Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling, Tenth Edition

Management of Your Time and Stress

6.0 INTRODUCTION

PMBOK^® Guide, 4th Edition

Chapter 9 Human Resources Management

Chapter 6 Time Management

Managing projects within time, cost, and performance is easier said than done. The project management environment is extremely turbulent, and is composed of numerous meetings, report writing, conflict resolution, continuous planning and replanning, communications with the customer, and crisis management. Ideally, the effective project manager is a manager, not a doer, but in the “real world,” project managers often compromise their time by doing both.

Disciplined time management is one of the keys to effective project management. It is often said that if the project manager cannot control his own time, then he will control nothing else on the project.

6.1 UNDERSTANDING TIME MANAGEMENT¹

For most people, time is a resource that, when lost or misplaced, is gone forever. For a project manager, however, time is more of a constraint, and effective time management principles must be employed to make it a resource.

Most executives prefer to understaff projects, in the mistaken belief that the project manager will assume the additional workload. The project manager may already be heavily burdened with meetings, report preparation, internal and external ...