Lessons In Project Management

Lessons Learned is an important phase in project management. This is when organizations can pave the way for future project success by documenting mistakes so they are not repeated and recording best practices so they are repeated. This book covers the important role a project management office (PMO) plays in promoting lessons learned. Project managers learn how to improve processes by applying lessons learned. The book emphasizes "actionability," or producing a process improvement that can be acted upon by anyone in the PMO or project team.

Kozak-Holland takes a hard look at the history of project management and how it evolved over the past 4,500 years. Examining archaeological evidence, artwork, and surviving manuscripts, he provides evidence of how each of the nine knowledge areas of project management have been practiced throughout the ages.

Project managers who lead globally dispersed teams face unique challenges in managing project stakeholders, scope, knowledge sharing, schedules, resources, and above all team execution in a global business environment. Finding timely solutions to challenging events becomes more difficult in a global project environment. This book presents more than

"This is the project management book I've been waiting a decade for! . . . The new world is the Project World, and this book gloriously shows the way."-Tom Peters How to get beyond the formulas and succeed in real-world project management Project Management Success Stories begins where most books on project management leave off-with the real-world experiences of professional project managers working without a net. From these stories and the lessons they teach, project managers emerge not as bureaucrats or technicians clinging to rules and formulas but as champions who challenge the status quo, set goals that extend the limits of their teams' capabilities, rely more on judgment and intuition than calculation, and are not afraid to take risks when necessary. Based on a comprehensive, NASA-sponsored research project, this practical guide takes readers beyond textbook management systems and articulates the field-proven tacit knowledge that these veteran leaders have accumulated through years of experience under fire. These stories contain lessons that extend far beyond the field of engineering; they apply in any environment, from the government task force to the corporate boardroom to the shop floor. This remarkably unconventional how-to book: * Features 70 firsthand project management success stories * Presents actionable lessons demonstrated by these success stories * Inspires and energizes readers to reach new heights in their own performance * Conveys leadership principles and intangibles in a simple, nontechnical format * Provides resources for creating success stories within any organization * Includes profiles of five "star" project managers Project management is not just for engineers anymore, and Project Management Success Stories is for anyone-engineer or generalist, project manager or team member-who wants to turn the tacit knowledge of proven professionals into hands-on solutions to the recurring challenges of a dynamic and constantly changing business and technological environment.

What is it about Napoleon Bonaparte that has led recognized leaders such as General George S. Patton to study his principles-and countless books on management and leadership to quote his maxims? What lessons can today's project managers and leaders learn from Napoleon's successes and failures? "Napoleon on Project Management" explores the key principles behind Napoleon's successes, the triggers that led to his downfall, and the lessons to be learned from his ultimate demise-and applies these lessons to modern-day project management and leadership at all levels.

Project management lessons learned on the Big Dig, America's biggest megaproject, by a core member responsible for its daily operations In Megaproject Management, a central member of the Big Dig team reveals the numerous risks, challenges, and accomplishments of the most complex urban infrastructure project in the history of the United States. Drawing on personal experience and interviews with project engineers, executive oversight commission officials, and core managers, the author, a former deputy counsel and risk manager for the Big Dig, develops new insights as she describes the realities of day-to-day management of the project from a project manager's perspective. The book incorporates both theory and practice and is therefore highly recommended to policymakers, academics, and project management practitioners. Focusing on lessons learned, this insightful coursebook presents the Big Dig as a massive case study in the management of risk, cost, and schedule, particularly the interrelation of technical, legal, political, and social factors. It provides an analysis of the difficulties in managing megaprojects during each phase and over the life span of the project, while delivering useful lessons on why projects go wrong and what can be done to prevent project failure. It also offers new ideas to enhance project management performance and innovation in our global society. This unique guide: Defines megaproject characteristics and frameworks Reviews the Big Dig's history, stakeholders, and governance Examines the project's management scope, scheduling, and cost management—including project delays and cost overruns Analyzes the Big Dig's risk management and quality management Reveals how to build a sustainable project through integration and change introduction

White Star's initiative to build its new Olympic-class ships can be described as a text book project. It started off very well in the initiation and planning phases: the project team had a very good understanding of the business and customer needs, a solid vision, a superlative business case, the right supplier partnerships, good stakeholder relationships, and a healthy balance of proven and emerging technologies. By the end of the design phase, however, decisions were made that compromised safety features. The architects assumed that the aggregated effect of the reduced safety features and advanced technologies would still protect the ships. By the end of the fitting-out phase, all key stakeholders believed that the ships could never founder. The belief in Titanic's invincibility grew through the sea trials and into the maiden voyage. Everyone-from the captain and crew to the 53 millionaires on board-believed this. Why else would the wealthy and powerful have filled the hold and safes with cars and riches, and come aboard on a potentially treacherous route? Fundamentally, they believed that man had conquered nature and there was little risk. This book reveals the project management blunders that doomed Titanic while it was still being built-mistakes that you can avoid repeating in your own projects. Filled with photos and copies of actual documents from the project, this book walks you through a case study in project management failure.

Failure to learn from past mistakes and successes has consistently been a major obstacle to improving IT project management. This monograph addresses this shortcoming by integrating, updating, and extending the research findings from four previous studies on IT project retrospectives. The result is a "meta-retrospective" of 264 IT projects.

For some organizations, Lessons Learned (LL) is an informal process of discussing and recording project experiences during the closure phase. For others, LL is a formal process that occurs at the end of each phase of a project. Regardless of when they are performed, if you are a project team member, chances are you will soon be required to present

The authors do not assume readers of this title are a project manager building a nuclear reactor or sending a man to the moon. Instead their focus is on the millions of people who manage normal, medium to large projects on an ongoing basis.