International Project Management.
Kumar, Vivek
International Project Management, Kathrin Koster, Sage Pablication
Private Limited, New Delhi, 2010, Pages 365, Price Rs. 450.
Indian companies are spreading their wings globally and
multinational giants are increasingly finding India as a viable
manufacturing as well as ITES hub. Result is emergence of numerous
international projects. Many books exist in the market on project
management but this volume by Kathrin Koster focusing on International
project management is both timely and useful to the project managers
dealing with planning and execution of projects of international
parentage.
The author has structured the book well starting from an
introduction to project, project management and then extending it to
international project management. This is followed by project management
as organizational strategy and culture and then explained the structure
of project management. The fourth chapter focuses on the risk aspect
with special emphasis on uncertainty linked to international projects.
Fifth chapter focuses on project planning (time, budget and quality) and
then comes organizing the international projects. Seventh and eighth
chapter of the book cover project implementation and control besides
leadership issues involved in project management, the next two chapters
focus on the importance of good communication and role of cooperation in
international projects. The last chapter summarises various experiences
and learnings from completed international projects.
This book has tried to maintain a delicate balance between the
technological and human aspects of project management. But it would have
been more beneficial if a chapter specifically dedicated to network
analysis could have been added and another one focusing on new tools
like S Curves, Bell curves, application of theory of constraints
(critical chain) etc. Some coverage on specific tools and problems
related to software, ITES and design projects would have really enhanced
the usefulness of the volume.
This book has numerous examples and illustrations supported by
relevant case studies, student exercises and review questions that make
this book very useful as a text book for MBA students on the subject.
Thus it fills a vacuum that existed for the same. Sage books has brought
out this book in good formatting, the figures as well as tables are
extremely readable. The companion website adds further value to the
book.
Prof. Vivek Kumar
Senior Professor
FORE School of Management
