Book of the Month

From the dust jacket. Uncertainty is a given in project management - and it can make the project manager's job pretty complicated. Anything can change at any time - even the ultimate objective. That's why master project managers are turning to "simultaneous management" to solve their project management dilemmas. It's the one dynamic model that has proven successful in effectively completing projects n a world where chaos prevails.

Simultaneous Management blends classic project management theory with the experiences of successful practitioners in our real world. The revolutionary but highly practical book provides today's managers with the tools and the confidence to deal with the conflicting demands and uncertainties that so often arise to undermine the most well thought-out plan.

Written in plain English (not nuanced academic speak), Simultaneous Management is perfect for managers who need to operate in the real world.

There are Nine principles of project management in the book:

1. Systematic and Integrative Planning performed as early as possible
2. Timely Decisions Adjusted for Uncertainty on multiple time horizons
3. Isolation and Absorption of uncertain tasks
4. Inward and Outward Leadership roles manage decision making processes
5. Teamwork built on multifunctional and multiorganizational teams composed of a small number of individuals with complementary skills
6. Overlapping phases with the involvement of representatives of downstream phases to accelerate project speed, overlapping project phases to ensure schedule is compressed without sacrificing cost or quality
7. Simple procedures both ad hoc and standard allowing a degree of flexibility.
8. Intensive communication that designs and promotes a communication process capable of frequently and quickly sharing large volumes of information to a great number of people
9. Systems Monitoring of project performance as well as changes in the critical planning assumptions

This book does mention the word Agile, but all 9 of those principles are the basis of agilely managing enterprise projects.