Written for college and university students, this simple guide to project tools and techniques is an ideal introduction to the ‘Work Based Project’. Dr Pickerden invites the reader to use their own project idea as an example as they work through the various steps to a successful project. Following these steps, and working through the accompanying examples and exercises, should help the student project manager to avoid many of the usual pitfalls, and emerge with a successful project and a decent mark for the course assignment.

1. Introduction
   1. The essential elements of a project
   2. Learning from experience
2. Pre-Planning: What to do before you start your planning
   1. Define and describe your project
   2. Analyse the current situation and determine the objectives
   3. Features and benefits of your project
3. Who should do what? Roles and responsibilities within the project team
   1. What does the project manager do?
   2. Selecting and inducting the team
   3. Handling conflict
4. Stakeholder identification and analysis – What do people want from this project?
5. Project organisation and general planning
   1. The Business Case
   2. The Project Initiation Document (PID)
   3. Communications Strategy
6. Starting to Plan: Goals, Objectives and Tasks
   1. Work breakdown structure
   2. Gantt Charts
7. Risk Management: What can go wrong with your project?
8. Monitoring Progress
   1. Problem Solving tools for Project Management
   2. Managing changes to the project specification
9. At the end of the project
   1. Post-project evaluation
   2. Writing the Project Report
10. Test your understanding
11. Useful Links
    1. The difference between a project and a programme
12. About Dr Anita Pickerden