Preface and Acknowledgements
This book is just the beginning. It must be a dynamic process considering the fast pace of the modern world and evolving project management practices accordingly. Therefore, students and anyone who is interested in learning the basics of project management can benefit from this book not only now, but in the upcoming years. I welcome my colleagues and students who are willing to work with me to improve the book and provide students with an affordable solution in the long run. Of course, one textbook is not enough to learn about project management. Nevertheless, I am hoping that this textbook would be a salient resource that everyone can benefit from.
In this book, I wanted to demonstrate how project managers and teams can use project management software to facilitate their work. You can find tutorials on Microsoft Project, a popular project management software program utilized worldwide by numerous project managers and teams, at the end of Chapter 4 (Project Planning), Chapter 7 (Scheduling), Chapter 8 (Resource Management), Chapter 9 (Budget and Procurement), and Chapter 11 (Monitoring and Controlling).
Besides, instructors can download PowerPoint presentations prepared for each chapter in the “PowerPoint Presentations for Instructors” section. Instructors can access the files after they fill out the “Interest/Adoption Form”.
While writing this book, I benefited from the OER project management books published earlier. I would like to thank the authors and contributors for their great work. These works are:
- Project Management by Adrienne Watt. © CC BY (Attribution).
- Project Management from Simple to Complex. © CC BY (Attribution).
- Project Management by Florence Daddey. © CC BY (Attribution).
- Project Management Fundamentals by Shelly Morris. © CC BY (Attribution).
- Project Management by Merrie Barron and Andrew R. Barron. © CC BY (Attribution).
This book would not be possible without the support of Cleveland State University (CSU). I was introduced to the world of Open Educational Resources (OERs) in the summer of 2021 with the Textbook Affordability Summer Symposium. During this symposium, I understood that this was definitely the solution that I have been looking for to ensure that students and all learners can access good quality resources free of charge. So, I decided to apply for the Fall 2021 Textbook Affordability Grant. Approval of my application led to a long and tiring, but very exciting process. This book wouldn’t have been possible without the greatest project team of Amanda Goodsett, the Librarian, and OER and Copyright Advisor, and Barbara Loomis, the Digital Scholarly Publications and Programs Administrator, both from Michael Schwartz Library of CSU. I am immensely grateful to Mandi and Barb for their assistance, suggestions, and infinite patience.
I also owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the anonymous reviewers who gave me detailed and constructive comments on all the chapters.
Abdullah Oguz, Ph.D., PMP®
