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The Handbook of Project-based Management: Leading Strategic Change in Organizations Review

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The Handbook of Project-based Management: Leading Strategic Change in Organizations ReviewJ. Rodney Turner was Director of Project Management at Henley Management College (UK), where he used to run an MBA programme for project-based management. In 2001, he was Professor of Project Management at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands. This book is part of the Henley Management Series and is split up six parts, with each part consisting of 2-to-7 chapters.
Part I - Introduction - provides an introduction into project management. Chapter I explains the difference between projects and operations, project objectives (managing scope, organization, quality, cost, and time), and the three dimensions of project management (objectives, management processes, and levels). Turner also gives an introduction into the structured approach to the management of projects, which is the basis/structure of the total book. This chapter is perhaps the most essential of the complete book.
Part II - The Context of Projects - describes the different settings of projects. The author describes projects for implementing corporate strategy, possible relationhip(s) to the parent organization, and strategic management of projects. These chapters are especially useful for specialists in order to understand and appreciate the place of projects within the overall organization.
Part III - Managing the Project Objectives - is the most comprehensive part of the book. It introduces methods, tools and techniques for managing the first dimension of project management, the five project objectives: scope, project organization, quality, cost, time, and the inherent risk. It also explains how to balance the systems and project objectives. Although most tools are explained in detail, there is better literature available for management of these methods, tools and techniques.
Part IV - Undertaking Projects - turns to the second dimension of project management, the management processes, and describes how the methods, tools, and techniques explained in Part III are applied to undertake project. It describes project definition, from project start-up via proposal and initiation, feasibility studies, design and appraisal, to the launch of the project. This Part III also discusses the execution and control, and the finalization and close-out of the project(s).
In Part V - Management Procedures and Systems, Turner describes how the tools and techniques from Parts II to IV have become formalized into standard systems and procedures. He explains some of the administrative procedures used and how they have been computerized into project management information systems. The author also look at what the systems can do, the different types of system available, and how to select and implement a system. The final chapter of this Part discusses the role of the project manager in building and maintaining the project team.
Part VI - Applications - compares the application of the processes introduced in the previous four Part to different types of projects. Turner classifies projects against three parameters: the position of the project in the life cycle of the product, the type of industry or technology of the project/parent organization, and the size of the project. The final chapter considers projects involving international collaboration and how different cultural approaches can conflict during the project management life cycle.
The book is useful as a starting point for students and as a reference for people experienced in project management. I personally keep the book as a reference (in combination with the Project Management Institute's Guide to the Project Management Book of Knowledge), but use additional, more detailed, literature for the different parts of the book. Please be aware that this book is written by an author with a engineering/construction-background so most of the examples are from these industries. Also note that the book is a very extensive piece of work consisting of 22 chapters, some 514 pages, and lots of figures and tables, so do not think that you can read it within a day.The Handbook of Project-based Management: Leading Strategic Change in Organizations Overview

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Change Management Review

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Change Management ReviewA lot of people think they "get" change management, but not many truly do. Jeff Hiatt and Tim Creasey get it, and have written a great book for the rest of us. "Change Management: The People Side of Change" helps the reader understand what change management is and how to execute it effectively for an individual or an organization. It provides very practical, actionable ways to tackle what is really a critical success factor when implementing big changes - managing the change effectively. Buy it for everyone from the CEO to the front-line staff. And as a bonus, it will help you understand and manage changes for yourself and those close to you!Change Management Overview

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The Black Book of Outsourcing: How to Manage the Changes, Challenges, and Opportunities (Wiley Desktop Editions) Review

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The Black Book of Outsourcing: How to Manage the Changes, Challenges, and Opportunities (Wiley Desktop Editions) ReviewAn excellent source for information and guidance. The book's three main parts cover: how to plan, lead and manage outsourcing initiatives; a guide to finding an outsourcing career; and a guide for outsourcing entrepreneurs. Some specific topics include: making decisions to outsource; what is needed to be known before starting; assessing cost, benefit, and risk; outsourcing options; selecting suppliers and vendors; and much more. Includes an annotated, extensive vendor directory. Offers a wealth of information and insights.The Black Book of Outsourcing: How to Manage the Changes, Challenges, and Opportunities (Wiley Desktop Editions) Overview

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Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems (Interactive Technologies) Review

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Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems (Interactive Technologies) ReviewI've been searching all over for good guides to the *process* of human-centered design as opposed to the techniques for good UI: This book is excellent on two counts
1. The principles and methods you advocate
2. The lack of competition, but this doesn't distract from the quality of the book.
There are lots of books on how to do UI, but they all concentrate upon the widgets. This is the only one I have seen that really tells you how to go out and collect customer data, and then, what to do about it. I also like the way it deals with UI design -- do it only after the analysis -- resist the temptation to start the design too soon.Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems (Interactive Technologies) Overview

