Project Management QuickStart Guide - by Chris Croft

About the Book

In Project Management QuickStart Guide, project management expert Chris Croft delivers a comprehensive overview for would-be project managers, experienced project planners, and everyone in between.

Book Synopsis

Project management is how things in the world get done.

Whether you're launching a rocket or planning a birthday party, project management skills are critical for ensuring that everything goes off without a hitch.

Now more than ever, organizations are looking for flexible, profitable, and efficient ways to achieve their goals, and effective project management is the answer. Not only is it an in-demand skill in nearly every industry, but it's also one of the most transferable skills you can acquire.

In Project Management QuickStart Guide, author, speaker, trainer, and project management expert Chris Croft draws on his 30+ years of experience to deliver a comprehensive guide for would-be project managers, experienced project planners, and everyone in between.

As one of the UK's leading business, project management, and leadership trainers Chris knows how break down the sometimes-complex world of project management into actionable and easy-to-digest concepts. Insights from his dozens of courses that have reached over ten million students across the globe can be found within Project Management QuickStart Guide.

It doesn't matter if you are a reluctant project manager hesitant to step into the role, a manager with a new set of responsibilities, or a business owner looking to grow your business-you can learn and implement world-class project management skills to achieve your goals!

- Entrepreneurs, managers, or business owners who want a systematized way to achieve their business goals on time and under budget

- New or experienced project managers who want to hone their craft with expert guidance

- Jobseekers looking to supercharge their resumes and increase their value in the labor marketplace

- Students preparing for a career in the business world

- Anyone who wants to break down complex projects into manageable tasks, better manage resources, and maximize their time management skills!

- How to use modern project management principles to tackle any project, no matter its level of complexity

- How savvy project managers set themselves up for success from the very beginning to stay organized and stay on track

- How to use deceptively simple project management tools and methods to lead your team and crush your goals - all while keeping spending in check

- How to use careful planning and project management best practices to spot and minimize risks while avoiding the common pitfalls that sink projects

- Planning From the Very Beginning - Start, plan, and execute projects of varying complexity

- How Projects Work - How to keep projects on track to deliver on time and under budget

- Using Project Management Tools - How to use tools like Gantt charts (without special software)

- How to Minimize Project Risks - How to spot and eliminate risks or change course as needed

- Project Management Fundamentals - Managing resources, leading a team, mistakes to avoid, and more

*LIFETIME ACCESS TO FREE PROJECT MANAGEMENT DIGITAL ASSETS!*

Project Management QuickStart Guide comes with free lifetime access to a comprehensive library of tools and templates to help you on your project management path.

Review Quotes

"Project management trainer Croft offers a manual for beginners that also provides a wealth of advice for those with experience.

This clear, accessible guide promises to enable readers who aren't project management specialists to "manage any project, of any size, with any budget" by using a practical 12-step process for planning, monitoring, adjusting, and reviewing them. The process requires no unusual tools or software expertise-just sticky notes and spreadsheets. The explanation is organized into five main sections: "Project Management Overview," "Mapping Out the Ideal Plan," "Adjusting the Plan for Reality," "Managing the Implementation of Your Project," and "Supercharge Your Project Management Skills." A final section offers brief discussions of related topics for further exploration. Croft begins by defining a project as "a structured way of facilitating the delivery of change," then takes readers through every stage from initial brainstorming to final review after completion. Along the way, he offers step-by-step methods and useful tips for getting stakeholders onboard, defining the project's "critical path" (the series of tasks that determines how long it will take), creating and using Gantt charts, managing expectations and people, assessing and mitigating risk, planning for contingencies, and more. The prose is crisp and readable, the examples effective, and the tone matter-of-fact with touches of humor. The author demystifies intimidating terms of art such as PMBOK and cost-performance index and lists pros and cons of various project management methods. Croft is frank about inevitable difficulties and thoughtful about how best to address them. In fact, many key principles and a lot of the advice here could be usefully applied in many other aspects of business and life. Charts and tables illustrate important topics, and each chapter ends with a bullet-pointed recap of key ideas. The guide includes links to short video clips and other downloadable assets, such as document templates, and is attractively designed; it also features a glossary, references, and an index.

A thorough, confidence-inspiring guide that provides much more than a quick start."

- Kirkus Reviews