Tom Kendrick

101 Project Management Problems and How to Solve Them

Practical Advice for Handling Real-World Project Challenges

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Even with a terrific project management program in place, problems can arise to derail your team's hard work. The last thing you need in the heat of battle is academic theory. You need field-proven fixes, practical answers to urgent questions, and simple strategies for navigating around obstacles. 101 Project Management Problems and How to Solve Them explores a wide range of these real-world challenges, including how to: - Keep a project on track despite unavoidable interruptions. - Prevent unreliable outside collaborators from jeopardizing the entire project. - Manage project teams who have little or no project management experience. - Make up for lost time without cutting corners. - Succeed in the face of threatened budget cuts. - And many more. Filled with plan-ahead strategies as well as on-the-fly solutions, this helpful guide is the ultimate project adviser and on-the-job troubleshooter in one!

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: McGraw-Hill Professional
• Seitenzahl: 274
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. Dezember 2010
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 17mm
• Gewicht: 436g
• ISBN-13: 9780814415573
• ISBN-10: 0814415571
• Artikelnr.: 30364421

Autorenporträt

Tom Kendrick the former Program Director for the project management curriculum at UC Berkeley Extension, and lives in the Bay area near San Francisco, California. He is a past award recipient of the Project Management Institute (PMI) David I. Cleland Project Management Literature Award for "Identifying and Managing Project Risk: Essential Tools for Failure-Proofing Your Project" (now in it's fourth edition). Tom is also a certified PMP and serves as a volunteer for both the PMI Silicon Valley Chapter and PMI.org.

