Project Management For Dummies, 4th Edition -- About the Author -- 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 Organized -- Icons Used in This Book -- Where to Go from Here -- Part I: Getting Started with Project Management -- Chapter 1: Project Management: The Key to Achieving Results -- Determining What Makes a Project a Project -- Defining Project Management -- Knowing the Project Manager's Role -- Do You Have What It Takes to Be an Effective Project Manager? -- Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 5 -- Chapter 2: Knowing Your Project's Audience: Involving the Right People -- Understanding Your Project's Audiences -- Developing an Audience List -- Considering the Drivers, Supporters, and Observers in Your Audience -- Displaying Your Audience List -- Confirming Your Audience's Authority -- Assessing Your Audience's Power and Interest -- Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 5 -- Chapter 3: Clarifying What You're Trying to Accomplish - And Why -- Defining Your Project with a Scope Statement -- Looking at the Big Picture: Explaining the Need for Your Project -- Marking Boundaries: Project Constraints -- Facing the Unknowns When Planning: Documenting Your Assumptions -- Presenting Your Scope Statement in a Clear and Concise Document -- Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 5 -- Chapter 4: Developing Your Game Plan: Getting from Here to There -- Divide and Conquer: Breaking Your Project into Manageable Chunks -- Creating and Displaying Your Work Breakdown Structure -- Identifying Risks While Detailing Your Work -- Documenting What You Need to Know about Your Planned Project Work -- Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 5.

Part II: Planning Time: Determining When and How Much -- Chapter 5: You Want This Project Done When? -- Picture This: Illustrating a Work Plan with a Network Diagram -- Analyzing a Network Diagram -- Working with Your Project's Network Diagram -- Developing Your Project's Schedule -- Estimating Activity Duration -- Displaying Your Project's Schedule -- Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 5 -- Chapter 6: Establishing Whom You Need, How Much, and When -- Getting the Information You Need to Match People to Tasks -- Estimating Needed Commitment -- Ensuring Your Project Team Members Can Meet Their Resource Commitments -- Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 5 -- Chapter 7: Planning for Other Resources and Developing the Budget -- Determining Nonpersonnel Resource Needs -- Making Sense of the Dollars: Project Costs and Budgets -- Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 5 -- Chapter 8: Venturing into the Unknown: Dealing with Risk -- Defining Risk and Risk Management -- Focusing on Risk Factors and Risks -- Assessing Risks: Probability and Consequences -- Getting Everything under Control: Managing Risk -- Preparing a Risk-Management Plan -- Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 5 -- Part III: Group Work: Putting Your Team Together -- Chapter 9: Aligning the Key Players for Your Project -- Defining Three Organizational Environments -- Recognizing the Key Players in a Matrix Environment -- Working Successfully in a Matrix Environment -- Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 5 -- Chapter 10: Defining Team Members' Roles and Responsibilities -- Outlining the Key Roles -- Making Project Assignments -- Picture This: Depicting Roles with a Responsibility Assignment Matrix -- Dealing with Micromanagement -- Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 5.

Chapter 11: Starting Your Project Team Off on the Right Foot -- Finalizing Your Project's Participants -- Developing Your Team -- Laying the Groundwork for Controlling Your Project -- Hear Ye, Hear Ye! Announcing Your Project -- Setting the Stage for Your Post-Project Evaluation -- Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 5 -- Part IV: Steering the Ship: Managing Your Project to Success -- Chapter 12: Tracking Progress and Maintaining Control -- Holding On to the Reins: Project Control -- Establishing Project Management Information Systems -- Putting Your Control Process into Action -- Reacting Responsibly When Changes Are Requested -- Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 5 -- Chapter 13: Keeping Everyone Informed -- I Said What I Meant and I Meant What I Said: Successful Communication Basics -- Choosing the Appropriate Medium for Project Communication -- Preparing a Written Project-Progress Report -- Holding Key Project Meetings -- Preparing a Project Communications Management Plan -- Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 5 -- Chapter 14: Encouraging Peak Performance by Providing Effective Leadership -- Exploring the Difference between Leadership and Management -- Recognizing the Traits People Look For in a Leader -- Developing Personal Power and Influence -- You Can Do It! Creating and Sustaining Team Member Motivation -- Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 5 -- Chapter 15: Bringing Your Project to Closure -- Staying the Course to Completion -- Handling Administrative Issues -- Providing a Smooth Transition for Team Members -- Surveying the Results: The Post-Project Evaluation -- Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 5 -- Part V: Taking Your Project Management to the Next Level -- Chapter 16: Using Technology to Enhance Project Planning and Management -- Using Computer Software Effectively.

Using Social Media to Enhance Project Management -- Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 5 -- Chapter 17: Monitoring Project Performance with Earned Value Management -- Defining Earned Value Management -- The How-To: Applying Earned Value Management to Your Project -- Determining a Task's Earned Value -- Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 5 -- Part VI: The Part of Tens -- Chapter 18: Ten Questions to Ask Yourself as You Plan Your Project -- What's the Purpose of Your Project? -- Whom 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 19: Ten Tips for Being a Better Project Manager -- Be a "Why" Person -- Be a "Can Do" Person -- Think about the Big Picture -- Think in Detail -- Assume Cautiously -- View People as Allies, Not Adversaries -- Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say -- Respect Other People -- Acknowledge Good Performance -- Be a Manager and a Leader -- Appendix: Combining the Techniques into Smooth-Flowing Processes -- Preparing Your Project Plan -- Controlling Your Project during Performance -- Index.