Managing the Unknown offers a new way of looking at the problem of managing projects in novel and unknown environments. From Europe's leading business school, this book shows how to manage two fundamental approaches that, in combination, offer the possibility of coping with unforeseen influences that inevitably arise in novel projects: * Trial-and-Error Learning allows for redefining the plan and the project as the project unfolds * Selectionism pursues multiple, independent trials in order to pick the best one at the end Managing the Unknown offers expert guidelines to the specific project mindsets, infrastructures, and management methods required to use these project management approaches and achieve success in spite of unforeseen obstacles. This book equips readers with: * Causal explanations of why unforeseeable factors in novel projects make traditional project planning and project risk management insufficient * Directly applicable management tools that help managers to guide novel and high-uncertainty projects * Real-world case studies of both successful and unsuccessful approaches to managing high uncertainty in novel projects

Winner of the Project Management Institute’s David I. Cleland Project Management Literature Award 2010 It’s no wonder that project managers spend so much time focusing their attention on risk identification. Important projects tend to be time constrained, pose huge technical challenges, and suffer from a lack of adequate resources. Identifying and Managing Project Risk, now updated and consistent with the very latest Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)® Guide, takes readers through every phase of a project, showing them how to consider the possible risks involved at every point in the process. Drawing on real-world situations and hundreds of examples, the book outlines proven methods, demonstrating key ideas for project risk planning and showing how to use high-level risk assessment tools. Analyzing aspects such as available resources, project scope, and scheduling, this new edition also explores the growing area of Enterprise Risk Management. Comprehensive and completely up-to-date, this book helps readers determine risk factors thoroughly and decisively...before a project gets derailed.

Commercial Management: theory and practice defines the role of commercial management within project-oriented organisations, providing a framework for and helping to develop a critical understanding of the factors that influence commercial management practice. It also identifies generic aspects of this practice and provides a theoretical foundation to these activities, by reference to existing and emergent theories and concepts, as well as to relevant management best practice. The book is structured into four parts: Part 1 Introduction – Commercial Management in Project Environments explores the nature of commercial practice within project-oriented organisations at the buyer-seller interface. It presents a Commercial Management framework, which illustrates the multiple interactions and connections between the purchaser‘s procurement cycle and a supplier‘s bidding and implementation cycles. Additionally, it outlines the principle activities undertaken by the commercial function, identifies the skills and abilities that support these activities and reviews the theories and concepts that underpin commercial practice. Finally, it identifies areas of commonality of practice with other functions found within project-oriented organisations, plus sources of potential conflict and misunderstanding. Part 2 – Elements of Commercial Theory and Practice covers commercial leadership; exploring strategy; risk and uncertainty management; financial decision-making; and key legal issues. Part 3 – Approaches to Commercial Practice addresses best practice management; and commercial and contracting strategies and tactics. Finally, Part 4 – Case Studies offers two extended case studies: Football Stadia (the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff; the Emirates Stadium, Islington; and Wembley Stadium, London); and Heathrow Terminal 5. The book provides a one-stop-shop to the many topics that underpin commercial management practice from both a demand (buy-side) and a supply (sell-side) perspective. It will help develop an understanding of the issues influencing commercial management: leadership, strategy, risk, financial, legal, best practice management and commercial and contracting strategy and tactics. This book’s companion website is at www.wiley.com/go/lowecommercialmanagement and offers invaluable resources for both students and lecturers: • PowerPoint slides for lecturers on each chapter • Sample exam questions for students to practice • Weblinks to key journals and relevant professional bodies

The Oxford Handbook of Project Management presents and discusses leading ideas in the management of projects. Positioning project management as a domain much broader and more strategic than simply 'execution management', this Handbook draws on the insights of over 40 scholars to chart the development of the subject over the last 50 years or more as an area of increasing practical and academic interest. It suggests we could be entering an emerging 'third wave' of analysis and interpretation following its early technical and operational beginnings and the subsequent shift to a focus on projects and their management. Topics dealt with include: the historical evolution of the subject; its theoretical base; professionalism; business and societal context; strategy; organization; governance; innovation; overruns; risk; information management; procurement; relationships and trust; knowledge management; practice and teams. This handbook is of particular relevance to those interested in the research issues underlying project management.

Effective risk and opportunity management is key to the successful delivery of any major engineering and construction project. This book looks at how all those involved can manage risk and capitalise on the opportunities that uncertainty present. The authors of this book highlight that uncertainties should be managed rather than avoided. This book will look at simple projects with a small team, to megaprojects where some hundreds of people are involved, and the consequences of delays or unforeseen costs. However, while the obvious risks can be planned for, the authors argue that it is often the opportunities in these situations that can have unexploited potential. This book is about opportunity management seen from the owner’s perspective. It will be an invaluable resource for those studying Engineering both undergraduate and postgraduate and set out ways in which projects should be managed from planning to completion. This book is also a great tool for those working in project management and the construction industry. While there are many books that demonstrate effective construction management, this book is the first of its kind to emphasise that there is opportunity in uncertainty, and possibility in the unexpected.

Identifying the origins and evolution of innovation and project management, this unique Handbook explains why and how the two fields have grown and developed as separate disciplines, highlighting how and why they are now converging. It explores the theoretical and practical connections between the management of innovations and projects, examining the close relationship between the disciplines.

Shadow Working in Project Management aims at contributing to our knowledge of all things unconscious and irrational in our behaviour. It takes the form of an empirical research, and therefore addresses mostly the tools and techniques available to get in touch with Shadow aspects of self and collective, to recognize how it manifests, how it can lead to conflict, and ways to address it. From that perspective, it advances on to question the underlying beliefs of current management practices. It explores as well the inherent need for control in projects, being those of a professional nature, or other ventures. It challenges the strength of the concept of the "rational man" and its protagonism. Joana Bértholo’s work explores the role and nature of the Shadow in the context of projects and their management, with an emphasis on techniques to address it. Despite being directed to managers and dedicated to the analyses of the managerial discourse, the tools and processes it proposes have universal relevance, based on the fact that the Shadow is everywhere, within everyone, from the individual to the global scale.