Introduction

Project management is the skill of moving from ideas to results and, as such, is applicable to every significant initiative we are given or come up with ourselves. Today, individuals, organizations, and nations need project management skills more than ever in a world that values individual and collective initiative above just about any other attribute.

Project Management outlines a range of practical understandings and skills that will make your projects both successful and satisfying. It will provide you with common-sense solutions to the project management issues you will face as you plan and implement a project, and the tools, tips, and techniques it contains are intended to help you achieve consistent success using minimum resources. The book is written for those taking their first steps in project management, but also offers helpful reminders to those with more experience.

In the final analysis, your success as a project manager is down to you; it will depend on your ability to make your vision of “what can be” more influential in your own and other people’s thinking and actions than the reality of “what currently is.” If the following pages guide, challenge, and energize you in this quest they will have fulfilled their purpose.