Staying Small Successfully A Guide for Architects, Engineers, and Design Professionals Frank A. Stasiowski Today's design professional with entrepreneurial ambitions often has in mind a small firm. Written by a veteran architect and consultant, here is a clear, detailed road map to setting up a small business or guiding an existing one to success. Using miniprofiles of several small successful design firms, the author pinpoints exactly what's made them flourish. In a step-by-step format, he describes the six elements of the strategic planning process, tips on doubling average profit levels, building a loyal clientele, making your company a magnet for top talent, as well as measuring the financial health of your firm. This all-in-one seminar includes numerous checklists and flowcharts, a list of design firm management consultants, a typical marketing plan, and a survey of typical marketing costs. 1991 (0-471-50652-4) 297 pp. Value Pricing for the Design Firm Frank A. Stasiowski Essential to the design firm negotiating tough economic times, here is a handbook to garnering the most effective price for your services. Making the traditional cost-per-hour approach obsolete, the book teaches you how to price services based on their value to your client. Full of tactics that can be applied immediately, the book outlines the different methods of value pricing, ways to create value, a format for charging minimum fees, and a formula for price contracts. Other practical pricing tips include mini-scoping your services, charging for reimbursables, pricing change orders, as well as advice on negotiating a better contract. Complete with sample forms and lists, the book is a practical, easy-to-implement recession survival kit for the design firm. 1993 (0-471-57933-5) 240 pp. Cash Management for the Design Firm Frank A. Stasiowski While excellence in design and engineering may generate clients, monitoring and planning the movement of cash is central to a company's survival. This practical guide outlines a det!ailed cash management plan that makes continued financial health possible even during lean economic times. Using a clear, easy-to-implement approach, the book describes: cash management techniques, project budgeting, profitable project pricing structures, controlling project and overhead costs, getting paid, and planning and monitoring performance. The book also includes valuable advice on negotiating a contract, the most profitable contract types, the purchasing process, acquiring capital equipment, and internal financial controls. Numerous checklists and exercises as well as sample reports and financial documents are included. 1993 (0-471-59711-2) 324 pp.

Finding ways to improve margins can be the difference between organizations that thrive and those that simply survive during times of economic uncertainty. Describing why cost reductions can be just as powerful as increases in revenue, Total Quality Management for Project Management explains how to integrate time-tested project management tools with the power of Total Quality Management (TQM) to achieve significant cost reductions. Detailing the ins and outs of applying project management methods to TQM activities, the book provides the understanding you’ll need to enhance the effectiveness of your TQM work. To clear up any confusion about what a true quality improvement is, it includes sections that cover the fundamentals of total quality management and defines the terms used throughout the text. The book examines profitability as it relates to product cost—including the initial work determining investment paybacks. It compares TQM/PM versus Six Sigma and illustrates the use of scrum in the context of TQM for improving quality initiatives. Complete with real-world success stories that facilitate comprehension, it illustrates methods that can help to minimize distractions and keep your team focused. The authors consider the full range of quality improvement tools as applied within the framework of project management. For the section of the book on the application of TQM to scrum, they demonstrate how these analytical methods can be used on the data produced within a scrum project and made into actionable information. Filled with innovative methods for improving costs, the text arms you with the tools to determine the approaches best suited to your corporate culture and capabilities.

The concept of Quality Management began in the manufacturing sector, but a growing concern with quality in other areas of the economy has led to its wider application in service industries, government, education, and other not-for-profit agencies. A great quantity of material related to quality management has been produced in recent years, much of it by small presses, professional and trade associations, and consultants. The Quality Management Sourcebook is the first in-depth, international guide to the most useful material and sources of information. The book begins with the origins of quality management, explains how it evolved, examines its current situation, and explores the future. The book is divided into five main sections: * Introduction: General sources for information * Applications of total quality management * Focus on specific aspects of quality management * Quality in the future * Resource materials The Quality Management Sourcebook is an essential reference for everybody involved in either the theory or practice of quality management: in manufacturing, retail, banking, and insurance, the utilities industry, the transportation industry, health, education and other public services. Over 900 citations cover books, journal articles, technical reports, video training materials and software. Each is followed by a descriptive annotation. Resource materials include strategies for locating additional information; training materials; organizations; and consultants. The book concludes with a glossary of quality management terms, a name index, a title index, and a detailed subject index.

