Table of Contents

Preface.

PART I.

1. The New Project Environment.
Forces Driving Change. Driving Force 1: A Power Shift. Driving Force 2: The Free Agent Army. Driving Force 3: The Global E-Economy. 2. Project Management Evolution.
The Four Waves of Project Management. 3. eXtreme Concepts.
Project Management Versus Technical Management. Context and Content. Whole-of-Life Project Management. Project Manager as Facilitator. Sponsors as Executive Project Managers. Scenario Planning. The L.A. Law Model. Rapid Planning. Virtual Teams. It's the Context, Stupid.

PART II.

4. eXtreme Project Management Context.
Two Very Different Types of Work. Process Work. The Two Cultures in Conflict. The Categories of Project Work. Project Size. 5. The eXtreme Project Management Model.
Project Management Processes. Project Justification, Approval, and Review. The Critical Information for Project Approval. Project Planning. Project Tracking. Project Reporting and Change Control. Postimplementation Reviews. A Note on the Project Initiation and Feasibility Study. The Project Charter or Business Case. The Only Stable Thing Is Change. 6. The RAP Process.
Why Should We Run RAP Sessions? Different Stakeholders, Different Agendas. Great IdeaúBut I Don't Have a Team Yet. The RAP Structure. RAP Technology. How Long Should a RAP Take? 7. Analyze Project Success.
What Are Expectations? The Seven Success Criteria. Degree or Level of Stakeholder Satisfaction. Meeting of Objectives and Requirements. Meeting Budget. Meeting Deadlines. Added-Value Requirements. Quality Requirements. Team Satisfaction. eXtreme Tool 1: Success Sliders. Don't Panic! It Is Meant to Be Subjective. 8. Define Scope, Objectives, and Stakeholders.
What Is the Difference between Scope and Objectives? Conflict Is Inevitable. Levels of Objectives. Refining Your Objectives. Let's Not Get Physical. Don't Fence Me in. Stakeholders and Related Projects. What Is a Stakeholder? Related Projects: A Special Case of Stakeholder. Focus and Communicate. Formalizing Stakeholder Relationships. Sponsor Agreement: The Most Important of All. Who Is Your Team? 9. Analyze Added Value.
The State of the Art. Problems with Traditional Cost/Benefit Approaches. The Ultimate Fiddle. Added-Value Analysis. The Added-Value Chain. The IRACIS Model. Actual Versus Notional Costs. Shadow Pricing: Hedonic Costing and Contingent Valuation. Benefits Realization. Cost-Effectiveness Model. Another Form of Double-Counted Benefits. Additional Added-Value Drivers. A Final Note on Added-Value Analysis. 10. Define Quality.
Project Quality Deployment. Linking Product and Process Quality: QFD. What Is a Quality? Toward an Effective Quality Plan: PQD in Action. Step 1: Define the Product Requirements. Step 2: Negotiate Product Quality Attributes. Step 3: Review Quality Attributes with Your Sponsor. Repeat Until. Quality Index. Quality in Action. Quality Assurance Drivers. Quality Assurance Principles. Quality, Estimates, Costs, and Risks. The Impact of Quality. The Hot Buttons. A Final Note on Quality for Now. 11. Select a Development Strategy.
Strategy Ain't Methodology. The Four Development Strategies. Monolithic or Waterfall. Release, Version, or Incremental. Fast Track, Evolutionary, or Production Prototyping. Hybrid. Rapid Application Development (RAD), Agile, and Other Variations. RAD or Time-Boxing. Radical Fast Track. Microsoft's Daily Build. Agile, Lite, or Extreme Methods. Mixing and Matching. Partitioning Guidelines. By Function or Data. By Stakeholder. By Benefits. Strategy Selection. Strategy as a Change Control. Strategy and Risk Assessment. 12. Analyze Risk.
Project Risk Assessment Overview. Many Classes of Risk. Project Risk Management. Project Risk Assessment. Subjective Versus Objective Risk Assessment. The Risk Assessment Process. Overall Project Risk Assessment. Risk Containment or Reduction. Risk Management Plans. Risk Tracking and Reporting. Shooting the Messenger. 13. Develop Task Lists.
Develop Project Task Lists. Methodologies: A Brief Introduction. 1. Tailor Methodology. 2. Brainstorm Project Tasks. 3. Fine-Tune Your Methodology. 4. Review with Other Experts. 5. Repeat the Process. The Amazing 5/10 Day Rule. The Risk of the Project or Task. The Nature of the Task. The Experience of the Team Members. The Degree of Trust. A Moral Dilemma. Where Is the Moral Dilemma? Scenario and Real-Time Planning. 14. Estimate Tasks.
Causes of Estimation Error. Misestimating the Scope. Misestimating the Stakeholders' Effort. Misunderstanding the Quality. Miscalculating the Project Risk. Forgetting Tasks. Misunderstanding Your People. Estimation Overview and Principles. Getting Our Language Right. Project Estimation Points. Estimation Principles. Avoid Single-Person Estimation. Always Complete a Risk Assessment Prior to Estimation. Where Possible, Use Relevant Experts. Always Carefully Document Estimating Assumptions. Review the Work Breakdown Structures. Always Undertake Sensitivity Analysis. The Detailed Estimation Process. Saying No Revisited. A Review of Risk Assessment. Develop a Work Breakdown Structure. Complete a Function Point Estimate. Complete Team-Based Estimates. Not Another Note on Sensitivity Analysis! Adjust for Quality Agreement. 15. Develop Schedule.
Develop Project Execution Plan. Step 1: Develop a First-Cut Network. Step 2: Adjust Estimates to Elapsed Days. Step 3: Develop First-Cut Schedule. Step 4: Schedule Actual Resources. Step 5: Adjust the Schedule as Required. Scenario Planning Revisited. Develop Project Staffing Agreements. Oops! Wrong Planet, Wrong Person. A Typical Skill Model. Virtual Team Twist. 16. Develop Return on Investment.
Develop Cost and ROI Scenarios. ROI Fundamentals. Analyzing Project Costs. Future and Present Values. Developing Your ROI. Cost-Effectiveness. 17. Project Tracking and Reporting.
Project Tracking. The Tracking Mechanism. The Use of Automated Project Management Tools. Various Tracking Concepts. We Aren't Painting Walls: We Are Building Dreams. Tracking Mechanism. Tracking Summaries. Building a Project Metric Database. Project Reporting. Project Management and Technical Deliverable Reviews. The Project Reporting and Review Process. Really Radical Reports. Assistance to Projects. Reporting to Stakeholders. The Project Change Control Process. Maintaining the Project Management File. The Business Case Is the Focus of Everything. 18. Postimplementation Reviews.
The Postimplementation Review. The Postimplementation Review Focus. Don't Forget Your Sliders. The Timing of Postimplementation Reviews. The Learning Loop Concept. Client Satisfaction Surveys. The Postimplementation Review Team. The System Support Review. Benefits Realization Planning. The Benefits Realization Plan. The Project Sponsor's Role. Benefits Reviews. 19. Support.
The Support Problem. The Production Portfolio Concept. Portfolio Investment Effort. The Production Support Portfolio. The System Efficiency Review. Production System Activities and Support Costs. Passages: The Life Cycle of Production Systems. 1. New Product or System: Childhood. 2. Mature Product or System: Adulthood. 3. Old Product or System: Geriatric. Conclusion.

