Product Description

Know how to respond when things don't fall into place.


Skydiving has its inherent risks. Even though a professional team, like the one depicted on the cover, can make skydiving seem perfectly choreographed; there are always uncertainties. Whether it's getting a skydiving team into the air or a new product off the ground, no project has ever been completed exactly as planned.


With Meredith and Mantel's Sixth Edition, you'll not only learn how to select, initiate, operate, and control all types of projects; you'll also learn how to manage risks and uncertainties. Written from a managerial perspective, the text equips you with the quantitative skills, knowledge of organizational issues, and insights into human behavior that you need to do project management effectively.


Updated and revised, this edition features current coverage of topics such as:
* Risk management
* Lifecycle costing
* Real options
* Organizational process assets
* Non-technical project terminations
* The phase/quality-gate process
* Requirements formulation analysis


Free trial version of Microsoft Project(r) and Crystal Ball(r)

This text includes a CD-ROM containing a 120-day trial version of Microsoft Project(r) and a student version of Crystal Ball(r). Microsoft Project and Crystal Ball screenshots appear where relevant throughout the text. Additionally, a number of end-of-chapter exercises encourage you to apply these computer software packages to project management problems.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #159946 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 688 pages

From the Back Cover
Know how to respond when things don’t fall into place.

Skydiving has its inherent risks. Even though a professional team, like the one depicted on the cover, can make skydiving seem perfectly choreographed; there are always uncertainties. Whether it’s getting a skydiving team into the air or a new product off the ground, no project has ever been completed exactly as planned.

With Meredith and Mantel’s Sixth Edition, you’ll not only learn how to select, initiate, operate, and control all types of projects; you’ll also learn how to manage risks and uncertainties. Written from a managerial perspective, the text equips you with the quantitative skills, knowledge of organizational issues, and insights into human behavior that you need to do project management effectively.

Updated and revised, this edition features current coverage of topics such as:

• Risk management
• Lifecycle costing
• Real options
• Organizational process assets
• Non-technical project terminations
• The phase/quality-gate process
• Requirements formulation analysis

Free trial version of Microsoft Project^® and Crystal Ball^®

This text includes a CD-ROM containing a 120-day trial version of Microsoft Project^® and a student version of Crystal Ball^®. Microsoft Project and Crystal Ball screenshots appear where relevant throughout the text. Additionally, a number of end-of-chapter exercises encourage you to apply these computer software packages to project management problems.

About the Author
Jack Meredith is currently Professor of Management & Broyhill Distinguished Scholar & Chair in Operations at the Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University.  Dr. Meredith's research has focused on the strategic and operational problems that managers face, particularly those concerning the management of advanced technology.  He received his BS and BSME at Oregon State University and his MBA and PhD at the University of California at Berkeley.  Dr. Meredith has written eight books on operations management, project management and management science, including "Project Management" and "Operations Management for MBAs." He serves as outgoing editor in chief of the Journal of Operations Management. He received the school's inaugural Cowan Research Prize in 2002, the Academy of Management's 2003 Distinguished OM Scholar Award, and was inducted into the Oregon State University Engineering Hall of Fame in 2004.

Customer Reviews

Better than the previous Editions
I bought this book because it was required for a class I am taking. I had the 3rd Edition already and wasn't too impressed. But this 5th Edition is much more appealing. I just became PMP certified and reviewing this book before taking the exam was a great primer to get my head out of pure PMBOK and into real world Project Management. The case studies and Directed Readings are great for seeing real world PM activities. I would suggest the book for guidance and classroom type learning. If you're an experienced PM then this book is too academic and won't feed your intellect. Buy something else.

NOT FOR THE PMP EXAM
I can not believe that PMI recommened this book for preparing for the PMP exam. It is not worth the money unless you know absoultely nothing about PM.

Disappointing for a Seasoned PM
Leave this book in the academic community. Ignore it in the real world PM office.
This book puts greater emphasis on academic PM babble than it does on real world project management necessities. As such, the book de-emphasises many important points that are necessary to run a project in the real world.
The critical path method in this book suffers from an -off by one- error. Check the PMBOK (2000) for verification.
The authors made many references to the work of others which made the book twice as long as it could have been. No one had time to read any of the references that appeared to be interesting with hope of finding actual usable and valuable information.
There was only passing references of risk, the importance of communication, personalities, and schedule disruption. There was nothing on these subjects that would assist a PM in the real world.
Disappointingly, this book only used 1/3 of a chapter for Earned Value. It put minimal emphasis on EV other than to provide the equations. EV is very important in the PM world.

The chapter on Project Termination was good. - The rest of the book was disappointing.

This book should be used for academic PM introductory purposes only.

Sorry for the disappoint review but I was disappointed.