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Juran on Quality by Design: The New Steps for Planning Quality into Goods and Services Review

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Juran on Quality by Design: The New Steps for Planning Quality into Goods and Services ReviewJuran on Quality by Design offers a look into the thinking by members of the Juran Institute on the means to deliver quality products and services through a customer focused planning process. This latest Juran book is actually a replacement and expansion of one of its predecessors, Juran on Planning for Quality (Free Press, 1988). The similarities between the two books is significant enough that this new book should have been promoted as the second edition of the first. The new title is much better aligned with the intent of the discussion contained, since the earlier title made the line management audience less obvious than required for the use of the procedures contained throughout the volume.
In Planning for Quality, Juran laid out a ten-step road map for the planning of new products to meet the explicit and known needs of the customer. Using a chapter-by-chapter approach that followed the road map step-by-step, Juran explained the overall process of designing quality into the product in a fashion that makes the work useful to both line staff chartered with implementing the processes and senior management who must provide the commitment and leadership that make it all work. As each step progressed, Juran built a spreadsheet that captured the necessary process and product data needed to provide traceability from customer needs through process controls and product quality control tests.
In Quality by Design, Juran has kept to the style and organization of the former work, but the process itself has matured during the four year gap. The revised process includes only six sequential steps: establish quality goals, identify those impacted (the customers), determine customers' needs, develop product features, develop process features, and establish process controls (transfer to operations).
A seventh step, apply measurement, now appears throughout the process and affects all six of the sequential steps. In Planning for Quality, measurement was the fifth of the ten sequential steps. Ongoing measurement is an important part of the maturation that Quality by Design has gone through.
Juran's spreadsheet has also matured from one very complicated spreadsheet, that actually became quite unmanageable, to a collection of four simpler spreadsheets that each coordinate a different view of the data collected, making the planning results easier to tie back to the process. The spreadsheets constitute the raw data output of the process. Juran describes the four spreadsheets as "the interlocking input-output chain, in which the output for any step becomes the input for the next step."
The first planning spreadsheet list customers down the rows, and customer needs across the columns. The second transfers those needs to the rows and adds product features as columns. The third moves product features to the rows and adds process features as columns. The fourth spreadsheet adds process control features as columns providing full traceability from the process controls implemented back to the original customers that drove the quality planning cycle. Those comfortable with matrices will recognize that these four spreadsheets represent a five dimensional structure of information about the customer and processes. In Planning for Quality, Juran had implemented these five dimensions in a single two dimensional spreadsheet and the result was unmanageable, making Quality by Design a significant improvement.
In addition to revising the earlier work, Quality by Design expands on many issues raised earlier with an additional 200 pages of discussions that affect the implementation of the planning process throughout the organization, and several major case studies that highlight the application of the process.
The chapter on "Strategic Quality Planning" offers insights on the application of the planning process to senior management and the creation of a quality culture within the organization. The chapters on "Departmental Quality Planning" and "Multifunctional Quality Planning" highlight the use of the process within the organization for inter-departmental or intra- departmental quality action. These closing chapters offer guidance on the application of Juran's planning process, making Quality by Design less theoretical sounding than its predecessor, Planning for Quality.
Professionals with my field of information technology should read Quality by Design. Even those individuals who have already read the previous Planning for Quality will find enough incremental value to justify the overlap. The question remains: How can the process described be applied within the IT function?
To start, the planning spreadsheets can be used to map out the requirements for any methodology and standards already in place within the department. To the extent that quality control is often difficult to sell within the development methodology, the spreadsheets help illustrate how the process controls inherent in the IT process support the requirements of IT customers. Likewise, the spreadsheets will point out any existing omissions in current IT practices that may result in dissatisfied customers. This self-assessment and diagnostic use of Juran's work can be done with relatively little effort and at low cost.
Second, and requiring more resource and commitment, Juran's process can be rolled into the current IT requirements definition process to improve the level of requirements being defined by IT projects. The deliverables may have to be mapped against Juran's spreadsheets, but the result will be an increased project focus on, not just data and processes, but also the controls that need to be built into the IT system to assure that the application can be validated and monitored over the long-term. The result will be the implementation not just of new application processes, but of processes that embed the concept of continuous improvement through control of the key variables directly traceable back to customer satisfaction.
That's what Juran on Quality by Design is all about!Juran on Quality by Design: The New Steps for Planning Quality into Goods and Services Overview

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The AMA Handbook of Project Management Review

