The Project Management Answer Book

505 Pages·2014·4.08 MB·English

by  Jeff Furman

T P
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anageMenT
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Second Edition

T P
he rojecT

M
anageMenT
a B
nswer ook
Second Edition
Jeff Furman, PMP
8230 Leesburg Pike, Suite 800
Vienna, VA 22182
[phone]
Fax: [phone]
www.managementconcepts.com
Copyright © 2015 by Management Concepts, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information
storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except for
brief quotations in review articles.
PMI, PMP, Program Management Professional (PgMP), CAPM, OPM3, OPM3 Product
Suite, PMI Certified OPM3 Assessor, PMI Certified OPM3 Consultant, PMI global
standards, PMI-ISSIG, PMI-ACP, and PfMP are registered marks of the Project Management
Institute, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014934455
ISBN 978-1-56726-446-3
eISBN 978-1-56726-467-8
About the Author
A
fter 15 years of managing IT projects for Fortune 100 financial firms
in the New York City area, Jeff Furman, PMP, teaches several levels of
project management courses, from basic project management to PMP®
Prep to Ethics in Project Management to Project Management Principles for
Construction Professionals, at New York University in Manhattan. He also
trains U.S. Army project managers on post at Fort Hood and Fort Bliss, Texas;
Fort Gordon, Georgia; and Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He has taught PMP®
and Train-the-Trainer courses for Internet Institute USA, Unitek Education,
and NetCom Learning, where he twice won NetCom’s Instructor of the Year
award.
He has managed many IT projects, from new-product evaluations to
enterprisewide software installations and infrastructure upgrades. He led the
implementation and support of a mission-critical change management system
used by more than 1,000 developers at a large Wall Street brokerage firm.
Jeff has published articles and contributed as a guest blogger on several hot
project management topics: risk management, PMP® Test Tips, ethics, and
social media. He has been interviewed about The Project Management Answer
Book by leading project management bloggers including Elizabeth Harrin,
Soma Bhattacharya, Christina Boryk, Kimberley Chan, Henry Will III, and
others. He has recorded six popular podcasts with Cornelius Fichtner for The
Project Management Podcast and The PDU Podcast as well as a series of video
interviews about teaching PMP® certification with Russell Sarder for Sarder TV.
Jeff lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, with his wife, Martha Garvey. Their
new puppy is a rescue tiger-pit named Mavis who loves swimming with Jeff
and Martha in lakes, bays, and a pool for dogs in Manhattan.

Contents
About the Author ...................................................................................v
Foreword ...............................................................................................ix
Preface ..................................................................................................xi
Acknowledgments ................................................................................xv
Chapter 1: Project Management Basics ..................................................1
Chapter 2: Integration Management ...................................................17
Chapter 3: Project Planning Essentials ................................................25
Chapter 4: From Requirements to Scope to the Work
Breakdown Structure .....................................................................41
Chapter 5: Time Management: Estimating and Coming in
on Schedule ...................................................................................59
Chapter 6: Cost Management: Controlling Costs and
Coming in on Budget ..................................................................103
Chapter 7: Building-in Quality ..........................................................139
Chapter 8: Controlling Risks on Your Projects ..................................177
Chapter 9: Procurement and Contracts .............................................215
viii The Project Management Answer Book
Chapter 10: Ethical Considerations Project Managers
Face on the Job ............................................................................251
Chapter 11: Communication Skills for Project Managers ..................283
Chapter 12: Managing Your Human Resources .................................309
Chapter 13: Stakeholder Management: Strategizing
Customer Satisfaction ..................................................................359
Chapter 14: Scrum Agile: The New Wave in Project Management .....375
Chapter 15: How to Become PMP® Certified.....................................409
Final Words ........................................................................................451
Appendix A: Study Sheets for the Processes Covered
on the PMP® Exam .....................................................................453
Appendix B: Networking Tips and Social Media for PMs ..................457
Appendix C: Key Formulas PMs Need to Know for the
Certification Exams .....................................................................465
Appendix D: Changes in the PMBOK® Guide, Fifth Edition .............469
Appendix E: Fill-in-the-Blanks Chart for ITTOs ...............................473
Bibliography ......................................................................................477
Index ..................................................................................................481
Foreword
M
any years ago, I began my career working as a software developer.
One momentous day I was pulled aside by the department director
and asked if I wanted to make the transition to project manager. I
readily accepted without any inkling that this would change the direction of
my entire career.
The following Monday, I found myself in charge of my first real project.
The team consisted of six developers, one business analyst, and a quality
assurance manager. Our combined annual burn rate was almost $1,000,000,
and as I stared at my computer monitor it slowly dawned on me that I did
not have a very good idea of what I was supposed to do. Worse yet, I found
that answers to my questions were not as readily available as I had hoped they
would be. Project management at this organization, and indeed in much of
the business world, was largely a vague concept.
I had to look outside of the company for ideas on how to lead and manage
a real project. One of the best approaches, I discovered, was to simply sit down
and talk with other project managers who were facing the same problems I
was. This process really did resemble the proverbial “school of hard knocks,”
and now I look back at the first few projects I managed with a mixture of
pride and embarrassment. I didn’t understand the best way to build, track,
and communicate a schedule. I wasn’t aware that there were techniques to
help me estimate costs. I had never heard of a work breakdown structure.
Worst of all, I didn’t know how to organize, motivate, and lead a team. There
were better ways to do most of the things I was doing; I just didn’t know what
they were.