Project Management For Smes

The one primer you need to launch, lead, and sponsor successful projects. We're now living in the project economy. The number of projects initiated in all sectors has skyrocketed, and project management skills have become essential for every leader and manager. Still, project failure rates remain extremely high. Why? Leaders oversee too many projects and have too little visibility into them. Project managers struggle to translate their hands-on, technical knowledge up to senior management. The result? Worthy projects are starved of time and resources and fail to deliver benefits, while too much investment goes into the wrong projects. To compete in the project economy, you need to close this gap. The HBR Project Management Handbook shows you how. In this comprehensive guide, project management expert Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez presents a new and simple framework that will increase any project's likelihood of success. Packed with case studies from many industries worldwide, it will teach you how to manage your organization's projects, strategic programs, and agile initiatives more effectively and push the best ones ahead to completion. Timeless yet forward-looking, this book will help you win in the project-driven world. In the HBR Project Management Handbook you'll find: Everything you need to know about project management in practical, nontechnical language A definitive taxonomy of project types, from product launches to digital transformations to megaprojects A road map for becoming an effective project leader and executive sponsor A new, simple, and universal project framework, the Project Canvas, that breaks down any project into essential building blocks that can be easily understood by all project stakeholders Original concepts and exclusive case studies from public- and private-sector organizations worldwide You'll learn: A common language for project managers and executives to run successful projects across your organization When to use agile, traditional, or hybrid methods in your projects The twelve principles of successful projects, including purpose, agility, and a focus on outcomes Techniques for selecting and advancing the best projects and managing a strategic and balanced project portfolio How today's projects will help address some of the most pressing global trends, including automation, sustainability, diversity, and crisis management Why project management needed to be reinvented and what the future holds HBR Handbooks provide ambitious professionals with the frameworks, advice, and tools they need to excel in their careers. With step-by-step guidance, time-honed best practices, and real-life stories, each comprehensive volume helps you to stand out from the pack—whatever your role.

Smaller companies are abundant in the business realm and outnumber large companies by a wide margin. To maintain a competitive edge against other businesses, companies must ensure the most effective strategies and procedures are in place. This is particularly critical in smaller business environments that have fewer resources. Start-Ups and SMEs: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is a vital reference source that examines the strategies and concepts that will assist small and medium-sized enterprises to achieve competitiveness. It also explores the latest advances and developments for creating a system of shared values and beliefs in small business environments. Highlighting a range of topics such as entrepreneurship, innovative behavior, and organizational sustainability, this multi-volume book is ideally designed for entrepreneurs, business managers, executives, managing directors, academicians, business professionals, researchers, and graduate-level students.

Big companies can afford project failures, smaller ones can't. One bad project could bring the whole business down. Over ninety nine percent of businesses in Europe and the US are small and medium enterprises with less than 250 staff. They are an important source of employment, growth and innovation for these economies. Projects represent a significant percentage of turnover for SMEs - estimated at 30% - and so represent a high risk to the viability of these companies, if poorly run. This book takes its readers though a lighter form of project management, designed to manage the risk of projects and put a repeatable process in place, without imposing the huge bureaucratic overheads implied by most project management methodologies. Small businesses can gain a competitive edge over their rivals by becoming better organised, controlling project costs and giving their customers the confidence that they are dealing with a professional Project Manager. Not only does this make the business run better and impress customers, but morale and retention increases when staff work in an organised set up. The book also covers both the Agile and Waterfall development approaches and compares and contrasts the advantages of each.

Over ninety nine percent of businesses in Europe and the US are small and medium enterprises with less than 250 staff. They are an important source of employment, growth and innovation for these economies. Surveys show that on average SMEs spend around 30% of their turnover on projects, so this should be a high focus area, especially given that one project failure can spell financial disaster for a smaller business. This book takes its readers though a lighter form of project management, designed to manage the risk of projects and put a repeatable and rigorous process in place, without imposing the large bureaucratic overheads required by project management methodologies such as PRINCE2 and PMP. Small businesses can gain a competitive edge over their rivals by becoming better organised, controlling project costs and giving their customers the confidence that they are dealing with a professional project manager. Not only does this make the business run better and impress customers, but morale and retention increases when staff work in an organised set up. The book covers both the Agile and Waterfall development approaches and compares and contrasts the advantages of each.

