Project success is an elusive goal in every business or technical domain. Project failure usually results from unhandled risks to the technical, cost, and schedule aspects of the project. There are four primary root causes of project failure.Unrealistic performance expectation, with missing Measures of EffectivenessUnrealistic cost and schedule estimates based on inadequate risk adjusted growth modelsInadequate assessment of risk and unmitigated exposure to these risks without proper handling strategiesUnanticipated technical issues with alternative plans and solutions to maintain the effectiveness of the project processes and its deliverablesRisk Management provides a comprehensive overview of the people, principles, processes, and practices as the fundamental base upon which an effective risk management system resides. However, this does not guarantee effective risk management and successful projects and businesses. The first half of the book describes risk management processes, as well as a delineation between risk and hazards and how these are connected. The second half of the book provides industry examples of the approach to risk management in specific context and with specific approaches and artifacts where applicable.The book focuses on risks created by uncertainty, their identification, and the corrective and preventive actions needed to address these risks to increase the probability of project success. The book’s goal is to provide a context-driven framework, developing a foundation for a rational approach to risk management that makes adaptation to circumstances as easy as possible.
Project success is an elusive goal in every business or technical domain. Project failure usually results from unhandled risks to the technical, cost, and schedule aspects of the project. There are four primary root causes of project failure.Unrealistic performance expectation, with missing Measures of EffectivenessUnrealistic cost and schedule estimates based on inadequate risk adjusted growth modelsInadequate assessment of risk and unmitigated exposure to these risks without proper handling strategiesUnanticipated technical issues with alternative plans and solutions to maintain the effectiveness of the project processes and its deliverablesRisk Management provides a comprehensive overview of the people, principles, processes, and practices as the fundamental base upon which an effective risk management system resides. However, this does not guarantee effective risk management and successful projects and businesses. The first half of the book describes risk management processes, as well as a delineation between risk and hazards and how these are connected. The second half of the book provides industry examples of the approach to risk management in specific context and with specific approaches and artifacts where applicable.The book focuses on risks created by uncertainty, their identification, and the corrective and preventive actions needed to address these risks to increase the probability of project success. The book’s goal is to provide a context-driven framework, developing a foundation for a rational approach to risk management that makes adaptation to circumstances as easy as possible.
There are many books on project management and many on embedded systems, but few address the project management of embedded products from concept to production. Project Management of Complex and Embedded Systems: Ensuring Product Integrity and Program Quality uses proven Project Management methods and elements of IEEE embedded software development techniques, to explain how to deliver a reliable complex system to market. This volume begins with a general discussion of project management, followed by an examination of the various tools used before a project is underway. The book then delves into the specific project stages: concept, product development, process development, validation of the product and process, and release to production. Finally, post-project stages are explored, including failure reporting, analysis, corrective actions, and product support. The book draws heavily on information from Department of Defense sources as well as systems developed by the Automotive Industry Action Group, General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford to standardize the approach to designing and developing new products. These automotive development and production ideas have universal value, particularly the concept of process and design controls. The authors use these systems to explain project management techniques that can assist developers of any embedded system. The methods explored can be adapted toward mechanical development projects as well. The text includes numerous war stories offering concrete solutions to problems that might occur in production. Tables and illustrative figures are provided to further clarify the material. Organized sequentially to follow the normal life cycle of a project, this book helps project managers identify challenges before they become problems and resolve those issues that cannot be avoided.
Many enterprises regard system-level testing as the final piece of the development effort, rather than as a tool that should be integrated throughout the development process. As a consequence, test teams often execute critical test plans just before product launch, resulting in much of the corrective work being performed in a rush and at the last minute. Presenting combinatorial approaches for improving test coverage, Testing Complex and Embedded Systems details techniques to help you streamline testing and identify problems before they occur—including turbocharged testing using Six Sigma and exploratory testing methods. Rather than present the continuum of testing for particular products or design attributes, the text focuses on boundary conditions. Examining systems and software testing, it explains how to use simulation and emulation to complement testing. Details how to manage multiple test hardware and software deliveriesExamines the contradictory perspectives of testing—including ordered/ random, structured /unstructured, bench/field, and repeatable/non repeatableCovers essential planning activities prior to testing, how to scope the work, and how to reach a successful conclusionExplains how to determine when testing is completeWhere you find organizations that are successful at product development, you are likely to find groups that practice disciplined, strategic, and thorough testing. Tapping into the authors’ decades of experience managing test groups in the automotive industry, this book provides the understanding to help ensure your organization joins the likes of these groups.
Originally created for agile software development, scrum provides project managers with the flexibility needed to meet ever-changing consumer demands. Presenting a modified version of the agile software development framework, Scrum Project Management introduces Scrum basics and explains how to apply this adaptive technique to effectively manage a wide range of programs and complex projects.The book provides proven planning methods for controlling project scope and ensuring your project stays on schedule. It includes scrum tracking methods to help your team maintain a focus on improving throughput and streamlining communications. It also demonstrates how to: Combine traditional project management methods with scrum Adapt the familiar work breakdown structure to create scrum backlogs and sprintsUse a scrum of scrums to manage programsApply earned value management, critical path, and PERT in the context of scrum Having successfully deployed and implemented scrum across multiple companies and departments, the authors provide valuable insight into how they achieved their past successes and how they overcame the trials involved with the deployment of a scrum environment. Throughout the text they discuss improvisation, creative problem solving, and emergent phenomena—detailing the methods needed to ensure your team achieves project success.
