Making Effective Business Decisions Using Microsoft Project

Roberta Snow and Paul Phillips present a clear and structured way to manage the challenges of limited resources, competing demands, and the need for accountability while remaining true to a nonprofit’s mission. Making Critical Decisions offers nonprofit leaders a proven model for making hard choices that minimize risks while maintaining progress toward the organization’s goals as well as a practical framework for understanding and implementing the decision-making process. The book includes qualitative and quantitative tools and offers illustrative case examples throughout that clearly show how this method can be applied to different types of nonprofit organizations.

A practical and accessible guide to managing a successful project Effective Project Management is based around an activities and action check list approach to project management. It provides a guide to the basic principles and the disciplines that managers need to master in order to be successful. The author’s check lists approach (based on his years of practical experience on projects) ensure that project managers are following valid processes, helping them to be innovative in their approach to developing plans and resolving problems. In addition, the author’s check list pick and mix format is designed to be flexible in order to meet the individual needs of the reader. Effective Project Management also contains some information on the theories underpinning project management. Knowledge of the theory helps in the understanding of how project management works in practice. In addition to the book’s check lists of what activities need to be performed, the author offers suggestions on how tasks could be carried out. This important resource: Covers a wide range of project management topics including the project management process, programme and portfolio management, initiating and contracting a project, personal skills and more Offers a highly accessible guide to the author’s verified check list approach Presents flexible guidelines applicable for a wide range projects Includes guidance for project managers at all levels of experience Written for project managers working on engineering or construction projects, Effective Project Management reviews all aspects of a project from initiation and execution to project completion together with the specialist topics and personal skills needed to manage projects effectively.

A step-by-step guide to data mining applications in CRM. Following a handbook approach, this book bridges the gap between analytics and their use in everyday marketing, providing guidance on solving real business problems using data mining techniques. The book is organized into three parts. Part one provides a methodological roadmap, covering both the business and the technical aspects. The data mining process is presented in detail along with specific guidelines for the development of optimized acquisition, cross/ deep/ up selling and retention campaigns, as well as effective customer segmentation schemes. In part two, some of the most useful data mining algorithms are explained in a simple and comprehensive way for business users with no technical expertise. Part three is packed with real world case studies which employ the use of three leading data mining tools: IBM SPSS Modeler, RapidMiner and Data Mining for Excel. Case studies from industries including banking, retail and telecommunications are presented in detail so as to serve as templates for developing similar applications. Key Features: Includes numerous real-world case studies which are presented step by step, demystifying the usage of data mining models and clarifying all the methodological issues. Topics are presented with the use of three leading data mining tools: IBM SPSS Modeler, RapidMiner and Data Mining for Excel. Accompanied by a website featuring material from each case study, including datasets and relevant code. Combining data mining and business knowledge, this practical book provides all the necessary information for designing, setting up, executing and deploying data mining techniques in CRM. Effective CRM using Predictive Analytics will benefit data mining practitioners and consultants, data analysts, statisticians, and CRM officers. The book will also be useful to academics and students interested in applied data mining.

Unlock your potential and achieve breakthrough performance in project management If you're looking for a more robust approach to project management–one that recognizes the project environment and adapts accordingly–then this is the perfect resource. It not only guides you through the traditional methods, but also covers the adaptive and extreme approaches as well. You'll gain an in-depth understanding of each one and know exactly when and how to use them. You'll also be introduced to the Adaptive Project Framework, which arms you with a new project management methodology. And with the help of two new case studies, you'll be able to put these ideas into practice and experience some of the contemporary nuances of projects. This definitive guide to project management shows you how to: Take advantage of new variations on traditional project management methods, including risk assessment and control Decide the best method for managing specific types of projects by analyzing all of the pros and cons Apply the Adaptive Project Framework to the world of fast-paced, high-change, and complex projects Create a war room to successfully manage multiple team projects Determine how project portfolio management approaches can help companies achieve a greater return on investment Utilize all nine Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) standards advocated by the Project Management Institute (PMI®) (PMBOK and PMI are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.)

Why another book on software project management? For some time, the fields of project management, computer science, and software development have been growing rapidly and concurrently. Effective support for the enterprise demands the merging of these efforts into a coordinated discipline, one that incorporates best practices from both systems development and project management life cycles. Robert K. Wysocki creates that discipline in this book–a ready reference for professionals and consultants as well as a textbook for students of computer information systems and project management. By their very nature, software projects defy a «one size fits all» approach. In these pages you will learn to apply best-practice principles while maintaining the flexibility that's essential for successful software development. Learn how to make the planning process fit the need * Understand how and why software development must be planned on a certainty-to-uncertainty continuum * Categorize your projects on a four-quadrant model * Learn when to use each of the five SDPM strategies–Linear, Incremental, Iterative, Adaptive, and Extreme * Explore the benefits of each strategic model and what types of projects it supports best * Recognize the activities that go into the Scoping, Planning, Launching, Monitoring/Controlling, and Closing phases of each strategy * Apply this knowledge to the specific projects you manage * Get a clear picture of where you are and how to get where you want to go

