SHOW ME THE MONEY! You can assemble the best project teams and meet all of your milestones and deliverables, but at the end of the day, your projects live or die by their financials. And that means getting a handle on everything from investment planning and budgeting to cost management and chargebacks. The good news is that you don't have to a bean-counter to understand this, for only 20% of IT project financials is accounting - the rest is all process. In a clear and engaging style, Michael Gentle lifts the veil off things like portfolio management, capex and opex, depreciation, cost management and forecasting. You'll then understand why time entry is not going away anytime soon (sorry, folks!), and why chargebacks are so hard to implement. Michael Gentle has over 25 years of experience in IT departments and software vendors in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. He is also the author of IT Success! and The CRM Project Management Handbook.

If the very thought of budgets pushes your sanity over the limit, then this practical, easy-to-use guide is just what you need. Budgeting Basics and Beyond, Third Edition equips you with an all-in-one resource guaranteed to make the budgeting process easier, less stressful, and more effective. Written by Jae Shim and Joel Siegel, the new edition covers Balanced Scorecard, budgeting for nonprofit organizations, business simulations for executive and management training, and much more!

Although portfolio management didn't change much during the 40 years after the seminal works of Markowitz and Sharpe, the development of risk budgeting techniques marked an important milestone in the deepening of the relationship between risk and asset management. Risk parity then became a popular financial model of investment after the global fina

A handbook on CRM project management. It addresses implementation, advocating an approach based in the real world and stressing the measurable goals and tactical uses of CRM. Areas covered include: critical success factors; risk factors; risk analysis; and case studies.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is the premier public resource on scientific and technological developments that impact global security. Founded by Manhattan Project Scientists, the Bulletin's iconic "Doomsday Clock" stimulates solutions for a safer world.

“Fifty years after the birth of corporate computing, IT today is still characterized by 50-70% project failure rates. Which is pretty scary when you come to think of it: either a goblin has cast a spell on a whole profession – or that profession is doing something fundamentally wrong”. IT Success! challenges the widespread assumption that an IT department is like a building contractor whose project managers, architects and engineers (all construction industry terms...) are supposed to deliver systems on schedule, within budget and to spec. Michael Gentle explains why this is not possible, and turns conventional wisdom on its head by showing that: you cannot define an IT project in terms of contractual budgets and schedules anything can change during the life of a project what is eventually delivered can never be what is actually needed He proposes a new model for IT in which the traditional client/vendor relationship, with its contractual commitments, is replaced by a shared risk/reward partnership geared towards workable results over time. Using real-world examples and a case study, the author walks you through the end-to-end processes of an IT department, covering subjects like demand management, investment planning, agile development and managing production applications.

Based on a ten-year examination of control systems in over 50 U.S. businesses, this book broadens the definition of control and establishes a critical bridge between the disciplines of strategy and accounting and control. In addition to the more traditional diagnostic control systems, Simons identifies three new control systems that allow strategic change: belief systems that communicate core values and provide inspiration and direction, boundary systems that frame the strategic domain and define the limits of freedom, and interactive systems that provide flexibility in adapting to competitive environments and encourage organizational learning. These four control systems, according to Simons, will provide managers with the basic levers for pursuing strategic objectives.

Cost Reduction and Control Best Practices provides financial manages with no-nonsense, balanced, and practical strategies that are being targeted and used nationwide for controlling costs by thousands of companies in areas such as human resources, compensation, benefits, purchasing, outsourcing, use of consultants, taxes, and exports. These best practices are based on the trenches experience, research, proprietary databases, and consultants from the Institute of Management and Administration (IOMA) and other leading experts in their fields. * Provides best practices and techniques for controlling costs within a company * New chapters focus on outsourcing costs, downsizing, consultants' costs, and business tax costs * Provides the latest strategies companies re using to control costs

This second edition of the Strategic Project Leader prepares project managers to develop leadership competencies that translate into increased confidence to lead in a demanding environment. Like the first edition, this book motivates readers to take ownership of their leadership agenda and become disciplined in the processes of building a framework of leadership skills. This in turn will move readers beyond the basics of project management to true project leadership, positioning themselves for greater leadership opportunities.