Preface

Project management has evolved from a management philosophy restricted to a few functional areas and regarded as something nice to have to an enterprise project management system affecting every functional unit of the company. Simply stated, project management has evolved into a business process rather than merely a project management process. More and more companies are now regarding project management as being mandatory for the survival of the firm. Organizations that were opponents of project management are now advocates. Management educators of the past, who preached that project management could not work and would be just another fad, are now staunch supporters. Project management is here to stay. Colleges and universities are now offering graduate degrees in project management.

The text discusses the principles of project management. Students who are interested in advanced topics, such as some of the material in Chapters 21 to 24 of this text, may wish to read one of my other texts, Advanced Project Management: Best Practices in Implementation (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2004), and Project Management Best Practices: Achieving Global Excellence (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2006). John Wiley & Sons will also be introducing a five-book series on project management best practices, co-authored by Frank Saladis and Harold Kerzner, to accompany the above two books.

This book is addressed not only to those undergraduate and graduate students who wish to improve upon their project management skills but also to those functional managers and upper-level executives who serve as project sponsors and must provide continuous support for projects. During the past several years, management's knowledge and understanding of project management has matured to the point where almost every company is using project management in one form or another. These companies have come to the realization that project management and productivity are related and that we are now managing our business as though it is a series of projects. Project management coursework is now consuming more of training budgets than ever before.

General reference is provided in the text to engineers. However, the reader should not consider project management as strictly engineering related. The engineering examples are the result of the fact that project management first appeared in the engineering disciplines, and we should be willing to learn from their mistakes. Project management now resides in every profession, including information systems, health care, consulting, pharmaceutical, banks, and government agencies.

The text can be used for both undergraduate and graduate courses in business, information systems, and engineering. The structure of the text is based upon my belief that project management is much more behavioral than quantitative since projects are managed by people rather than tools. The first five chapters are part of the basic core of knowledge necessary to understand project management. Chapters 6 through 8 deal with the support functions of managing your time effectively, conflicts, and other special topics. Chapters 9 and 10 describe factors for predicting success and management support. It may seem strange that 10 chapters on organizational behavior and structuring are needed prior to the “hard-core” chapters of planning, scheduling, and controlling. These first 10 chapters are needed to understand the cultural environment for all projects and systems. These chapters are necessary for the reader to understand the difficulties in achieving cross-functional cooperation on projects where team members are working on multiple projects concurrently and why the people involved, all of whom may have different backgrounds, cannot simply be forged into a cohesive work unit without friction. Chapters 11 through 20 are more of the quantitative chapters on planning, scheduling, cost control, estimating, procurement, and quality. Chapters 21 through 24 are advanced topics and future trends. Chapter 25 is a capstone case study that can be related to almost all of the chapters in the text.

The changes that were made in the 10th edition include:

• A chapter on the business of scope changes
• A chapter on managing crises projects
• A chapter on the Iridium Project, which serves as a capstone case
• An appendix on using the book to study for the PMP^® exam
• A section on understanding the collective belief on a project
• A section on the need for an exit champion
• A section on project financing
• A section on managing virtual teams
• A section on rewarding project teams
• A section on the need for an enterprise project management system
• A section on kickoff meeting
• A section on breakthrough projects
• A section on project audits
• A section on managing intellectual property
• A section on the problems associated with project scheduling
• A section on schedule compression myths
• A section on human behavior education
• A section on dysfunctional team behavior
• A section on validating project assumptions
• Existing sections from the 9th edition with expanded information include: the new breed of project manager; additional scheduling problems; a discussion on the difference between active and passive involvement by the sponsor; the need for challenging the decisions of the sponsor; information needed for effective estimating; managing stakeholder expectations; the project war room; power and authority; the management reserve; and Six Sigma. The chapters on risk management and procurement were restructured to be in better alignment with the PMBOK^® Guide, 4th edition.

The text contains more than 25 case studies, more than 125 multiple choice questions, and nearly 400 discussion questions. In addition, there is a supplemental workbook (Project Management Workbook to Accompany Project Management, tenth edition) that contains more than 600 multiple choice questions, additional case studies, challenging problems, and crossword puzzles. There is also a separate book of cases (Project Management Case Studies, third edition) that provides additional real-world examples.

This text, the workbook, and the book of cases are ideal as self-study tools for the Project Management Institute's PMP^® Certification exam. Because of this, there are tables of cross references on each chapter's opening page in the textbook detailing the sections from the book of cases, the workbook, and the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK^® Guide) that apply to that chapter's content. The left-hand margin of the pages in the text has side bars that identify the cross-listing of the material on that page to the appropriate section(s) of the PMBOK^® Guide. At the end of most of the chapters is a section on study tips for the PMP^® exam, including more than 125 multiple choice questions.

This textbook is currently used in the college market, in the reference market, and for studying for the PMP^® Certification exam. Therefore, to satisfy the needs of all markets, a compromise had to be reached on how much of the text would be aligned to the PMBOK^® Guide and how much new material would be included without doubling the size of the text. Some colleges and universities use the textbook to teach project management fundamentals without reference to the PMBOK^® Guide. The text does not contain all of the material necessary to support each section of the PMBOK^® Guide. Therefore, to study for the PMP^® Certification exam, the PMBOK^® Guide must also be used together with this text. The text covers material for almost all of the PMBOK^® Guide knowledge areas but not necessarily in the depth that appears in the PMBOK^® Guide.

An instructor's manual is available only to college and university faculty members by contacting your local Wiley sales representative or by visiting the Wiley website at www.wiley.com/kerzner. This website includes not only the instructor's manual but also 500 PowerPoint slides that follow the content of the book and help organize and execute classroom instruction and group learning. Access to the instructor's material can be provided only through John Wiley & Sons Publishers, not the author.

One-, two-, and three-day seminars on project management and the PMP^® Certification Training using the text are offered by contacting Lori Milhaven, Executive Vice President, the International Institute for Learning, at 800-325-1533, extension 5121 (email address: [email protected]).

The problems and case studies at the ends of the chapters cover a variety of industries. Almost all of the case studies are real-world situations taken from my consulting practice. Feedback from my colleagues who are using the text has provided me with fruitful criticism, most of which has been incorporated into the tenth edition.

The majority of the articles on project management that have become classics have been referenced in the textbook throughout the first 11 chapters. These articles were the basis for many of the modern developments in project management and are therefore identified throughout the text.

Many colleagues provided valuable criticism. In particular, I am indebted to those industrial/government training managers whose dedication and commitment to quality project management education and training have led to valuable changes in this and previous editions. In particular, I wish to thank Frank Saladis, PMP^®, Senior Consultant and Trainer with the International Institute for Learning, for his constructive comments, recommendations, and assistance with the mapping of the text to the PMBOK^® Guide as well as recommended changes to many of the chapters. I am indebted to Dr. Edmund Conrow, PMP^®, for a decade of assistance with the preparation of the risk management chapters in all of my texts.

To the management team and employees of the International Institute for Learning, thank you all for 20 years of never-ending encouragement, support, and assistance with all of my project management research and writings.

Harold Kerzner
The International Institute for Learning
2009