In recent years organizations of all kinds have learned that project working, once considered significant only for engineering and construction companies, can help to ensure that the intended benefits of business change will be realized in full and on time. This development means that more people than ever before need to understand the basic process, language and purpose of project working. That awareness is important not only for those actually engaged in project work, in all sectors of industry and commerce, but also for senior managers, project sponsors and the other stakeholders. The Essentials of Project Management is a primer distilled from Dennis Lock's comprehensive, successful and encyclopedic textbook, Project Management (now in its Ninth Edition). It provides a concise, straightforward account of the principles and techniques of project management, designed to meet the needs of the business manager or student. Using examples and illustrations, the author introduces the key project management procedures and explains clearly how and when to use them. The text for the new edition has been completely restructured and largely rewritten, so that the sequence now follows even more closely the life-cycle of a typical project from its earliest definition to final close-out. As its title suggests, The Essentials of Project Management covers the basic, indispensable elements of project management. Because it is written by one of the most successful, prolific and popular of project management authors, it always engages the reader at a level that he or she can readily understand, yet it never commits the error of over simplification. The Essentials of Project Management remains the ideal first text for anyone new to project working or students studying project management as part of a wider business qualification or degree.