Chapter 1 -- Key Concepts We Learned

1. The chapter 1 provides us a brief and clear introduction about what is the project management, and why it is an essential skill for today’s leadership, as well as the focus of this book. 
2. Though I practice the project management in my work before, I never regarded the project management as a discipline like the new concept illustrated in the book. With this chapter, we now know that project management represents a set of methods, theories and techniques that have evolved to manage the complexities of work that is unique and temporary.  Project management encompasses the methods for choosing projects, establishing goals, creating action plans, and leading diverse stakeholders to achieve results.
3. The author talked about the project management techniques.  In my view, we would rather call them the key tasks for the project management. They include (i) Communicating with team member and stakeholders for project conception through completion; (ii) Establish the effort, cost, and time it will take to deliver a project; (iii) Rapidly building cohesive project teams; (iv) Coordinating the actions of a diverse workforce, assembled specifically for a project, to achi8eve the goal for the least possible expense and in a reasonable time frame; (v) Accounting for the progress and productivity to provide accurate forecasts for the project; (vi) Managing the varying staffing needs that results from constantly running multiple projects concurrently.
4. To achieve a good project management result and ensure the project be successful, one should pay extra attention on the following area: (a) Get good agreement among the project team, customers, and top management on the goals of the project; (b) Make a right plan to show an overall path and clear responsibilities and that can be used to measure progress during the project; (c) Conduct constant, effective communications among everyone involved in the project; (d) Provide a controlled scope with which to manage the stakeholder expectations. The project manager should ensure that everyone involved understand exactly what can be accomplished with a given time frame and budget.