Project Management in Practice

by Jack R. Meredith, Scott M. Shafer, Samuel J. Mantel Jr., Margaret M. Sutton

Overview

Offers streamlined, student-friendly coverage of all key areas of project management

Emphasizing the technical aspects of the project management life cycle, Project Management in Practice employs an applied approach to the essential tools, strategies, and techniques required to successfully plan and execute a project. The eighth edition of this leading textbook provides clear and reliable coverage of project activity, risk planning, budgeting and scheduling, resource allocation, project monitoring, project evaluation, and much more.

Designed for those preparing for or currently involved in the actual use of a project to achieve an objective, Project Management in Practice describes fundamental project management concepts and highlights the skills that project managers need to achieve an organization’s strategic goals. Easily accessible chapters feature cases that build upon the material from previous chapters, real-world examples, numerous tables and figures, end-of-chapter review questions, and discussion topics that reinforce key material.

With its concise pedagogy and hands-on focus, Project Management in Practice, Eighth Edition, is an ideal textbook for one-semester undergraduate and graduate courses or modules in business, engineering, and any curriculum where projects will play an important role in the success of the organization.

New to this Edition:

• New discussion of generative AI applications to projects and the role it plays in project management
• New discussions on sustainability, proven techniques for innovation, and managerial bias in developing and approving the business case for potential projects
• New non-packaged software approach to monitoring progress on a project that students can set up with a simple spreadsheet
• New supplement that discusses the PMBOK Guide® and the Standard for Project Management®
• New material on the varied interests of different stakeholders of a project
• Expanded coverage of mega- and inter-organizational projects
• Increased emphasis on the importance of visible organizational support and how to obtain it
• New content on relating a project to organizational strategy
• Added focus on the importance of achieving an organization’s target benefits for a project
• New discussion of measuring project success beyond standard measures of cost and time
• Updated coverage of the continuum from Agile to Waterfall project management
• New and revised references throughout

Wiley Advantage:

• Provides concise and pragmatic coverage of the fundamentals of project management
• Mirrors the project management life cycle, following the way an actual project is executed
• Employs a practical, hands-on approach using Microsoft Project and Crystal Ball risk analysis software
• Contains mini-cases, Excel spreadsheets, end-of-chapter exercises, tables, diagrams, figures, and a student-friendly icon-based layout
• Features an instructor’s manual and access to a companion website with PowerPoint slides, a test bank, and supplemental teaching resources

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781119298854
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	05/31/2017
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jack R. Meredith is Emeritus Professor of Management at the Wake Forest University School of Business. Meredith has worked for organizations such as the US Army Corps of Engineers, Hewlett-Packard, and Douglas Aircraft Company. He has consulted for the National Research Council, the Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Sciences, and Warner-Amex, among others. He is the co-author of five textbooks, including Operations Management for MBAs and Project Management: A Strategic Managerial Approach. He served as the founding Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Operations Management Research.

Scott M. Shafer is Professor of Management at the Wake Forest University School of Business and the Associate Dean of MS in Analytics Programs. Previously, Dr. Shafer served as Associate Professor of Operation Management at Auburn University and Assistant Professor of Operations Management at the University of Miami. His publications have appeared in journals such as Management Science, Decision Sciences, and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. He is the co-author of five books in the fields of operations management, project management, and quantitative business modeling.