Updated for today's businesses-a proven model FOR assessment and ongoing improvement Using the Project Management Maturity Model, Second Edition is the updated edition of Harold Kerzner's renowned book covering his Project Management Maturity Model (PMMM). In this hands-on book, Kerzner offers a unique, industry-validated tool for helping companies of all sizes assess and improve their progress in integrating project management into every part of their organizations. Conveniently organized into two sections, this Second Edition begins with an examination of strategic planning principles and the ways they relate to project management. In the second section, PMMM is introduced with in-depth coverage of the five different levels of development for achieving maturity. Easily adaptable benchmarking instruments for measuring an organization's progress along the maturity curve make this a practical guide for any type of company. Complete with an associated Web site packed with both teaching and learning tools, Using the Project Management Maturity Model, Second Edition helps managers, engineers, project team members, business consultants, and others build a powerful foundation for company improvement and excellence.

Leverage the integration of SQL Server and Office for more effective BI Applied Microsoft Business Intelligence shows you how to leverage the complete set of Microsoft tools—including Microsoft Office and SQL Server—to better analyze business data. This book provides best practices for building complete BI solutions using the full Microsoft toolset. You will learn how to effectively use SQL Server Analysis and Reporting Services, along with Excel, SharePoint, and other tools to provide effective and cohesive solutions for the enterprise. Coverage includes BI architecture, data queries, semantic models, multidimensional modeling, data analysis and visualization, performance monitoring, data mining, and more, to help you learn to perform practical business analysis and reporting. Written by an author team that includes a key member of the BI product team at Microsoft, this useful reference provides expert instruction for more effective use of the Microsoft BI toolset. Use Microsoft BI suite cohesively for more effective enterprise solutions Search, analyze, and visualize data more efficiently and completely Develop flexible and scalable tabular and multidimensional models Monitor performance, build a BI portal, and deploy and manage the BI Solution

It has often been said that 'to improve, one must be prepared to measure the improvement' and 'one must inspect what one expects.' The Kerzner Project Management Maturity Model has provided this tangible measure of maturity. The rest is up to a company to set the expectations and to inspect the results.–Bill Marshall, Nortel Global Project Process Standards (from the Foreword) Strategic planning for project management-a proven model for assessment and continuous improvement Harold Kerzner's landmark Project Management has long been the reference of choice for outstanding coverage of the basic principles and concepts of project management. Now, with the Project Management Maturity Model (PMMM) detailed in this new book, Kerzner has developed a unique, industry-validated tool for helping companies assess their progress in integrating project management throughout their organization. Strategic Planning for Project Management Using a Project Management Maturity Model begins by examining the principles of strategic planning and how they relate to project management. The second part of the book introduces the PMMM, detailing the five different levels of development for achieving maturity, along with benchmarking instruments for measuring an organization's progress along the maturity curve. These assessment tools can easily be customized to suit individual companies-a particularly valuable feature of the model. Offering vital guidance for making project management a strategic tool for competitive advantage, this book helps managers, engineers, project team members, business consultants, and others build a powerful foundation for company improvement and excellence.

An increasing number of business executives, managers and political leaders are using the concept of “weak signals” nowadays. There are also an increasing number of people trying to find out exactly what this concept means, as well as when and how to use it. Such questions arise particularly when it comes down to making strategic decisions. To help with these questions, this book defines the concept of the “weak signal” and then demonstrates how it would be useful in relation to strategic decisions, and more precisely in relation to three moments of the strategic decision, i.e.: – The trigger of the strategic decision (what is the trigger, why and when) – The development of the strategic decision – The implementation of the strategic decision

Introduces the graphical capabilities of R to readers new to the software Due to its flexibility and availability, R has become the computing software of choice for statistical computing and generating graphics across various fields of research. Guidebook to R Graphics Using Microsoft® Windows offers a unique presentation of R, guiding new users through its many benefits, including the creation of high-quality graphics. Beginning with getting the program up and running, this book takes readers step by step through the process of creating histograms, boxplots, strip charts, time series graphs, steam-and-leaf displays, scatterplot matrices, and map graphs. In addition, the book presents: Tips for establishing, saving, and printing graphs along with essential base-package plotting functions Interactive R programs for carrying out common tasks such as inputting values, moving data on a natural spline, adjusting three-dimensional graphs, and understanding simple and local linear regression Various external packages for R that help to create more complex graphics like rimage, gplots, ggplot2, tripack, rworldmap, and plotrix packages Throughout the book, concise explanations of key concepts of R graphics assist readers in carrying out the presented procedures, and any coverage of functions is clearly written out and displayed in the text as demos. The discussed techniques are accompanied by a wealth of screenshots and graphics with related R code available on the book's FTP site, and numerous exercises allow readers to test their understanding of the presented material. Guidebook to R Graphics Using Microsoft® Windows is a valuable resource for researchers in the fields of statistics, public health, business, and the life and social sciences who use or would like to learn how to use R to create visual representations of data. The book can also be used as a supplement for courses on statistical analysis at the upper-undergraduate level.