The project book: the complete guide to consistently delivering great projects

TABLE OF CONTENTS About the author ix Preface xi How to use this book xvii Project Management 1 Part I: Leadership 9 1 Know yourself 13 2 Practise empathy 16 3 Be yourself 18 4 Stand for something 21 5 Determine your values 25 6 Safeguard the future 28 7 Behave in the right way 31 8 Give your mind a break 34 9 Adapt your style to fit the project 38 10 Embrace the next generation 44 11 Be prepared 48 12 Bring the humour 50 13 Make gratitude your attitude 54 14 Bounceback ability 57 15 Lead a remote team 60 16 Be an intrepreneur 64 17 Switch on your ears 68 18 Create more leaders 71 19 Be generous 74 20 Say sorry 76 21 Set and manage expectations 79 22 Manage difficult conversations 82 23 Get help 87 24 Negotiate effectively 91 25 Tell stories 94 26 Manage upwards 98 Part II: Culture 103 27 Build and care for the team 107 28 Develop a vision 111 29 Get your communication right 114 30 Collaborate for success 117 31 Make time for innovation 121 32 Find the right space for work 125 33 Hire for cultural fit 129 34 Start as you mean to go on 132 35 Soundtrack to your success 135 36 Keep stakeholders satisfied 138 37 Gossip: the culture killer 141 38 Keep it simple 144 39 Have some fun 147 40 Run meetings that don't suck 151 41 Celebrate success 156 Part III: Methods 159 42 Waterfall 161 43 Agile 164 44 No plan, no project 166 45 Why this? Why now? 170 46 Scale for success 173 47 Estimating 176 48 Manage risk 179 49 Deal with issues 183 50 Report honestly 186 51 Successes are the best lessons 188 52 Measure your success 190 Project Management: Summary 193 Project Sponsorship 197 Part IV: Stewardship 209 53 The buck stops with you 215 54 Verify priorities 219 55 Share the burden 224 56 Say thank you 228 57 Build trust 232 58 Simple is better 235 59 Be present 240 60 Role model what you expect of others 244 Part V: Decisions 249 61 What's the problem and the outcome? 253 62 Negate the negativity 260 63 Hire and pick your project manager 264 64 Be ethical 269 65 Make quick (not hasty) decisions 275 66 Deal with poor performance 280 67 Fail quickly 285 Part VI: Results 291 68 Culture is key, but so is strategy 297 69 Get off to a flyer 300 70 Every project needs a plan 305 71 Innovation needs mindset and time 309 72 Methods need to be understood 314 73 Celebrate good (and bad) times 317 74 Outcomes don't achieve themselves 322 75 Spot when it's going wrong 328 Project Sponsorship: Summary 335 Frequently asked questions 337 References 345 Reading list 355 Soundtracks 359 Contact details 363 Index 365

Projects are the lifeblood of organisations, but many projects fall short of expectations because of poor project management and/or poor project sponsorship. In The Project Book, author and 20-year project management and sponsorship veteran Colin D Ellis teaches you the skills and behaviours required to make your projects succeed, every time. The best projects, whether they are delivered in an agile or waterfall way, are a result of the people that lead them and the environment they create. This fail-safe and comprehensive handbook shows you how to develop the mindset and communication skills to create projects that leave a legacy for you, your team and your organisation. Project leaders and senior managers in all business and technical disciplines will benefit from the insightful guidance this book offers and better project outcomes will result. Split into two parts, individually addressing Project Leaders and Project Sponsors, this book guides large project facilitators to understand the importance of people over processes. become a project leader that people trust build a team culture of collaboration, agility and creativity upskill executives so that they're catalysts for transformation develop the organisational discipline needed for successful projects create a mature environment for your projects to thrive Engaging, informative and humorous, The Project Book will help project managers, project sponsors, scrum masters and product owners across all organisations to deliver successful projects in a way that customers will talk about for years.