Project Management: A Practical Approach

Description

Project Management introduces students in a unique and accessible way to projectbased working as a means to tackle projects successfully. Not only in business circles, but also in the field of education, increasingly more activities are performed using a projectbased approach. Consider for example comprehensive study assignments, internal projects and projects during work placement and the fi nal stages of a degree. The line of approach of this book is practiceoriented. Based on assignments, groups of two to three students work on a project plan and an executive summary. Students can also opt for a ‘real’ assignment for a company or for one of the cases of the accompanying website. Added to this fifth edition are examples and illustrations, new sections about various subjects and a chapter about the flexible project approach Scrum. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Preface Table of Contents Introduction Part 1: Practical Theory Chapter 1: The project 1.1: Types of activities, types of work 1.2: Examples of projects 1.3: What is a project? 1.4: Moving from improvised to project based to routine activities 1.5: Types of projects 1.6: Things to remember 1.7: Doing things in phases 1.8: Why do things in phases? 1.9: The phases of a project: an illustration 1.10: When to do it as a project 1.11: Lifecycle of a project 1.12: Projects should be SMART 1.13: Carrying out the projects in this book Assignments Chapter 2: People working on projects 2.1: Line organisation 2.2: The project organisation 2.3: The project sponsor 2.4: Future users 2.5: The project manager 2.6: The project members 2.7: Relationship sponsor and project manager 2.8: Task-oriented and people-oriented leadership 2.9: Working on a project 2.10: Team roles according to Belbin 2.11: Digital tools for collaboration 2.12: Team agreements 2.13: Creativity and brainstorming 2.14: Negotiating 2.15: Making decisions in a project 2.16: Related projects 2.17: Outsourcing a project 2.18: Projects and cultural differences Assignments Chapter 3: The project from start to finish 3.1: Organising and carrying out the project 3.2: Reasons for starting the project 3.3: From reasons to do a project to actually doing the project itself 3.4: Project proposal 3.5: Initial meeting with the sponsor 3.6: Setting up the project 3.7: Project start-up meeting 3.8: Design and preparation 3.9: Realisation of the project result 3.10: Completion of the project 3.11: Project in time 3.12: Monitoring aspects of a project 3.13: Monitoring projects in practice 3.14: Why projects fail 3.15: Project risks 3.16: Terminating a project prematurely 3.17: Project management: methods Assignments Chapter 4: Planning 4.1: Why plan? 4.2: Concepts and terms 4.3: Gantt charts 4.4: Network diagrams 4.5: Deriving a Gantt chart from a network diagram 4.6: Adjustments to a planning 4.7: Which activities are required? 4.8: Planning software 4.9: Using planning software 4.10: Planning a large project in phases 4.11: Time management 4.12: Mini-course on MS Project on the website Assignments Part 2: How to do a project: methods and tools Chapter 5: How to do a project – the P6-Method 5.1: The P6-Method 5.2: Overview of the six steps 5.3: Step 1: Initiating the project 5.4: Step 2: Organising the project 5.5: Step 3: Writing a project plan 5.6: Step 4: Executing the project 5.7: Step 5: Delivering the project’s results 5.8: Step 6: Finalizing the project Assignments Chapter 6: Writing a project plan 6.1: The project plan 6.2: Dividing the project plan into sections 6.3: Background information 6.4: The project’s results 6.5: Project activities 6.6: Project scope and conditions 6.7: Intermediate results 6.8: Quality control 6.9: The project organisation 6.10: Planning 6.11: Costs and benefits 6.12: Risk analysis 6.13: Writing the project plan 6.14: The project’s files Assignments Chapter 7: Using Scrum 7.1: Scrum 7.2: Scrum applications 7.3: The benefits and drawbacks of Scrum 7.4: Scrum components 7.5: Roles within Scrum 7.6: Information during the Scrum process 7.7: Meetings during the Scrum process Assignments Chapter 8: Organising meetings 8.1: Project meeting 8.2: Preparing for the meeting 8.3: The meeting’s agenda 8.4: The meeting itself 8.5: After the meeting Assignments Chapter 9: Conducting interviews 9.1: Types of interviews 9.2: The three stages of an interview Assignments Chapter 10: Writing a report 10.1: Preparing to write the report 10.2: Putting the report together 10.3: The structure of the report 10.4: The main contents and finishing touches to the report Assignments Chapter 11: Holding a presentation 11.1: Organisation and contents of a presentation 11.2: Using an overhead projector or screen 11.3: The structure of a presentation 11.4: The presentation itself Assignments Chapter 12: Making an executive summary 12.1: The purpose of an executive summary 12.2: The components of an executive summary Assignments Final Assignments Appendix 1: Risk Analysis Appendix 2: Website www.projectmanagement-english.noordhoff.nl Bibliography About the author Index