Commercial Project Management : A Guide for Selling and Delivering Professional Services

Commercial Project Management fills a void in the project management landscape. Project manager and author Robin Hornby considers commercial project management to be a neglected and poorly understood discipline, a situation he aims to rectify. His new book, with a wealth of ‘how to do it’ advice, explanatory illustrations, practical techniques, and proven checklists, will give contracted project managers a confidence boost and a head start in their demanding role.

The book explains how standard projet management practices can be evolved to address the commercial setting and adopted by the professional services firm as a key part of its business operations. At the same time, their project managers must assume a new accountability to the firm’s business manager for revenue, must manage the space between sales and the client, and deal with other business matters defined by contract. This transforms many of the routine tasks and behaviors of the project manager, creates several new ones, and requires new skills. This is a how-to book for project and business managers working in a commercial environment looking for practical guidance on conducting their projects and organizing their firm.

Selling and delivering a project to a satisfied client, and making a profit, is a complex task. Project manager and author Robin Hornby believes this has been neglected by current standards and is poorly understood by professionals in the field. Commercial Project Management aims to rectify this deficiency. As a unique ‘how-to’ guide for project and business managers, it offers practical guidance, and a wealth of explanatory illustrations, useful techniques, proven checklists, real life examples, and case stories. It will give project managers a needed confidence boost and a head start in their demanding role as they go ‘on contract’.

At the heart of Robin’s approach is a vendor sales and delivery lifecycle that provides a framework for business control of projects. Unique elements include the integration of buyer and vendor project lifecycles, the recasting of project management as a cyclic set of functions to lead the work of the project, and the elevation of risk assessment from a project toolkit to a fundamental control process. Beyond project management, the book proposes a comprehensive template for the firm whose business is delivering projects.

This is a how-to book for project and business managers working in a commercial environment looking for practical guidance on conducting their projects and organizing their firm.