Preface

Poor project results are all too common. We often hear about projects that are canceled, go over budget, are completed late, or deliver less functionality than promised. Customers are dissatisfied, users are disappointed, and project staff are frustrated and overworked. Program and project managers may even lose their jobs.

Completing projects successfully is difficult. Projects involve people, goals, objectives, expectations, budgets, schedules, deliverables, and deadlines. It’s hard to keep everything on track. It’s especially difficult to realize in advance that a project is getting off track. The later in the project process, the more challenging it is to get back on course. Our goal is to arm you with tools and techniques that will help you deal with some of these difficulties.

This book will help you:

Understand the value of developing a project plan (that is, planning before acting)

Use and continuously update your project plan as you execute your project

Recognize signs that your project is deviating from the approach needed for successful completion

Develop a set of measures that provide insight into the health of your project

Identify and implement steps to get your project back on track

Avoid getting into trouble on future projects.

The inspiration for this book came when we were called into action to turn around a failing project. We were struck by the lack of practical information available to the team on how to apply actions that would turn the project around. To that end, in this book we share our experience and provide the methods, techniques, and tools you need to save a failing project and also to keep your project from getting into trouble in the first place. We then recommend an approach that will enable all members of your project team to embrace a mindset of continuous improvement.

This book is organized into three parts. Part I, Project Awareness, addresses the typical reasons that projects fail, ways to recognize a project headed for failure, and the end results of a failed project. Part II, Project Planning, focuses on how to end the chaos. We address the following topics:

Defining project goals and objectives

Developing a plan to produce a realistic project plan

Building a team

Identifying the project’s products

Identifying and estimating the work required to produce the needed products

Developing a viable schedule

Creating the actual planning document.

Part III, Project Execution, explains how to keep the project moving toward successful completion. We offer techniques to help you:

Execute your plan

Communicate and manage stakeholder expectations

Manage project scope

Maintain product quality

Optimize project performance through refinement of the plan.

This is not rocket science. This is common sense. We know (or can find out) what we need to do. Ours is the responsibility to do what needs to be done to ensure that our projects are successful, our customers are satisfied, our users’ real needs are met, our companies enjoy a reasonable profit, and our project team members are fulfilled by their work assignments.

We wrote this book with the intent of giving you the knowledge, insight, and tools you need to recognize that a project is in trouble, determine what to do about it, transform a failing project into a successful one, and keep from getting into difficulty on future projects. We hope that your time spent with this book will be valuable and trust that you will find the guidance, information, and encouragement you seek.

And finally, we the authors have a sincere request of you, the reader. We would appreciate reader feedback and data, if available, regarding the impact that the processes, suggestions, and recommended approaches provided in this book have had on your projects. This information will guide subsequent editions of this book and other publications that will continue to help readers plan and execute successful projects in the future. Please email your feedback to Ralph Young at ryoungrr@aol.com. In return, look for helpful advice and useful downloadable artifacts at www.ralphyoung.net.

Ralph Young
Steve Brady
Dennis Nagle
February 2009