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Projects have been around since ancient times. Noah building the ark, Leonardo da Vinci painting the Mona Lisa, Edward Gibbon writing The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and Dr Fiona Wood inventing spray-on skin for burn victims – all projects. And, as you know, these projects were all masterful successes. (Well, the products were a spectacular success, even if schedules and resource budgets were sometimes overrun!)

Why, then, is the topic of project management of such great interest today? The answer is simple: The audience has changed and the stakes are higher.

Historically, projects were large, complex undertakings. Teams of specialists planned and tracked the myriad research, development and production activities. As a result, people started to view project management as a highly technical discipline with confusing charts and graphs; they saw it as inordinately time consuming, specialist driven and definitely off limits for the common man or woman.

Because of the ever-growing array of huge, complex and technically challenging projects in today’s world, people who want to devote their careers to planning and managing them are still vital to the projects’ success. Over the past 25 to 30 years, however, the number of projects in the regular workplace has skyrocketed. Projects of all types and sizes are now the way that organisations accomplish work involving development and change.

At the same time, a new breed of Project Manager has emerged. This new breed may not have set career goals to become Project Managers – many among them don’t even consider themselves to be Project Managers. But they do know that they must successfully manage projects to move ahead in their careers. Clearly, project management has become a critical management skill for many, not just a career choice for a few.

Even though these Project Managers realise they need special tools, techniques and knowledge to handle their new types of assignments, they may not be able to devote large amounts of time to acquiring them, which is where this book comes in.

About This Book

Project Management Essentials For Dummies helps you recognise that the basic tenets of successful project management are simple. The book condenses key topics and explains powerful techniques that help you plan and manage projects successfully. Here, you discover that the real challenge to a successful project is dealing with the multitude of people whom a project may affect or need for support. You find plenty of tips, hints and guidelines for identifying key people and then involving them.

But knowledge alone won’t make you a successful Project Manager – you need to apply it. This book’s theme is that project management skills and techniques aren’t burdensome tasks you perform because some process requires it. Rather, they’re a way of thinking, communicating and behaving to help you achieve successful delivery. They’re an integral part of how people approach all aspects of their work every day.

Project Management Essentials For Dummies is an introductory guide to project management that covers the essentials. But don’t be misled – the text still navigates all the critical tools and techniques you’ll need to support your project planning, scheduling, budgeting, organising and controlling.

Each chapter is self-contained, so you can read the chapters that interest you the most first, without feeling lost because you haven’t read the book from front to back.

Foolish Assumptions

When writing this book, we assumed that a widely diverse group of people will read it, including the following:

✓ Senior managers and junior managers (tomorrow’s senior managers!)

✓ Experienced Project Managers and people who’ve never been on a project team

✓ People with past project management training who want to catch up on the latest ideas, and people who’ve had none

✓ People with years of real-world business or government experience, and people who’ve just started work

We assume that you have a desire to take control of your environment. After reading this book, we hope you wonder (and rightfully so) why all projects aren’t well managed – because you’ll think these techniques are so logical, straightforward and easy to use.

Finally, you’ll find that you can dip into this book repeatedly and find out something new each time. Think of this book as a handy resource that has more to share as you experience new situations.

Icons Used in This Book

The small icons in the left margins of the book are to alert you to special information in the text. Here’s what they mean:

Get in front of your project. We use this icon to point out project-centric terms, issues and situations.

This icon points out important information you want to keep in mind as you apply the techniques and approaches.

The Tip icon highlights something you can use to improve your project management practices.

This icon highlights potential pitfalls and dangers.

Where to Go from Here

You can read this book in many ways, depending on your own project management knowledge and experience, and your current needs. However, it’s worth starting out by taking a minute to scan the table of contents and thumb through the chapters to get a feeling for the topics.

No matter how you make your way through this book, plan on reading all the chapters more than once – the more you read a chapter, the more sense its approaches and techniques will make. And who knows? A change in your job responsibilities may create a need for certain techniques you’ve never used before. Have fun!

Five Tips for Managing Projects

✓ Embrace the role of Project Manager. Whether the project is small or large, a great Project Manager is always proactive. You need to be like the captain of a ship: Oversee the project’s direction and day-to-day tasks and keep information flowing to everyone involved.

✓ Manage the four control areas. Because you want your project to be a success, you need to define and manage those areas that are cornerstones to the project meeting its objectives – the scope (what the project will deliver), time (by when), quality (standard of work) and resources (money, people and equipment).

✓ Grasp the four stages. A project goes through four phases, and each one is distinct with separate processes that you must address with detailed planning. These four stages encompass starting the project, organising and preparing, carrying out the work and then closing the project.

✓ Coordinate teams and specialists. Projects usually involve working with people with different skill sets. You need to assign roles that emphasise function and not status, then encourage people to give their best and keep their commitment to the project.

✓ Track progress and minimise risks. Project control is essential to keep the project on track and heading towards successful delivery. You need to monitor progress and deal with change when it occurs so that you can bring the project to an orderly close.

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