Verzuh, Erick

The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management, Verzuh (2005)

Chapter 1

Projects, as defined by (Verzuh, 2005, p3) are all the work we do one time. The work can be any kind of work and it is called project. I can understand from this saying that it is important to well manage a project and design it to be able to accomplish successfully only one time. The outcomes of any project define its success or its failure, and I do not see that customers or designers can afford wasting time or money to redo a project, which explain Verzuh point of view.
The concept of the five project success factors (Verzuh, 2005, p7, 8) will guaranty the the work will be done one time: Clear goals help designer satisfying the customers; a well designed plan show the process of a project towards success; effective communication results in good implementation of a product, and this demonstrate the project manager control over his design; and all the four factors will not be effective if the project managers are not well supported.
Reading through this chapter, I can see how applicable these ideas to my Capstone are. My project is about training teachers at the Defense Language Institute to use the outcomes of the Diagnostic Assessment in order to prepare individualized learning plans to fit the students’ needs; therefore, if I do not plan well my training project it will not be totally supported by the administration and the benefit of the trainees will not be guaranteed, as well as failing to manage this project will jeopardize the students’ results.




Verzuh, Chapter 2

In chapter 2 of his book The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management, Verzuh, Erick (2005, p 19) presented the concept of “the Cost-Schedule-Quality Equilibrium” as the three primary variables of a project, and mentioned that changing one or more of them will to change the rest; therefore, a project manager should take this in consideration and analyze the possibility of changes that he could use in his project in order to avoid any damages, delays or disappointments that might effect the progress of the project.

The Project Life Cycle (Verzuh, Erick ,2005, p 22) is defined in four points: Define, Plan, execute and Close Out. I can see that these four stages of a project are set in a parallel line with the five project success factors and the designer should be aware of that while he/she is designing and executing his/her project.
As for the relation between these points and my project, I realize that the management rules that I came across so far are applicable to all kind of project, especially that Project managers are all around us (Verzuh, Erick ,2005, p 2)

References:
Verzuh, Erick (2005). The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management. Second edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.