Business is becoming increasingly project-based and our ability to manage projects has become one of the key skills for success as managers and businesspeople. This compact guide, written by a leading project management expert, gets to the heart of successful project management.

Project management is not complicated – many projects may be complicated, but project management itself is not. By following a set of simple rules and applying simple techniques, there will be no need for the expensive project failures that we often see. Moreover, as this book shows, projects can be significantly shortened by again using simple ideas and techniques. Anyone who manages projects will find this book helps them to save time, effort, resources and money.

About the Author

My mum read 'Treasure Island' to me when I was four and I think that was when I decided to become a writer.

I used to think I’d like to spend all my time writing, but spending all day alone in a room with your imaginary friends isn’t necessarily the healthiest way to pass the time. (It’s easy to see why so many great writers’ best friend has been the whisky bottle!) So I also write books and teach and speak on project management. I’ve written sixteen non-fiction books and had seven novels published. My most recent, 'The Paradise Ghetto' is now in development based on my own screenplay.

I’ve been shortlisted for prizes – the Kerry Ingredients Irish Fiction Prize for my first novel, 'Call The Swallow'; in non-fiction, for my book on common sense, 'Simply Brilliant' which was runner-up in the W H Smith Book Awards. My books have been translated into twenty-five languages.

So far, all my novels have been set during wartime but I don’t think of myself as a war novelist. I write about people caught up in great events and how they try to find love in the most difficult of circumstances.

I’m widowed, have two grown-up children and have lived in lots of places. Currently I’m living in England but that could be about to change.