An excellent book for project managers
938788
I loved this book because of the way it is organized. All the important topics that stress the need for soft skills and technical skills that a project manager should have are talked about in this book. The book may not have covered some of the topics in great details, but the essential aspects are covered. A good read for the project management professionals and people who aspire to get into this field....
1241231
I read this book to augment my graduate-level Project Management course. I knew of the author's reputation as an instructor and a pioneer. The book lived up to my expectations.

Mr. Lewis covered the major aspects of managing a project very concisely and expertly. Here for example are the four reasons he gave for consensually estimating a task's duration:

1. No one person is "on the hook" for the estimate. If it turns out to be significantly off, no individual will get chastised for it.

2. Inexperienced team members will learn from the more experienced ones. Their ability to estimate improves.

3. Collectively, the team will be more likely to think of all the factors that may affect the time required to do the task. An individual is more likely to omit some of them. (This is an instance where more heads are better than one.)

4. I, as the PM, will receive a higher psychological commitment to the estimate than would be true if a single individual came up with it.

This is all fine and dandy but how can I use it?

It becomes another arrow in my quiver, so to speak. I can use it to clearly articulate the advantages of consensual estimating to anyone who challenges the idea. How many times do we run into a stakeholder who questions the need to "waste" time and effort coming up with a consensual estimate?

Bravo to Mr. Lewis for this wonderful book!
939182
Many books or articles on Portfolio management emphasize the importance of optimization, proper resource allocation, and to kill pet (petty?) projects. But beside the good advice no one shows you how to do it.

In this book, Dr. Bayney and Chakravarti do an excellent job in developing the foundation to implement project portfolio management. I must warn you, you should have some previous knowledge of concepts as efficient frontier, monte carlo analysis, parametric estimation, linear programming and even AHP  because those are used

The first section begins with basic concepts of EPPM in IT and R&D industries, you will eventually find what I consider the most important question for the PPM execution: How well (EPPM) is practiced, how much value is created and what value leaves purposely or unknowingly? This chapter explains the logical evolution of the EPPM practice within a company.

The second section explain strategic planning, and data integrity, The reason for this is to understand how the PPM process integrates to the business planning process, because strategic planning is about the WHAT a corporation wants to be in the future and HOW the EPPM process will support this. You will read on common issues you find during strategy development as: current rewards systems, metrics and culture. Data integrity is very important because any organization has to be clear on what it wants to do: grow on sales? Ebitda, both? If the decision making proves is biased how could you expect to get the desired results?

The third section introduces you to the CREOPM methodology which is the tool the authors developed.
- <C>ategorize projects: to allow flexibility for optimization
- <R>isk analysis: Because no project neither its phases are 100% certain
- integrated <E>valuation: to know the probability of a value and the variance of a result (example: the project averages sales are X, and you only have n% probability to have sales above a Y value)
- project <O>ptimization: the use of simulation to find the efficient frontier of a project portfolio regarding several constraints. Here you understand the answer to the question of the first section
- project

rioritization: the use of the AHP and MODA methodologies to assign weights to several criteria for project evaluation
- <M>anage: A deeper guide to self asses your EPPM maturity levels, risk, resource & stakeholder management.

Finally, the book closes with the 2 case studies, one for the IT industry and one for the R&D. This is the chapter I liked most because the authors go through all the CREOPM framework to develop several scenarios for a portfolio, from the un-constrained maximum results to the constraint-adjusted more close to reality, so an organization can choose: Do we look for short or should we look mid-term? Shall we ask for more budget? Are we willing to accept a some how flexible constraint?

Any decision maker would be pleased to have this level of detail to help find the answer to "How much value are we creating and what value are we leaving purposely or unknowingly?"
4862231
Perhaps the thing I like best about this book is the front cover illustration. It shows a bunch of spinning plates on the top of slender rods. I can't think of anything better to illustrate the problems of project management. There soon become so many plates, so many parts of a big project that you are constantly running from plate to plate, from emergency to emergency.

Of course what the book is about is the body of knowledge that has been built up to enable big projects to be managed. The current concepts began with the military organizing itself to handle huge development projects during World War II including code breaking and the Atomic bomb project.

This was branched out to other weapons projects and subsequently to managing projects of all types. As the types of projects for which project management techniques have proved useful, so has the body of knowdedge, techniques and procedures for project management.

In this, the fifth edition of this classic text virtually every aspect of project management is covered, updated to the latest practices, and covering the use of project management techniques in many different contexts. This is not a 'cram' book to enable the student to pass the certification test, instead this is a book that covers every aspect of project management and fits it in with overall management of the company.

