The Project Book The Complete Guide to Consistently Delivering Great Projects

** Winner AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS - BEST GENERAL BUSINESS BOOK 2020

** Finalist  AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS - BEST BOOK 2020

Deliver great projects every time

Projects are the lifeblood of organisations, but many projects fall short of expectations because of poor project management and/or poor project sponsorship. In The Project Book, author and 20-year project management and sponsorship veteran Colin D Ellis teaches you the skills and behaviours required to make your projects succeed, every time.

The best projects, whether they are delivered in an agile or waterfall way, are a result of the people that lead them and the environment they create. This fail-safe and comprehensive handbook shows you how to develop the mindset and communication skills to create projects that leave a legacy for you, your team and your organisation.

Project leaders and senior managers in all business and technical disciplines will benefit from the insightful guidance this book offers and better project outcomes will result. Split into two parts, individually addressing Project Leaders and Project Sponsors, this book guides large project facilitators to understand the importance of people over processes.

• become a project leader that people trust
• build a team culture of collaboration, agility and creativity
• upskill executives so that they’re catalysts for transformation
• develop the organisational discipline needed for successful projects
• create a mature environment for your projects to thrive

Engaging, informative and humorous, The Project Book will help project managers, project sponsors, scrum masters and product owners across all organisations to deliver successful projects in a way that customers will talk about for years.

COLIN D ELLIS is a 20-year project management and sponsorship veteran, an award-winning international speaker, trainer and author who helps organisations and individuals around the world change the way they get things done and create cultures where great work thrives.
www.colindellis.com

About the author ix

Preface xi

How to use this book xvii

Project Management 1

Part I: Leadership 9

1 Know yourself 13

2 Practise empathy 16

3 Be yourself 18

4 Stand for something 21

5 Determine your values 25

6 Safeguard the future 28

7 Behave in the right way 31

8 Give your mind a break 34

9 Adapt your style to fit the project 38

10 Embrace the next generation 44

11 Be prepared 48

12 Bring the humour 50

13 Make gratitude your attitude 54

14 Bounceback ability 57

15 Lead a remote team 60

16 Be an intrepreneur 64

17 Switch on your ears 68

18 Create more leaders 71

19 Be generous 74

20 Say sorry 76

21 Set and manage expectations 79

22 Manage difficult conversations 82

23 Get help 87

24 Negotiate effectively 91

25 Tell stories 94

26 Manage upwards 98

Part II: Culture 103

27 Build and care for the team 107

28 Develop a vision 111

29 Get your communication right 114

30 Collaborate for success 117

31 Make time for innovation 121

32 Find the right space for work 125

33 Hire for cultural fit 129

34 Start as you mean to go on 132

35 Soundtrack to your success 135

36 Keep stakeholders satisfied 138

37 Gossip: the culture killer 141

38 Keep it simple 144

39 Have some fun 147

40 Run meetings that don’t suck 151

41 Celebrate success 156

Part III: Methods 159

42 Waterfall 161

43 Agile 164

44 No plan, no project 166

45 Why this? Why now? 170

46 Scale for success 173

47 Estimating 176

48 Manage risk 179

49 Deal with issues 183

50 Report honestly 186

51 Successes are the best lessons 188

52 Measure your success 190

Project Management: Summary 193

Project Sponsorship 197

Part IV: Stewardship 209

53 The buck stops with you 215

54 Verify priorities 219

55 Share the burden 224

56 Say thank you 228

57 Build trust 232

58 Simple is better 235

59 Be present 240

60 Role model what you expect of others 244

Part V: Decisions 249

61 What’s the problem and the outcome? 253

62 Negate the negativity 260

63 Hire and pick your project manager 264

64 Be ethical 269

65 Make quick (not hasty) decisions 275

66 Deal with poor performance 280

67 Fail quickly 285

Part VI: Results 291

68 Culture is key, but so is strategy 297

69 Get off to a flyer 300

70 Every project needs a plan 305

71 Innovation needs mindset and time 309

72 Methods need to be understood 314

73 Celebrate good (and bad) times 317

74 Outcomes don’t achieve themselves 322

75 Spot when it’s going wrong 328

Project Sponsorship: Summary 335

Frequently asked questions 337

References 345

Reading list 355

Soundtracks 359

Contact details 363

Index 365

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.