“Simple” Project Management: for Noobs to Pros

About the Book

Project Management is the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, and controlling complex projects to achieve goals and objectives. Project Managers are responsible for leading teams, managing resources, communicating with stakeholders, and delivering quality results on time and within budget. Project Management books are guides to successfully steer initiatives in various domains and industries and cover topics such as work breakdown structures, stakeholder communication, scheduling, team management, etc. If the above scares you…well, you are not alone! For some reason, the industry has elevated Project Management to a level somewhat daunting to the average person. This is especially so for high-school students to fresh graduates assigned to do their first project. Seriously, while nice to have, a PMP or a Master’s in Project Management (just like MBA for businesses) is not essential. Simple Project Management: For Noobs to Pro is a guide for the person who has little or no experience in project management to start a project. While it does use the process from the PMBOK, the goal is to make it simple enough for the first project and complex enough to be used as steppingstones to obtaining the PMP certification.

About the Author

Ng Wei Kwan (the last name is written first) is Program/Project Manager at Agilent Technologies Singapore. His day job is as Program Manager where he manages the New Product Introduction (NPI) programs for the QTOF LC/MS instruments, as well as the Ion Mobility LC/MS. His other (smaller) projects include leading the “Made in China 2025” initiative in collaboration with the Agilent Shanghai plant, manufacturing lead for China OEM LC/MS instruments, and supervising the production of Gas Chromatograph (GC) mainframes. He also serves as the Design for Manufacturing (DFM) lead as well as Eco (Sustainability) Champion for the Singapore site, plus conducting classes for Project Management. Prior to joining Agilent, he worked at Heraeus as section manager after a successful setup of the Spark Plasma Sinter (power metallurgy) for manufacturing of Ruthenium sputtering targets, Hewlett Packard as NPI lead and product engineer, and OrcaDesign – a 3rd party design-house where he worked on Motorola pagers and Whirlpool air-conditioners. He received his B. Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University and the Graduate Diploma in Medical Device Manufacturing from the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech). He received his PMP certification in 2014. Wei Kwan has been married for over twenty-two years with two kids. If asked, he would say that his greatest project is guiding (together with his wife) both his kids thru the competitive Singapore education system: from getting into the Gifted Education Program to attending Raffles Institution and obtaining straight As in the Singapore-Cambridge GCE “A” levels – with offers from National University of Singapore, Waseda, University College and Imperial College. He is working on a book to share his journey (for interested parents).