Cheetah Project Management: The Fastest Way to Reach Your Goals [Paperback]

Michelle LaBrosse (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2004

Markets don't wait. Technology changes. Organizations Merge. Projects that take too long hurt business. This is a handy how-to guide to put your projects on the fast track. Learn how to run like a Cheetah and gain a competitive edge - become a "Cheetah Project Manager."

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

About Cheetah Learning

Headquartered in Carson City, Nevada, Cheetah Learning has training centers around the world and is a proven global leader in Project Management Performance Improvement and Project Manager Professional Development. Cheetah was founded in 1999 with the commitment to enable people to achieve significant bottom line improvements, FAST.

Cheetah Learning created the patent-pending Accelerated Exam Prep methodology that is the basis of our highly successful Cheetah Exam Prep™ for the PMP® course, which has benefited thousands of Project Managers.From negotiations to Project Management leadership, our proven accelerated learning techniques empower people and the organizations they serve to achieve superior results, FAST. A PMI® Registered Educational Provider and an authorized IACET training provider, we deliver courses at our training facilities, at client locations, and online. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Back Cover

Markets don’t wait. Technology changes. Organizations merge. That’s why projects that take too long hurt business. Cheetah Project Management walks you through our proven approach to get projects done in under three months. Big projects can use this approach too by breaking them into three month segments. Big projects slip because of little reasons – the same reasons that cause little projects to slip. Don’t lose business opportunities to poor project management. Get to market at Cheetah Speed using Cheetah Project Management techniques. Your project managers and your entire organization will benefit from what Cheetah has learned inside business and government. Business results from project management effectiveness is just a read away. Pick up Cheetah Project Management and give your projects the green light to go!

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Product Details

• Paperback: 159 pages
• Publisher: MAKLAF Press, LLC (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976174901
• ISBN-13: 978-0976174905
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,865,025 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cheetah Project Management, July 18, 2005

By 

cd1110 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cheetah Project Management: The Fastest Way to Reach Your Goals (Paperback)

Cheetah Project Management is a must for anyone involved in project management currently, or someone considering PM as a career. In simple, straightforward language it outlines the steps and processes toward formalizing a project agreement.

An easy read that truly impacts all phases of the project manangement cycle. I highly recommend this book!

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cheetah Project Management: A Review, August 10, 2005

By 

Frank T "The PMP Guy" (Ottawa, ON Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cheetah Project Management: The Fastest Way to Reach Your Goals (Paperback)

Book Review - Cheetah Project Management
Reviewed by Frank Townson, PMP, Director - Strategic Planning, PMI-OVOC

Cheetah Project Management
Michelle A, LaBrosse, PMP - HNB Publishing, New York, NY, USA, 2004. ISBN: 0-9728061-2-1

Are you new to the field of project management and don't know where to start? If so, this book can really help you. If you are an experienced project manager and have struggled with issues of teamwork and having a successful project launch session, then this book can help you. Or have you been handed a project in disarray that needs major disaster recovery work? Again, this book can help you.

In Cheetah Project Management, the emphasis is on the team: "If the team is aligned on its project priorities, then it will better understand and work towards aligning its actions" notes the author. Using a team-based approach, the author takes the reader step by step through an e-commerce project case study and demonstrates how to build team consensus on customer/stakeholder requirements, who needs to do what and when, individual roles and responsibilities, determining the critical milestones in the project, identifying and assessing risks, and preparing accurate cost estimates including a clear understanding of cash flow needs and level of effort.

Ms. LaBrosse defines Cheetah's Accelerated Project Management as "A process that covers the complete framework for a project team to quickly launch its projects, initiatives and ideas." She then takes you through that framework demonstrating how, in just one day, using the methodology, templates and techniques she provides, a project team can develop a complete project plan covering customer/stakeholder requirements, project scope, project schedules, and project budgets. Building upon the eight components of the accelerated project management (APM) framework, she shows project teams how to:

* Clearly communicate with people on the project team and stakeholders/clients about the project.
* Accurately define the problems the project will help stakeholders/clients solve.
* Specify the requirements of the project in terms of how stakeholders/clients will use the project deliverables.
* Clearly define the end points of the project to rein in costs.
* Create a high performing project team that is aligned on their roles and responsibilities.
* Determine exactly what is needed to get started with the project and what represents completion (and success).
* Create measurements to ensure the project meets stakeholders/clients' acceptance criteria.
* Define reviews and approvals at each stage of the project.
* Assess, quantify, and prevent risks that could derail the Project.
* Define the priorities of the project in terms of cost, schedule, and quality.
* Identify the constraints and conflicts on doing this project.
* Determine the staff and resources required to complete the project.
* Create dependency schedules of the interim deliverables with an easy to visualize graphical mapping technique.
* Use a quick three point estimating technique to calculate budgets associated with work and resources needed to get the job done.
* Adjust the project plan based on issues that arise during the execution of the project.
* Record the lessons learned in a way that can used to improve the next project.
* Identify how to use what has been learned doing this project.

Although Ms. LaBrosse clearly focuses on the project team, she recognizes that individual roles and responsibilities must be well defined and agreed to by team members. She observes, "When everyone is responsible, no one is accountable." A key feature of Cheetah's Accelerated Project Management is single point accountability, meaning that one person is specifically responsible for each interim project deliverable, including risk countermeasures.

One of the clear strengths of this book is that it is reader friendly. It is not loaded down with jargon, nor does it preach its message. Rather, it presents a simple and straightforward methodology and guides the reader through it in a clear and readily understandable manner loaded with lots and lots of examples and clarifications. Simple tools and techniques are presented along with easy to follow templates. In determining risk probability and impact, for example, she employs a "highly scientific technique called the gut-feel index (GFI)".

The eight components of the APM framework are Project Launch, Project Agreement, Teaming Guidelines, Planning (including Risks), Scheduling, Staffing and Budgeting, Project Tracking, and Lessons Learned. Ms. LaBrosse presents and explains these components in a clear and effective manner. Noting that "People can achieve whatever they put their minds to", she provides the means by which a project team, working together, can achieve a highly successful and productive project launch event.

Recommended

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fast and fun way to break down the project life cycle!, July 8, 2005

By 

B. Novotney - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cheetah Project Management: The Fastest Way to Reach Your Goals (Paperback)

This book is a great read! It is fast paced and hits on all the major project phases. Each phase is laid out in easy to understand writing with great diagrams and charts. I firmly believe that you can use this book to help all your projects.