Creating an Environment for Successful Projects: The Quest to Manage Project Management (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) (Hardcover)

by Robert J. Graham (Author), Randall L. Englund (Author) "Most future growth in organizations will result from successful development projects that generate new products, services, or procedures..." (more)
Key Phrases: successful complete upper manager, core team process, project management initiative, Robert Graham, Project Management Institute, Lew Platt (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Management consultants Robert Graham and Randall Englund believe that the development and launch of successful new products and services hinges on the formation of a thoroughly integrated, "project-based" organization. In Creating an Environment for Successful Projects: The Quest to Manage Project Management, they use the experiences of Hewlett-Packard, AT&T, General Electric, United Airlines, and other notable firms to show what they mean. They also demonstrate how upper managers can cultivate such an atmosphere in their own enterprises and avoid the failures that otherwise threaten their corporate survival.

Review
"The authors discuss some excellent organizational best practices and provide steps to achieve them." (Journal of Product Innovation Management; 1/1/2005) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 253 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (July 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787903590
• ISBN-13: 978-0787903596
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,374,584 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ample support for putting the book's key concepts to good us, January 13, 1999

By A Customer

This book was reviewed in "The Journal of Product Innovation Management" May 1998, an international publication of the Product Development & Management Association (PDMA):

A book which discusses how companies can effectively create a healthier and more nurturing environment for product development, based on companies like Hewlett-Packard, DuPont, Raychem and others.

"As the title implies, this book is about managing project management, not about managing projects - an important concept... Its purpose is to get upper management to understand how and why to develop project management as an organizational competency... Relevant across industries from high tech to low, from product to service, and from consumer to industrial or business-to-business... Its key strengths are: 1) its comprehensive treatment of key issues from the role of strategic direction across the project portfolio to the need for cultivating project management learning; 2) its practical recommendations for change; and 3) its easy-to-read examples... The book is well organized with an overview chapter that includes a call to action and an overview of the remaining chapters. The next seven chapters go on to describe each of the elements of creating an environment for success projects. Laid out as pieces of a complete puzzle to signal their importance as a system" (Mark Deck, Pittiglio Rabin Todd & McGrath, May 1998)

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended for Managers of PMs and for PM Consultants, May 14, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

Most PM books focus on those things the PM is supposed to control: cost, schedule performance, quality. This book posits that there are many factors OUTSIDE of the project manager's control that prevent project success. The PM spends more time dealing with external issues than managing the project team. Managers of PMs must "create an environment for successful projects", by essentially identifying and eliminating environmental barriers to project success, so the PM can focus on managing the project and the project team. Intended for managers of a manager of PMs. Also a good book if you're a PM consultant or a manager of a project-oriented department containing several PMs and project teams. My only real criticism is that there's a fair bit of consultant-speak psychobabble in the book. In spite of that, there's enough solid info in the book to make it a worthwhile read. Recommended.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique book on an important topic, September 30, 1997

By	[e-mail] (Middletown, New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This book, by 2 authors who are very knowledgeable and well respected, is unique. It is the only book that I have been able to find on the subject of project management for people who are managers of project managers. It contains enough (but not too much) material to describe what project management is---and what it is not. If upper managers read the book and pay attention to its contents by implementing some of its recommendations the lives of people managing projects in their organizations are likely to become more fulfilling, and project management will be of more value to the parent organization. The book also provides some insight into one of the US's more successful corporations, Hewlett-Packard, from which the authors draw many of their examples. A job well done!