Managing Projects as Investments

Managing Projects as Investments
Author: Stephen A. Devaux
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2014-09-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1482212722

Due to a lack of appreciation of the true economic identity of projects, techniques and metrics that could hugely improve project selection and performance are not being used. This book provides insights and innovative techniques drawn from more than a quarter century of experience. These techniques have the potential to transform program and project management from the current haphazard application of various techniques and metrics to an incisive and integrated approach where programs and projects are managed for the crucial economic and financial implications that are at the essence of every project investment.

Capital Projects

Capital Projects
Author: Paul Barshop
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2016-09-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1119119219

A real-world framework for driving capital project success Capital Projects provides an empirically-based framework for capital project strategy and implementation, based on the histories of over 20,000 capital projects ranging from $50,000 to $40 billion. Derived from the detailed, carefully normalized database at preeminent project consultancy IPA, this solid framework is applicable to all types of capital investment projects large and small, in any sector, including technology, life sciences, petroleum, consumer products, and more. Although grounded in empirical research and rigorous data analysis, this book is not an academic discussion or a conceptual dissertation; it's a practical, actionable, on-the-ground guide to making your project succeed. Clear discussion tackles the challenges that cause capital projects to fail or underperform, and lays out exactly what it takes to successfully manage a project using real-world methods that apply at any level. Businesses report that 60 percent of their projects fail to meet all business objectives, and IPA's database shows that projects' final average net present value undershoots initial estimates by 28 percent. This book provides concrete, actionable solutions to help you avoid the pitfalls and lead the way toward a more positive outcome. Avoid the missteps that make capital projects fail Learn the specific practices that drive project success Understand what effective capital project management entails Discover real-world best practices that generate more value from capital When capital projects fail, it is almost always preventable. Inefficiency, underestimated timelines, and unforeseen costs are the primary weights that drag a project down—and they are all avoidable with good management. Capital Projects gives you the insight and practical tools you need to drive a successful project.

Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management

Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management
Author: Anand Sanwal
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2007-07-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0470149604

If where an organization allocates its resources determines its strategy, why is it that so few companies actively manage the resource allocation process? "Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management: Aligning Investment Proposals with Organizational Strategy" goes beyond platitudes about why you should use corporate portfolio management (CPM) by offering a practical methodology to bring this powerful discipline to your organization. "Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management" takes an expansive view of where CPM can be utilized by demonstrating that it can be used across any business line, product group or functional area, e.g., IT, R&D, innovation, marketing, salesforce, capital expenditure, etc. CPM is appropriate anywhere discretionary investments are being selected and executed. As a result, other terms used to describe portfolio management such as IT portfolio management, enterprise portfolio management, and project portfolio management are all merely subsets or slices of CPM. The book is written by Anand Sanwal, an expert on CPM, who has led American Express' CPM discipline (referred to as American Express Investment Optimization). American Express' CPM efforts are widely recognized as the most extensive, substantial and progressive deployment of CPM across any organization. Sanwal avoids academic theories and consultant jargon to ultimately deliver pragmatic and proven recommendations on how to make CPM a reality. The book features a foreword by Gary Crittenden, former CFO and EVP of American Express, and several case studies from leading financial services, technology, and government organizations utilizing CPM. Additionally, the book has received significant praise from thought leaders at Google, HP, American Express, The CFO Executive Board, Gartner, Accenture Marketing Sciences, The Wharton School of Business and many others.

Total Project Control

Total Project Control
Author: Stephen A. Devaux
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2015-03-18
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1498706789

There is often a deep disconnect between the project team's goals and those of the organization. Senior management wants "profitable" projects, but is only able to quantify its wishes in terms of the traditional project management elements: schedule and cost. To operate smoothly, the entire organization must be driven by the single goal of project

Managing Benefits

Managing Benefits
Author: Steve Jenner
Publisher:
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2014-09-29
Genre: Capital investments
ISBN: 9780117082519

Projects and programmes should achieve a return on the investment made by the owner or sponsor. This return is now thought of as the benefits that accrue from the investment: some financial, others perhaps harder to define, but nonetheless just as important in justifying the investment. Making sure that they are realised, and that unanticipated benefits are maximised, is as important as the initial justification, and without that many projects have earned a bad name for project management. This publication provides comprehensive guidance on how to manage delivery of the benefits used to justify investment in change. It provides guidance for all involved in successful change delivery from senior responsible owners and directors through to portfolio, programme and project managers. The guidance is the source material for an accredited qualification from APMG-International

Project Evaluation

Project Evaluation
Author: Knut Samset
Publisher: Fagbokforlaget
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2003
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Organizations increasingly use projects to undertake major as well as smaller tasks. Projects help target and delimit activities, place the responsibility and transfer risk from the financing to the implementing party. As a result, evaluation has become popular as a tool to control, guide and draw lessons of experience from projects. This book is intended both as a textbook for students and a handbook for project managers. It provides hands-on, easy-to-comprehend lessons about evaluation as a phenomenon, its design, preparation and methodology, as well as the project as a management tool.