Table of Contents

Preface xii

1 The World of Project Management 1

1.1 What is a Project? 1

1.1.1 Trends in Project Management 2

1.2 Project Management Versus General Management 4

1.2.1 Major Differences 4

1.2.2 Negotiation 5

1.3 Agile Project Management 6

1.4 What is Managed? The Three Goals of a Project 10

1.5 The Life Cycles of Projects 12

1.6 Selecting Projects to Meet Organizational Objectives 14

1.6.1 Nonnumeric Selection Methods 15

1.6.2 Numeric Selection Methods 16

1.7 The Project Portfolio Process 23

1.8 The Materials in this Text 27

Review Questions 28

Discussion Questions 29

Exercises 29

Incident for Discussion 30

Case: Friendly Assisted Living Facility—1 31

Case: Handstar Inc. 32

Bibliography 34

2 The Manager the Organization and the Team 35

2.1 The PM’s Roles 36

2.1.1 Facilitator 36

2.1.2 Communicator 38

2.1.3 Virtual Project Manager 41

2.1.4 Meetings, Convener, and Chair 42

2.2 The PM’s Responsibilities to the Project 42

2.2.1 Acquiring Resources 42

2.2.2 Fighting Fires and Obstacles 43

2.2.3 Leadership 43

2.2.4 Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, and Persuasion 45

2.3 Selection of a Project Manager 47

2.3.1 Credibility 47

2.3.2 Sensitivity 48

2.3.3 Leadership Style Ethics 48

2.3.4 Ability to Handle Stress 49

2.4 Project Management

as a Profession 50

2.5 Fitting Projects into the Parent Organization 52

2.5.1 Pure Project Organization 52

2.5.2 Functional Project Organization 53

2.5.3 Matrix Project Organization 54

2.5.4 Mixed Organizational Systems 56

2.5.5 The Project Management Office and Project Maturity 57

2.6 The Project Team 58

2.6.1 Matrix Team Problems 60

2.6.2 Intrateam Conflict 60

2.6.3 Integration Management 63

2.7 Agile Team Roles 65

Review Questions 67

Discussion Questions 68

Incidents for Discussion 69

Case: Friendly Assisted Living Facility—2 70

Case: The Quantum Bank 70

Case: Southern Care Hospital 71

Bibliography 73

3 Project Activity and Risk Planning 75

3.1 From the Project Charter to the Project Plan 75

3.2 The Planning Process—Overview 77

3.3 The Planning Process—Nuts and Bolts 78

3.3.1 The Launch Meeting—and Subsequent Meetings 78

3.3.2 Sorting Out the Project—The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) 80

3.3.3 Extensions of the Everyday WBS 83

3.4 More on the Work Breakdown Structure and Other Aids 86

3.4.1 The RACI Matrix 87

3.4.2 A Whole-Brain Approach to Project Planning 88

3.4.3 The Design Structure Matrix 91

3.5 Project Planning with Scrum 92

3.5.1 Scrum Artifacts Supporting Project Planning 93

3.5.2 Scrum Events for Project Planning 94

3.5.3 Risk Management with Scrum 96

3.6 Risk Management 96

Review Questions 103

Discussion Questions 103

Exercises 104

Incidents for Discussion 106

Case: Friendly Assisted Living Facility—3 107

Case: John Wiley & Sons 108

Case: Samson University 108

Bibliography 109

4 Budgeting the Project 111

4.1 Methods of Budgeting 112

4.1.1 Top-Down Budgeting 114

4.1.2 Bottom-Up Budgeting 114

4.1.3 Budgeting With Agile 115

4.2 Cost Estimating 115

4.2.1 Work Element Costing 115

4.2.2 The Impact of Budget Cuts 116

4.2.3 An Aside 118

4.2.4 Activity Versus Program Budgeting 119

4.3 Improving Cost Estimates 121

4.3.1 Forms 121

4.3.2 Learning Curves 122

4.3.3 Other Factors 124

4.4 Budget Uncertainty and Project Risk Management 126

4.4.1 Budget Uncertainty 126

4.4.2 Project Budgeting in Practice 129

4.5 Project Risk Simulation with Crystal Ball®130

4.5.1 Considering Disaster 137

Review Questions 137

Discussion Questions 137

Exercises 138

Incidents for Discussion 140

Case: Friendly Assisted Living Facility Project

Budget Development—4 141

Case: Photstat Inc. 143

Case: Building the Geddy’s dream house 143

Bibliography 144

5 Scheduling the Project 145

5.1 PERT and CPM Networks 145

5.1.1 The Language of PERT/CPM 146

