The Art of Project Management – STAR Interview & Teaching Compendium is more than a book on frameworks and methodologies. It is a lived account of over four decades of experience across industries, continents, and missions where projects were never just about schedules and budgets — they were about people, trust, and transformation.

From oilfields in the Niger Delta with Shell to billion-dollar defense and security portfolios in Canada’s federal government, Dr. James Oni has witnessed the science of project management at its highest form: PMP work breakdown structures, PRINCE2 governance gates, ITIL service transitions, Agile scrums, and MSP program blueprints. These tools are essential — but they are not enough. What consistently turned science into success was the art: knowing how to inspire under pressure, how to translate technical blueprints into executive narratives, how to balance rigid governance with human flexibility, and how to leave behind legacies of stronger teams and more resilient systems.

This book brings that art to life through nearly 200 STAR-modeled stories. Each story captures a moment when discipline and intuition met:

• Replacing RCMP’s $100M dispatch system without a single minute of downtime.
• Turning resistance into advocacy in the PSPC GCDOCS rollout through storytelling of “information freedom.”
• Preparing Arctic telecom teams at Northwestel to weather blizzards with scenario playbooks.
• Inspiring naval admirals to champion training modernization by framing DNDAF models as “future-ready sailors.”

The compendium is structured into six dimensions of the art of project management:

1. Beyond the Science – Where frameworks meet judgment.
2. The Human Dimension – Building trust, safety, and motivation.
3. Balancing Structure with Flexibility – Governance without rigidity.
4. Vision and Storytelling – The “why” that sustains projects.
5. Risk as an Art Form – Sensing patterns, not just logging issues.
6. The Legacy of a Project Manager – Leaving behind capacity, not just deliverables.

Each dimension includes role-based, thematic, and reflective STAR stories designed for two purposes:

• Interview Preparation: Equipping professionals with real, credible STAR answers rooted in high-stakes projects.
• Teaching & Leadership: Giving mentors, coaches, and trainers ready-made case studies and discussion prompts.

In this way, the book is not just a memoir or a guide — it is a bridge between science and art, between theory and lived practice, between what projects do and what they mean.

Ultimately, the narrative of this book affirms one universal lesson: the science of project management equips us with tools; the art transforms those tools into legacies of people, purpose, and progress.