Inhaltsangabe

101 Project Management Problems and How to Solve Them
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part 1: General
1 What personality type fits best into project management?
2 What are the traits of successful project managers?
3 I’m an experienced individual contributor, but very new to project
management. How do I get my new project up and going?
4 What are the most important responsibilities of a project manager?
5 What is the value to project management certification? What about
academic degrees in project management?
6 There are many project development methodologies. What should I consider
when adopting standards such as the Project Management Institute PMBOK?
7 What are the key considerations when developing or revising a project
life cycle? What should I consider when choosing between “waterfall” and
“cyclic” (or “agile”) life cycles?
8 How can I efficiently run mini-projects (less than six months with few
dedicated resources)?
9 How rigid and formal should I be when running a small project?
10 How do I handle very repetitive projects, such as product introductions?
11 How should I manage short, complex, dynamic projects?
12 How do I balance good project management practices with high pressure to
“get it done?” How can I build organizational support for effective project
planning and management?
13 How does project management differ between hardware and a software
projects?
14 How many projects can a project manager realistically handle
simultaneously?
15 How do I handle my day-to-day tasks along with managing a project?
16 How do I develop and maintain supportive sponsorship throughout a
project?
17 What can I do when my project loses its sponsor?
18 How can I secure and retain adequate funding throughout my project?
19 Can the project management function be outsourced?
20 How can I ensure good project management practices during organizational
processes changes?
21 What is the best structure for program management for ensuring
satisfactory customer results?
Part 2: Initiation
22 How do I effectively manage customer expectations?
23 How can I reconcile competing regional/cross-functional agendas?
24 How should I effectively deal with contributor hostility or reluctance
during start-up?
25 When is a project large enough to justify investing in a two-day project
launch?
26 How do I establish control initially when my project is huge?
27 How should I initiate a new project with a new team, or using a new
technology?
28 How should I evaluate and make “make vs. buy” project decisions?
29 How can I quickly engage good contract workers?
30 In a large project, when should I seek commitment for overall funding?
31 When working with extremely limited resources, how can I get my project
completed without doing it all myself?
32 How should I initiate a project that has a relatively low priority?
33 How should I organize my Project Management Information System (PMIS) to
facilitate access and avoid “too much data?”
Part 3: Teamwork
34 How can I organize my team for maximum creativity, flexibility, and
success?
35 How can I work effectively with other project teams and leaders who have
very little project management experience?
36 How can I help team members recognize the value of using project
management processes?
37 How do I keep people focused without hurting morale?
38 How can I involve my team in project management activities without
increasing overhead?
39 How can I manage and build teamwork on a project team that includes
geographically remote contributors?
40 How do secure team buy-in on global projects?
41 How can I best manage project contributors who are contract staff?
42 How do I cope with part-time team members with conflicting assignments?
43 How do you handle undependable contributors who impede project progress?
44 How should I manage informal communications and “management by wandering
around” on a virtual, geographically distributed team?
45 When should I delegate down? Delegate up?
46 How can I best deal with project teams larger than twenty?
47 What can I do to manage my schedule when my project WBS becomes huge?
Part 4: Planning
48 How can I get meaningful commitment from team members that ensures
follow through?
49 As a project manager, what should I delegate and what should I do
myself?
50 Who should estimate activity durations and costs?
51 How do I improve the quality and accuracy of my project estimates?
52 What metrics will help me estimate project activity durations and costs?
53 How can I realistically estimate durations during holidays and other
times when productivity decreases?
54 How can I develop realistic schedules?
55 How can I thoroughly identify and manage external dependencies?
56 How do I synchronize my project schedules with several related partners
and teams?
57 How do I effectively plan and manage a project that involves invention,
investigation, or multiple significant decisions?
58 How should I manage adoption of new technologies or processes in my
projects?
59 How should I plan to bring new people up to speed during my projects?
60 How can I resolve staff and resource overcommitments?
61 How can I minimize the impact of scarce, specialized expertise I need
for my project?
62 What is the best approach for balancing resources across several
projects?
63 How can I minimize potential late project testing failures and
deliverable evaluation issues?
64 How do I anticipate and minimize project staff turnover?
Part 5: Execution
65 How can I avoid having too many meetings?
66 How can I ensure owner follow-through on project tasks and action items?
67 How do I keep track of project details without things falling through
the cracks?
68 How can I avoid having contributors game their status metrics?
69 What are the best ways to communicate project status?
70 How can I manage my project successfully despite high-priority
interruptions?
71 What are the best project management communication techniques for remote
contributors?
72 How do I establish effective global communications? What metrics can I
use to track communication?
73 On fee-for-service projects, how do you balance customer and
organizational priorities?
74 How do I survive a late-project work bulge, ensuring both project
completion and team cohesion?
75 How do I coordinate improvements and changes to processes we are
currently using on our project?
Part 6: Control
76 How much project documentation is enough?
77 How can I ensure all members on my multi-site team have all the
information they need to do their work?
78 How can I manage overly constrained projects effectively?
79 How do I keep my project from slipping? If it does, how do I recover its
schedule?
80 What are the best practices for managing schedule changes?
81 How can I effectively manage several small projects that don't seem to
justify formal project management procedures?
82 What are good practices for managing complex, multi-site projects?
83 How do I best deal with time zone issues?
84 How can I manage changes to the project objective in the middle of my
project?
85 How should I respond to increased demands from management after the
project baseline has been set?
86 How can I avoid issues with new stakeholders, especially on global
projects?
87 What should I do when team members fail to complete tasks, citing
"regular work" priorities?
88 What is the best way manage my project through reorganizations, market
shifts, or other external changes?
89 How should I deal with having too many decision makers?
90
; How should I manage multi-site decision making?
91 What can I do when people claim that they are too busy to provide status
updates?
92 How can I effectively manage projects where the staff is managed by
others?
93 How can I minimize unsatisfactory deliverable and timing issues when
outsourcing?
94 How should I manage reviews for lengthy projects?
95 What should I do to establish control when taking over a project where I
was not involved in the scoping or planning?
Part 7: Tools
96 What should I consider when adopting technology-based communication
tools?
97 How should I select and implement software tools for project
documentation, scheduling, and planning?
98 What should I consider when setting up a software tool I will be using
to coordinate many interrelated projects?
Part 8: Closing
99 How should I realistically assess the success and value of my project
management processes?
100 What are good practices for ending a canceled project?
101 How can I motivate contributors to participate in project retrospective
analysis?