ABSTRACT

The whole of science is nothing more than a refi nement of everyday thinking.

–Albert Einstein

This book uses a mixed-mode tools-and-techniques approach that combines managerial, organizational, and quantitative methodologies into a logical sequence of project implementation steps. According to the Albert Einstein’s quote at the beginning of this chapter, we must constantly refi ne our everyday thinking along the dimensions of science, technology, and engineering (STE). The consistent theme of the book is to couple technological requirements and managerial principles in every project endeavor every day. Solutions to societal challenges revolve around the applications of science, technology, engineering, and policy. Policy implementations are actualized through strategic project management (PM). Project formulations and development constitute the crossroads of STE endeavors. As Albert Einstein’s quote suggests, everyday thinking is infl uenced by science and vice versa. As recent world developments would indicate, we are entering a golden age of STE. Every organization, both public and private, appears to be focusing on strategic visions that include STE projects (STEPs) in one form or another. Even organizations that have traditionally been conservative or slow in embracing STE are now scrambling to keep up with the emerging wave. Determined not to be left behind, business and industrial establishments are exploring ways to initiate projects that will bring them the benefi ts of STE and advance their operations ahead of competition. It thus stands to reason that a dedicated book be developed to guide STEPs and forge the development of science and technology priorities within an organization. World organizations foresee a shortage of STE-skilled workers in the coming years. Technical projects that these workers will work with must be managed in a way that matches the intellectual expectations of the workers. Workers of tomorrow will be knowledge workers as compared to the brawn workers of the past. Thus, knowledge-oriented PM strategies must be developed now for ongoing project challenges as well as challenges of the future. Figure 1.1 illustrates the premise of this book in presenting stepby-step PM across the domains of STE using the foundation of people, process, and tools. Martin (2007) presents the theory of “techonomics” as a simple framework to observe, describe, analyze, and predict organizational changes by methodically tracking technological advancement. Such technological tracking is what infl uenced the writing of this book as a comprehensive STEP methodology.