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I am very excited to be associated with CBT Nuggets and to have the opportunity to introduce you to Project Management through this, my first Nugget series. I hope that you will find this series as exciting to learn from as I found it to create. I have been involved in Project Management for over 15 years and continue to find it as interesting and dynamic as it was when I first started managing projects so long ago. By applying good project management best practices, the likelihood of delivering a project that is on-time, on-budget and to specification increases. And let’s face it, being responsible for delivering a successful project is something that feels good and looks good on your resume. I began my project management career with a Canadian software consulting firm called Systemhouse. (This explains the Canadian accent in the series and why I call it ‘Pro-ject’ not ‘Praw-ject’ Management). In the demanding consulting environment, there was little room for delivering projects late and over budget, so I quickly picked up the best practices available from the mentors and peers available to me throughout the company. As my interest in Project Management expanded, I joined the Project Management Institute (PMI) and began to follow the international standard Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) In terms of formal education, I have an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and an MBA. This formal education, combined with over 25 years experience in the IT industry, has given me lots of background and experience in both BAD (not the ones I managed of course!) and good projects (only some of which I have managed). As with everything else in life, being on a bad project gave me lots of experience in what doesn’t work and just made me more excited to be able to apply the good project management practices defined in the PMBOK and available to you in this Nugget series. Through this series you will get an opportunity to learn about Project Management see project management in action and learn from my mistakes and successes. If I had to sum what I find so exciting about Project Management, I would have to say it’s the dynamics of the discipline. As a PM you are responsible for budget, schedule, scope, team, customer, etc. You never know from day to day, and sometimes minute to minute, what challenge you’re going to have to deal with. Being a Project Manager is definitely not boring, and when you overcome the challenges and deliver a successful project, there’s a tremendous feeling of accomplishment. | 