About the Book

Meredith's newest edition of Project Management focuses on all facets of the steps needed to successfully manage a project - from planning and resources to budgeting and more. An important goal is to appeal to help those preparing to take the PMBOK certification exams of the Project Management Institute. Revisions for the 8th Edition include a more consistent writing style throughout, content updates in some chapters, additional examples of some concepts to make them easier to grasp, and improved visual elements to make the textbook and online resources easier to understand and navigate.

About the Author

Jack Meredith is Professor of Management and Broyhill Distinguished Scholar and Chair in Operations at the Schools of Business at Wake Forest University. He received his undergraduate degrees in engineering and mathematics from Oregon State University and his PhD and MBA from University of California, Berkeley. Prior to his teaching career he worked for Ampex Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, Douglas Aircraft Company, and TRW Systems Group. He has also consulted for the National Research Council (Washington), the Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Sciences (Cincinnati), Illinois Institute of Technology, Digital Equipment Corp., Aluminum Co. of America, Warner-Amex, Spectrum Publishing, Educational Testing Service (of Princeton), Industrial Technology Institute, Cincinnati Milacron, Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, and John Wiley & Sons. He was Director of Operations and Industrial Management at the University of Cincinnati from 1976-1995 before moving to Wake Forest University. He has co-authored five textbooks for college classes: Operations Management for MBAs (Wiley), Quantitative Business Modeling (South-Western), Project Management: A Managerial Approach (Wiley), Operations Management: A Process Approach with Spreadsheets (Wiley), and Project Management in Practice (Wiley). He is currently the founding and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Operations Management Research, was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Operations Management from 1994-2002, and was the production/operations management series editor for John Wiley & Sons, Inc

Table of Contents:
CHAPTER 1 Projects in Contemporary Organizations 1.1 The Definition of a "Project" 1.2 Why Project Management? 1.3 The Project Life Cycle 1.4 The Structure of This Text CHAPTER 2 Strategic Management and Project Selection 2.1 Project Management Maturity 2.2 Project Selection Criteria and Models 2.3 Types of Project Selection Models 2.4 Risk Considerations in Project Selection 2.5 The Project Portfolio Process (PPP) 2.6 Project Bids and RFPs (Requests for Proposals) CHAPTER 3 The Project Manager 3.1 Project Management and the Project Manager 3.2 Special Demands on the Project Manager 3.3 Attributes of Effective Project Managers 3.4 Problems of Cultural Differences CHAPTER 4 Managing Conflict and the Art of Negotiation 4.1 Conflict and the Project Life Cycle 4.2 The Nature of Negotiation 4.3 Partnering, Chartering, and Scope Change 4.4 Some Requirements and Principles of Negotiation CHAPTER 5 The Project in the Organizational Structure 5.1 Projects in a Functional Organization 5.2 Projects in a Projectized Organization 5.3 Projects in a Matrixed Organization 5.4 Projects in Composite Organizational Structures 5.5 Selecting a Project Form 5.6 The Project Management Office (PMO) 5.7 The Project Team 5.8 Human Factors and the Project Team CHAPTER 6 Project Activity and Risk Planning 6.1 Initial Project Coordination and the Project Charter 6.2 Starting the Project Plan: The WBS 6.3 Human Resources: The RACI Matrix and Agile Projects 6.4 Interface Coordination through Integration Management 6.5 Project Risk Management CHAPTER 7 Budgeting: Estimating Costs and Risks 7.1 Estimating Project Budgets 7.2 Improving the Process of Cost Estimating 7.3 Risk Estimation CHAPTER 8 Scheduling 8.1 Background 8.2 Network Techniques: PERT (ADM) and CPM (PDM) 8.3 Risk Analysis Using Simulation with Crystal Ball® 8.4 Using These Tools CHAPTER 9 Resource Allocation 9.1 Critical Path Method--Crashing a Project 9.2 The Resource Allocation Problem 9.3 Resource Loading 9.4 Resource Leveling 9.5 Constrained Resource Scheduling 9.6 Multiproject Scheduling and Resource Allocation 9.7 Goldratt's Critical Chain CHAPTER 10 Monitoring and Information Systems 10.1 The Planning-Monitoring-Controlling Cycle 10.2 Information Needs and Reporting 10.3 Earned Value Analysis 10.4 Computerized PMIS (Project Management Information Systems) CHAPTER 11 Project Control 11.1 The Fundamental Purposes of Control 11.2 Three Types of Control Processes 11.3 The Design of Control Systems 11.4 Control of Change and Scope Creep 11.5 Control: A Primary Function of Management CHAPTER 12 Project Auditing 12.1 Purposes of Evaluation--Goals of the System 12.2 The Project Audit 12.3 The Project Audit Life Cycle 12.4 Some Essentials of an Audit/Evaluation 12.5 Measurement CHAPTER 13 Project Termination 13.1 The Varieties of Project Termination 13.2 When to Terminate a Project 13.3 The Termination Process 13.4 The Final Report--A Project History 13.5 Afterword Photo and Copyright Credits Name Index Subject Index Please visit http://www.wiley.com/go/global/meredith for Appendices. A: Probability and Statistics and Appendix B: Answers to the Even-Numbered Problems.