项目管理以各种方式涉及到了我们各个方面的生活，建设项目和工程项目，计算机项目，组织变革项目，甚至我们家庭生活中的社交项目，但是项目管理却是一个相对比较新的学科。然而项目管理在过去50年的发展却是十分迅速的，这种发展现在已经使得我们受益颇大。事实证明，有效的项目管理能够提升项目绩效30%，甚至更多。项目管理还可以改善项目进度绩效，从而导致项目的提前完工，当然，项目管理同样可以改善项目成本绩效，从而导致项目成本的降低。提前完工和成本降低都是提升项目绩效的具体体现，提升绩效30%就意味着我们每花费1000万元就可以节约300万元，并可以将它们用于其他的项目。对于像中国这样一个发展中国家而言，这是至关重要的。从国家的角度出发，项目绩效如果有30%的提升，就意味着原来国家8%的增长率可以变成10.5%的增长率了。虽然这不可能在所有的项目上实现，但是这给了我们一个启示，努力实现项目绩效的提升是十分重要的。书籍在帮助人们提升项目绩效方面扮演了十分重要的角色。
南开大学出版社在组织这套丛书的时候选择了六本项目管理领域中十分重要的书籍，其中有五本我的藏书中都有（尽管我们可能期望再多两本更好）。
第一本是丹尼斯•罗克（Dennis Lock）的《项目管理》，现在已经是第八版了。这本经典著作的第一版是在1968年出版的，这是那个时候唯一在欧洲能够买到的项目管理方面的教科书。经过这些年它得到了很多改进和提升并且继续保持着本领域中最顶尖的书的地位。在最初的版本中主要是讨论项目成本和时间管理的，但是现在，它已经覆盖了这一领域的各个方面。
生活中没有任何事情是没有人参与的。我对于管理的定义就是：通过人们去完成事情。所以我对项目管理的定义就是：通过人去完成项目。当你读了很多项目管理的书以后你就会发现涉及人的内容不多。我曾经在某个长达一周的课程的第四天说过这句话，一个听众随后说我是这一周中唯一涉及人的问题的老师。这使我想到了出版一本项目管理中关于人的书。我编辑出版的《项目的组织与人员管理》一书正是讨论项目管理中人的问题的书，从开发人的能力到建设团队和管理项目相关利益主体，一直到关心文化差异和职业道德。
我前面提到，通过提高项目成本和进度绩效能够帮助提升整个项目的绩效，挣值分析是一种最初由美国军方在20世纪50年代开发的项目管理工具，它可以用来监控项目成本和进度绩效，并且帮助提升这两个方面的绩效。艾伦•韦伯(Alan Webb)的《项目经理指南——项目挣值管理的应用》一书是现在欧洲这方面最顶尖的权威著作。
我还说过，有效的项目管理可以提升项目管理绩效30%以上。奈戈•斯密斯(Nigel Smith)在《项目中的合同管理》一书的第一章中说到：有效的项目合同管理能够提升项目绩效8%以上。实际上米歇尔•拉斯姆(Michael Latham)爵士在同一章中提到，有效的项目合同管理甚至能够提升项目绩效30%，甚至更多。我再说一遍，在中国先进的高速发展阶段有效的项目合同管理的确已经成了一个亟需解决的问题。业主和承包商必须一起共同努力为双方争取更好的项目结果，米歇尔•拉斯姆爵士已经证明，通过能够使双方受益的合作伙伴式工作，业主和承包商可以实现他们各自提出的受益目标。但是这只能在业主和承包商使用有效的项目合同管理程序和方法的前提下有效，这种方法使得双方相互尊重并承认和照顾相互的需要。《项目中的合同管理》给出了实现这些目标的有效项目合同管理的方法。
唐•达亚南达（Don Dayananda）的《投资预算——投资项目财务评价》一书讨论了项目评价和财务问题。如果项目本身是错的，再有效的项目管理也是没有用的。人们不但要使用正确的方法去实施项目，而且更重要的是要去做正确的项目。你只能在结果正确的前提下去设法获得更好的结果，项目评估是我们评价项目已确保我们能够去做正确的项目的根本方法。
这一丛书中的最后一本书写的是实践者的声音。格特•维金和儒迪•考（Gert Wijnen & Rudy Kor）是一家荷兰管理咨询公司的合伙人，他们的《独特性任务的项目与项目群团队管理方法》是关于该公司为给其客户提供好的项目产出物而使用的项目管理方法论的书。该书不仅讨论了对于单个项目的管理问题，而且讨论了由许多项目构成的项目群的管理问题。该书也认识到了人的重要性，并且讨论了项目团队的建设，这在咨询任务的完成中是十分重要的。
在18年的项目管理领域中的研究和教学中，我注意到了一件事情，即这一学科中的专门领域在不断地增加。回顾20世纪80年代末期，项目管理主要讨论项目的成本和进度管理。现在人们在讨论项目群管理，项目质量、风险和相关利益主体的管理，项目合同管理，财务以及（最重要的）人的管理。这套丛书提供了涵盖项目管理整个学科各个领域，即包括有传统的主题，但是更多的是有关项目管理新主题的讨论。我期望未来项目管理能够有更多新的发展，我也期望这套丛书未来能够有更多的新书问世。 里尔大学研究生院项目管理学教授 罗尼•特纳
2004年10月23日于南京 附:原文
NANKAI UNIVERSITY PRESS SERIES IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
PREFACE
Projects touch all our lives in many forms, construction and engineering projects, computer projects, organizational change projects, and even social projects in our home lives, and yet project management is a relatively new discipline. However it has developed quite considerably over the last fifty years, and now is delivering substantial benefit. It has been shown that effective project management can improve project performance by 30% or more. It can improve the schedule performance of projects leading to earlier completion, and it can improve the cost performance leading to cheaper projects. Both earlier completion and reduced cost lead to improved project performance. Improving performance by 30% means that for every $10 million we spend, we have available another $3 million to spend on other projects. For a developing country like China, that can be very important. In national terms, a 30% improvement in project performance would mean that an annual growth rate of 8% could become 10.5%. That cannot be achieved on all projects, but it gives some idea of the importance of achieving improved project performance. Books have an important role in helping individuals improve the performance of their projects. In creating their series on Project Management, Nankai University Press have selected six significant books on Project Management, five of which are in my own library, (although we would expect at least two of them to be theres). The first is Dennis Lock’s book on Project Management, now in its 8th edition. The first edition of this now classic book was published in 1968, and was at the time almost the only text book on project management available in Europe. Over the years it has gone through many enhancements and improvements, and remained a leading book in the field. In its first edition it mainly dealt with the management of cost and time of a project, but now covers the discipline more