This handbook addresses the question of how best to manage quality in architecture for the mutual benefit of design practices and their clients. Based on research from the last two decades, it explores the general principles, tools and techniques that can be adapted to the unique culture of any design practice. The book addresses all aspects of quality in creating the built environment, with international contributions representing some of the best thinking that exists in design practice management. It is aimed at the entire design team – those who have a role in design inputs, design processes and design execution; including project managers, contractors, suppliers and clients. An accompanying website also provides commentary and updates on the text. Topics are linked to relevant sections of the current quality standard, and the standard is interpreted as to its application to design practice. Practices interested in establishing an ISO 9001-compliant quality system will find all the tools they need. The interpretation of quality is comprehensive. The focus is completely practical, rather than theoretical, affording readers a concise picture of how the issues of excellence and quality performance flow across every aspect of design practice. This focus provides the vital link that distinguishes truly successful practices from the rest, Here, simply, is the answer to the forces of commoditization that challenge all designers in today's competitive environment. The text is augmented and supported by chapters from twenty-two authoritative contributors, a foreword authored by Eugene Hopkins, and illustrations by graphic artist Michael Lindell. Key case studies are also provided focusing on: Anderson-Brulé Architects, San José CA Add, Inc., Cambridge MA Geyer Pty Ltd, Melbourne, VIC Australia Harley Ellis Devereaux, Southfield MI RVK Architects, San Antonio, TX

The comprehensive guide to project management implementation, updated with the latest in the field Project management has spread beyond the IT world to become a critical part of business in every sphere; built on efficiency, analysis, and codified practice, professional project management leads to the sort of reproducible results and reliable processes that make a business successful. Project Management Best Practices provides implementation guidance for every phase of a project, based on the real-world methodologies from leading companies around the globe. Updated to align with the industry’s latest best practices, this new Fourth Edition includes new discussion on Agile and Scrum, tradeoffs and constraints, Portfolio PMO tools, and much more. Get up-to-date information on the latest best practices that add value at every level of an organization Gain insight from more than 50 project managers at world-class organizations including Airbus, Heineken, RTA, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sony, Cisco, Nokia, and more Delve deeper into implementation guidance for Agile, Scrum, and Six Sigma Explore more efficient methodologies, training, measurement, and metrics that boost organization-wide performance Adopt new approaches to culture and behavioral excellence, including conflict resolution, situational leadership, proactive management, staffing, and more Ideal for both college and corporate training, this book is accompanied by an Instructor’s Manual and PowerPoint lecture slides that bring project management concepts right into the classroom. As the field continues to grow and evolve, it becomes increasingly important to stay current with new and established practices; this book provides comprehensive guidance on every aspect of project management, with invaluable real-world insight from leaders in the field.

This book has been developed to provide significant information about the usage and application of the Total Quality Management (TQM) concept in a construction project environment. The content spans from the inception through to the closing of the project focusing on the TQM approach in each phase of the project. Total Quality Management: Applications and Concepts for Construction Projects, focuses on the application of the Total Quality Management concept in construction projects and contains many quick-reference figures and tables for easy comprehension. It offers a concise and complete implementation process for the application of TQM and helps achieve competitive advantages in the global marketplace resulting in the construction project being qualitatively competitive and economical. The book highlights the standards for TQM and gives a brief introduction to the quality management system along with providing an overview of the project, the quality, the types of project delivery systems, and the principles involved. Discussions of quality and the different steps it moves through within the project setting including inspection, statistical quality control, and quality assurance round out the book’s offerings. Construction and quality professionals, industrial engineers, project managers, students, academics, and trainers will find that this book satisfies their needs and meets their requirements for a book that specifically uses TQM in construction projects.

From senior executives across the globe, insights for successful project management implementation The bestselling first edition of Project Management Best Practices: Achieving Global Excellence set the course for project managers navigating the increasingly challenging task of working within global corporations and with distant and diverse work teams. This new edition carries that tradition to the next step, presenting a new set of firsthand accounts of how corporations around the world incorporate project management into their strategic business operations. In this Second Edition, senior managers of more than fifty global companies—both large (Fortune 500) and small, and in all sectors of the market—share their best practices in project management. These industry leaders offer insight into best practices for: Project risk management Project management for multinational cultures and cultural failures Focusing on value as well as cost and schedule Integrated and virtual project teams With new and updated information on the latest developments in the field, Project Management Best Practices: Achieving Global Excellence, Second Edition offers a must-have window onto the issues—and their real-world solutions—facing corporate managers, project and team managers, engineers, project team members, and business consultants in today's global market.