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.
A company with effective cost reduction activities in place will be better positioned to adapt to shifting economic conditions. In fact, it can make the difference between organizations that thrive and those that simply survive during times of economic uncertainty. Reducing Process Costs with Lean, Six Sigma, and Value Engineering Techniques covers the methods and techniques currently available for lowering the costs of products, processes, and services.Describing why cost reductions can be just as powerful as revenue increases, the book arms readers with the understanding required to select the best solution for their company’s culture and capabilities. It emphasizes home-grown techniques that do not require the implementation of any new methodologies—making it easy to apply them in any organization.The authors explain how to reduce costs through traditional Lean methods and Lean Six Sigma. They also present Six Sigma cost savings techniques from Manufacturing Six Sigma, Services Six Sigma, and Design for Six Sigma. The book also presents optimization techniques from operations research methods, design experiment, and engineering process control.Helping you determine what your organization’s value proposition is, the text explains how to improve on the existing proposition and suggests a range of tools to help you achieve this goal. The tools and techniques presented vary in complexity and capability and most chapters include a rubric at the start to help readers determine the levels of competence required to perform the tasks outlined in that chapter.
Explore the remarkable history of one of the jewels of the US National Park system California’s Northern Channel Islands, sometimes called the American Galápagos and one of the jewels of the US National Park system, are a located between 20 and 44 km off the southern California mainland coast. Celebrated as a trip back in time where tourists can capture glimpses of California prior to modern development, the islands are often portrayed as frozen moments in history where ecosystems developed in virtual isolation for tens of thousands of years. This could not, however, be further from the truth.For at least 13,000 years, the Chumash and their ancestors occupied the Northern Channel Islands, leaving behind an archaeological record that is one of the longest and best preserved in the Americas. From ephemeral hunting and gathering camps to densely populated coastal villages and Euro-American and Chinese historical sites, archaeologists have studied the Channel Island environments and material culture records for over 100 years. They have pieced together a fascinating story of initial settlement by mobile hunter-gatherers to the development of one of the world’s most complex hunter-gatherer societies ever recorded, followed by the devastating effects of European contact and settlement. Likely arriving by boat along a “kelp highway,” Paleocoastal migrants found not four offshore islands, but a single super island, Santarosae. For millennia, the Chumash and their predecessors survived dramatic changes to their land- and seascapes, climatic fluctuations, and ever-evolving social and cultural systems. Islands Through Time is the remarkable story of the human and ecological history of California’s Northern Channel Islands. We weave the tale of how the Chumash and their ancestors shaped and were shaped by their island homes. Their story is one of adaptation to shifting land- and seascapes, growing populations, fluctuating subsistence resources, and the innovation of new technologies, subsistence strategies, and socio-political systems. Islands Through Time demonstrates that to truly understand and preserve the Channel Islands National Park today, archaeology and deep history are critically important. The lessons of history can act as a guide for building sustainable strategies into the future. The resilience of the Chumash and Channel Island ecosystems provides a story of hope for a world increasingly threatened by climate change, declining biodiversity, and geopolitical instability.
Searing Heat and Torrents of RainAs the nation's future hung in the balance, the Weather Gods delivered a wrath of fury on Union and Confederate forces throughout the Gettysburg Campaign. First, record-breaking heat and humidity wore down the warring armies during ungodly forced marches. Next, relentless storms plagued the soldiers with resultant muddy slogs on nearly impassable roads. As the armies met in mortal combat, soul-crushing heat turned the bucolic fields of Gettysburg into a sanguinary and barren expanse. Finally, torrential rains haunted the Confederate retreat and narrow escape across a swollen Potomac River. Authors Jeffrey J. Harding and Jon M. Nese present firsthand accounts, harrowing narratives and groundbreaking meteorological research that reshapes how we view the Civil War's Gettysburg Campaign.
Explore the remarkable history of one of the jewels of the US National Park system California’s Northern Channel Islands, sometimes called the American Galápagos and one of the jewels of the US National Park system, are a located between 20 and 44 km off the southern California mainland coast. Celebrated as a trip back in time where tourists can capture glimpses of California prior to modern development, the islands are often portrayed as frozen moments in history where ecosystems developed in virtual isolation for tens of thousands of years. This could not, however, be further from the truth.For at least 13,000 years, the Chumash and their ancestors occupied the Northern Channel Islands, leaving behind an archaeological record that is one of the longest and best preserved in the Americas. From ephemeral hunting and gathering camps to densely populated coastal villages and Euro-American and Chinese historical sites, archaeologists have studied the Channel Island environments and material culture records for over 100 years. They have pieced together a fascinating story of initial settlement by mobile hunter-gatherers to the development of one of the world’s most complex hunter-gatherer societies ever recorded, followed by the devastating effects of European contact and settlement. Likely arriving by boat along a “kelp highway,” Paleocoastal migrants found not four offshore islands, but a single super island, Santarosae. For millennia, the Chumash and their predecessors survived dramatic changes to their land- and seascapes, climatic fluctuations, and ever-evolving social and cultural systems. Islands Through Time is the remarkable story of the human and ecological history of California’s Northern Channel Islands. We weave the tale of how the Chumash and their ancestors shaped and were shaped by their island homes. Their story is one of adaptation to shifting land- and seascapes, growing populations, fluctuating subsistence resources, and the innovation of new technologies, subsistence strategies, and socio-political systems. Islands Through Time demonstrates that to truly understand and preserve the Channel Islands National Park today, archaeology and deep history are critically important. The lessons of history can act as a guide for building sustainable strategies into the future. The resilience of the Chumash and Channel Island ecosystems provides a story of hope for a world increasingly threatened by climate change, declining biodiversity, and geopolitical instability.