5.1.2 Building the Network 146

5.1.3 Finding the Critical Path and Critical Time 148

5.1.4 Calculating Activity Slack 151

5.1.5 Doing It the Easy Way—Microsoft Project (MSP) 152

5.2 Project Uncertainty and Risk Management 154

5.2.1 Calculating Probabilistic Activity Times 154

5.2.2 The Probabilistic Network, An Example 155

5.2.3 Once More the Easy Way 157

5.2.4 The Probability of Completing the Project on Time 158

5.2.5 Selecting Risk and Finding D 161

5.2.6 The Case of the Unreasonable Boss 161

5.2.7 A Potential Problem: Path Mergers 162

5.3 Simulation 163

5.3.1 Incorporating Costs into the Simulation Analysis 165

5.3.2 Traditional Statistics Versus Simulation 166

5.3.3 Some Common Issues 168

5.3.4 Simulation 168

5.4 The Gantt Chart 169

5.4.1 The Chart 169

5.5 Extensions to PERT/CPM 171

5.5.1 Precedence Diagramming 171

5.5.2 Final Thoughts on the Use of These Tools 172

5.6 Scheduling with Scrum 174

Review Questions 176

Discussion Questions 177

Exercises 177

Discussion Exercise 181

Incidents for Discussion 182

Case: Friendly Assisted Living Facility Program Plan—5 183

Case: NutriStar 186

Case: Launching E-Collar 187

Bibliography 188

6 Allocating Resources to the Project 189

6.1 Expediting a Project 190

6.1.1 The Critical Path Method 190

6.1.2 Crashing a Project With Excel 194

6.1.3 Fast-Tracking a Project 197

6.1.4 Project Expediting in Practice 197

6.2 Resource Loading 199

6.2.1 The Charismatic VP 204

6.3 Resource Leveling 204

6.3.1 Resource Loading/Leveling and Uncertainty 211

6.4 Allocating Scarce Resources to Projects 212

6.4.1 Some Comments About Constrained Resources 213

6.4.2 Some Priority Rules 213

6.5 Allocating Scarce Resources to Several Projects 214

6.5.1 Criteria of Priority Rules 216

6.5.2 The Basic Approach 216

6.5.3 Resource Allocation and the Project Life Cycle 217

6.6 Goldratt’s Critical Chain 218

6.6.1 Estimating Task Times 220

6.6.2 The Effect of Not Reporting Early Activity Completion 221

6.6.3 Multitasking 223

6.6.4 Common Chain of Events 224

6.6.5 The Critical Chain 225

Review Questions 226

Discussion Questions 227

Exercises 227

Incidents for Discussion 231

Case: Friendly Assisted Living Facility Resource Usage—6 232

Case: Charter Financial Bank 233

Case: Rand Contractors 234

Bibliography 235

7 Monitoring and Controlling the Project 236

7.1 The Plan–Monitor–Control Cycle 236

7.1.1 Designing the Monitoring System 237

7.2 Data Collection and Reporting 238

7.2.1 Data Analysis 239

7.2.2 Reporting and Report Types 239

7.2.3 Meetings 241

7.2.4 Virtual Meetings, Reports, and Project Management 242

7.3 Earned Value 243

7.4 Project Control 250

7.4.1 Purposes of Control 250

7.5 Designing the Control System 252

7.5.1 Types of Control Systems 253

7.5.2 Tools for Control 254

7.6 Scope Creep and Change Control 257

7.7 Agile Approaches for Project Monitoring and Control 259

7.7.1 Agile Tools for Tracking Project Progress 259

7.7.2 Scrum Events for Project Control 261

Review Questions 262

Discussion Questions 262

Exercises 263

Incidents for Discussion 265

Case: Friendly Assisted Living Facility Updates—7 266

Case: Palmstar Enterprises, Inc. 269

Case: Peak Lighting, Inc. 269

Bibliography 270

8 Evaluating and Closing the Project 272

8.1 Evaluation 272

8.1.1 Evaluation Criteria 273

8.1.2 Measurement 273

8.2 Project Auditing 274

8.2.1 The Audit Process 275

8.2.2 The Audit Report 276

8.3 Project Closure 279

8.3.1 When to Close a Project 280

8.3.2 Types of Project Closure 281

8.3.3 The Closure Process 282

8.3.4 The Project Plan Closeout Report 283

8.4 Benefits Realization 285

Review Questions 286

Discussion Questions 287

Incidents for Discussion 287

Case: Friendly Assisted Living Facility Audit—8 288

Case: Datatech 291

Case: Ivory Tower Systems 292

Bibliography 293

Appendix A-1

Index I-1