Strategic Project Portfolio Management

Strategic Project Portfolio Management
Author: Simon Moore
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2009-11-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0470481951

Lead change through strategic alignment of project and process performance Practical and filled with expert advice, Strategic Project Portfolio Management: Enabling a Productive Organization presents a clear framework for your organization to complete impactful strategic projects. Providing executive-level guidance to build a powerful and efficient process from initial adoption to portfolio alignment, this essential resource contains case studies from small to global multinational organizations, arming you with the insights to ensure your strategic projects are given the resources they need to deliver business impact. This important guide Shows executives how to align their projects and processes with their business strategy for compelling competitive advantage Provides cases from best in class organizations, showing how they were able to achieve results by using processes outlined in the book Reveals how technology is the key to developing new collaborative platforms and innovative work management environments that have not been possible until now Defines a framework for assessing project portfolio management competence within your organization and driving momentum for compelling improvements Explores how to go beyond project portfolio management to a holistic work management system Strategic Project Portfolio Management: Enabling a Productive Organization offers the practical recommendations, guidance, and real world insights you need to immediately begin driving better project management strategy.

21st Century Investing

21st Century Investing
Author: William Burckart
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2021-04-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1523091096

How institutions and individuals can address complex social, financial, and environmental problems on a systemic level—and invest in a more secure future. Investment today has evolved from the basic, conventional approach of the past. Investors have come to recognize the importance of sustainable investment and are more frequently considering environmental and social factors in their decisions. Yet the complexity of the times forces us to recognize and transition to a third stage of investment practice: system-level investing. In this paradigm-shifting book, William Burckart and Steve Lydenberg show how system-level investors support and enhance the health and stability of the social, financial, and environmental systems on which they depend for long-term returns. They preserve and strengthen these fundamental systems while still generating competitive or otherwise acceptable performance. This book is for those investors who believe in that transition. They may be institutions, large or small, concerned about the long-term stability of the environment and society. They may be individual investors who want their children and grandchildren to inherit a just and sustainable world. Whoever they may be, Burckart and Lydenberg show them the what, why, and how of system-level investment in this book: what it means to manage system-level risks and rewards, why it is imperative to do so now, and how to integrate this new way of thinking into their current practice. “Burckart and Lydenberg are the Wayne Gretzkys of investing: Showing us not where investing is, but where it’s going.” —Jon Lukomnik, Managing Partner, Sinclair Capital; Senior Fellow, High Meadows Institute

Principles of Project Finance

Principles of Project Finance
Author: E. R. Yescombe
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 575
Release: 2013-11-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0124157556

The Second Edition of this best-selling introduction for practitioners uses new material and updates to describe the changing environment for project finance. Integrating recent developments in credit markets with revised insights into making project finance deals, the second edition offers a balanced view of project financing by combining legal, contractual, scheduling, and other subjects. Its emphasis on concepts and techniques makes it critical for those who want to succeed in financing large projects. With extensive cross-references and a comprehensive glossary, the Second Edition presents anew a guide to the principles and practical issues that can commonly cause difficulties in commercial and financial negotiations. - Provides a basic introduction to project finance and its relationship with other financing techniques - Describes and explains: sources of project finance; typical commercial contracts (e.g., for construction of the project and sale of its product or services) and their effects on project-finance structures; project-finance risk assessment from the points of view of lenders, investors, and other project parties; how lenders and investors evaluate the risks and returns on a project; the rôle of the public sector in public-private partnerships and other privately-financed infrastructure projects; how all these issues are dealt with in the financing agreements

Real Options

Real Options
Author: Martha Amram
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
Total Pages: 246
Release: 1999
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780875848457

Using real-world examples and clear case studies, the authors provide investors and managers with an innovative method for assessing a company's non-financial assets, allowing them to assess opportunities whose financial rewards are less than certain.