Jaap Van Driel

Project Management For Line Managers Jaap Van Driel

As a line manager, it is common to have the feeling that although you are spending a lot of money on a project, you have no clue what is happening. Let alone if the outcome will really help your business. When you discuss this with the project manager, you get a great deal of convincing detail but very little of this seems related to the reason why you approved the project in the first place. The reason for this is that a project manager concentrates on the deliverables of the project per se, whereas you are more interested in the use of those deliverables in your business. In order to make sure the deliverables are useable, you need to understand what is happening in the project. You also need to realize that harvesting the benefits is not a part of the project in and of itself. Yet it is the reason why the project came into being. In this book I argue that project success is not a property of an individual project, but is a consequence of managing the portfolio of projects as a whole. It is not the successful completion of a project that matters, but the realisation of the benefits of the project portfolio. Finishing projects within scope and budget, on time, is a key element of a successful project portfolio and this can only be achieved if line management and project management cooperate effectively. In this book I will explain the areas of project management that are important for line managers to understand and will also suggest a number of questions line managers need to ask the project manager. These questions will help you understand what is happening and allow you to ensure the project will be successful.