PART III.

20. Getting the Sponsor You Deserve.
Rule 1: The Bag of Money and the Baseball Bat. Rule 2: The Passive Conduit. Rule 3: You Generally Get the Sponsor You Deserve. Rule 4: In the Absence of Information, Executives Still Make Decisions. Rule 5: Educate as Well as Inform. Rule 6: The Level of Help You Get Is Inversely Proportional to Your Delay in Asking. Rule 7: Show Them the Money. Rule 8: Beam Us Up, Scotty. Rule 9: No Sponsor, No Start. 21. Getting the Stakeholders You Deserve.
Rob's Corporate Mathematics. Why You Need Your Stakeholders. How to Win Stakeholders Over. Remember They Have Other Jobs as Well. How to Get the Project You All Want. 22. A Question of Ethics.
Situation 1. Situation 2. Situation 3. Situation 4. Situation 5. Best Practice and Best Behavior. Organizational and Individual Impact. Drawing the Line - An Extreme Project Management Responsibility. A Draft Code of Ethical Behavior for eXtreme Project People. 23. The Success Sliders Redux.
Requirements Are Not the Same as Expectations. So, What Are Expectations? The Swiss Army Knife. Other Tips for Understanding Expectations. Become a Culture Vulture. Check out the Scenery. Learn Their Language. Say It Once, Hear It Many Times. 24. In Case of Emergencies.
The Dark Side. Dark Side 1: Don't Tell Anyone. Dark Side 2: Hope It Will Get Better. Dark Side 3: Covertly Degrade Quality. Dark Side 4: Covertly Degrade Functionality. Dark Side 5: Work Harder - Long-Term. Dark Side 6: Hire Consultants or Contractors and Blame Them. Dark Side 7: Blame Your “Users”. Dark Side 8: Blame Everyone - A Witch Hunt. Dark Side 9: Leave the Project. Dark Side 10: Add Lots of People - The Horde Model. Dark Side 11: Stop the Project. The Good Side. Good Side 1: Shift the Deadline. Good Side 2: Shift the Requirement. Good Side 3: Partition and Add People. Good Side 4: Overtly Degrade Quality. Good Side 5: Change the Technology. Good Side 6: Change the People. Good Side 7: Work Harder - Short-Term. Good Side 8: Leave the Project. Good Side 9: Mix and Match. Good Side 10: Stop the Project. Come to the Dark Side, Luke. 25. The Secret of Great Project Managers.
References.
Index.

Promotional Information

Radical Project Management introduces eXtreme Project Management (xpm), the first radically new approach to project management in decades! Traditional project management is inward looking, static, and doesn't respond to rapid, constant change. xpm looks outward to stakeholders, management, and clients, and thoroughly involves them in an agile process that assumes everything will change. Rob Thomsett presents xpm from start to finish and introduces every tool and technique you need to make it work in your organization.

About the Author

ROB THOMSETT is a Senior Consultant with Cutter Consortium's Agile Project Management and Business-IT Strategies Practices, a contributor to Cutter Consortium's Advisory Services, and director of The Thomsett Company. He has consulted in and taught project management since 1974. Over 20,000 professionals have attended his workshops in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Hong Kong, Italy, and Australia, and his radical approach to project management has been adopted by many major global organizations. Thomsett is author of People and Project Management and Third Wave Project Management, both from Prentice Hall PTR. Ed Yourdon has called him "one of the world's leading project management gurus."