Making Projects Work

Projects are performed by people for people, with the key determinants of success being the relationships between project teams and project stakeholders. This web of relationships will either enable or obstruct the flow of information between people and, as a consequence, will largely determine project success or failure.

Making Projects Work: Effective Stakeholder and Communication Management provides a framework for understanding and managing the factors required for achieving successful project and program outcomes. It presents guidelines to help readers develop an understanding of governance and its connection to strategy as the starting point for deciding what work needs to be done.

• Introduces the idea of an organization’s communication ecosystem where information flows freely within and among all organizational layers
• Explores the importance of the relationships with the project’s stakeholder community as keys to project success
• Describes the theoretical underpinnings of leadership
• Provides detailed analysis of the different types of project stakeholders
• Supplies guidance on developing the appropriate messages to meet project and stakeholder needs

The book describes how to craft appropriate communication strategies for developing and maintaining successful relationships with stakeholders. It highlights the strengths and weaknesses of existing project controls and outlines effective communication techniques for managing expectations and acquiring the support required to deliver successful projects on time and under budget.

Dr Lynda Bourne FAIM, FACS, PMP is a senior management consultant, professional speaker, trainer, and award-winning project manager with 30+ years’ professional industry experience. She is the CEO and managing director of Stakeholder Management Pty Ltd focusing on the delivery of stakeholder management and other project and organization related consultancy, mentoring, and training for clients worldwide. Her career has combined practical project experience with business management roles and academic research to deliver successful projects that meet stakeholders’ expectations.

She is a member of the international faculty at EAN University, Columbia, teaching in the Masters of Project Management course. She is also visiting international professor in the master’s program at the Faculty of Exact Sciences and Innovative Technologies, Sholokhov Moscow State. The modules Lynda teaches are focused on stakeholder engagement, communication, and leadership.

Dr Bourne is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management and a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society. She was awarded PMI Australia’s "Project Manager of the Year," and was included in PMI’s inaugural list of "25 Influential Women in Project Management."

Lynda is a recognised international author, seminar leader, and speaker on the topic of stakeholder engagement and the stakeholder circle visualization tool; her book Stakeholder Relationship Management: A Maturity Model for Organisational Implementation (Gower, 2009, 2011) defines the SRMM® model for stakeholder relationship management maturity.

She has presented at conferences and seminars in Europe, Russia, Asia, Australasia, South America, and the Middle East to audiences in the IT, construction, defence, and mining industries and has been key speaker on stakeholder engagement practices at meetings, workshops, and conferences. She edited the book Advising Upwards (Gower, 2011) containing practical advice for those seeking to influence their senior stakeholders. She presents workshops regularly in the government sector on stakeholder engagement and project governance.