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Executive Summary
* Make sure your projects are driven by your strategy.
* Use a staged approach to manage your projects.
* Place high emphasis on the early stages.
* Engage your stakeholders.
* Encourage teamwork and commitment.
* Ensure success by planning for it,
* Monitor against the plan.
* Formally close the project.
Introduction
The forward progress of companies has always depended heavily on the management of projects. New plants, new methods, new ventures-all require dedicated teams working to strict timetables and separate budgets. But today, managers may spend as much time in interdisciplinary, cross-functional project teams as they do in their normal posts-project management has now become a core competence for all managers. This applies not only to projects undertaken for customers (external projects), but also to those undertaken for the development of the organisation itself (internal projects).
Many factors have contributed to this. Among them is speed, coupled with the increased complexity of organisations and the closer relationships within and between companies, their customers, and suppliers. We now need evolutionary change at revolutionary speed, necessitating skilful project management.
As a vehicle of change, project management is well suited to meet these needs. However, it is too often perceived as a necessary technical discipline, rather than the powerful business tool it really is. This section looks at the challenges of Project Management, and potential responses.
The Challenges to Be Faced
All organisations have problems with the ways they tackle change within their businesses. Troubles may be related to technology, people, processes, systems or structure; there's always something, somewhere, that needs to be created or improved. During, the late 20th century there has been a variety of techniques and offerings available to managers to enable them to do this, most notably total quality management and business process reengineering.
Unfortunately, not all organisations secure the enduring benefits initially promised by these techniques. Many remain ineffective at managing and controlling change in order to achieve sustained benefits from such initiatives. Organisations must continually act to solve particular problems or achieve specific objectives, but many fail. The initiatives often fail because they cost too much, take too long, are inadequately thought out and specified, or simply don't deliver the expected benefits.
This amounts...