Creating the Project Office: A Manager's Guide to Leading Organizational Change

Creating the Project Office is written for managers who are searching for ways to transform their organizations into more effective and efficient project-based workplaces. As this important book reveals, there is no more effective way to make that change than to create a project office tailored to the needs of the organization. While a project office model leads to better products from projects, it is also a vehicle for generating overall organizational change -- by transforming the organization from function-based to project-based. This model incorporates projects into the very fabric of the organizational strategy and revitalizes organizations, creates competitive advantage, and increases shareholder value.

Table of Contents:
Preface xi The Authors and Contributors xvii PART ONE: CREATING THE CONDITIONS FOR CHANGE 1 1 Leading Organizational Change 7 2 Clear Danger: Creating a Sense of Urgency and Economic Value 33 3 Powerful Forces: Building a Guiding Coalition 53 4 Focus: Developing and Communicating the Project Office Vision and Strategy 83 5 Tell the Tale: Harnessing Internal Support 109 Robert Storeygard, 3M PART TWO: MAKING CHANGE HAPPEN 125 6 Contact: Managing the Change 129 7 Implementing the Project Office: Case Study 167 Alfonso Bucero, PMP 8 Keep Moving: Getting Your Arms Around Chaos 197 Colonel Gary LaGassey, USAF 9 In or Out? Staffing and Operating the Project Office 219 PART THREE: MAKING CHANGE STICK 245 10 Looking Forward: Embedding Project Practices in the Culture of the Organization 249 Dennis Cohen, Strategic Management Group 11 The Tale We Tell 277 Appendix: Templates for Project Office Planning 291 References 299 Index 303

About the Author :
Randall L. Englund is an executive consultant, speaker, and trainer. Englund was a project manager at Hewlett-Packard in new product development and a consultant on their Project Management Initiative team, which provided world-wide corporate leadership for the continuous improvement of project management. Robert J. Graham is an independent project management consultant and senior associate with the Strategic Management Group. Graham was a senior staff member at the Management and Behavioral Sciences Center at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He taught in the MBA and Ph.D. programs and the Wharton Effective Executive program. Graham and Englund coauthored Creating an Environment for Successful Projects (Jossey-Bass). Paul C. Dinsmore is president of Dinsmore Associates, an international management consulting and training firm. He is certified as PMP-- Project Management Professional -- and received the Distinguished Contributions and Fellow Awards from the Project Management Institute, where he is also on the Board of the Educational Foundation. He is the author of eight books, including Winning in Business with Enterprise Project Management .