Project Management Integrating Methodologies and Behaviors

Project management is a vast discipline that over the years has come to encompass content from a variety of fields. The book identifies the factors that are crucial to good project management and emphasizes the importance of integrating the methodological and organizational aspects of project management. Knowing how to manage projects provides companies with an important competitive advantage, as shrinking product life cycles reduce the time to return on investment, which means less tolerance for errors. From the main characteristics of projects to the identification of the key factors for their success, from the concept of life cycle to the behaviors that accompany each phase, from stakeholder management to the management of physical and economic resources, the book illustrates every relevant aspect providing numerous examples and concrete cases. A particularly extensive chapter is devoted to the Agile approach, describing its inception, its various applications, and some key operational practices. The volume is completed by an in-depth focus on the management of multi-project environments and a checklist for assessing the robustness of a project at each stage of its life span.

Marco Sampietro is an Associate Professor of Practice of Leadership, Organization and Human Resources at SDA Bocconi School of Management. He is an Adjunct Professor of Project Management and Project and Team Management at Università Bocconi.

Overview Introduction 1 Anatomy of a project 2 The project environment and the key players 3 A project management framework 4 The Project Management Plan 5 Critical success factors 6 Stakeholder management 7 Defining the project scope and objectives 8 Scope breakdown 9 Definition and allocation of resources 10 Communication management 11 Time management 12 Cost management 13 Risk management 14 Monitoring and controlling 15 Change management 16 Beyond the single project: planning and managing multi-project environments 17 Project management with the Agile approach Checklist for assessing the robustness of a project throughout its lifecycle Bibliography