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Advanced Project Management explains how the project sponsor can use a project methodology systems approach to develop and implement corporate strategy.
This book will show how a company-wide project methodology systems approach can integrate the project lifecycle, the project management process, the project plans and the project organisation structure and use them as building blocks to form a project methodology.
Target Market:
- Project sponsors who are responsible for implementing corporate strategy
- Company executives and portfolio managers who are responsible for developing corporate strategy
- Post Graduate, Project Management and MBA programs
The text uses plenty of worked examples and exercises, and is aligned with the PMBOK 4ed, APM BOK 5ed, IPMA ICB v3 and USA NVB v2.
Support Material:
An INSTRUCTOR’S GUIDE and POWERPOINTS SLIDES are available upon request. Please click HERE or go to the INSTRUCTOR COPY page to complete the request form.
Table of Contents:
- Chapter 1: Introduction to Project Methodology
- Chapter 2: Project Lifecycle
- Chapter 3: Project Management Process
- Chapter 4: Project Plan
- Chapter 5: Project Organization Structure
- Chapter 6: Fundamentals of Project Methodology
- Chapter 7: Fusion Method – Project Methodology Structure
- Chapter 8: Corporate Charter Phase
- Chapter 9: Corporate Needs and Opportunity Phase
- Chapter 10: Corporate Strategy Phase
- Chapter 11: Project Feasibility Study Phase
- Chapter 12: Project Definition Phase
- Chapter 13: Project Execution Phase
- Chapter 14: Project Commission and Handover Phase
- Chapter 15: Operation Start-Up Phase
- Chapter 16: Project Up-Grade Phase
- Chapter 17: Project Decommission and Disposal Phase
- Chapter 18: Stakeholders Analysis
- Chapter 19: Go/No-Go Decision-Making
- Chapter 20: Project Charter
- Chapter 21: Project Finance
- Chapter 22: Project Closeout Report
- Authors Note:
When I wrote my first Project Management book in 1989 one book, which focused on tools and techniques, was deemed to be sufficient to support most project management courses. But since then, project management education has expanded to encompass a wide range of skills, knowledge and organizational levels which now demand a library of books.
To address the different organizational levels of project management I have focused on three distinct levels:
• Project team members new to project management who need tools and techniques (see Burke, R., Fundamentals of Project Management)
• Project managers (experienced) who need planning and control skills, and leadership skills (see Burke, R., Project Management Techniques, and Barron, S. and Burke, R.,Project Management Leadership)
• Project sponsors (representing the client) who need project methodology skills to develop and implement corporate strategy (this book).
Most project management books look at project management from the project manager’s perspective. In this book I want to consider the change process from the client’s perspective. So instead of asking, ‘Is the project satisfying the corporate needs?’ the question should be, ‘What change, strategy or project should be implemented to satisfy the corporate objectives?’ By asking this question it means that we are looking forward from the client’s perspective rather than retrospectively from the contractor’s perspective.
Looking at projects from the client’s (project sponsor’s) perspective is a rational approach because all projects are owned by a client. This means all projects are internal projects for the client organization. Therefore, the role of the project sponsor is pivotal to ensure the project develops and implements corporate strategy successfully and ultimately realizes benefits for the client company.
While researching material for this book I found that it was generally felt that the project sponsor pays for the project, but there was uncertainty about what other functions or roles the project sponsor was responsible for. I felt this should be a concern because it is widely accepted in the bodies of knowledge (PMBOK 4ed, APM BoK 5ed, IPMA ICB v3 and USA NCB v2) that the project sponsor owns the business case and, therefore, arguably owns the project; this clearly showed a lack of understanding of this important position – something this book will address.
In this book I present the case for the project sponsor to use a structured methodology systems approach to develop and implement corporate strategy. Business research has shown that corporate success depends on a company’s ability to maintain competitive advantage and, to this end, this book will show that an integrated project methodology will interlink the strategy phases with the project phases and operation phases. Failure to interlink these phases will self-limit the corporate strategy.
Advanced Project Management explains how to use a unique project methodology systems approach called the Fusion Method XYZ© that uses a special arrangement of the widely accepted project management techniques to subdivide the project lifecycle into a number of sequential phases, and then uses the project management process to manage each phase. By structuring the project management phases this way the change management process interlinks the processes within each phase and between each phase and, therefore, provides a platform for the project sponsor to develop and implement corporate strategy.
Who Should Read this Book: This book is designed for project sponsors, project managers and portfolio managers. It supports short executive education courses, under graduate and master level project management programmes, and MBA programmes that focus on the management of corporate strategy.
Acknowledgements: I particularly wish to thank Steve Barron my co-author (Project Management Leadership) for spending many hours discussing the finer points of project methodology, and to Miles Shepherd for writing an inspirational foreword. For the production of the book I wish to thank Sandra Burke and Jan Hamon for proof reading, Michael Glasswell for the sketches, and Simon Larkin for the cover design.
Rory Burke
Project Sponsor