How to Run Successful Projects

by Fergus O'Connell

Software Project Management is perceived by most people, including many of its practitioners, as a black art. This book overturns that notion. There is a method underlying all successful projects, and if you follow this method, your project will almost certainly succeed. We have called this method Structured Project Management. Structured Project Management has the same relationship to conventional project management that Structured Analysis and Design has to analysis and design, and Structured Programming has to programming, that is, it replaces a process which is highly individualistic, with a process that is standard, repeatable, predictable and consistent. Key Features of Structured Project Management: Structured Project Management is about people; it has in-built self-checking mechanisms - it lets you know at the beginning before the costs really spiral, whether or not your project is configured for success; it is complete - it is everything you have to do for a successful project; and it is simple to learn and easy to use. How to Run Successful Projects is essential reading for project managers in the IT field, and for everyone charged with managing a venture structured as a project.

Paperback

First published August 14, 1996

About the author

My mum read Treasure Island to me when I was four and I think that was when I decided to become a writer.

I used to think I’d like to spend all my time writing, but spending all day alone in a room with your imaginary friends isn’t necessarily the healthiest way to pass the time. (It’s easy to see why so many great writers’ best friend has been the whisky bottle!) So I also write books and teach and speak on project management. I’ve written sixteen non-fiction books and had seven novels published. My most recent, The Paradise Ghetto is now in development based on my own screenplay.

I’ve been shortlisted for prizes – the Kerry Ingredients Irish Fiction Prize for my first novel, Call The Swallow; in non-fiction, for my book on common sense, Simply Brilliant which was runner-up in the W H Smith Book Awards. My books have been translated into twenty-five languages.

So far, all my novels have been set during wartime but I don’t think of myself as a war novelist. I write about people caught up in great events and how they try to find love in the most difficult of circumstances.

I’m widowed, have two grown-up children and have lived in lots of places. Currently I’m living in England but that could be about to change.