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The forward progress of companies has always depended heavily on the
management of projects. New plants, new products, new organizations,
new methods, new ventures – all required dedicated teams working to
strict timetables and separate budgets. But today there’s a vital difference.
The project management mode has broadened and evolved to the
point where managers may spend as much time in interdisciplinary,
cross-functional, interdepartmental project teams as they do in their
normal posts.
Many factors have contributed to this unstoppable development –
among them the increased complexity of all businesses, the closer interrelationships
within companies and with customers and suppliers outside,
and the mounting pressure for speed. The latter demands synchronous
working. Companies can no longer afford to play pass-the-parcel, with
each department or function waiting for the others to finish. There simply
isn’t enough time to waste.
That pressure demands not only speed but effective delivery, on time,
on specification, and on budget. That will not happen by accident – and
Robert Buttrick’s book, based on his extensive corporate experience, is an
invaluable, lucid, and practical guide to a crucial area of management
which has been crying out for the treatment it receives in these pages.
Unlike management in general, project management is self-contained
and dedicated to clearly defined ends. The companies and the managers
who best master the methods and maxims in this book will not only
achieve their specific objectives, they will win the whole game. |