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The AMA Handbook of Project Management ReviewAs an Industrial Engineer I have been involved in many projects along my career of more than 25 years in business, I have used this book as a reference since 2000 when I got involved in ERP implementations, the book is packed with useful information and is very complete in all the BOK required to pass a PM certification.The AMA Handbook of Project Management Overview

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Web Project Management: Delivering Successful Commercial Web Sites Review

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Web Project Management: Delivering Successful Commercial Web Sites ReviewThis book is not about project management. In fact, someone versed in the Project Management Institute's Project Management Body of Knowledge will cringe at some of the statements made in the book (more about that below). It is, however, about delivering successful commercial web sites and it provides the best approach I have ever seen.
Here are some of the things that make this not only unique, but the most authoritative book I have read on the subject:
(1) It is not an IT centric book that focuses on technical issues. The author brings to the forefront the real critical success factors in the form of four equal sets of requirements: commercial, creative, content and technical. In 2000 I was a member of a multi-million dollar dot com project team for a large international company, and from that experience I totally agree with the author's view.
(2)The author manages to balance the time-to-market pressures that permeate commercial web projects with the by-the-numbers method imposed by IT. As such, this book addresses the development life cycle from inception to production by aligning implementation to development life cycle stages. It manages to accomplish this and still cut the project's cycle time by removing any fluff. What is fluff? The tons of non-essential paperwork produced by some of the larger consulting companies. What is not missing are the essentials, as evidenced by the repeated emphasis on testing, the attention given to configuration and change management, and the realities of post-implementation support. These are extremely important and are too often overlooked.
(3) The project controls that are proposed in this book are exceptional. While the author muddles through stuff like the proper definition of critical path, he shows how to effectively control a project by managing to deliverables. Contrast this with the common mistake of managing to a schedule and you will see the real effectiveness of his methods. So, while he misses the mark on some project management fundamentals, he sure makes up for it in pragmatism. He also makes up for his "transgressions" by laying out a project roadmap that, if followed, will guarantee success. If we project management "purists" lighten up a bit while reading this stuff we might learn a trick or two.
The big surprise is the author is not an IT professional - his background is TV producer! Or, perhaps it's not a surprise at all considering the fact that there is no room for failure or missed production schedules in the TV industry, while the IT profession is notorious for massive schedule and cost overruns. What impressed me greatly is the wide range of technical issues that are addressed: browser compatibility, content formats, scripting languages, etc. For someone without an IT background the author demonstrates a solid grasp of real-life issues and gotchas.
Those of us in IT need to carefully read the parts that address creative and content management. We are used to working with technical peers from vendors - working with copywriters and artists requires a wholly different way of interacting and communicating. Moreover, content needs to be treated in an entirely different matter than data, and it also comes with an array of legal issues that we are not trained to think about.
What I discovered , despite my previous involvement with a commercial web project, is there are so many factors I had never considered prior to reading this book that most projects are flying blind. As such, this book should be read by every team member, creative, content (artists and copywriters), technical, legal and commercial (marketing)*before* undertaking such a project. This will ensure that the entire team sees the big picture and understands the complex interrelationships, and all issues and factors are addressed. Mr. Friedlein deserves the highest accolades for making what I believe to be the most significant contribution to this field. My only regret is that I am limited to 5 stars.Web Project Management: Delivering Successful Commercial Web Sites Overview

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Fundamentals of Technology Project Management Review

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Fundamentals of Technology Project Management ReviewI love this book!! I have read quite a few PM books over the past few years. This is the first one that I have really been able to use to quickly increase my knowledge and understanding of project management. I use this book on a day to day basis to help me in my job. The document templates are outstanding. What a difference it has made to my project to be able to use these and feel confident that I have all my bases covered. A lot of the documents I had never created before as I was not really sure what information needed to be in them. These templates are great and make it really easy to ensure that your project is fully documented. I found other PM books lacking in information on "how" to implement the processes needed. Most them just tell you what you need to do and often do not cover the whole process from start to finish and leave some areas completely unaccounted for. This book however, tells me what needs to be done and then goes on to explain in detail how to do it. The book leaves no stone unturned. Every single step in the process is covered including the people aspect of project management. The examples are great - they have helped me to understand where I have been going wrong and with just a few adjustments to my management style, my projects are running more smoothly and my team is much happier! What I especially liked about this book is that the authors understand that no matter how well you plan, things will always go wrong. They give practical advice on how to track the health of your project and how to plan for the unplanned. The authors also understand that you need to know about other areas of the business in order to effectively manage and coordinate with other departments. The information on QA was invaluable to me. I had never fully understood the difference between white box and black box testing nor really understood what the QA manager meant when he talked about regression testing and acceptance testing. It was all just jargon to me. The concise and informative overview of how QA works has enabled me to have intelligent dialogue with the QA manager about testing without feeling intimidated or confused. I wish this book had been available when I started my first PM job - I would have done a much better job!! Since reading this book, I feel myself changing from a reactive project manager into a proactive project manager and it is truly amazing how much difference that makes. I feel calmer and less stressed about my project and don't panic when things go wrong. This book is very easy to read and has just the right amount of humor and real world examples to keep it really interesting. It is must have for any Technology Project Manager whether just starting out or a more seasoned PM like myself.Fundamentals of Technology Project Management Overview

