Performance-Based Project Management

Projects fail to meet goals for many reasons: poor time and budget performance, failure to deal with complexity, uncontrolled changes in scope... Even the most experienced project managers can be caught off guard in the presence of these forces. Performance-Based Project Management shows readers how they can increase the probability of project success, detailing a straightforward plan for avoiding surprises, forecasting performance, identifying risk, and taking corrective action to keep a project a success. Based on the “Five Immutable Principles of Project Success,” this book shows project leaders how to assess the business capabilities needed for a project; plan and schedule the work; determine the resources required to complete on time and on budget; identify and manage risks to success; and measure performance in units meaningful to decision makers. Project managers will learn the core practices for each principle, as well as associated processes, so that they can lay the foundation for project success from the start. They’ll discover how each process produces “artifacts,” which provide feedback as to whether everything is going well—and if not, when and how it will be fixed. Each practice is illustrated through examples and tailored for different levels of complexity and risk to help project managers ensure that project aren’t just done—they’re done right.