Delivering Value with Project Management by Woods, Marshall & Schlesiger (2023)
OER Textbook Now Available
Juanita M. Woods, Ph.D., PgMP, PMP
R. Scott Marshall, PMP
(C) 2023 CC-BY-NC-SA
Juanita Woods and Scott Marshall teach project management to students at the University of North Georgia, USA. They recognized a need to create a zero-cost open-source project management textbook after project management professional standards were updated in 2021. An Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG; https://www.affordablelearninggeorgia.org/) Textbook Transformation Grant was awarded in 2022 to support the development of the textbook and supporting materials.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the extensive help of their student assistant, Louisa Schlesiger, for her excellent work as a project assistant and developer of the instructor materials. They also appreciate the support of their students, who patiently accepted the textbook in its early forms, and professional colleagues who provided the stories incorporated into the book.
Online Version Now Available
Affordable Learning Georgia has published the online version of the textbook, which can be found on their website, https://alg.manifoldapp.org/projects/project-management-orgl
About Open Educational Resources (OER)
Open Educational Resources (OER) are freely available digital materials that can be used, adapted, and remixed without asking permission or obtaining copyright clearance.
About UNG Press
Delivering Value with Project Management will be published in June 2023 by the University of North Georgia Press, a scholarly, peer-reviewed press. UNG Press is an extension of our sponsoring university, the University of North Georgia. Our primary function is to promote education and research, with a special emphasis on innovative scholarship and pedagogy.
For media inquiries, please contact the University of North Georgia Press at ungpress @ung.edu or call 706.864.1556.
This textbook introduces foundational knowledge, beginning with discussing how projects support organizational strategy and how organizations use projects to deliver value. While the textbook introduces adaptive and predictive approaches to managing projects (see Chapter 3), it is structured to follow a predictive planning approach. This structure was chosen to support students in general management programs who may be working in operations, manufacturing, or similar environments where projects generally follow predictive approaches.
Following the foundational elements, we move into pre-project work, where we explore the processes for identifying, selecting, and chartering projects. Once projects are chartered, project planning begins.
Project planning includes the work of a project manager to engage project stakeholders and identify project outcomes. Once the project manager and stakeholders identify project outcomes, the project manager produces a project management plan that contains a schedule of the work, cost, and processes followed to produce the project outcomes.
Once planning is complete, the book focuses on project control and delivery. These chapters focus on the processes of managing and measuring project work, working with project teams, and monitoring and reporting project status. The textbook introduces project closure activities that ensure the projects deliver value to the organization and ultimately satisfy the organization’s strategy.
The textbook concludes with a brief discussion of careers and certifications available to students interested in pursuing a career in project management.
Throughout the chapters, the authors have included “Deeper Dive” activities that allow students to explore concepts in more detail through online articles, reports, or podcasts. “Test Your Knowledge” activities and examples are also included as checkpoints for students to ensure they understand the presented material.
Instructor materials are available, with proof of active teaching status, upon request.
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