The Authors

The authors of this book represent two complementary approaches to the study of project management processes.

Randall L. Englund, NPDP, CBM, was a senior project manager at Hewlett-Packard for twenty-two years and a member of its corporate Project Management Initiative team. Drawing on many years in program management for high-tech new product development, R&D, marketing, field service, and manufacturing, he now serves as an independent executive consultant for the Englund Project Management Consultancy, guiding managers and teams to implement an organic approach to project management. He speaks, trains, and consults on project management with product developers across industries, as an in-person seminar leader for the Project Management Institute, and online for Northeastern University. He was awarded as a Beta Gamma Sigma member, earning lifetime recognition for exemplary achievements in business academics. PMI honored Randy with the Distinguished Contribution Award in 2013 and the Eric Jenett Project Management Excellence Award in 2018.

Englund coauthored The Complete Project Manager, The Complete Project Manager’s Toolkit, and Project Sponsorship with Alfonso Bucero. Although Englund completed an MBA in management at San Francisco State University and a BS in electrical engineering at the University of California at Santa Barbara, his real education came while managing large projects at HP and General Electric. He adds the practical slant to this book—the point of view of one who has been there.

The website www.englundpmc.com lists all books coauthored by Randall Englund. He regularly posts blog articles on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) and Face-book (www.facebook.com), receiving numerous views. He also has blog presence on ProjectConnections (www.projectconnections.com) and www.svprojectmanagement.com. Most blogs include excerpts and links to his books. Videos based on his works appear in his YouTube channel (www.youtube.com) and on Vimeo (www.vimeo.com).

Robert J. Graham has served as an independent project management consultant and was a senior associate at the Strategic Management Group. Previously, he taught at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Henley Management College in England. He is the author of a highly successful project management simulation, “The Complete Project Manager,” and of the book Project Management as If People Mattered. In 2001, he coauthored with Dennis Cohen The Project Manager’s MBA: How to Translate Project Decisions into Business Success.

Dr. Bob has a BS in systems analysis from Miami University, as well as an MBA and PhD in operations research from the University of Cincinnati. He was also a postdoctoral fellow at The Wharton School. In addition, he has an MS in cultural anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. He earned Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute.

As an anthropologist, he was trained to observe human behavior in organizational settings. He writes from the point of view of one who has observed, taught, and studied project management in a variety of organizations.

When Graham and Englund were asked to speak at a project leadership conference in Chicago, the event coordinator said: “Bob Graham … has seen it all over the past twenty years of his project management consulting career.”

Randy’s long association with Dr. Bob helps people discover the means to achieve more from project-based work, using assessments, multimedia experiences, and systemic inquiry. Their organic, interactive approach includes the behavioral, technical, business, and change management aspects that create an environment for project success. Their illustrative examples bring clarity to people issues that impact successful projects. They collaborated with Paul Dinsmore in coauthoring Creating the Project Office: A Manager’s Guide to Leading Organizational Change in 2003.

A workshop participant noted that Graham and Englund “bring the concepts from way up there, to right down here, equip you with the tools, and empower you to act.”