football management reveal just what it takes. With their every act, remark, and success or failure under constant scrutiny from the media and the fans, these managers need to be the most adroit of leaders. In The Manager they explain their methods, offer lessons they've learned along the way, and describe the decisions they make and the leadership they provide. Each chapter tackles a key leadership issue for managers in any walk of life and, in their own words, shows how the experts deal with the challenges they face in an abnormally high-pressure environment. Offering valuable lessons for business leaders and fascinating behind-the-scenes insights for football fans, The Manager is an honest, accessible and unprecedented look at the day-to-day work of these high-profile characters and the world of top-level football management. Featuring: Roy Hodgson, Carlo Ancelotti, Arsène Wenger, Sam Allardyce, Roberto Mancini, José Mourinho, Brendan Rodgers, Harry Redknapp, Sir Alex Ferguson, Walter Smith, Mick McCarthy, Gerard Houllier, Tony Pulis, Martin O'Neill, Neil Warnock, Howard Wilkinson, Kevin Keegan, Dario Gradi, Andre Villas-Boas, David Moyes, Alex McLeish, Hope Powell, Martin Jol, Glenn Hoddle, Chris Hughton, David Platt, Paul Ince, and George Graham.




Wheat Belly


Book Description

Includes a sneak peek of Undoctored—the new book from Dr. Davis! In this #1 New York Times bestseller, a renowned cardiologist explains how eliminating wheat from our diets can prevent fat storage, shrink unsightly bulges, and reverse myriad health problems. Every day, over 200 million Americans consume food products made of wheat. As a result, over 100 million of them experience some form of adverse health effect, ranging from minor rashes and high blood sugar to the unattractive stomach bulges that preventive cardiologist William Davis calls "wheat bellies." According to Davis, that excess fat has nothing to do with gluttony, sloth, or too much butter: It's due to the whole grain wraps we eat for lunch. After witnessing over 2,000 patients regain their health after giving up wheat, Davis reached the disturbing conclusion that wheat is the single largest contributor to the nationwide obesity epidemic—and its elimination is key to dramatic weight loss and optimal health. In Wheat Belly, Davis exposes the harmful effects of what is actually a product of genetic tinkering and agribusiness being sold to the American public as "wheat"—and provides readers with a user-friendly, step-by-step plan to navigate a new, wheat-free lifestyle. Informed by cutting-edge science and nutrition, along with case studies from men and women who have experienced life-changing transformations in their health after waving goodbye to wheat, Wheat Belly is an illuminating look at what is truly making Americans sick and an action plan to clear our plates of this seemingly benign ingredient.




Broken Bones, Broken Bodies


Book Description

Injury recidivism is a continuing health problem in the modern clinical setting and has been part of medical literature for some time. However, it has been largely absent from forensic and bioarchaeological scholarship, despite the fact that practitioners work closely with skeletal remains and, in many cases, skeletal trauma. The contributors to this edited collection seek to close this gap by exploring the role that injury recidivism and accumulative trauma plays in bioarchaeological and forensic contexts. Case examples from prehistoric, historic, and modern settings are included to highlight the avenues through which injury recidivism can be studied and analyzed in skeletal remains and to illustrate the limitations of studying injury recidivism in deceased populations.




Perovskite Photovoltaics


Book Description

Perovskite Photovoltaics: Basic to Advanced Concepts and Implementation examines the emergence of perovskite photovoltaics, associated challenges and opportunities, and how to achieve broader development. Consolidating developments in perovskite photovoltaics, including recent progress solar cells, this text also highlights advances and the research necessary for sustaining energy. Addressing different photovoltaics fields with tailored content for what makes perovskite solar cells suitable, and including commercialization examples of large-scale perovskite solar technology. The book also contains a detailed analysis of the implementation and economic viability of perovskite solar cells, highlighting what photovoltaic devices need to be generated by low cost, non-toxic, earth abundant materials using environmentally scalable processes. This book is a valuable resource engineers, scientists and researchers, and all those who wish to broaden their knowledge on flexible perovskite solar cells. - Includes contributions by leading solar cell academics, industrialists, researchers and institutions across the globe - Addresses different photovoltaics fields with tailored content for what makes perovskite solar cells different - Provides commercialization examples of large-scale perovskite solar technology, giving users detailed analysis on the implementation, technical challenges and economic viability of perovskite solar cells




World Development Report 2009


Book Description

Rising densities of human settlements, migration and transport to reduce distances to market, and specialization and trade facilitated by fewer international divisions are central to economic development. The transformations along these three dimensions density, distance, and division are most noticeable in North America, Western Europe, and Japan, but countries in Asia and Eastern Europe are changing in ways similar in scope and speed. 'World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography' concludes that these spatial transformations are essential, and should be encouraged. The conclusion is not without controversy. Slum-dwellers now number a billion, but the rush to cities continues. Globalization is believed to benefit many, but not the billion people living in lagging areas of developing nations. High poverty and mortality persist among the world's 'bottom billion', while others grow wealthier and live longer lives. Concern for these three billion often comes with the prescription that growth must be made spatially balanced. The WDR has a different message: economic growth is seldom balanced, and efforts to spread it out prematurely will jeopardize progress. The Report: documents how production becomes more concentrated spatially as economies grow. proposes economic integration as the principle for promoting successful spatial transformations. revisits the debates on urbanization, territorial development, and regional integration and shows how today's developers can reshape economic geography.