Project Management Handbook

This practical handbook offers a comprehensive guide to efficient project management. It pursues a broad, well-structured approach, suitable for most projects, and allows newcomers, experienced project managers, and decision-makers to find valuable input that matches their specific needs. The Project Management Compass guides readers through various sections of the book; templates and checklists offer additional support. The handbook’s innovative structure combines concepts from systems engineering, management psychology, and process dynamics. This international edition will allow sharing of the authors' experience gained in many years of project work and over thousands of project management and leadership seminars conducted for BWI Management Education in Zurich, Switzerland.

This second, entirely revised edition of the Project Management Handbook is based on the fundamentals of the previous standard work and is aligned with the German 5th edition. It now covers a large number of new or updated topics. This work has also been updated to help with the IPMA certification and offers a comprehensive reference table for all competence elements of the Individual Competence Baseline of IPMA® (ICB4).

Jürg Kuster is the owner of Pentacon AG in Zurich, and from 2008-2020 he was the Managing Director of BWI Management Weiterbildung at The Department of Management, Technology, and Economics of ETH Zurich (Switzerland). He studied electrical engineering at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and worked for many years as a manager and project manager in various companies. He is also a trainer and expert for the Swiss professional examinations for IT project managers, a business IT specialist, and Lecturer at various training institutes. His main areas of work involve leadership development, project coaching, and the design and implementation of company-wide project management standards and training programs.

Christian Bachmann is an independent consultant, coach, and trainer. Since 2020 he is a partner at the BWI AG Consulting and continuing education Institute, Zurich (Switzerland). He studied at the University of Applied Sciences in Aargau and Chur, graduating as a business economist. He received further training in coaching, organizational development, and theology from the Systemic Training Group, Koenigswieser & Network, Vienna. He completed his MAS ZFH in Supervision and Coaching in Organisations from IAP Zurich, and MAS Spiritual Theology in Interreligious Processes from the University of Salzburg (Austria). he has more than a decade of operational project management in the financial services industry. His main areas of work involve Training in self-management with a focus on resilience and stress management, project management, and facilitation of meetings (in industry and in educational organizations); Process support in the further development of project organizations, and coaching of managers and project managers.

Mike Hubmann is an Integral Systemic Coach. Since 2011, he is a trainer, and coach and since 2020 a partner at the consulting and continuing education institute BWI AG, Zurich. He is the owner of Mike Hubmann GmbH since 2016. He is a trainer in coaching, organizational development, systemic constellation work, agile and traditional project management (Certified Senior Project manager IPMA Level B, Hermes 5 Advanced, Certified scrum master), and MBA in Business Engineering, Marketing, and Electrical Engineering. He has more than 30 years of experience in project management of agile and traditional projects. Mastering challenging projects is his core competence. Since 2009, he is the assessor for IPMA Level B certifications at VZPM, and since 2017, an examination expert. His main areas of work are coaching and organizational development for individuals, teams, and organizations in challenging business situations or in change situations, constellator (systemic constellations, organizational constellations), trainer, consultant, project manager, and project management expert.

Robert Lippmann is an independent management and organizational consultant, trainer, and coach in industry, the service sector, and public administration, primarily in project management, leadership, coaching, communication, and facilitation. He completed commercial training and a degree in economics from the University of Zurich (Switzerland). Further training and diplomas in work and organizational psychology, group dynamics, and a postgraduate diploma in corporate development (DNU SNU).  He has many years of experience as a project manager, specializing in the operational implementation of concepts, and organizational projects, and as a client representative. He is the co-author of the reference work Lippmann E. (ed.), Coaching (3rd ed. 2013) published by Springer. His main areas of work are: project management and consulting, coaching, training in further education for executives and project managers, and mandates as a temporary manager.

Patrick Schneider is a trainer for project management, a project manager, and a consultant for project, product, and process management. He is the Founder and owner of Schneider Associates GmbH. He studied electrical engineering at ETH Zurich, with a diploma thesis at Harvard University and an Executive MBA in General Management at the University of Zurich and Stanford University. He is a Certified project manager IPMA Level C and has over fifteen years of experience in business development with internationally active service providers of e-commerce and IT outsourcing. He also was active in divisional management at the executive level with product management, project management, test department, and customer service in the machine industry. His main areas of work are in-house training for product and project management; introduction of processes and standards; project management mandates.