The Quick But Essential Guide to Project Management

Based on a deep pool of rich experience, our thoughts are simple examples of lessons learnt.

We won’t say what's right and what's wrong, we'll simply tell you a story or two.

We don’t mind if you don’t agree, it is only our opinion after all.

We only do this to dispense and share a little wisdom.

If any of it helps or rings true - share it.

As children, many of us have special, invisible playmates. We run and play with them; we turn to them when we are lonely. They stand by our side when times are difficult. For some, those playmates are extra special, because they are sent from the heavenly Father.

In Playmates from Heaven, author Gilda Jean Rose tells the story of her invisible childhood playmates, sent to her from the heavenly Father. Like “ordinary” invisible friends—at least invisible to others—she ran with them beside her, flying free, and played with them. But they were more. The heavenly Father sent them to stand by her and protect her. And while many childhood playmates leave us as we mature, the ones sent to Rose by God have stayed with her throughout her life.

Rose’s personal stories in Playmates from Heaven reflect the courage and comfort that come from trusting in God, whose love is extended to all who believe in Him and entrust themselves to the care of His ministering angels. They are playmates and protectors for life.

Project management has several underlying philosophies, principles, and epithets as motivation for executing a project. Following a project plan creates an atmosphere of progress toward an eventual goal in terms of incremental steps, recognized as tasks and activities. Taken together, the set of activities constitutes an identifiable project that can be managed with corporate-oriented techniques of project management. Any of the standard self-help guides and self-development pieces of advice can fit into the overall repertoire of project management methodologies.

Reflecting the author?s artistic interests, the book has generous embedding of figures and diagrams to illustrate applications of project management concepts. Topics covered include project planning, project organizing, scheduling, project monitoring, progress tracking, control, and close-out. Guiding and motivational philosophies also abound throughout the book.

This Element is an excerpt from A Manager's Guide to Project Management: Learn How to Apply Best Practices (ISBN: 9780137136902) by Michael B. Bender. Available in print and digital formats.

Projects in context: What should your projects aim to achieve, and how can you help your project managers achieve it?

Ultimately, both projects and project management have only one goal: to add value. You, as an executive, establish the values important to the organization. You then communicate these values and establish a strategic plan to foster and improve the organization along these values. Projects are the actions an organization performs to increase its value. Project management, as with all activities an organization undertakes, must also add value greater than its cost.

Authors David Wirick and Gretchen Bond, both certified project managers, bring years of experience in project management and organizational change management to their guidebook. The Project Management Imperative is designed for managers who are frustrated with project failures as well as those who must work in the chaos of modern organizations. Wirick and Bond present a comprehensive model for project management capacity development that includes:

• Creating buy-in and building the project management business case
• Identifying necessary skills and applying appropriate learning programs
• Creating solid project management processes
• Building sound organizational structures for project management
• Managing the knowledge and change that project management will require

The Project Management Imperative details the steps critical to the process and permanence of a project management improvement initiative in any organization.

"The Project Management Imperative promises to become a reference book for project managers, organizations and authors for years to come."