Probably the best overall book on project management you will find.
1947386
I would highly recommend the addition of this book to any PMP's reference library.  As a military professional with over 20 years of project management experience, I found Jeff's book an excellent tool to fill in my knowledge gaps as I worked to earn my PMP certification.
897223
This is one of the most valuable book about project management, I think, especially for primers and mediocre managers who don't have enough train or experience.
As this author have pointed implicitly and explicitly, the most important thing to do in the project management is not amusing with templates, procedures, or other bureaucratic toys, but focusing on the dynamics of its requirements, its designs, and its teams.

Therefore, this book is not much like other primer-books about project management.
This is more like ones about requirements, designs or psychologies.
So, I think this book suited not only for PM, but also programmers, designers, testers, and any other personel participating in a project.
And I think the new title ("Making things happen") meets much better than the old one ("The Art of project management").

Of course, Most of the staffs describing in this book are just about basic knowledges.
And to learn about these staffs more deeply, you must learn from books, Weignberg, Demarco, Humphrey, Beck, Joel, McCarthy... and so on, and I also recomend Goldratt, Wiegers, McConnell, Poppendieck, they doesn't referenced in this book, and also you must learn from LIVE projects of your own.

Schedule-management is not the only responsibility what PM is expected for, PM must get along with its Requirements and designs, Human-factor is the next headache, and Risk-management is coming second, ... and on, and on.
Welcome to the world of the REAL project management, the most complicated version of MINE-SWEEPER. :-)
Anyway, this book is a very good starting point.
3392864
very well written, it s a project management mothodology based on processes.  a great guide for any project manager, and a must have complement to PMP credential holders.
3868244
The book is very informative for IT project manager. Mostly, it contains steps and procedures that can be applied during each phase (planning, implementation, and review).
I think those procedures are easy to understand but in practicing those, I guess it will takes time to see the result. And, I think the most time consuming from those steps are defining the payoff measurement criteria. Unfortunately, the authors do not explain or elaborate clearly on the selection of criteria. I know that choosing the criteria depend on companies. However, I like to see in the book how many criteria to choose and how we select them.

I agree that every project should have been evaluated. The book provides a great score-sheet that could be filled by the project users for realizing the IT benefits. It gives me an idea at least to ensure that everybody realizes the benefit of the new system. This also makes easier to track the benefits stream over the costs. Since everybody participates in the survey, the project team knows what to improve if there is a problem.

Overall, this book gives a lot new ideas on IT investment evaluation and IT benefits measurement. The authors provide great guidelines from planning phase to final (review) phase. In addition, the author also talked a little bit on how to deliver ideas to your boss with good impression and persuasiveness. However, I would like the authors to explain more detail on each procedure, i.e. what's the importance of them to follow, what if we skipped some procedures.
4638817
This is a very good book for those with some experience in project work.  It is not entry level material, mainly because it makes important points with examples and without examples:  only those who have some experience will have a "hook" to latch onto in order to relate to the latter.  When examples are given they are succinct and easy to relate to.

The end of chapter tests reinforce the topics covered very well.  There are times when an experienced project manager who is doing some "brushing up" with this book will not necessarily agree 100% with the required answers as given -- you know the sort of thing, when you have to choose from answer "a", "b", "c", or "d" and you want to choose "e"!  Generally, however the authors show clearly that they have the relevant battle scars from actual projects (one seems to have more practical, hands on experience than the other).

I have 30+ years of project management experience behind me, with a few more ahead in my career.  I found this book invaluable for brushing up my knowledge and for learning a few new ideas.  Thank you Helen and Karen for sharing your comprehensive knowledge.

One peeve (otherwise it would have been 5 stars) - when I tried to do the final examination on line, as suggested, I could not find it anywhere on the web.  I have completed the exam and sent off my answers by snail mail to the name and address given in the book.  I await the response...
2790524
Managing Complex Projects and Programs is not a project execution how-to book, nor is it intended to help you study for your PMP exam.  It is a book that takes an in-depth look at the real-world dynamics associated with executing complex projects and programs inside large, complex organizations.  The author explores the challenges associated with advancing multiple projects and programs simultaneously and how organizations have evolved and adapted over time to deal with their growing portfolio and the unintended consequences associated with these adaptations.

The book is based on interviews and feedback from a large number of project and program practitioners and business executives.  As I read their stories, I can relate to their experiences and the author's insightful root-cause analysis brought several aha moments.  It's rare to find a book that looks holistically at this problem from a systems perspective and suggests ways to address these issues that goes well beyond the application of a different tool or methodology such as agile, lean, complex or extreme project management techniques.

The book takes an unconventional but realistic approach in defining the issues and provides powerful organizational and leadership insights that can be used to improve the probability of achieving desired outcomes with far less frustration.  I have worked in the field of complex project and program management in large organizations for many years and highly recommend this book.  It is both a useful reference for the practitioner who wants to better understand and manage the forces in their organization that are acting on their project or program, and the executive who wishes to improve the organizational structure, governance processes and the selection of future project and program leaders.
584289
Outstanding and valuable in many ways! Ori Schibi takes you through a Project Management Professional Development course that would otherwise easily cost you thousands of dollars. And he scores a bull's-eye - just like the book's cover portrays - helping you understand and manage stakeholder relationships!

