Page 16 - Global Project Management Handbook

xiv PREFACE

be used. The second edition of this handbook provides that reference source for pragmatic
how-to-do-it global project management information, tempered by that bit of theory needed
to be consistent with the state-of-the-art of this important discipline. Anyone who wants to
learn about global project management is faced with an abundance of published informa-
tion. The best of this published information, integrated in this handbook and presented in a
global and project-oriented perspective, provides a coherent and relevant prescription for
the global owner. In a rapidly developing field such as project management, even experi-
enced project “stakeholders” need a source that can help them understand some of the com-
petitive changes in the world that are without precedent.
All project stakeholders––project managers, functional managers, general managers,
project team members, support staff, and the many outside organizational units with which
the global project manager must deal––will find this handbook useful. Students of project
management may use the handbook as a self-study aid, for it has been organized to facili-
tate an easy and enjoyable learning process. Senior managers can, through a careful perusal
of this publication, gain an appreciation, and respect, for what global project management
can do to make their enterprises more competitive in the international markets.
This handbook is the result of the cooperative effort of many experts in the field, both in
academic and in real world practice. The qualifications of these learned and experienced peo-
ple are clear from the biographical sketch that is provided on the title page of each chapter.
The content of the handbook is broadly designed to be relevant to the general organization
contexts in which global project management is found.
Within the global marketplace the time between the creation of inception of a new tech-
nology in products and processes is decreasing. Until a few years ago, it took up to ten to
twelve years or more for a scientific discovery––even a discovery leading to an incremen-
tal advancement of technology in products and processes––to wend its way from the point
of origin to commercial use. Today much less time is required; global project management
done within the context of concurrent engineering or simultaneous engineering, and though
the organizational mechanism of product-process design teams is reducing that time dra-
matically. Global project management, done within the authority of strategic management,
has become a common language for global enterprises to cooperate across organizational,
cultural, and national boundaries in seeking mutual objectives and goals. It is to this pur-
pose that the second edition of this Global Project Management Handbook is dedicated.
David I. Cleland
Roland Gareis