Getting Real with Project Management
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."
3609121
There have been about a dozen books about this approach to project management whose origins are in part the Critical Chain Project Management approach developed within the Theory of Constraints. This is the latest (2012) as I write this review. It gives you a good feel for this way of doing things and how to do it. Kendall is one of the most experienced in the world and this transpires throughout the book. He is serious when he writes that doing it as he says enables (based on 60 cases): "Project duration reduction of 39%, number of projects per time period +70%, and increase in Throughput of 53%".

I quote: "Have you ever felt as if most project portfolio management (PPM) advice just adds work and slows you down? That's probably because it does . This book is different; it will help you reach a new level of performance in multi-project management. Buy several copies.

Philip Marris
Paris France
727185
This is a great book for Practicing Project Managers trying to move towards AGILE or if you are just starting to get into Agile world. I have also taken his CSM and CSPO classes and its been a great learning experience for me for someone like me who comes from the world of PMP. I would highly recommend this book as its worth every penny!!!
768330
It is really well written, but only for those who really want to make IT project management this much complicated. I guess project managers dealing with really big IT projects would need this knowledge. For others, it is good to know how an IT project is successfully managed, though for most of the projects which most of the IT professionals deal with on daily basis don't need that much complications.

This book quotes a lot of very good real life examples where IT projects fail because of bad management or succeed because of good management.

Key point which I learned from this book was that NO IT project completes in time, and all of them take twice the estimated time, so after making a plan for an IT project, give yourself twice the time to complete your project than what you have estimated, otherwise it is destined to fail because it'll not complete on time and in the last minute you'll rush to complete it as soon as possible, and that is where you'll make mistakes.
4674694
Interesting approach to the "problem" of finishing a project.
2774969
Eric is on the money with this book. He has spoke at our Project Management syposium the last two years. I have read both his books and feel he has educated me in project managment. His books ar each one stop in the tools of project management. You do not have to read 500 page text books to get project managment information, and it does not hurt to have the author speak in person at your events.
This book is a buy, right off in the first pages Eric tells you that most important thing that project management is a corporate strategic strength. Many companies mis use the title and relegate project managers to be gofors or process analysts, but follow this book and you will see the real strength that leading projects is about leading and decision making.
340911
This book presents a common sense approach to how women can lead effectively and with confidence. It is helping me improve in my role as a computer software project manager. The chapter on "Influencing With (and Without) Authority" has been particularly useful in identifying people's behaviors and how to adjust my style to influence them. The sections on setting expectations, giving feedback, and coaching fill in some of the gaps not covered by project management methodologies. The examples and first-person experiences in the book illustrate the concepts and make them easier to apply in real-life situations. I wish this book had been available at the beginning of my career!
2514964
Good project management book for quantitative/engineer project managers. More advanced concepts such as the use of statistical analysis (ex Rayleigh Distribution Functions and Schedule Reliability Determinations) to determine the most probable project outcomes in terms of Cost and Schedule is well explained. In addition the typical concepts and tools such as Critical Path Analysis and Earned Value (BCWP, SV, CV, BCWS etc) are reviewed in great detail.
787187
Real time management.  The best way to manage!
2532164
There are a lot of project management books out there that cover a very wide array of topics. Far too many to digest by one person...

I've read several of these - but for my money, Manage It! really hits the nail on the head with all of the key concepts and knowledge that software project managers need.

There are so many nuances to successfully herding software projects across the finish line - and as it's well understood, many attempts do in fact fail.

By reading and adopting the techniques and practices described in detail throughout this book, more software projects will have a better chance at succeeding.
3841523
Astute coach and author Natalie Disque is a PMP certified full time IT Project Manager who has worked in the IT department for many clients such as Capital One, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Prudential Relocation, and Johnson & Johnson Canada. This is her fifth book dealing with the subject of Project Management. She has been creating and teaching online Project Management courses at the undergraduate and graduate level since 2001.

In her very straight forward yet supportive Introduction she states, After doing research of my own and reading about how many failed IT projects there have been in just the past 10 years, it lead me to the following questions: Did the project fail due to a communication breakdown or was it a glitch in the software or an outage on the servers? Could the project failure been prevented? If so, by the stakeholders or the PM? Are IT projects failing due to PMs not improving their skills by learning how to proactively take charge of a project, communicate effectively and lead a project to succeed? Does the PMI offer enough webinars and courses on the topic of leading successful projects versus learning from failed projects? Are PM's not taking enough initiative to research past failures and understand how they can avoid the mishaps from past failed projects?'

She elucidates the current preoccupation with smart phones  Technology is an integral part of our lives. Whether we want to stay connected 24/ 7 or not, we are hooked on it with little hope of ever weaning away from it anytime soon. This is particularly true with the current younger generation growing up with technology as a normal thing in their everyday lives. I do not know many teenagers who are not constantly using their smartphones to update their status of some type of social media platform, let along do I know of any that watch television or listen to the radio to get their latest news as my generation did growing up. This generation is connected more than we probably want them to be, but it may be a good thing in regards to the experience they will have to continue innovative thinking and moving technological advances forward in the future.