Ori Schibi's analysis and insights into the work of project management provide a valuable contribution not only to Project Management literature, but also to project managers directly. His approach is thoughtful and systematic and his writing highly readable and entertaining as he describes the broader project execution context through anecdotes, aphorisms and real life stories. (Sometimes you don't even realize you're reading and learning from a professional text.)

The highly useable checklists and mind maps will help project managers direct and focus their thinking toward those project elements, individuals and dynamics that ultimately improve their prospects for project success.

But perhaps Ori Schibi's most significant accomplishment and the book's highest value-add is that, as the author himself states in the preface, "it recognizes simple human behavioral characteristics and applies them against the reality of our projects."
95253
There are two things prospective readers need to know about this book:  (1) it is focused in IT and software development project management, and (2) it is not a 'how to' book.
This is a collection of papers on advanced project management topics that experienced IT project managers will find enlightening and up-to-date with respect to techniques. The papers are divided into the following six topic areas:(1) Essential Concepts of Project Management, (2) Critical Factors for Project Quality, (3) Managing Business Relationships,  (4) Effectively Managing Outsourced Projects, (5) Managing Special Projects and (6) Measuring and Improving Project Management Success.
What I like is that the book does not focus solely on software development projects, but covers areas that will interest project managements in infrastructure, oursourcing management and other IT functions.  I also liked the following papers that address concerns of PMs from a larger perspective: "SEI CMM or ISO 9000: Which Is Right for Your Organization? ", "Incorporating Six Sigma Concepts into Systems Analysis" and "Managing Development in the Era of Large Complex Systems". In addition, there are many papers that address concerns common to all IT project managers, regardless of their functional area, including: "Business and IT: Developing Strategic Alliances", "Creating and Implementing a Balanced Measurement Program" and "Ten Ways to Improve Project Performance".
IT project managers will benefit greatly from the information presented in this book.  It should be a part of any PMO library, and every consulting firm should have a copy available to its project managers.
2781174
This is an excellent book both for portfolio management practitioners and executives. Several aspects of the book are outstanding: the integration of project portfolio management into the greater organizational context of managing a business, process focus and the emphasis on using portfolio management as an instrument of change. This book is both visionary and relevant to practitioners at the same time. Highly recommended.
2437004
Being a project manager in the large software development company requires constant coordination of activities between multiple dev teams distributed around the globe.
To make sure we avoid at least some common mistakes I am following quite a few recourses on the topic of outsourcing and so far `Outsource It!' is definitely one of the best.
I like everything about this book - real life stories and situations I can clearly relate to, the size that makes it a perfect travel companion and overall structure, which makes it easy to find a topic you are mostly interested in at the moment.

Great book, which I highly recommend to my friends and colleagues.
301199
I'm not even done reading Resch's book and I have to say it's so refreshing to read a book about project management that is based on real-life experience AND sound project management knowledge. Resch lays a solid foundation on the need for "project value management" and for the PM to really understand the big picture, bigger than what most PMs think of as big. Then he goes on to show the reader exactly how to achieve those goals. Not only is it informative, but it's practical and useful as well. Many PM books are rather dry and boring, but Resch's writing style is just conversational enough to make it easy to read. It feels like he's talking directly to the reader and taking the time to explain what he means and then backing up his point with real-life examples. Then he goes one step further by asking thought-provoking questions to the reader which really gets the reader involved in the material. This is a must-have not only for project managers, but for any managers and executives who are involved with projects, or people aspiring to become (better) project managers. This book will take their career to the next level.
4954907
Very well written book of practical information that every project manager needs to know or be reminded of.  The organization and layout of the book makes it appropriate to sit and read cover to cover as I did; or to use it as a reference when you have a particular challenge you're facing and need some advice or just to be uplifted.  It is not a nuts and bolts project management how-to book, but a nice little adviser you can carry around that will point you upward and in the right direction even on the down days.  And we all have occasional down days don't we!
4583701
I picked up this book out of curiosity about a year ago.  My first thought was "this is probably just another PM book that I'll end up putting on a shelf."  I was wrong about that!  The concepts in this book helped me recover a major project that went off track.  There was not a lot of time to perform and we made an assessment of the current state of the project at that time.  Instead of jumping in with a MS Project plan, we re-visited the project scope, assembled a project recovery team and got to work.  We used a simple excel schedule so that all project stakeholders could be informed of our progress. We made some quick wins and started regular communications with the client.  While the recovery of the project was not perfect, we were able to turn the project around in 2.5 months.  The concepts in this book are essential not only to the recovery process but to any part of the project management process.  Nearly all of the concepts can be applied to any project.  I would highly recommend that Rescue the Problem Project be a part of any PM's library!