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Preface

Our motivation in writing this text continues to be to provide a realistic, socio-technical view of project management. In the past, textbooks on project management focused almost exclusively on the tools and processes used to manage projects and not the human dimension. This baffled us, since people, not tools, complete projects! While we firmly believe that mastering tools and processes is essential to successful project management, we also believe that the effectiveness of these tools and methods is shaped and determined by the prevailing culture of the organization and interpersonal dynamics of the people involved. Thus, we try to provide a holistic view that focuses on both the technical and social dimensions and how they interact to determine the fate of projects.

Audience

This text is written for a wide audience. It covers concepts and skills that are used by managers to propose, plan, secure resources, budget, and lead project teams to successful completions of their projects. The text should prove useful to students and prospective project managers in helping them understand why organizations have developed a formal project management process to gain a competitive advantage. Readers will find the concepts and techniques discussed in enough detail to be immediately useful in new-project situations. Practicing project managers will find the text to be a valuable guide and reference when dealing with typical problems that arise in the course of a project. Managers will also find the text useful in understanding the role of projects in the missions of their organizations. Analysts will find the text useful in helping to explain the data needed for project implementation as well as the operations of inherited or purchased software.

Members of the Project Management Institute will find the text is well structured to meet the needs of those wishing to prepare for PMP (Project Management Professional) or CAPM (Certified Associate in Project Management) certification exams. The text has in-depth coverage of the most critical topics found in PMI’s Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). People at all levels in the organization assigned to work on projects will find the text useful not only in providing them with a rationale for the use of project management processes but also because of the insights they will gain into how to enhance their contributions to project success.

Our emphasis is not only on how the management process works but also, and more importantly, on why it works. The concepts, principles, and techniques are universally applicable. That is, the text does not specialize by industry type or project scope. Instead, the text is written for the individual who will be required to manage a variety of projects in a variety of organizational settings. In the case of some small projects, a few of the steps of the techniques can be omitted, but the conceptual framework applies to all organizations in which projects are important to survival. The approach can be used in pure project organizations such as construction, research organizations, and engineering consultancy firms. At the same time, this approach will benefit organizations that carry out many small projects while the daily effort of delivering products or services continues.

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Content

In this and other editions we continue to try to resist the forces that engender scope creep and focus only on essential tools and concepts that are being used in the real world. We have been guided by feedback from reviewers, practitioners, teachers, and students. Some changes are minor and incremental, designed to clarify and reduce confusion. Other changes are significant. They represent new developments in the field or better ways of teaching project management principles. Below are major changes to the eighth edition.

Overall the text addresses the major questions and challenges the authors have encountered over their 60 combined years of teaching project management and consulting with practicing project managers in domestic and foreign environments. These questions include the following: How should projects be prioritized? What factors contribute to project failure or success? How do project managers orchestrate the complex network of relationships involving vendors, subcontractors, project team members, senior management, functional managers, and customers that affect project success? What project management system can be set up to gain some measure of control? How are projects managed when the customers are not sure what they want? How do project managers work with people from foreign cultures?

Project managers must deal with all these concerns to be effective. All of these issues and problems represent linkages to a socio-technical project management perspective. The chapter content of the text has been placed within an overall framework that integrates these topics in a holistic manner. Cases and snapshots are included from the experiences of practicing managers. The future for project managers is exciting. Careers will be built on successfully managing projects.

Student Learning Aids

Student resources include study outlines, online quizzes, PowerPoint slides, videos, Microsoft Project Video Tutorials, and web links. These can be found in Connect.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Scott Bailey for building the end-of-chapter exercises for Connect; Pinyarat Sirisomboonsuk for revising the PowerPoint slides; Ronny Richardson for updating the Instructor’s Manual; Angelo Serra for updating the Test Bank; and Pinyarat Sirisomboonsuk for providing new Snapshot from Practice questions.

Next, it is important to note that the text includes contributions from numerous students, colleagues, friends, and managers gleaned from professional conversations. We want them to know we sincerely appreciate their counsel and suggestions. Almost every exercise, case, and example in the text is drawn from a real-world project. Special thanks to managers who graciously shared their current project as ideas for exercises, subjects for cases, and examples for the text. John A. Drexler, Jim Moran, John Sloan, Pat Taylor, and John Wold, whose work is printed, are gratefully acknowledged. Special gratitude is due Robert Breitbarth of Interact Management, who shared invaluable insights on prioritizing projects. University students and managers deserve special accolades for identifying problems with earlier drafts of the text and exercises.

We are indebted to the reviewers of past editions who shared our commitment to elevating the instruction of project management. We thank you for your many thoughtful suggestions and for making our book better. Of course, we accept responsibility for the final version of the text.

