Description

A superb 2005 examination of project management in practice, focusing on high-value, high-technology capital goods. Essential reading for academics, students and professionals interested in managing projects. Management of complex products and systems (CoPS) is central to many organizations today, as firms coordinate external activities and reduce internal bureaucracy. Uniquely, this 2005 book shows how projects enable strategy, innovation, capability building and organisational renewal in leading businesses. Essential reading for academics, students and professionals interested in managing projects. Management of complex products and systems (CoPS) is central to many organizations today, as firms coordinate external activities and reduce internal bureaucracy. Uniquely, this 2005 book shows how projects enable strategy, innovation, capability building and organisational renewal in leading businesses. The Business of Projects broke ground when it was first published in 2005, by showing how leading businesses create and implement projects to drive strategy and innovation. Projects are used to coordinate activities with customers and suppliers and ensure that organisations become more dynamic and adaptable. The book extends the resource-based view of the firm to focus on the business lessons learned from the design and production of high-value complex products and systems (CoPS), which have always been project-based. As well as frameworks and management tools, it provides case studies of high-technology industries - such as telecommunications, flight simulation and medical devices - to show how projects are used to achieve strategic objectives, perform systems integration, organise productive activities, manage software, achieve organisational learning and deliver solutions for customers. This book is essential reading for project professionals, academics, students, engineers, managers and policy makers seeking a strategic, innovative perspective on projects. 1. Introduction; 2. The dynamics of innovation in complex projects and systems; 3. Business strategy and project capability; 4. Systems integration and competitive advantage; 5. The project-based organisation; 6. Managing software-intensive projects; 7. Learning in the project business; 8. Integrated solutions for customers; 9. Lessons for the project business. Review of the hardback: 'This book has a very important message in proposing that, for many firms, project competence is a major precondition for competitive advantage. Building on a multitude of solid empirical studies within the COPS research programme, Davies and Hobday demonstrate convincingly the vital role of projects as a means of stimulating flexibility and effecting innovation. They present a comprehensive framework that accounts for the wider significance of projects for innovation and business strategy. For students within business and technology, as well as for managers, this book is a must read!' Lars Lindkvist Professor of Business Administration, Linköping University, Sweden Review of the hardback: ' … a major scholarly contribution to a rethinking of the role of projects in the management literature … moves beyond the orthodox view of projects as a set of operational planning and control tools and techniques, and instead demonstrates how projects are the fulcrum for organization-wide learning, innovation and business development.' Robert DeFillippi Suffolk University Business School, Boston Review of the hardbac