An elegant rendering of the great mystic's thoughts on the mysteries of the authentic lifeThis is a little book about soul freedom. It is a book about discovering the secret to all the things we most desire: contentment, meaning, peace of mind, and true freedom. This skillfully edited translation of selections from the writings of Meister Eckhart provides a roadmap to the spiritual life for contemporary seekers. Eckhart takes us on a journey of discovery; a journey in which we learn to let go, relinquish our need to know everything, and lose those things that we think are important for a life of worth. And in the end he shows us that the true secret is this: to find yourself, you must lose yourself.Here is timeless wisdom from a medieval mystic who has influenced a wide range of spiritual teachers and mystics both inside and outside the Christian tradition. Erich Fromm, Arthur Schopenhauer, Dag Hammarskj ld, Eckhart Tolle, Richard Rohr, D. T. Suzuki, Rudolf Steiner, and Matthew Fox have all credited Eckhart as being an important influence on their thought. In addition, his work has influenced the development of 20th-century American Buddhism and the Theosophical tradition.Divided into five sections--Seeking the Light, Facing Darkness, Risking Love, Knowing Nothing, and Embracing Everything--the book leads readers on the path to an authentic spiritual life.
Here is a book for all who have a healthy uncertainty about life's big questions--Where did I come from? Is there a God? Does this God care about me? The authors believe that the answers are found where Christianity began--with the introduction of God and His work in the book of Genesis. Using the Socratic method, they challenge readers to wrestle with Scripture itself rather than with systematic questions. This candid conversation with Genesis is an ideal apologetic for today's postmodern culture.
What We're Afraid to Ask is a must-read for survivors of childhood abuse who struggle to reconcile their faith with their past. Board, Fleetwood, and Jones demonstrate how Christianity offers reasonable, honest, and encouraging answers to difficult questions regarding abuse while focusing the reader's attention biblically and psychologically toward Jesus Christ, in whom there is infinite hope.
The world of work has changed considerably since the second edition of Merit Pay was published. Advances in technology, changes in job design, alternate forms of work processes, differences in workforce demographics form many of these changes. In addition, compensation (in general) and merit pay (in particular) also have experienced changes based on these trends and events. The third edition addresses how these occurrences have introduced new theory and research impacting merit pay plans. While much has changed in the compensation world since the second edition, merit pay remains popular – with perhaps as many as 90% of U.S. firms using it despite its controversial nature. The timeliness of this edition could not be better, occurring on the heels of major events and trends. Readers will benefit from over 230 new references added to the third edition. Moreover, this edition provides study questions and case studies to increase understanding of concepts, principles, and applications. Finally, in selected areas of the book, we added a new feature - current events in merit pay. These events explore innovative and often provocative subjects, aiming to leave readers with meaningful ideas to reflect upon. Merit Pay is essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students studying compensation administration, as well as professionals working in pay administration, human resource management, industrial and organizational psychology, and labor economics.
The world of work has changed considerably since the second edition of Merit Pay was published. Advances in technology, changes in job design, alternate forms of work processes, differences in workforce demographics form many of these changes. In addition, compensation (in general) and merit pay (in particular) also have experienced changes based on these trends and events. The third edition addresses how these occurrences have introduced new theory and research impacting merit pay plans. While much has changed in the compensation world since the second edition, merit pay remains popular – with perhaps as many as 90% of U.S. firms using it despite its controversial nature. The timeliness of this edition could not be better, occurring on the heels of major events and trends. Readers will benefit from over 230 new references added to the third edition. Moreover, this edition provides study questions and case studies to increase understanding of concepts, principles, and applications. Finally, in selected areas of the book, we added a new feature - current events in merit pay. These events explore innovative and often provocative subjects, aiming to leave readers with meaningful ideas to reflect upon. Merit Pay is essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students studying compensation administration, as well as professionals working in pay administration, human resource management, industrial and organizational psychology, and labor economics.
This report of the CSIS Asia Economic Strategy Commission presents a comprehensive, bipartisan economic strategy for the United States to pursue its vital interests in the Asia-Pacific region. The report is intended to help the new administration carry out a dynamic, forward-looking economic strategy, which will promote growth, jobs, and security in the United States and across the Asia Pacific.
