Project management for dummies / by Stanley E. Portny.

Includes index.

Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; Introduction; About This Book; Foolish Assumptions; Icons Used in This Book; Beyond the Book; Where to Go from Here; Part 1 Getting Started with Project Management; Chapter 1 Project Management: The Key to Achieving Results; Determining What Makes a Project a Project; Understanding the three main components that define a project; Recognizing the diversity of projects; Describing the four phases of a project life cycle; Defining Project Management; Starting with the initiating processes; Outlining the planning processes

Examining the executing processesSurveying the monitoring and controlling processes; Ending with the closing processes; Knowing the Project Manager's Role; Looking at the project manager's tasks; Staving off excuses for not following a structured project-management approach; Avoiding shortcuts; Staying aware of other potential challenges; Do You Have What It Takes to Be an Effective Project Manager?; Questions; Answer key; Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 6; Chapter 2 Beginning the Journey: The Genesis of a Project; Gathering Ideas for Projects

Looking at information sources for potential projectsProposing a project in a business case; Developing the Project Charter; Performing a cost-benefit analysis; Conducting a feasibility study; Generating documents during the development of the project charter; Deciding Which Projects to Move to the Second Phase of Their Life Cycle; Chapter 3 Knowing Your Project's Stakeholders: Involving the Right People; Understanding Your Project's Stakeholders; Developing a Stakeholder Register; Starting your stakeholder register; Ensuring your stakeholder register is complete and up-to-date

Using a stakeholder register templateDetermining Whether Stakeholders Are Drivers, Supporters, or Observers; Deciding when to involve your stakeholders; Using different methods to involve your stakeholders; Making the most of your stakeholders' involvement; Displaying Your Stakeholder Register; Confirming Your Stakeholders' Authority; Assessing Your Stakeholders' Power and Interest; Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 6; Chapter 4 Clarifying What You're Trying to Accomplish - And Why; Defining Your Project with a Scope Statement

Looking at the Big Picture: Explaining the Need for Your ProjectFiguring out why you're doing the project; Drawing the line: Where your project starts and stops; Stating your project's objectives; Marking Boundaries: Project Constraints; Working within limitations; Dealing with needs; Facing the Unknowns When Planning: Documenting Your Assumptions; Presenting Your Scope Statement in a Clear and Concise Document; Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 6; Chapter 5 Developing Your Game Plan: Getting from Here to There; Divide and Conquer: Breaking Your Project into Manageable Chunks