On Time/On Budget

Now, you can improve every area of business operations and increase your own productivity… with a new approach to managing and troubleshooting any type of project that lets you plan, schedule, and track resources and costs with remarkable ease.

Laid out step by step in ON TIME/ON BUDGET, it gives you so much control over your day-to-day activities that you'll never miss a deadline or have to worry about cost overruns.

It makes no difference if you're in finance, sales, marketing, human resources or any other area of management; all you have to do is follow the step-by-step procedures, checklists, and worksheets to achieve your goals and get the best possible results.

For example, you'll see how to:

• Manage projects of all sizes most efficiently, from a few participants to hundreds of people
• Make sure you've got the right mix of people and skills for a particular assignment
• Handle common problems like a change in priorities and quickly map out your best new course of action

• Apply computerized project management techniques to more easily budget resources, analyze costs, create standard or custom reports, and more

With increasing pressure on all businesses to become more competitive, project management is no longer just a discipline for engineers, but an absolutely vital skill for every manager. ON TIME/ON BUDGET helps you manage people, money, and equipment with maximum effectiveness!

• Introduction: The Power if Project Management
• Chapter One
  Putting Project Management to Work: A Discipline for Making Things Happen On Time and On Budget
• Project Management Is a Business Skill for the Modern World
• The Historical Perspective on Project Management
• What Is a Project?
• Why Do You Need Project Management Techniques?
• What Does Project Management Entail?
• What Are the Goals of Project Management?
• Project Life Cycles Make Project Management Possible
• The Project Management Methodology
• The Project Plan Is Central to Project Management Methods
• The Role of the Project Manager
• The Things Project Management Can't Do
• The Success Factors in Project Management
• Small and Large Projects Can Benefit from Project Management Techniques
• Computerized Project Management Techniques
• Get Started by Listing Projects You Are Involved In
• Chapter Two
  Defining the Project: Proven Techniques for Setting Clear Goals
• Selecting the Projects Is the First Step
• The Zero-Based Budget
• Sample Projects Used to Illustrate Project Management Concepts in This Book
• The Process of Setting Project Goals
• Setting Goals for the Sample Projects
• After the Goals Are Established, the Constraints Must Be Specified
• Chapter Three
  Identifying the Work to Be Done: Methods for Describing Tasks and Workflow
• The Requirements for Constructing a Work Plan
• Develop a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) to Identify the Tasks in a Project
• A WBS for a Simple Project
• A WBS for a More Complex Project
• Use a Network Diagram to Sequence the Tasks in a Project
• Steps in Creating a Network Diagram
• How Much Detail Should You Represent in Your Network?
• PERT, CPM, and Precedence Diagramming: Three Major Network Methods and Others You May Encounter
• Lead and Lag Diagramming for Complex or Time-Critical Projects
• When Is a Network a Waste of Time?
• Who Should Complete the Work Plan?
• The Work Plan Will Be Used for Project Planning and Implementation
• Chapter Four
  Choosing the Team and the Resources: Getting Who and What You Need to Get Things Done
• Choosing the Right People to Get the Work Done
• Where Will the People Come From?
• Develop a Skills Inventory for Existing Personnel
• Selecting People for a Project
• Incorporating Human Factors into team Planning: Personality, Politics, and Corporate Culture
• How Should the project Be Organized?
• Identifying Objectives for the Work Team
• Defining the Material Resource Requirements for a Project
  
• Chapter Five
  Estimating Durations and Scheduling: Six Steps to Realistic Dates
• The Six Steps to Accurate Scheduling
• Scheduling Multiple Projects
• The Schedule Approval Process
  
• Chapter Six
  Budgeting: Reliable Procedures for Establishing Costs and Expenditures
• The Step-by-Step Budgeting Process in Review
• Why Budgets Go Awry
• Follow the Preferred Project Planning Sequence to Establish Your Budget
• Choosing the Best Budgeting Approach for Your Project
• The Crash Plan and the Optimal Plan
  
• Chapter Seven
  Getting Started and Assessing Progress: Processes for Keeping Projects on Track
• Establishing Your Role as Leader and Manager
• Establishing Operating Guidelines for the Project
• Success Criteria for Project Control
• Establishing Project Administration Procedures
• Initiating the Project — Getting Started on the Right Track
• Tracking Progress Through the Implementation Phase
• Formal Monitoring Approaches
• Monitoring the Budget
• Informal Monitoring Approaches
• Guiding the Project Through the Implementation Phase
  
• Chapter Eight
  Dealing with Changes and Conflicts: Procedures for Avoiding the Traps and Staying In Charge
• Changes — Planning for and Dealing with Them
• The Rules in Making Project Changes
• Trade-off Analysis — How to Decide What Changes to Make
• Dealing with Resistance to Project Changes
• Conflict in Projects — Where It Comes From and How to Manage It
• Conflicts Over the Life Cycle of the Project
• The Steps for Managing Project Conflicts
• The Most Common Project Problems and How to Deal with Them
  
• Chapter Nine
  Terminating the Project: Applying What You Learn to Improve Future Performance
• Three Ways to terminate a Project
• Why Is a Termination Phase Necessary?
• Terminating a Small Project
• terminating a Large Project
• The Final Report
• The Project Diary
• Team Performance Evaluations
• Understanding Why Projects Succeed and Why They Fail
  
• Chapter Ten
  Choosing a Computerized Project Management Program: Powerful Options for Projects of All Sizes
• What Can Project Management Programs Do?
• The Power of "What-If" Analysis
• The Types of Project Management Programs
• Selection Criteria for Project Management Software
• Things Computerized Project Management Programs Can't Do
  

My first book about project management. Feels sentimental.

The feelings aside, this is a very good book, that is a bit dated and light on the theory, but the practical approach works and it manages to cover all important bases.