Commitment - A novel on managing project risk

What is this project for?

We (Chris Matts and Olav Maassen) have been working on our practice based theory about decision making and risk management for more than six years also known as the real options meme. Last year we joined forces with Chris Geary a very talented graphic artist to create the first business graphic novel on managing risk.

The goal of this project is to help us fund the drawing of the rest of our business graphic novel, “Commitment”, estimated publication date Winter 2012.

 

What do you mean a "business graphic novel"?

Our book has the delivery format as a business graphic novel. It is the combination of a business novel, such as "The Goal" by Eli Goldratt and a graphic novel, such as "The adventures of Johnny Bunko" by Daniel Pink.

A business novel is a teaching story, a work of fiction with the goal to teach the reader a concept. A graphic novel allows for a compelling, accessible and visual way of explaining difficult concepts. Will Eisner first used comics successfully as a teaching tool to replace the training manuals used by the US Army since WW II. By combining the two styles of a business novel with a graphic novel we are able to keep the reader enticed in the story as well as explain theories both in word and visuals.

The drawing style of the graphic novel has been chosen to fit the business purpose of the book. It has a more serious style than regular comics. Please read the attached first chapter to see what we mean.

What's the book about?

Essential to managing projects is how the project manager handles risk. This graphic novel follows Rose Randall as she is forced into managing a project many years after a painful project failure. Taking over a project that is already under way, she struggles to manage her project and her personal life. Help comes from an unexpected source guiding her in the direction of real options and how to apply this meme to both her project and her personal life.

We know there are many books on managing, managing projects and managing risk. This book is different in both the content and the delivery format. Commitment focuses on making risk management easily understandable as everybody does this every day without being aware of it.

What's in it for me?

Well, that is really up to you. On the right is a list of rewards you can chose from. The more you are willing to pledge the bigger the reward is. Pre-ordering the book will get you a book when it gets published (go figure). But you also have the opportunity to actually make an appearance in the book itself. The image below shows a scene where you may turn up. Don't worry this drawing is just a quick draft (thumbnail) impression of the scene.

Or if you would just like to be on the cover, chose the limited edition reward. You'll get the book with a custom dust cover featuring you!

Should you have a wild idea for a reward but it's not listed, let us know. If we like it, we'll add it to the list of possible rewards.

How does this crowd funding work?

If you want to support us, please select one of the rewards from the list that interests you. Sponsume is slightly different from other crowd funding web sites. Sponsume will charge you even when the target for our project is not reached. But don't worry! You will receive your reward and we will finish the book, it may just take a bit longer.

For more information on crowd funding and sponsume please visit the FAQ: http://www.sponsume.com/getting-started/why-back-project

Thank you for your interest in our project!