The book aims to diagnose EU projects' management processes in small and medium-sized enterprises. It also attempts to identify an effective management model of SMEs implementing EU projects as a factor determining the acceleration of growth in the development of entities operating on the market.

The growing importance of projects in organizations, combined with difficulties in their implementation, is accompanied by the need for professional knowledge in the field of project management. It results from the complexity of project management problems and the difficulty of knowledge that must be applied. However, surprisingly little is known about this topic, especially in the context of European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Project Management in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: A European Perspective attempts to fill this specific research gap. The book analyses the process of managing projects being implemented by small and medium-sized firms from Europe, identifies organizational processes, and verifies which elements of these processes require improvement. It concentrates on issues around the multifaceted characteristics of project management, with particular emphasis on the process of managing European small and medium enterprises. The book is the result of many years of empirical research and consists of two main parts: A systematization of concepts, terminology, and thus knowledge in the field of project management, with particular emphasis on the phases of planning, organizing, as well as leading and controlling in the project, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises, with particular emphasis on their specificity and role in the modern European economy. A systematization of concepts, terminology, and thus knowledge in the field of project management, with particular emphasis on the phases of planning, organizing, as well as leading and controlling in the project, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises, with particular emphasis on their specificity and role in the modern European economy Verification and development of such model procedures in the management of projects so that the SME enterprises’ functioning will be efficient and effective. There is a close relationship between the two parts. The theoretical part is the foundation on which practical considerations are later carried out. Integrating theoretical and practical issues, the book introduces new content to the literature and has the practical value of indicating how to manage projects in SMEs in the European Union. It also examines the decision-making processes related to project management in these organizations.

This book includes a selection of papers from the 2018 World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (WorldCIST'18), held in Naples, Italy on March27-29, 2018. WorldCIST is a global forum for researchers and practitioners to present and discuss recent results and innovations, current trends, professional experiences and the challenges of modern information systems and technologies research together with their technological development and applications. The main topics covered are: A) Information and Knowledge Management; B) Organizational Models and Information Systems; C) Software and Systems Modeling; D) Software Systems, Architectures, Applications and Tools; E) Multimedia Systems and Applications; F) Computer Networks, Mobility and Pervasive Systems; G) Intelligent and Decision Support Systems; H) Big Data Analytics and Applications; I) Human–Computer Interaction; J) Ethics, Computers & Security; K) Health Informatics; L) Information Technologies in Education; M) Information Technologies in Radiocommunications; N) Technologies for Biomedical Applications.

The concept of open innovation (OI) has become a very popular topic during the last decade, with an increasing number of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) embracing OI practices to gain competitive advantage. With the majority of publications focusing on large firms, open innovation in SMEs has received scant attention from both scholars and practitioners. This book seeks to correct this imbalance by providing an in-depth study for both business managers and graduate-level students. Using rich, in-depth case studies from successful companies, it examines different approaches to managing OI in order to develop practical guidelines for implementation. It also highlights important differences between OI strategies in SMEs and large companies. Its findings will be of use to those studying or working in innovation management, open innovation, small business management and entrepreneurship.

This open access book explores the concept of Industry 4.0, which presents a considerable challenge for the production and service sectors. While digitization initiatives are usually integrated into the central corporate strategy of larger companies, smaller firms often have problems putting Industry 4.0 paradigms into practice. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) possess neither the human nor financial resources to systematically investigate the potential and risks of introducing Industry 4.0. Addressing this obstacle, the international team of authors focuses on the development of smart manufacturing concepts, logistics solutions and managerial models specifically for SMEs. Aiming to provide methodological frameworks and pilot solutions for SMEs during their digital transformation, this innovative and timely book will be of great use to scholars researching technology management, digitization and small business, as well as practitioners within manufacturing companies.

Smaller companies are abundant in the business realm and outnumber large companies by a wide margin. Understanding the inner workings of small businesses offers benefits to the consumers and the economy. The Handbook of Research on Intrapreneurship and Organizational Sustainability in SMEs is a critical scholarly resource that examines the strategies and concepts that will assist small and medium-sized enterprises to achieve competitiveness. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as financial management, corporate sustainability, and organizational culture, this publication is geared towards business managers, professionals, graduate students, and researchers working in the field of smaller-scale business development initiatives.