Excerpts

PREFACE When the lunar module Eagle landed in the Sea of Tranquility at 13 hours, 19 minutes, 39.9 seconds Eastern Standard Time on July 20, 1969, the event was hailed as one of history's major milestones. It was also one of the most fascinating and significant spin-offs of the U.S. space program and was the development of flexible yet precise organizational structures, forms, and tools that allowed people to work together to reach challenging goals. Out of that grew the modern concept of project management. Since the Apollo days, project management, applicable both to individual en-deavors and to a series of projects called programs, has been applied to many new fields of activity. With the trend toward accelerated change, the scope of project management has expanded from construction projects and aerospace to encompass organizational change, research and development (R&D) projects, high-tech product development, banking and finance, nonprofit services, envi-ronmental remediation--in fact, just about every field of human endeavor. When it first appeared in 1993, this handbook was a major contribution to the field, pulling together expert practitioners to share their advice on topics such as designing adequate organizational structures, generating and maintaining teamwork, and managing the project life cycle. The second edition, released in 2005, was designed to complement and supplement the Project Management Institute's Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), third edition, and to provide supporting materials for those preparing to take the certification exam or working to maintain their certification. We have retained this feature, though the last two editions, updating the chapters in Section One to the new standard, the PMBOK® Guide, fifth edition, in this book. As in previous editions, we have retained many of the original authors, keep-ing those chapters that stand as classics in the field. However, with the pace of change, we have also eliminated a few chapters that had become dated in order to include new developments in the discipline. As a brief overview, the fourth edition changes comprise the following: One hundred percent of the chapters have had editorial revisions. All of the chapters that repeat in this edition have been updated, either by the author or by another expert in the field. Four chapters have been deleted, either because they were no longer rele-vant or because we chose to replace them to improve coverage of the topic. Four chapters are by new authors, replacing chapters on the same topics with updated content and a fresh voice. Eleven chapters are on new topics by new authors, covering stakeholder man- agement to sustainability, agile project management to project management in healthcare, closing processes, and everything in between. And, of course, it is all, to the best of our knowledge, in line with the fifth edi-tion of the PMBOK® Guide. HOW TO USE THIS BOOK Students who are taking introductory courses in project management as part of a degree in another field (for example, engineering, information technology, business administration, manufacturing or production management, construction management, and so on), or who are studying for degrees in the field of project management, will find the book invaluable. As a complementary and supplementary text, the handbook does not contain materials already published in the PMBOK® Guide, but it is designed to help those studying project management understand and integrate the materials contained in that standard, as well as project management concepts and issues that currently are not included in the PMBOK® Guide. The book targets a broad audience, including not only the traditional project management faithfuls, but also professionals involved in organizational develop-ment, research, and other associated fields. The book provides a ready refer-ence for anyone involved in project tasks, including upper management execu-tives, project sponsors, project managers, functional managers, and team members. It addresses those working in any of the major program- and project-oriented industries, such as defense, construction, architecture, engineering, product development, systems development, R&D, education, and community development. Whether you are preparing for advancement in the project man-agement field through certification or by completing university courses in the field, this handbook will be a valuable reference. For those using the book in a classroom setting, discussion questions provided at the end of each chapter help students and peers initiate fruitful discussions about concepts, problems, and ideas in their chosen field. Excerpted from The AMA Handbook of Project Management by Paul C. Dinsmore, Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.