Situational Project Management

Situational Project Management

by Oliver F. Lehmann
Released August 2016
Publisher(s): Auerbach Publications
ISBN: 9781315353678

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Book description

Most project managers would agree that every project is unique. But not all project managers would agree that the best way to manage a unique project is unique. Many still cling to the old practice of having a methodology that is applied to all projects. "One size fits all" is still in common use, and this approach has proven to lead to project failure. Flexibility, situational intelligence, and creativity are essential to deliver project success.

The need to recognize and master ever-changing requirements and environmental conditions is a tough challenge for professional project managers. The same practices that led to success yesterday may cause failure today. Selecting favorable responses to a given situation is often the most critical factor of the dynamics of success and failure. This book is designed to help project professionals assess a situation, predict the appropriate approach, methodology and achieving styles, and then apply them in a situational fashion.

To guide project managers in selecting the appropriate responses, Situational Project Management (SitPM) shows how to assess a given project, determine its unique characteristics, and select the appropriate methods to complete the project. With this book, projects managers can use SitPM to develop profiles of their projects on the basis of the projects’ physical characteristics, the project teams’ behavioral characteristics, the enterprise environment, and the market environments receiving project deliverables. These profiles help project managers to determine the appropriate project life cycle approach and leadership style. The book also explores various ways to engage stakeholders on the basis of a project’s SitPM profile.

The book’s author, Oliver F. Lehmann, has developed a set of templates to apply SitPM in practice. It can be downloaded from www.oliverlehmann.com/SitPM/Templates.zip.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half Title
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Dedication Page
  6. Table of Contents
  7. Foreword
  8. Preface
  9. Acknowledgments
  10. About the Author
  11. Chapter 1 The Situational View on Project Management
    1. 1.1 Introductory Questions
    2. 1.2 The Purpose of This Book
    3. 1.3 A Primer on Project Management
    4. 1.4 Project Management Today
      1. 1.4.1 Speed of Change
      2. 1.4.2 Open Skill Versus Closed Skill
      3. 1.4.3 Staged Deliveries and Multiple Deadlines
      4. 1.4.4 The Growing Significance of Stakeholder Orientation
      5. 1.4.5 Availability of Resources as a Core Uncertainty
      6. 1.4.6 New Requirements on Procurement in Complex Multi-Tier Supply Networks
      7. 1.4.7 New Approaches Continue to Emerge
    5. 1.5 How We Are Seen by Others
    6. 1.6 The Complex Dynamics of Success and Failure
    7. 1.7 Standardization and Certification in Project Management
    8. 1.8 Terminology Traps
    9. 1.9 Navigating between Monsters
  12. Chapter 2 Digging Deeper
    1. 2.1 Introductory Questions
    2. 2.2 A Major Distinction
      1. 2.2.1 Internal Projects
      2. 2.2.2 Customer Projects
      3. 2.2.3 Capital Projects
      4. 2.2.4 “Razor-and-Blade” Projects (or Freebie Projects)
      5. 2.2.5 The Same Methods for Different Types of Projects?
      6. 2.2.6 Conclusion
    3. 2.3 What Is the Matrix?
    4. 2.4 The Economics of Attention
    5. 2.5 How Project Managers Learn
    6. 2.6 Game Theory for Project Managers—A Brief Introduction
      1. 2.6.1 Players’ Games
      2. 2.6.2 Multi-Players’ Games 1: The Tragedy of the Commons
      3. 2.6.2 Multi-Players’ Games 2: The Dilemma of the Concurrent Investments
      4. 2.6.3 Hope for Our Projects
  13. Chapter 3 A Typology of Projects
    1. 3.1 Introductory Questions
    2. 3.2 Best Practice Approaches vs. SitPM
    3. 3.3 A Research Project
      1. 3.3.1 The First Objective: Develop a Typology
    4. 3.4 Mark 1 Projects and Mark n Projects
    5. 3.5 Greenfield Projects and Brownfield Projects
    6. 3.6 Siloed Projects and Solid Projects
    7. 3.7 Blurred Projects and Focused Projects
    8. 3.8 High-Impact Projects and Low-Impact Projects
    9. 3.9 Customer Projects and Internal Projects
    10. 3.10 Stand-Alone Projects and Satellite Projects
    11. 3.11 Predictable Projects and Exploratory Projects
      1. 3.11.1 Predictable Projects
      2. 3.11.2 Exploratory Projects
      3. 3.11.3 Projects with Frequently Changing Requirements
    12. 3.12 Composed Projects and Decomposed Projects
    13. 3.13 Further Types of Projects
      1. 3.13.1 Engineers’ Projects and Gardeners’ Projects
      2. 3.13.2 Discretionary Projects and Mandatory Projects
      3. 3.13.3 Single Handover Projects and Multiple Handover Projects
      4. 3.13.4 No Deadline Projects, Single Deadline Projects, and Multiple Deadline Projects
      5. 3.13.5 One-Shot Projects vs. Multi-Shot Projects
  14. Chapter 4 Practices for SitPM
    1. 4.1 Introductory Questions
    2. 4.2 Lifecycle Approaches
    3. 4.3 Agile Approaches
    4. 4.4 Waterfall Approaches
    5. 4.5 Rolling Wave Approaches
    6. 4.6 Connective Leadership and Achieving Styles
      1. 4.6.1 The Lipman-Blumen Achieving Styles Model
      2. 4.6.2 Application of the Lipman-Blumen Achieving Styles
      3. 4.6.3 Real-Life Examples and Application in Project Management
    7. 4.7 Favorable and Detrimental Practices
      1. 4.7.1 How Can the Following Information Be Used Best?
  15. Chapter 5 Some Basic Tools for SitPM
    1. 5.1 Introductory Questions
    2. 5.2 Stakeholder Force-Field Analysis (StaFFA)
    3. 5.3 Benefit Engineering
    4. 5.4 Pressure-Free Estimating
    5. 5.5 Protective Change Request Management Process
    6. 5.6 Registers
      1. 5.6.1 The Assumptions Register
      2. 5.6.2 The Constraints Register
      3. 5.6.3 Requirements Register
    7. 5.7 Meetings
    8. 5.8 Scrum
    9. 5.9 PDM Network Diagramming
    10. 5.10 Situational Project Scheduling
    11. 5.11 Staged Response Diagram (SRD)
    12. 5.12 The Stakeholder Attitudes Influence Chart
    13. 5.13 Turturism, Private Settings and Leadership
  16. Chapter 6 Leadership and the Dynamics of Success and Failure
    1. 6.1 So, What Is Leadership?
    2. 6.2 As Project Leaders, What Should We Do?
  17. Appendix A Answers to Introductory Questions
  18. Appendix B Traps in Terminology
  19. Appendix C What the Practitioners and Experts Say
  20. Appendix D: Twelve Suggestions for Situational Project Managers
  21. Glossary
  22. References
  23. Index

Product information

  • Title: Situational Project Management
  • Author(s): Oliver F. Lehmann
  • Release date: August 2016
  • Publisher(s): Auerbach Publications
  • ISBN: 9781315353678