Controlling a Project When the Team Doesn't Report to You

Results Without Authority: A Project Manager's Guide

How to take control of teams and projects even when you're not the boss? .... Project leaders these days supervise few if any of the people that they rely upon for project success. Getting projects off to a good start and then maintaining control of them is an enormous challenge for a project leader who has little or no formal authority.

But there are many proven, powerful techniques a strong project leader can employ to keep projects and teams on track. Results Without Authority explores a wide range of effective methods and tools for leading a diverse team, and includes clear, insightful examples that demonstrate how they work in a variety of situations.

Packed with invaluable guidance for controlling projects of all scopes and in any field, Results Without Authority will help novice and experienced project leaders get the best from their project teams.

“Results without Authority stands out by methodically and thoroughly exploring the issue of control throughout the project life cycle….this practical project management reference brings together a lot of ideas and concepts worth considering for readers who are confronted with projects over which they have little to no formal authority."-Journal of Product Innovation Management

“...stands out by methodically and thoroughly exploring the issue of control throughout the project life cycle."
-Journal of Product Innovation Management

“…full of sound, practical, project management advice for carrying out IT and similar type projects…laced with the practical wisdom." -- Max’s Project Management Wisdom

"This book is full of sound, practical, project management advice for carrying out IT and similar type projects. It is also laced with the practical wisdom that only comes from years of "Been there, done that.'" -- Max’s Project Management Wisdom

“…important for all project managers, with and without authority… Packed with valuable guidance for controlling projects of all scopes and in any field.” – PM Network

This stuff works! "Results without Authority" is a powerful source of tools and common sense advice for people managing projects without formal authority. And most of the projects I have managed and most of the projects I am aware of are managed by people without authority. Tom Kendrick brings a depth of wisdom that can only be learned in the trenches.

Kendrick weaves theory and practice to build a comprehensive set of tools, templates, and checklists that can be used by everyone from the newly appointed project manager to the steely veteran. This volume is the most practical, down-to-earth, treatment of managing without authority that I have ever read. And, it is a good read and an enjoyable read. "Results Without Authority" must be required reading for all project managers, whether they have authority or not. Read it today and start using it tomorrow.

Project Management Software

Project management software exists in many different levels of sofistication and variety of prices. This article aims to help project managers realize what kind of project management software tools they need and find out how computers can help them in everyday routine.

Before choosing some particular tool you should have a look at the different kinds of projects to manage and corresponding PM skills. It is very important to pick a project management software tool appropriate for you and your organization. The following types of projects and project management software should cover the field broadly, though any categorization is very relative.

Project management software for small projects, usually in single functional area

At this level project managers usually plan and schedule only durations of project subtasks rather than resource capacity or work estimates. They do not need to track a project budget and their project status reports contain only completion date tracking.

Project management software in this situation helps project managers to automate such basic routines like

* planning project flow
* occasional status reports preparing
* producing Gantt charts

If your project management tasks are not intended to grow and such functionality is enough, you should not spend a lot of money nor waste your time on long learning curve about features you’ll never use.

Project management software for managing larger projects

Project budget is very important now, therefore we need a project management tool to give us the capability to estimate resources and money at every stage of the project. As more people are getting involved in the project, software should provide the ability to create numerous status reports - from simple total project cost to more sophisticated ones.

As the size of the project grows, the number of project management techniques increases. Requirements for project management software change accordingly. At this level project management software must be able to work not only with the static representation of start and finish dates for each project subroutines, but it needs to be powerful enough to simulate the project and reschedule it every time something changes in project flow.

Project management software for huge multi-project environment

At this high-end level we need project management software that meets a lot of additional requirements. Now we need to roll-up multiple projects and require consistent information for decision-makers. Among the features they need are:

* material resources allocating (including finances)
* scheduling and tracking a pool of human resources
* sharing resources between multiple projects
* sophisticated risk assessment tools
* detailed project performance tracking
* creating a detailed project budget. This brings project management software closer to the company’s accounting system

If you need a lot, you have to spend a lot. Project management software for this purpose costs from $400 up to $3000 and even more. Such packages usually have network versions and team communication capabilities.

Categorization above was rather comprehensive over the last years. But modern project management reality changes constantly, therefore we can talk about one more project management software category.

Project management software for managing multiple projects in small and mid-size businesses

It often happens that project managers face the need to manage multiple projects simultaneously, using resources that can be shared between them. But they do not need a huge and extremely expensive project management software tool with thousands of not really needed features. What should they choose? ConceptDraw Project can be the answer. It is a cross-platform (Mac OS X and Windows) project management software tool that allows the project manager to automate project routines - from planning and assigning resources to powerful report generating capabilities

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