Paul S. Allen, Rice University

Victor Allen, Lawrence Technological University

Kwasi Amoako-Gyampah, University of North Carolina–Greensboro

Gregory Anderson, Weber State University

Mark Angolia, East Carolina University

Brian M. Ashford, North Carolina State University

Dana Bachman, Colorado Christian University

Robin Bagent, College of Southern Idaho

Scott Bailey, Troy University

Nabil Bedewi, Georgetown University

Anandhi Bharadwaj, Emory University

James Blair, Washington University–St. Louis

Mary Jean Blink, Mount St. Joseph University

S. Narayan Bodapati, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville

Warren J. Boe, University of Iowa

Thomas Calderon, University of Akron

Alan Cannon, University of Texas–Arlington

Susan Cholette, San Francisco State

Denis F. Cioffi, George Washington University

Robert Cope, Southeastern Louisiana University

Kenneth DaRin, Clarkson University

Ron Darnell, Amberton University

Burton Dean, San Jose State University

Joseph D. DeVoss, DeVry University

David Duby, Liberty University

Michael Ensby, Clarkson University

Charles Franz, University of Missouri, Columbia

Larry Frazier, City University of Seattle

Raouf Ghattas, DeVry University

Edward J. Glantz, Pennsylvania State University

Michael Godfrey, University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh

Jay Goldberg, Marquette University

Robert Groff, Westwood College

Raffael Guidone, New York City College of Technology

Brian Gurney, Montana State University–Billings

Owen P. Hall, Pepperdine University

Chaodong Han, Towson University

Bruce C. Hartman, University of Arizona

Mark Huber, University of Georgia

Richard Irving, York University

Marshall Issen, Clarkson University

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Robert T. Jones, DePaul University

Susan Kendall, Arapahoe Community College

George Kenyon, Lamar University

Robert Key, University of Phoenix

Elias Konwufine, Keiser University

Dennis Krumwiede, Idaho State University

Rafael Landaeta, Old Dominion University

Eldon Larsen, Marshall University

Eric T. Larson, Rutgers University

Philip Lee, Lone Star College–University Park

Charles Lesko, East Carolina University

Richard L. Luebbe, Miami University of Ohio

Linh Luong, City University of Seattle

Steve Machon, DeVry University–Tinley Park

Andrew Manikas, University of Louisville

William Matthews, William Patterson University

Lacey McNeely, Oregon State University

Carol Miller, Community College of Denver

William Moylan, Lawrence Technological College of Business

Ravi Narayanaswamy, University of South Carolina–Aiken

Muhammad Obeidat, Southern Polytechnic State University

Edward Pascal, University of Ottawa

James H. Patterson, Indiana University

Steve Peng, California State University–East Bay

Nicholas C. Petruzzi, University of Illinois–Urbana/Champaign

Abirami Radhakrishnan, Morgan State University

Emad Rahim, Bellevue University

Tom Robbins, East Carolina University

Art Rogers, City University

Linda Rose, Westwood College

Pauline Schilpzand, Oregon State University

Teresa Shaft, University of Oklahoma

Russell T. Shaver, Kennesaw State University

William R. Sherrard, San Diego State University

Erin Sims, DeVry University–Pomona

Donald Smith, Texas A&M University

Kenneth Solheim, DeVry University–Federal Way

Christy Strbiak, U.S. Air Force Academy

Peter Sutanto, Prairie View A&M University

Jon Tomlinson, University of Northwestern Ohio

Oya Tukel, Cleveland State University

David A. Vaughan, City University

Mahmoud Watad, William Paterson University

Fen Wang, Central Washington University

Cynthia Wessel, Lindenwood University

Larry R. White, Eastern Illinois University

Ronald W. Witzel, Keller Graduate School of Management

G. Peter Zhang, Georgia State University

In addition, we would like to thank our colleagues in the College of Business at Oregon State University for their support and help in completing this project. In particular, we recognize Lacey McNeely, Prem Mathew, and Jeewon Chou for their helpful advice and suggestions. We also wish to thank the many students who helped us at different stages of this project, most notably Neil Young, Saajan Patel, Katherine Knox, Dat Nguyen, and David Dempsey. Mary Gray deserves special credit for editing and working under tight deadlines on earlier editions. Special thanks go to Pinyarat (“Minkster”) Sirisomboonsuk for her help in preparing the last five editions.

Finally, we want to extend our thanks to all the people at McGraw-Hill Education for their efforts and support. First, we would like to thank Noelle Bathurst and Sarah Wood, for providing editorial direction, guidance, and management of the book’s development for the eighth edition. And we would also like to thank Sandy Wille, Sandy Ludovissy, Egzon Shaqiri, Beth Cray, and Angela Norris for managing the final production, design, supplement, and media phases of the eighth edition.

Erik W. Larson

Clifford F. Gray