While all of this introduces Natalies posture, it doesnt begin to touch on the course she offers here in this career guide book is meant to provide us with 10 real world IT project examples, why they failed, and Lessons Learned for each one. It will provide you with key points on the following concepts related to IT projects Requirements, Business Case, Planning Reasons, Execution Factors, Business Factors, Political Factors and Technical Factors. Her book focuses on IT Project Managers, but her gift of communication makes the information contained within useful in so many other situations. She is one wise woman with a gift for communication and coaching. Grady Harp, December 15
1979012
I did not put any high hope before reading this book. It turned out that I got more than I bargained for. I learned more than just project management from this book. The author uses simple and jargon-free style to guide the readers into the PM world. As someone who is not in PM field, this book helps me better understand what to expect in this field. I highly recommend newbies and those who are interested in becoming project managers to read this book. Thank you!
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!
2184582
There's a caliber of people called "project managers" that haven't taken more than a semester's worth of computer programming and software engineering, that this book is the most valuable for.  If you're becoming a project manager as a computer science graduate or basement-life coder, for the first time on a project, then this book is also for you.  It's good to have this information written out somewhere to see that it's not just one guy being a weenie when he suggests having a process and a revision control system-there is a science to software engineering.

However, through some experience that most everyone gets as a 'grunt', this is 90% of what people already know as common sense in 2007.  Get a version control system for everyone.  Come-up with a realistic deadline.  Build-and-test so your customer can see the results, correcting you as you go.

I liked the book, it read easy-enough, it just wasn't the sage advice about things I didn't know that I didn't know, that I was hoping it would be.  It did deal with things like having 4 different "bosses/customers" and the need to basically contract-out who dictates what features-unfortunately that was less than 10% of the book.
2881094
This book has some really thoughtful insight's on navigating the sometimes tricky world of Project Management. I wish I had this book available 10 years ago. It has a great blend of real world management challenges and how to overcome them for successful outcomes. A good read, highly recommended.
3605459
This book covers Microsoft Project 2010 Server edition. I see that one person thought this was a basic guide to using MS Project. It is not.  But if you are engaged in EPM projects and decision-making, this book will be much appreciated. It is not a simple "learn-to" of an off-the-shelf software program, but rather an insightful guide for anyone involved in Project Management. While I think that you would benefit from this fine book even if you didn't use Project 2010 Server currently (great concepts and helpful ideas!), it is designed for that particular software.

Chapter 1 -- Business Intelligence: Knowledge of Key Success Ingredients for Project Server 2010
Chapter 2 -- Value Proposition by the Role of Project Server 2010
Chapter 3 -- Meeting CFO Needs with Project/Server 2010
Chapter 4 -- The Business Shakes Hands with the Microsoft Project 2010 Platform
Chapter 5 -- End Users' Critical Success Factors: Using MS Project 2010
Chapter 6 -- Thinking Local, Going Social: Project Teams Can Thrive Using Microsoft Project Server 2010
Chapter 7 -- Better Together: Microsoft Project 2010 Worksites Using SharePoint Server 2010
Chapter 8 -- Effective Transition of Strategy and Execution: Program Management Using Microsoft Project Server 2010
Chapter 9 -- Intelligent Business Planning and Controlling Using Microsoft Project 2010
Chapter 10 -- Intelligent Business Planning and Reporting Using Microsoft Project 2010

This is a professional's choice for real life decision-making Project Management. Well done.
4226459
Although SureTrak Project Manager 3.0 ships with adequate documentation and the program is intuitive, there are three good reasons to buy this book:
1. The product documentation covers every feature - the information about planning and managing projects using this powerful tool is scattered throughout, making it difficult to tap into SureTrak's power without wading through an overwhelming amount of nice-to-know, but non-essential detail.
2. Although anyone who has used Microsoft's ubiquitous MS Project will have no problem getting started with SureTrak, they will miss the true project management features of SureTrak that are not present (or don't correctly work) in MS Project.  This book identifies those features and shows how to use them effectively.
3. The author goes beyond merely describing how to use SureTrak by showing you how to use effective project management techniques, many of which take years of managing projects to discover.
The book is structured as a series of 20 lessons (called workshops) that are designed to step you through setting up a project, and planning and scheduling it.  If you follow them in sequence you will be able to not only set up a project using SureTrak's rich feature set, but will also pick up general project management techniques along the way.  An example of one such technique is how the author classifies projects into four levels for planning and controlling.  These levels are based on project complexity, with Level 1 being the simplest and suitable for short projects, to Level 4 for complex, high-value projects.  You are given the planning and tracking criteria for each project type, which allows you to tailor your approach as well as ensure that you don't over-manage simple projects or under-manage the complex ones.
You are also shown how to use the more powerful features, such as the many project views (work breakdown structure, activity or resource), managing the sophisticated calendaring functions, and effectively using the resource profiles and reporting features. I particularly like the way earned value is treated.  The author shows how to use SureTrak's facilities for managing to earned value, as well as explaining this essential technique (which, by the way, is now a part of the Project Management Institute's PMBOK 2000 version). Another bonus is the way scheduling is explained by walking through adding logic to activities. You'll not only be shown how to perform this task, but given reasons why you should use one approach from among four possibilities to establish relationships. In this example the choices are start-to-start, finish-to-start, start-to-finish and finish-to-finish.
This book is clear, concise and heavily illustrated with screenshots from SureTrak.  The tutorial style and the way the lessons are sequenced will get you quickly up-to-speed with SureTrak and give you the knowledge and skills necessary to employ it with minimum reference to the manuals that come with the software.