Planning, control and communication – the indispensable ingredients of any successful project – are also the three sections of this book, elaborating in a practical, easy-to-follow manner, and in great detail, the various steps that need to be followed and the tools that should be used in order to properly manage a project of any sort.

‘Being a Project Manager’ cleverly uses the analogy of baking bread to managing a project. To end up with a loaf of bread, the project’s desired outcome, a project manager must use the right amount of flour as the basic ingredient for the dough – planning; add the correct proportion of yeast for the dough to rise – control, and add the ‘glue’ that holds all the ingredients together, water – communication.

The same applies to project management. Planning is the essential first step – without it, the project is nothing more than a random set of actions. Control is the means of achieving the project’s objectives – without it, you simply have a lot of effort going everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Finally, communication bonds the various stakeholders – without it, you simply have a collection of individuals aspiring to reach a goal, without knowing what it is or how to get there.