Are you in high school or college or a fresh graduate who just started work? Have you been assigned to do a project and you have zero ideas how to start?
Are you a new homeowner, a new parent, a traveler who wishes to plan his own itinerary, someone who wants to start a business?
Where do you start? Is there a checklist on what to do?
My name is Wei Kwan and I have been teaching Project Management (PM) as part of my job responsibilities for over 10 years now - mainly to buyers, sales, engineers, managers. This is to allow the staff in my company develop PM skills as they embark on activities such as cost reduction, continuous improvement, value engineering.
During a conversation with a college senior from the National University of Singapore, he remarked that "project management is dull and difficult". Obviously, as a PM professional, I was curious and probed for more info.
Project Management is dull
PM is dull because most PM books are catered for professionals, i.e. those who have graduated and worked for a number of years. Even as engineers, we took the course in PM after a few years into the job when our managers decide we can take on the role of leading projects - the task of project manager is seldom given to fresh graduates. So, the language and examples used in PM books is often difficult to grasp unless one has the necessary years of experience. Obviously, if the college senior is unable to understand the language and examples, it is "dull".
Project Management is difficult
The second comment (difficult) is that most projects fail - this is common knowledge among PM professionals - about 70% of projects fail (data from McKinsey). However, for the senior who probably has not seen too many failures in life, he probably did not put in as much effort in the planning stage and therefore, difficulties are to be expected.
Thus, the motivation is to provide a simple enough book that any noob can understand and sufficient information so that if he follows the guide, there is a high chance the project is successful.
What will I learn from the Book?
Here the topics addressed in the book:
- Introduction to Project Management
- Why Do Projects Fail?
- Why do Projects Succeed?
- Skills of Project Manager - tips on motivation, leading teams, etc.
- Project Management process - outline of the project cycle
- Initiating the Project
- Planning the Project
- Executing the Project
- Monitoring and Controlling the Project
- Closing the Project
Some successes that I have achieved using the same techniques outlined in the book:
- Plant renovation of the factory to expand the capacity 30%...while the production is still on-going. To make things more difficult, this happened during the COVID-19 pandemic where people movement is severely restricted.
- Setting up of the Gas Chromatography production line which include hiring, training. Because of COVID-19, travel is non-existent. All training and testing was done virtually, including inspection of the final product.
- Setting up the Powder Metallurgy plant using the Spark Plasma Sintering process on Ruthenium powder for the Hard-Disk industry. Project was completed months ahead of target, production improved by 34% and was profitable within 2 years.
Work aside, probably one of my proudest achievement outside of work was to see my children getting accepted at one of the top universities in the world - Imperial College (ranked #2 in 2024), National University of Singapore (ranked #8 in 2024), University College (ranked #9 in 2024) and Waseda University (supposedly the top college in Japan).
Oh yes, they both have scholarships to attend their chosen schools (so it will help save on the tuition fees) but more on this later...
Who needs the book?
- The high-schooler or college student who has been given the assignment to work on a project
- The fresh graduate who has been assigned to start a project on Cost Reduction, Process Improvement, Plant transfer, setting up a new production plant
- The traveler (or one leading a group of travelers) embarking on a new adventure who wants to do the planning from scratch - from buying the flight tickets, to transportation to hotel to food to activities
- The new parents who wants to create life plan for his children to more successful than they are
- Many others - one who wishes to improve the physical health, the mental health...the one who wish to be more serious in his hobbies (music, gardening, and more), to improve the relationship with the spouse, etc.
How many pages?
Well, if you learn Project Management in school, what they will provide is the book (see picture below) on the left that is 598 pages long, written by college professors using industry-standard language. In other words, it will take you a while to finish the book...if you can handle it without dozing off.
Why so few pages?
When I attended my first Project Management Fundamentals class in Hewlett-Packard some 20 years ago, the industry is such that companies are fine to allow employees to attend 5-day courses. Nobody talks much about lower backflush hours, reduced productivity, etc. Today, most classes are 1 day or less. For project management, this will have to be 2 days. So the book reflects that - it gives some examples but then goes straight to the point.
We all have different goals and dreams, and the most important thing is to start. So I purposely reduce the content - ask the right questions - and when we are able to answer it, we start, and make adjustments along the way.
REVIEWS
Here are a few of the review from professional reviewers.
Comments
Thanks so much for staying with me. This book has been a project that took me years to complete. The writing process took months and I have put in my utmost to make this the best (and hopefully the easiest) guide as you embark on your next adventure to be the better YOU.
I wish you all the best - Wei Kwan
Available on the following sites: