For the last half-century, people in industry and education have struggled to find better ways to plan and manage projects and to meet project goals on time and within budget. There is no agreed-upon way of doing this. Only a small percentage of projects achieve all their goals and one third of projects never get finished.
The problem that leads to inadequacy is that project management in action and literature is piecemeal. Project management will always be confusing and will frequently be unsuccessful as long as it is treated as a multi-part process.
Integrated project management is what works. It is what this book is about, and it is what makes it unique in its field. Microsoft Project software pushes users toward integration. Project managers who are unfamiliar with project management software will find themselves further and further behind in the field.