Running the Successful Hi-Tech Project Office

Product Description

This is your complete ‘how to’ book on establishing the Project Office as a methodology for managing multiple development initiatives within your organization. The book presents the PO (Project Office) as a model for use in a wide variety of organizations, especially in R&D environments. As more and more forward-looking firms adopt the project form as their preferred way to organize development work, the need for you to coordinate the use of scarce resources and align initiatives becomes quite evident. This hands-on guide provides you with the essential techniques, templates and tools used by successful managers and consultants to achieve maximum project control and performance of dedicated persons, and groups.

The book looks at the PO as a line function, responsible for the coordination and the infrastructure necessary to manage multiple projects. This practical resource covers all major PO responsibilities, including project portfolio management, project oversight, methods and tool support, staffing and competence development, and promotion of the project culture. You learn that the objective of the Project Office is to complete all projects to best achieve the overall goals of the organization. The book provides guidance in preparing long term plans to enable appropriate decisions concerning the allocation of resources; overseeing the execution of projects on time and within budget; developing processes and systems to satisfy the ever changing product needs; providing stability, professional development and administrative efficiency for management and support personnel; and assuring a smooth transition between start-up, execution and termination phases.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #854080 in Books
* Published on: 2003-03-01
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Hardcover
* 256 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review
Much of the recent literature on project management has been generated by educators and trainers. That makes books by people actually practicing project management especially important in that they verify the theory and often provide a unique perspective springing from real life experience. One such book is "Running the Successful Hi-Tech Project Office" by Eduardo Miranda, a program director at Ericsson Research Canada.

Not surprisingly, Miranda focuses his attention on the causes of project failure, or more precisely, on eliminating the most significant causes of project failure. He begins by pointing out that most project failures are due to lack of resources and insufficient coordination across projects, factors normally outside the project manager's control. He goes on to explore the multiproject challenge in depth, clearly establishing the case for a project office.

Miranda does not promise instant results. In fact, he points out that introducing a PO into an organization is a substantial undertaking and takes time. But he also describes its value in achieving the overall goals of the organization.

The remainder of the book is a blueprint to set up and run a project office in R&D environments, covering such topics as roles, processes, tools, and metrics, providing practical guidance to overcome the obstacles to success.

We found only one item to criticize to Miranda's well-reasoned and well-written book: the title itself. The book does provide valuable instruction in "running the successful hi-tech project office". But it also provides valuable instruction in running a successful project office in any environment. -- PMFORUM, June 2006 (http://www.pmforum.org/library/publications/2006/06.htm)

About the Author
Eduardo Miranda is currently a Program Director at Ericsson Research Canada, Quebec, Canada. He received his B.Sc. in system analysis from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, his M.Eng. in engineering management from the University of Ottawa, Canada, and M.Sc. in project management from the University of Linkoping, Sweden.
Customer Reviews

Very good and practical, but a little too bit teoric sometimes4
I purchased this book and "The Complete Project Management Office Handbook" since they seem alternative and I enjoyed it quite a lot, although it has some minor improvement opps.

I do recommend this book, specially if bought with another one to "fill some gaps".

Pros:
- Brief and "straight-to-the-spot": it does not try to be "the bible"
- Has concrete and well structured content about structure, processes, tools, etc.
- The chapter about the problems existing due to lack of PMO presents very good reasons to help to justify it
- The quantitative management content is very good, but a little bit too teoric
- The deployment chapter is good, it gives good advices but it doesn't try to be a "bible" in organizational change management


Cons:
- The first chapter abis too
- The tool section is a bit outdated (talks about 03 and this is a very unmature sector, most of the tools are better than all the tools existing 3-4 years ago) and does not include some of the current leaders (e.g. ibm rpm)
- The chapter about the problems existing due to lack of PMO is sometime "too humanistic"
- If you only have this book and you need to really accept the endeavour to build a PMO in a medium organization, the content could be short