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Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art (Best Practices (Microsoft)) Review

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Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art (Best Practices (Microsoft)) ReviewMcConnell immediately differentiates between software estimation as a science and software estimation as an art within the first pages of the introduction to this work - he explains that while software estimation research is currently focused on improving estimation techniques so that project results are achieved within +/- 5% of esimated results, the techniques of which are best included in commerical software estimation tools that are used to pursue the science of estimation for very large projects, the typical software organization struggles to avoid estimates that are incorrect by 100% or more, and Software Estimation discusses the estimation techniques comprising, although not limited to, the art of estimation that will reduce estimation error to about 25% or less, which is what the vast majority of software projects need. This book is absolutely the best software estimation text I have read to date. As Joel Spolsky mentions on the back cover of the book, the vast majority of software project managers still think that estimates are based on multiples of a gut feel. This philosophy completely ignores the vast body of research and hands-on experience of the last few decades. McConnell explains with sufficient depth all of the ways to create "ball park" estimates, and if there is one chapter of this book that you read, Chapter 4 "Where Does Estimation Error Come From?" is the one that I recommend - the explanation of the Cone of Uncertainty is so well explained that anyone can understand it. Although I have never read Code Complete by the same author, I did purchase Rapid Development several years ago - and I must say that McConnell (or at least his editors) has vastly improved his writing skills. This book is less than half the size of Rapid Development, and while I fell asleep while reading that book I was able to conduct a cursory reading of over half of Software Estimation in one evening and immediately apply some of its concepts on a work project the following day. A great modern follow-up to The Mythical Man-Month by Brooks and an excellent primer to reading SEI's Estimating Software-Intensive Systems by Stutzke on the science of estimation.Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art (Best Practices (Microsoft)) Overview

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A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Third Edition (PMBOK Guides) Review

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A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Third Edition (PMBOK Guides) ReviewI have recently read a few PMP books cover to cover, and I thought I should share my experience with other readers with an intention to help them to find the right books.
THIS BOOK.
Well this is THE book. You cannot avoid it. But it is very poorly written. The evidence of what I'm saying starts wiith the name. I was looking for Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), and this is named as Guide to PMBOK. You would think if this is a guide to PMBOK, where is the PMBOK. Then I realized that this is it. You have to have it because this the official PMBOK: the information source for both the PMP and CAPM exams. However, don't count on this alone for the PMP and CAPM exams.
A brief review of what I think are the top three PMP books follows:
1. PMP In Depth by Paul Sanghera, Thomson Course Technology.
This book has just hit the market and is relatively unknown. But I found this a rock solid book. Almost all the topics are covered with adequate depth. The material is presented in a logical learning sequence and the presentation is very cohesive: no hopping from topic to topic. It's an easy and interesting read. All concepts are clearly defined and expalined. This makes it a great book for both the PMP and the CAPM exams. I feel that the communication management could have more coverage. Although for the exams, the current coverage is enough.
The material is organized in order of the project lifecycle (the process groups) consistent with the way the exam objectives are organized. Furthermore, exam objectives covered in a chapter are explained in the beginning of the chapter. This makes the exam preparation easier and confusion-free.
I recommend this book for a self contained book for the PMP and the CAPM exams, and also if you just want to build a good understanding of the project management basics. Oh yes, the book is very reasonably priced.
2. The PMP Exam Prep by Rita Mulcahy; RMC publication.
It is a very good book if you are either taking a course from the author or from an instructor who is using this book as a text book. There are lots of exercises. Unfortunately, this is not a self contained book. Topics are not covered with enough depth. Also there is a poor flow and a lots of hopping from topic to topic. Moreover, it's outrageously high priced. Too many cross references and overhyped.
Overall I recommend this book if you are using it in a course.
3. The PMP Exam by Andy Crowe; Velociteach.
This is a great book and relatively self contained. You can study this book and pass the PMP exam. There are a only a few topics, which are not covered in adequate depth. In this and in Rita's book, The coverage is organized around the knowledge areas while the exam objectives are organized in order of the process groups. That breaks the exam objective coverage into pieces, and may cause confusion.
I recommend this book if you are looking for a self contained book to pass the PMP exam.
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Third Edition (PMBOK Guides) Overview

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