About the Authors -- Contents at a Glance -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- About This Book -- Conventions Used in This Book -- What You're Not to Read -- Foolish Assumptions -- How This Book Is Organised -- Icons Used in This Book -- Where to Go from Here -- Part I: Understanding Projects and What You Want to Achieve -- Chapter 1: Project Management: The Key to Achieving Results -- Taking on a Project -- Avoiding the Pitfalls -- Deciding Whether the Job Is Really a Project -- Defining the Project Manager's Role -- Do You Have What It Takes? -- Chapter 2: Thinking Through the Life of Your Project -- Being Methodical -- Breaking the Project Down into Stages or Phases -- Understanding the Four Main Stages -- Chapter 3: Defining the Project and Producing a Business Case -- Defining the Scope -- Producing a Business Case -- Going Back to the Scope -- Getting to Grips with Techniques -- Chapter 4: Knowing Your Project's Stakeholders -- Managing Stakeholders -- Handling Opposition -- Handling Multiple-Stakeholder Projects -- Part II: Building the Plans -- Chapter 5: Planning with Deliverables First -- Seeing the Logic of Product Planning -- Knowing What a Product Is - and Isn't -- Finding Good Product Names -- Using a Business Project Example -- Using a Structured Product List -- Unleashing the Power of the Work Flow Diagram -- Chapter 6: You Want This Project Done When? -- Moving From Products to Activities -- Drawing Up a First Activity Network -- Understanding Float and Its Impact -- Identifying the Critical Path -- Being More Precise with Dependencies -- Working with the Activity Network -- Going for Gantt -- Estimating Activity Durations -- Chapter 7: Looking At Staff Resources -- Seeing Why You Need to Plan Staff Use -- Matching People to Tasks -- Honing Your Task Duration Estimates -- Smoothing the Resource.

Chapter 8: Planning for Other Resources and Developing the Budget -- Determining Physical Resource Needs -- Making Sense of Costs and Budgets -- Chapter 9: Planning at Different Times and Levels -- Putting the Main Structure in Place -- Working with Planning Levels -- Chapter 10: Venturing into the Unknown: Dealing with Risk and Uncertainty -- Understanding Risks and Risk Management -- Working Through the Risk Cycle -- Documenting Risk -- Getting Some Help from Techniques -- Part III: Putting Your Management Team Together -- Chapter 11: Organising the Project -- Designing the Project Organisation Structure -- Defining Three Organisational Environments -- Chapter 12: Working With Teams and Specialists -- Working With Others -- Understanding Teams -- Making Project Assignments -- Showing Roles with a Responsibility Assignment Matrix -- Dealing with Micromanagement -- Chapter 13: Being an Ef fective Leader -- Practising Management and Leadership -- Knowing What Motivates, and also What Demotivates -- Developing Your Teams -- Stoking the Boilers -- Part IV: Steering the Project to Success -- Chapter 14: Tracking Progress and Staying in Control -- Understanding What Underpins Effective Progress Control -- Harnessing Product Power for Progress Control -- Taking Action When Things Go Off Track -- Monitoring Work Effort and Costs -- Dealing with Change and Avoiding Scope Creep -- Chapter 15: Keeping Everyone Informed -- Looking Underneath Communications Failure -- Communicating Effectively -- Choosing the Appropriate Medium -- Preparing a Project Communications Management Plan -- Chapter 16: Bringing Your Project to Closure -- Staying the Course to Completion -- Planning Closure -- Providing a Good Transition for Team Members -- Reviewing the Project -- Planning for Things After the Project -- Part V: Taking Your Project Management to the Next Level.

Chapter 17: Managing Multiple Projects -- Talking the Talk -- Deciding on a Programme -- Managing a Portfolio -- Chapter 18: Using Technology to Up Your Game -- Using Computer Software Effectively -- Having Your Head in the Clouds -- Getting Really Good Stuff for Free -- Supporting Virtual Teams with Communication Technology -- Saving Time With Software -- Chapter 19: Monitoring Project Per formance with Earned Value Management -- Understanding EVM Terms and Formulas -- Working with EVM Ratios -- Defining the Formulas of EVM Performance Descriptors -- Deciding What to Measure for EVM -- Part VI: The Part of Tens -- Chapter 20: Ten Questions to Ask Yourself as You Plan Your Project -- What Are the Objectives of Your Project? -- Who Do You Need to Involve? -- What Results Will You Produce? -- What Constraints Must You Satisfy? -- What Assumptions Are You Making? -- What Work Has to Be Done? -- When Does Each Activity Start and End? -- Who Will Perform the Project Work? -- What Other Resources Do You Need? -- What Can Go Wrong? -- Chapter 21: Ten Tips for Writing a Convincing Business Case -- Starting with a Bang -- Spelling out the Benefits Clearly -- Pointing Out the Non-quantifiables -- Being Prudent -- Considering Three-point Estimating -- Making Sure Benefits Aren't Features -- Avoiding Benefits Contamination -- Making Sure You Can Deliver Benefits -- Supplying Evidence or Referencing It -- Using Appendices -- Chapter 22: Ten Tips for Being a Better Project Manager -- Being a 'Why' Person -- Being a 'Can Do' Person -- Thinking about the Big Picture -- Thinking in Detail -- Assuming Cautiously -- Viewing People as Allies Not Adversaries -- Saying What You Mean, and Meaning What You Say -- Respecting Other People -- Acknowledging Good Performance -- Being a Manager and a Leader -- Index.