Project Management Demystifie

225 Pages·2007·2.628 MB·English

by  Geoff Reiss

Project Management Demystified
Third Edition
Also available from Taylor & Francis
Programme Management Demystified Pb: ISBN 978–0–419–21350–5
Construction Project Management Hb: ISBN 978–0–415–35905–4
Peter Fewings Pb: ISBN 978–0–415–35906–1
Risk Management in Projects Hb: ISBN 978–0–415–26055–8
Martin Loosemore, John Raftery, Pb: ISBN 978–0–415–26056–5
Charles Reilly, David Higgon
Practical Construction Management Pb: ISBN 978–0–415–36257–3
R.H.B. Ranns & E.J.M. Ranns
Project Planning and Control Hb: ISBN 978–0–415–34722–6
David G. Carmichael
Occupational Health & Safety in Hb: ISBN 978–0–419–26210–7
Construction Project Management
Helen Lingard & Steve Rowlinson
Project Management
Demystified
Third edition
GEOFF REISS
First published 1992 by E & FN Spon
Reprinted 1992, 1993 (twice), 1994
Second edition 1995
Reprinted 1996, 1998, 1999
Reprinted by Spon Press 2000, 2001
Third edition published 2007 by Taylor & Francis
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Taylor & Francis
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA
Taylor & Francis is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library,2007.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 1992, 1995, 2007 Geoff Reiss
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the
accuracy of the information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal
responsibility or liability for any efforts or omissions that may be made.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Reiss, Geoff, 1945–
Project management demystified / Geoff Reiss. — 3rd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–415–42163–8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Project management. I. Title.
HD69.P75R455 2007
658.4′04 – dc22

2007002562
ISBN 0-203-94572-7 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0–415–42163–2 (pbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–94572–7 (ebk)
ISBN-13: 978–0–415–42163–8 (pbk)
ISBN-13: 978–0–203–94572–8 (ebk)
Dedication
Without the help of my family,
Liz, Paul, Caroline, James, Caroline and Layla,
this book would have been finished many
years ago.

Contents
Acknowledgements xi
Preface xiii
1 Setting the stage 1
Project management centres on avoiding problems 2
The invisible project manager 3
Project management is a profession 5
2 Getting the words in the right order 11
Introduction to project management 12
What is project management? 16
What is project planning? 17
How do you project plan? 22
3 Nine steps to a successful project 28
The nine steps 28
4 The scope of the project and its objectives 36
Defining the project 36
Changes to the project 37
Establishing key dates 39
Evaluation of potential risks 41
The cost/time/quality triangle 42
The spectrum of projects 44
The need for planning 45
5 Project planning 47
The barchart versus network analysis 48
Network analysis – a primer 48

The precedence convention 51
Choosing the tasks 58
Drawing up the plan 61
6 A fly on the wall 64
7 Resource management 79
Resource definition 80
viii Contents
Resource allocation 82
Resource aggregation 83
Resource aggravation 83
Resource levelling 84
Resource smoothing 87
Resource hierarchies 90
Resource calendars 91
Money management 92
8 Progress monitoring and control 95
Concepts 95
Cost monitoring 101
Reporting 107
9 Prince2, governance and methodologies 114
10 Advanced critical-path topics 123
Work breakdown structure and organizational
breakdown structure 123
Case Study: Universiade XVI – the 16th World
Student Games 126
Merging plans, boiler plating, or task processing 131
Hammocks 134
Calendars 136
Constraint dates 137
Negativefloats 138
Subprojects 139
Claims 141
11 The people issues 148
The role of the project manager 149
The classification of people 152
Decision making 163
Motivation 165
12 Programme Management 168
Introducing programme management 168

13 Issue and risk management 176
Qualitative risk 178
Quantitative analysis: risk and critical path 181
Case study: the British Library 185
Contingency and insurance 191
Contents ix
14 Terminology 194
Definitions 194
Alternative definitions 199
Appendix1:Additional sources of information on project and
programme management 205
Index 206