ABSTRACT
This chapter examines project critical success factors. It includes managing people, dealing with politics, and managing for disaster. Having the right people on a project team is certainly key to the success of a project. In a large pharmaceutical company the lead designer walked off a very important project. Although the project manager's most important project stayed high on the priority list, unfortunately, some of the end-users did not. One of the most important skills a project manager can have is interpersonal skills. He or she must be able to effectively communicate with a wide variety of people across the entire organization. One of the very highest standards a project manager can aspire to achieve is a heightened sense of ethics. The project manager should strive to utilize the very highest levels of standards of practice such that the Optimized level of capability maturity model can be achieved.
