Commercial Project Management A Guide for Selling and Delivering Professional Services

Selling and delivering a project to a satisfied client, and making a profit, is a complex task. Project manager and author Robin Hornby believes this has been neglected by current standards and is poorly understood by professionals in the field. Commercial Project Management aims to rectify this deficiency. As a unique ‘how-to’ guide for project and business managers, it offers practical guidance, and a wealth of explanatory illustrations, useful techniques, proven checklists, real life examples, and case stories. It will give project managers a needed confidence boost and a head start in their demanding role as they go ‘on contract’. At the heart of Robin’s approach is a vendor sales and delivery lifecycle that provides a framework for business control of projects. Unique elements include the integration of buyer and vendor project lifecycles, the recasting of project management as a cyclic set of functions to lead the work of the project, and the elevation of risk assessment from a project toolkit to a fundamental control process. Beyond project management, the book proposes a comprehensive template for the firm whose business is delivering projects. This is a how-to book for project and business managers working in a commercial environment looking for practical guidance on conducting their projects and organizing their firm.

Preface 1. A summary of the guide 2. Introduction to the business of projects 3. Buyer and vendor integration 4. Evolution of a vendor lifecycle 5. Developing organizational responsibilities 6. Risk as a guiding principle for management 7. Overcoming estimating anxieties 8. Solving the quality conundrum 9. Managing the resource pool 10. Finance matters 11. Building a successful services firm 12. Towards collaborative procurement of services

Robin Hornby worked in the information technology industry for over 35 years, migrating from systems engineering to project and then delivery management. He taught project management at Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada, for 10 years and currently writes, consults, and conducts seminars. He pioneered many of the delivery practices described in this book.