Project Management for Mere Mortals: The Tools, Techniques, Teaming, and Politics of Project Management

Praise for Project Management for Mere Mortals^®

“Project Management for Mere Mortals is a must read for all project managers with responsibilities for large or small projects, regardless of industry or product. Baca has cleverly taken the (sometimes) difficult lexicon of project management and distilled it into easy-to-read, understandable concepts. Her case study examples lead Project Managers from Project Initiation through Project Close–and those between–with ease. In today’s growing discipline of Project Management, we must understand the potential hurdles and where to capitalize on prior knowledge. Baca is a Project Management guru. No person involved with the execution of projects should be without this book…ever.”

–Lisa Marie Jacobsen, CAPM, Project Manager, Newtown Square, Pennsylvania

“Project Management for Mere Mortals is an excellent book for the beginning as well as the experienced project manager. At the elementary level, the concepts are clearly explained, and at the advanced level, hints and tips are explained that give new insight to the concepts. I especially liked the case studies that applied each chapter’s lessons.”

–Kaaren A. Walsh, PMP

“This book is an excellent learning tool for beginning Project Managers and a terrific resource for experienced Project Managers.”

–Janene A. Luders, PMP

Project Management for Mere Mortals^® strips away the myths and mysteries of effective project management, giving you the skills, tools, and insights to succeed with your next project–and every project after that.

Long-time project manager and trainer, Claudia Baca, walks you through all five process groups of project management: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and closing. Baca examines each process group from the perspectives of the working project manager and team member, highlighting the organizational issues most likely to arise and offering proven solutions. For each process group, she presents tools you can start using right now–and demonstrates those tools at work in a realistic running case study.

This guide takes you from the absolute basics through advanced techniques, such as measures of performance and change control. You’ll learn how to

• Accurately scope projects and build workable timetables

• Create trustworthy budgets and use them to manage your project

• Organize work assignments for maximum efficiency

• Build project teams, and keep them motivated

• Intelligently assess quality goals, and decide “how good it has to be”

• Identify and mitigate the real risks your project will encounter

• Control changes and stay on track, no matter what surprises occur

• Close projects successfully, and learn lessons for future projects

• Gain crucial skills you’ll need for PMI certification

This book has been crafted to support professionals who are new (or almost new) to project management, as well as experienced project managers who want to handle complex projects and organizational politics more effectively. Whatever your role or assignment, it’s your fastest route to deep project management mastery.

Contents

Foreword by Kim Heldman, PMP  xv

Preface  xvii

Acknowledgments  xxv

About the Author  xxvii

Chapter 1   Setting the Project Management Context  1

Chapter 2   You’ve Been Assigned a Project!  19

Chapter 3   How Big Is This Project?  53

Chapter 4   Laying Out the Work  99

Chapter 5   The Art of Estimating  131

Chapter 6   Quality–How Good Does It Have to Be?  169

Chapter 7   Communication–What Do You Think About My Project?  207

Chapter 8   Risk–What Should You Worry About?  257

Chapter 9   Creating the Schedule  291

Chapter 10 Budgeting–How Much?  331

Chapter 11 The Rhythm of Project Execution  369

Chapter 12 Keeping the Project on Track  397

Chapter 13 Controlling Changes  421

Chapter 14 Success!–Closing the Project  441

Answers to the Review Questions  457

Glossary  471

Bibliography  477

Index  479

Claudia M. Baca, PMP, PMI OPM3^®, Certified Assessor and Consultant, has been active in the project management industry since 1984 and has project management experience in the information technology, telecommunications, and e-commerce industries. During her long and varied career, Claudia has managed multiple mission-critical projects for companies as varied as a major telecommunications company to an Internet start-up company. She most recently was the vice president of Consulting Services for a nationally known project management consulting firm. Currently, Claudia is an independent consultant focusing on project management consulting and training. She lectures for the Project Management Institute’s Denver chapter, as well as teaches for Colorado State University and Denver’s Front Range Community College.

Claudia was a member of the leadership team that produced the standard for Project Management Maturity,OPM3, and is currently working on the second edition of that standard. She has a Master’s Certificate in Program Management from Denver University and earned her PMP in 1995.

Claudia is also an experienced writer and technical editor. She coauthored the paper “Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3)”, presented at the PMI Global Congress Europe in 2003. She coauthored the paper “The Past, the Present and the Future of OPM3,” presented at the PMI Global Congress North America, 2004, and also coauthored “OPM3–The Path to Organizational Achievement of Strategic Business Improvement,” presented at the PMI North American Congress in October 2007 in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition, she is the technical editor of the PMP Project Management Professional Study Guideand the IT Project + Study Guide, and is the coauthor of PMP Project Management Professional Workbook, all published by Sybex. In 2005, Claudia published the Project Management Spotlight on Change Managementin March and the PMP Project Management Professional Study Guide Deluxe Editionin August, both by John Wiley Publishing. Her first work for Addison-Wesley is Project Management for Mere Mortals, in 2007.

Claudia was the first person to be certified by PMI^® and Det Norske Veritas (DNV) as a PMI Certified OPM3^® Assessor and Consultant. She has assessed and improved project management maturity in organizations ranging in size from a nuclear power plant to a 50-employee telecommunication networking company.