Introduction | Book Structure | What We Liked
Tailoring the Principles and Practices for Project Success | Downside | Summary

Book Structure

The content of this book is set out in seven chapters and two Appendices as follows:

Each chapter concludes with a brief summary "Looking Back" and an alert about "What's Ahead". The book contains 29 explanatory figures, and has a total of 238 pages. It does not include a Glossary of Terms, nor does it include a list of acronyms for ease of reference.

As the chapter titles imply, the project management framework of the book is built around the project's Drivers listed in Chapter 1. These are supported by the Principles and their respective Practices that call for the Processes that ultimately result in fourteen key documents during project execution. Although none are explicitly listed in the Table of Contents, we list them all here for ease of reference and to facilitate an understanding of the book's contents.

The ten drivers of the Principles that enable the Practices are:[4]

1. Capabilities drive system requirements
2. Requirements are defined in work packages
3. Work packages produce the deliverables
4. The Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB) describes the work sequence
5. Measures of physical percent complete defined "Done" for each work package
6. Work authorization assures proper delivery of value
7. Produced and measurable value defines progress
8. All measures are adjusted for technical performance compliance
9. Fulfilled requirements produce delivered capabilities
10. Past performance is a forecast of future performance

The Five Principles presented in the form of questions are:[5]

1. Where are we going?
2. How are we going to get there?
3. Do we have everything we need?
4. What impediments will we encounter, and how will we remove them?
5. How are we going to measure our progress?

The Five Practices, derived from the foregoing Principles and presented in the form of activities are:[6]

1. Identify needed capabilities
2. Define a requirements baseline
3. Develop a Performance Measurement Baseline
4. Execute the Performance Measurement Baseline
5. Apply continuous Risk Management

Having laid out this pattern, the Drivers are then looked at in more detail and we find that each can be further subdivided into bulleted or numbered lists as appropriate.[7] Finally: "With our principles, practices in place, we can now go to work".[8]

Introduction

What We Liked

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