Performance-Based Project Management


Book Description

Even the most experienced project managers aren’t immune to the more common and destructive reasons for project collapses. Poor time and budget performance, failure to deal with complexity, uncontrolled changes in scope . . . they can catch anyone off guard. Performance-Based Project Management can help radically improve your project’s success rate, despite these and other obstacles that will try to take it down. Readers will discover how they can increase the probability of project success, detailing a step-by-step plan for avoiding surprises, forecasting performance, identifying risk, and taking corrective action to keep a project a success. Project leaders wishing to stand out among their peers who are continually hampered by these unexpected failures will learn how to:• Assess the business capabilities needed for a project• Plan and schedule the work• Determine the resources required to complete on time and on budget• Identify and manage risks to success• Measure performance in units meaningful to decision makersBy connecting mission strategy with project execution, this invaluable resource for project managers in every industry will help bring projects to successful, career-enhancing completion.




Measuring Time


Book Description

Meant to complement rather than compete with the existing books on the subject, this book deals with the project performance and control phases of the project life cycle to present a detailed investigation of the project’s time performance measurement methods and risk analysis techniques in order to evaluate existing and newly developed methods in terms of their abilities to improve the corrective actions decision-making process during project tracking. As readers apply what is learned from the book, EVM practices will become even more effective in project management and cost engineering. Individual chapters look at simulation studies in forecast accuracy; schedule adherence; time sensitivity; activity sensitivity; and using top-down or bottom-up project tracking. Vanhoucke also offers an actual real-life case study, a tutorial on the use of ProTrack software (newly developed based on his research) in EVM, and conclusions on the relative effectiveness for each technique presented.




Improving Project Performance


Book Description

The approach to project management is too often formulaic, describing what should be done and how to do it, but not adequately describing why those actions are important. Improving Project Performance outlines the what and how of project management, emphasizing why actions matter, the overall intention of the formulaic steps, and the strengths or weakness of various tools and techniques. Successful project teams must understand and focus intently on what Wellman describes as the eight essential habits of successful project teams: -Nurture a shared vision of what is to be accomplished -Translate that vision into a coherent set of performance specifications -Have an integrated plan for accomplishing the purpose -Measure their performance against the plan and their progress toward the requirements -Allow for uncertainty -Manage change -Continually act to influence their future -Over-communicate




Project Management for Performance Improvement Teams


Book Description

Project Management for Performance Improvement Teams (or, PM4PITs, for short) provides practical guidance based on innovative concepts for project teams -- especially Performance Improvement Teams (PITs)—and their Project Managers on how to successfully complete individual projects and programs using an ingenious and scalable framework based on an innovative foundation fusing together elements of Project Management, Innovation Management, and Continual Improvement. This book lays out how Project and Program Managers and their teams can "do those right projects the right way," one project at a time. It details what continual improvement, change, and innovation are, why they are so important, and how they apply to performance improvement—both incremental and transformative. The authors examine the four types of work and workforce management in organizations, Strategic, Operations, Projects, and Crises, using four common comparative variables: Proactive/Preventive versus Reactive/Corrective, Temporary/Unique versus Ongoing/Repetitive, Innovative versus Maintaining the Status Quo, and Schedule Focus: Fiscal Year versus Short Term versus Long Term. These comparisons set the stage for the uniqueness of the third type: Projects (and Programs) that are fundamentally change-driven.




Project Performance Review


Book Description

Published works and presentations by the authors -- Other recommended reading -- Index.




Improving Project Performance


Book Description

The approach to project management is too often formulaic, describing what should be done, but not describing why those actions are important. This book outlines the what and how of project management, emphasizing why actions matter, the overall intention of the formulaic steps, and the strengths or weakness of various tools and techniques.




Measuring Performance and Benchmarking Project Management at the Department of Energy


Book Description

In 1997, Congress, in the conference report, H.R. 105-271, to the FY1998 Energy and Water Development Appropriation Bill, directed the National Research Council (NRC) to carry out a series of assessments of project management at the Department of Energy (DOE). The final report in that series noted that DOE lacked an objective set of measures for assessing project management quality. The department set up a committee to develop performance measures and benchmarking procedures and asked the NRC for assistance in this effort. This report presents information and guidance for use as a first step toward development of a viable methodology to suit DOE's needs. It provides a number of possible performance measures, an analysis of the benchmarking process, and a description ways to implement the measures and benchmarking process.




Improving project performance using the PRINCE2 maturity model (P2MM)


Book Description

The purpose of the guide is to help organisations gain full value from the PRINCE2 method by providing practical advice on using its Maturity Model (P2MM). The guide shows how P2MM can be used: to help implement PRINCE2 for first time users; re-invigorate existing implementations; help organisations improve their project performance; as a benchmark to assess organisational capability and plan improvements; as a means of gaining external recognition for organisational capability; and as part of a wider goal to improve Portfolio, Programme, and Project Management performance.




Progress in Improving Project Management at the Department of Energy


Book Description

The Department of Energy (DOE) is engaged in numerous multimillion- and even multibillion-dollar projects that are one of a kind or first of a kind and require cutting-edge technology. The projects represent the diverse nature of DOE's missions, which encompass energy systems, nuclear weapons stewardship, environmental restoration, and basic research. Few other government or private organizations are challenged by projects of a similar magnitude, diversity, and complexity. To complete these complex projects on schedule, on budget, and in scope, the DOE needs highly developed project management capabilities. This report is an assessment of the status of project management in the Department of Energy as of mid-2001 and the progress DOE has made in this area since the National Research Council (NRC) report Improving Project Management in the Department of Energy (Phase II report) was published in June 1999.




Facilitating Project Performance Improvement


Book Description

Waiting until the end of a project to identify “lessons learned” is too late. By that time, the project may be ready for the scrap heap. But if your projects and programs include multi-level learning, you’ll not only be fostering continuous improvements for the future, you’ll be well-equipped to reduce the risk of failure while projects are “in-flight” so you can deliver maximum value to your client organization. Facilitating Project Performance Improvement helps any organization: • Reduce time to market for new products, systems, processes and technologies • Improve customer and end-user satisfaction with project outcomes • Reduce risk of failure, wasted investment, and project runaway • Improve productivity, quality and teamwork • Continuously improve delivery both within and across projects. Organizations simply cannot afford to leave learning to chance on their mission-critical investments. Facilitating Project Performance Improvement provides a practical approach to structured learning and reflection that enables teams to innovate and improve, ensuring both immediate and long-term project success.