Project Management for Non-Project Managers

Book excerpt: This practical guide reveals the project management methodology and processes that will give you the advantage to ensure your projects’ success--and advance organizational goals. As a seasoned project management consultant and instructor for the American Management Association, author Jack Ferraro has gained years of experience bridging the gap between project managers and functional managers to help countless teams improve their performance. In this book, he demystifies the jargon and processes of project management, encouraging functional managers to jump into the PM arena and arming them with step-by-step guidelines for mastering the most critical PM skills. In Project Management for Non-Project Managers, you will discover: business analysis techniques, work breakdown structures, program sequencing techniques, and risk management methods. Great managers are experts at getting bottom-line results, but often do not understand their role in the success or failure of their organization's projects. As projects become more strategic and collaborative, managers with even basic project-management knowledge are most capable of keeping projects business-focused. By switching gears from passive bystander to active owner of project strategies, you’ll keep your team’s projects on track and, as a result, increase their business value.