holistically. Nothing happens in any walk of life without people. My definition of management is getting things done through people, and so project management is getting projects done through people. Yet when you read many books on project management you might be forgiven for thinking that the people don’t figure. I spoke once on Thursday afternoon of a week long course, and one of the audience said to me afterwards I was the first person all week to mention people. It was for this reason that I thought a book on the people issues on projects was important. People in Project Management (edited by me) looks at a range of people issues, from developing competent people, to building teams and managing stakeholders, to caring about cultural differences and ethics. I said above that improving both schedule and cost performance on projects can help improve overall project performance. Earned Value Analysis is a tool first developed by the US military in the 1950s that can help monitor both cost and schedule performance and help improve both. Alan Webb’s book on the topic is now one of the most significant available in Europe. I said above that effective project management can improve project performance by 30%. Nigel Smith says in the first chapter of Contracting for Project Management that effective contract management can also improve project performance by 8%. Indeed Sir Michael Latham quoted in that chapter has shown that improvements of 30% or more are possible with effective contract management. Again, in China, in its current phase of growth the need for effective contract project management has become a significant issue. Clients and contractors must work together to achieve the best project outcomes for both parties. Sir Michael Latham has shown that it is by working together in partnership, in their mutual best interest, that clients and contractors can achieve the benefits he identified. But that can happen only if the client and contractor use effective project contract management procedures that treat both parties with respect, and recognize their respective needs. Contracting for Project Management outlines methods of effective project contract management to achieve those ends. Don Dayananda covers project appraisal and finance. Effective project management is of no use if the wrong projects are done. It is important not only to do the projects in the right way, but also to do the right projects. You only achieve good results if they are the right results. Project appraisal is the way by which we assess projects to ensure the right projects are done. In the sixth and final book, front-line practitioners speak. Gert Wijnen and Rudy Kor are partners with a Dutch management consultancy and their book is the project management methodology used by that consultancy to deliver effective project results for their clients. The book talks not only about the management of individual projects, but also the management of programmes of many projects. It also recognizes the importance of the people, describing the building of project teams, important in consultancy assignments. One of the things I have noticed over the eighteen years I have been researching, writing and teaching in the field of project management is the increase in the range of topics covered by the field and discipline. Back in the late 1980s, project management talked about little other than management of the cost and schedule of a project. Now people discuss programme management, the management of quality, risk and stakeholders, the management of the contracts, finance and most importantly the people. This set of books provides an holistic coverage of the field and discipline of project management, covering the traditional topics, but most of the new ones as well. I look forward to the further development of the field of project management, and further books in this series. Professor J Rodney Turner
Professor of Project Management
The Graduate School of Management of Lille In Nanjing
23 October 2004
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