Leading Project Teams: An Introduction to the Basics of Project Management and Project Team Leadership

Leading Project Teams provides a readable and accessible book on the basics of project management and team leadership. This book is intended as a supplemental text for any class or training situation where the instructor wants to integrate basic project and team leadership skills into his or her other instructional needs. Leading Project Teams assumes little to no knowledge of project management and quickly leads the reader through the fundamentals including: - How to start any project by establishing its basic direction, objectives, and deliverables; identifying key project stakeholders, and developing initial estimates of project needs. - How to break down project work into assignable tasks and organize the project to establish command and control. - How to estimate the work, resource, cost, and time requirements of any project. - How to schedule project work with a focus on developing and using Gantt or bar charts. - How to construct, develop, and lead project teams through the project′s life cycle. - How to identify and work with a wide range of project stakeholders and develop the project leader′s social capital. - How to identify and address the role expectations others have of all project leaders. - How to write tight, clear project reports that meet the needs of decision makers and other key readers.

Table of Contents:
CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION Project Fundamentals Overview of Book CHAPTER TWO: DETERMINING THE DIRECTION AND INITIAL SPECIFICATIONS OF A PROJECT The Project′s Mission Statement Stakeholders in the Project′s Mission The Baltimore Project The Project’s Objectives and Deliverables Project Parameters: Scope, Costs, and Timeline Developing and Signing Off on the Project’s Charter The Project Plan CHAPTER THREE: THE WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE The Work Breakdown Structure and its Project Role Producing a WBS Using the Output of a WBS CHAPTER FOUR: PROJECT SCHEDULING Project Schedules: Types and Components Components of project schedules How to Develop a Project Schedule: Focus—Gantt Charts Using the Output of a Project Schedule Revision of planning assumptions and estimates for the project plan Making adjustments to the plan throughout the project Command and control CHAPTER FIVE: DEVELOPING PROJECT TEAMS What is a “team”? What is a successful team? Fundamentals of Team Structure Team Development CHAPTER SIX: THE PROJECT TEAM’S ENVIRONMENT Stakeholders Developing and Using Project Networks CHAPTER SEVEN: LEADING PROJECT TEAMS The Roles of a Project Leader Project Leadership and the Project’s Life Cycle Project Leadership and Individual Project Members CHAPTER EIGHT: WRITING PROJECT REPORTS Know Your Readers and What They Want The Project Report The Body The “Backend:” Supporting appendices APPENDIX A: CALCULATING THE CRITICAL PATH USING THE CRITICAL PATH METHOD APPENDIX B: EARNED VALUE ANALYSIS

About the Author :
Anthony T. (Terry) Cobb is an Associate Professor of Management at Virginia Tech.  Dr. Cobb has researched and taught in the areas of organizational behavior, organizational change and development, organizational skills and applications, organizational politics, organizational theory, and in management.  He has over fifteen years experience teaching Project Management, and has received the MBA Faculty Service Award from the Pamplin College of Business.  Dr. Cobb has served on the Executive Board of the Southern Management Association and on the editorial board of the Journal of Management Inquiry. He has also served as Department Head for the Department of Management at Virginia Tech.   Dr. Cobb’s has published his work in a variety of scholarly and professional outlets including such journals as the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Group and Organization Studies, Consultation, Human Relations, Human Resource Management, the Human Resource Development Quarterly, the Journal of Organizational Change Management, and the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.  Dr. Cobb’s work has been translated into German, Italian, and Chinese.

Review :
"Leading Project Teams is an ideal supplemental text for any class or training situation where the instructor wants to integrate basic project and team leadership skills into his or her instructional needs. Easy to read, this book quickly leads the reader through fundamentals including how to start a project, how to assign tasks, write clear project reports and much more." "This book is an excellent introduction to project team leadership, and I recommend that every newly appointed team lead receive a copy of it."