Know how to respond when things don\'t fall into place. Skydiving has its inherent risks. Even though a professional team, like the one depicted on the cover, can make skydiving seem perfectly choreographed; there are always uncertainties. Whether it\'s getting a skydiving team into the air or a new product off the ground, no project has ever been completed exactly as planned. With Meredith and Mantel\'s Sixth Edition, you\'ll not only learn how to select, initiate, operate, and control all types of projects; you\'ll also learn how to manage risks and uncertainties. Written from a managerial perspective, the text equips you with the quantitative skills, knowledge of organizational issues, and insights into human behavior that you need to do project management effectively. Updated and revised, this edition features current coverage of topics such as: * Risk management * Lifecycle costing * Real options * Organizational process assets * Non-technical project terminations * The phase/quality-gate process * Requirements formulation analysis Free trial version of Microsoft Project(r) and Crystal Ball(r) This text includes a CD-ROM containing a 120-day trial version of Microsoft Project(r) and a student version of Crystal Ball(r). Microsoft Project and Crystal Ball screenshots appear where relevant throughout the text. Additionally, a number of end-of-chapter exercises encourage you to apply these computer software packages to project management problems.

Jack Meredith is currently Professor of Management & Broyhill Distinguished Scholar & Chair in Operations at the Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University.  Dr. Meredith's research has focused on the strategic and operational problems that managers face, particularly those concerning the management of advanced technology.  He received his BS and BSME at Oregon State University and his MBA and PhD at the University of California at Berkeley.  Dr. Meredith has written eight books on operations management, project management and management science, including "Project Management" and "Operations Management for MBAs." He serves as outgoing editor in chief of the Journal of Operations Management. He received the school's inaugural Cowan Research Prize in 2002, the Academy of Management's 2003 Distinguished OM Scholar Award, and was inducted into the Oregon State University Engineering Hall of Fame in 2004.