About ETP
What we do
ETP is a company that provides consulting and training in:
- Project management
- Getting things done
- Getting things done in the shortest possible time
for all kinds of organisations.
There are four things you need to know about the methods that ETP provides:
- They work! For example, ETP was the project management consultancy for the Special Olympics World Games in 2003, the world's biggest sporting event that year. The people who planned and executed that project used ETP methods. The project is widely regarded as an outstanding success;
- They are common sense. Project management is not complicated - though there are many people who will tell you that it is. The things that you are doing may be logistically or technically complex but ensuring they get done on time and within budget isn't.
- They are light. ETP methods tell you how to get your projects or endeavours done with the least amount of effort. For example, using ETP's PSI (Probability of Success Indicator) you can assess the health of a project in five minutes.
- They are radical. ETP has pioneered such methods as remote building of plans or remote diagnosis of projects. ETP consultants have worked with clients, whom they have never met face-to-face, to estimate projects and build project plans. An ETP consultant recently diagnosed the problems with a project located in the US from a French motorway rest area!
Our story
ETP was founded in 1992 by Fergus O'Connell. Since then the company has delivered its message of common sense project management to thousands of people in hundreds of companies.
ETP is not a general-purpose training company, offering courses in just about anything. Instead, we do just a handful of things and we do them superbly.
Rather than telling you any more about us, have a look at our client list. It says more than we ever could.
About Fergus
Fergus O'Connell is one of the world's leading authorities on project management and getting things done in the shortest possible time. The Sunday Business Post has described him as having 'more strings to his bow than a Stradivarius'. He has a First in Mathematical Physics and has worked in information technology, software development and general management.
Fergus has spent much of the last thirty years either doing, teaching, learning, writing or thinking about project management. In 1992, he founded ETP (www.etpint.com), which is now one of the world's leading programme and project management companies. His project management method - Structured Project Management / The Ten Steps - has influenced a generation of project managers. In 2003 this method was used to plan and execute the Special Olympics World Games, the world's biggest sporting event that year. His radical methods for shortening projects are in use by a growing band of devotees. His experience covers projects around the world; he has taught project management in Europe, North America, South America and the Far East. He holds two patents.
Fergus is the author of nine books, both fiction and non-fiction:
- How To Run Successful Projects - The Silver Bullet, 3rd edition [2001]
- How To Run Successful High-Tech Project-Based Organizations [1999]
- How To Run Successful Projects In Web-Time [2000]
- Simply Brilliant - The Competitive Advantage of Common Sense, 3rd edition [2008]
- Call The Swallow [2002]
- How To Do A Great Job - And Go Home On Time [2005]
- Fast Projects: Project Management When Time Is Short [2007]
- How To Get More Done: Seven Days to Achieving More [2007]
- Work Less, Achieve More: Great Ideas to Get Your Life Back [2009]
The first of these, sometimes known simply as 'The Silver Bullet' has become both a bestseller and a classic. Simply Brilliant - also a bestseller - was runner-up in the W H Smith Book Awards 2002. Call The Swallow was short listed for the 2002 Kerry Ingredients Irish Fiction Prize and nominated for the Hughes & Hughes / Sunday Independent Novel of the Year. His books have been translated into thirteen languages.
Fergus has written on project management for The Sunday Business Post, Computer Weekly and The Wall Street Journal. He has lectured on project management at University College Cork, Trinity College Dublin, Bentley College, Boston University, the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business and on television for the National Technological University.
He has two children and lives in France.
