Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, Extreme, 7th Edition

Part I

Understanding the Project Management Landscape

The purpose of Part I is to introduce the complex and uncertain world of projects and their effective management. As you will see, it is a challenging landscape that will capture your full and continual attention. If you expected to learn a magic recipe that works for all projects, nothing could be further from the truth. Being an effective project manager is a creative experience that challenges you in every way.

So you will proceed from basic and fundamental principles. Chapter 1 defines a project. On the one hand it is a very simple definition that tells you what a project contains and how to recognize that you have a project. But on the other hand it is complex as well, because there are many types of projects that populate the landscape. It is in that complexity of projects that the real challenges to effective management will arise. Project management is not a cookie-cutter experience; rather, it is a challenging and creative experience.

To be called a project, an undertaking must meet a specific set of conditions. If an undertaking meets those conditions, then it must follow the prescribed project management methodology defined by the organization. A formal definition is put forth and the characteristics of the project are explored. Project management methodologies are often defined for specific types of projects. Project classification rules are explored.

With the definition of a project in hand, Chapter 2 introduces ...