Customer Reviews

Breakthrough Technology Project Management (E-Business Solutions)

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This book is best suited as supplemental reading for seasoned project managers who are looking for fresh ideas or a different approach that may not have occurred to them. Many of the concepts discussed can only be applied in specific circumstances, and judging when to use them takes some experience. The book should not be used as an introductory text for new managers or as the basis of a technology development process. Despite the title, there is nothing novel enough in the 281 pages to be described as 'breakthrough'. Perhaps because the authors try to concentrate on specific themes, there is also a lack of completeness. For example, aside from a few sentences, there is no discussion of budgeting, estimating, risk management, or quality assurance. Much of the guidance assumes that a project manager has more control over the organization than is typical. Some of the ideas could actually contribute to worse project performance. On the positive side, the book is stuffed full of guidelines that can be applied to most projects. The authors expand on such ideas such as managing multiple projects together as a 'slate' and using the number of issues to indicate project progress. The informal writing style makes it easier to read than the typical project management textbook. The book doesn't need to be read from front to back. The lists of things to consider while managing a project are well organized and indexed. For example, if a manager needs some fresh ideas about how to deal with a poorly performing team, just flip to Chapter 14 and browse for the problem and recommended solutions. Although one of the authors is from a university, there is a curious lack of academic rigor. While there is a short bibliography, there is a complete absence of footnotes. In other words, there are many claims made, but no independent confirmation can be made of the data. Do the methods described actually work? We have only the authors' opinion. They sometimes confuse tools and technology with management principles. Broad statements abound about how everything is different in the modern world and how IT projects are even more different. However, the examples in the book describe an organization that most reasonable managers would describe as already dysfunctional. While the ideas presented may be 'breakthrough' to such a fictional company, they are really just common sense to most well run organizations. You may just not have thought of them yet.

We do contract programming for maintenance and development for over 600 customers in North America and Europe with a staff of over 300 in various locations around Mumbai. There had been many problems in project tracking and estimation in the past. For over a year we have used this book as a guide for project management. The methods in this book are different from traditional project management and really work. We used the template approach to create templates for over 20 project types in client-server, data warehousing, COBOL maintenance, Internet, and e-commerce. We have since expanded this to 34. The templates have provided a degree of standardization that we were not able to achieve before. The collaborative method in the book has been a key factor to greater programmer participation and estimation. Improved budgeting has resulted as well. Overtime we have refined the template detail three times. We now prepare proposals with greater accuracy. We also perform weekly resource allocation and reporting following the guidelines in the book. The book contains specific guidelines for various types of projects which we have used and expanded upon. Per the suggetion in the book we have also established a data base for experience. This has increased productivity. We have done the same with issues. Issues are associated with tasks in the project plans. This has provided excellent management of risk. We have also used another of the author's books, On Time Technology Implementation. It also provides excellent guidelines for both development and maintenance.

This book is quite different from standard project management books. It addresses multiple projects as well as associating risk in tasks with issues related to projects. Our firm in Malaysia adopted the approach in the book. We first retrofitted over 50 project plans into templates with a standard resource list. We then defined issues for the projects. We uncovered on our own about 75 issues. Then we matched up the issues with those in the book. We found that another 35 issues applied to the projects. So far, we have constructed a data base of about 225 issues. We have now about 55 templates. We have found that the approach reduces time in doing scheduling. We are doing assignment of staff through the management of multiple projects. Overall, we have found the method to be effective. It might be useful for the authors to add more issues and guidelines as these are very helpful.

I am a senior IT manager at a large midwestern insurance company. We recently completed all of our Year 2000 work and testing. We have over 70 programmmers and over 35 major systems. Each of these had to be reviewed and then modified. The challenge was how to manage the people working on Year 2000 maintenance as well as new development work. We started in 1996 with planning. A manager obtained this book in 1998. We had had many frustrating months trying to work out managing the programmers time across all of this work. The details of the book on multiple projects was very timely for us. We have employed it since we first started using the book at the end of 1998. The book identifies how to allocate staff time across multiple projects provided that these are set-up through the use of common rules using the project management software. We use Microsoft Project, Version 98, in a shared user environment so that the standardization mentioned in the book was followed. Another idea in the book is the process plan. The writers should go into this more. We developed our own model for key insurance processes as the Year 2000 work wound down. At the peak work, we had over 150 users working with Microsoft Project files.

For project managers, the advice is solid but overpriced. For CIO's or Department Heads who can pick which projects to do, it provides much more information than standard project management books. The discussion of how to choose which projects to do, and then control them, provides solid advice on a topic generally not addressed. The audience for this material, however, is a much higher ranking and more limited audience than the material on individual project management. The project management material is reasonable, practical, and well presented, but nothing struck me as a breakthrough. Additionally, the book's price seems excessive for the advice provided, especially for a paperback. Technology project managers would be well advised to look at Information Systems Project Management by Hollows as an alternative. Project managers will find the book useful but can find cheaper books that present similar information. CIOs or Department Heads, who can pick what projects should be initiated, can get some uncommon advice and should also have the higher salaries that make it easier to take the book's price.

This book promotes the "how" not the "what" that you see in so many other PM books. I have read several other books over the past few months (Lewis', Keough's, etc.) They were helpful; however, Lientz & Rea's book was invaluable throughout our annual corporate planning process. It included helpful technology & business trending information, project management maturity within the organization, a structured approach for how to develop a project concept and getting it through management approval, what skills to look for in effective PMs, and much more. The most important information in the book, however, is the authors' understanding of inter- and intra-project dependencies within an organization. I was able to create a very good four-quarter systems' program plan based upon my learnings from this book. If you already have a good grasp of basic PM concepts and theory, but want more assistance with the "how's" or useful "best known methods," this book is for you. Please note that I am using the 1999 edition.

If you go search on technology project management you find 140+ titles. Most of these do not address IT issues. This is one of the few that addresses IT projects specifically. It deals with all aspects of setting up, organizing, monitoring, tracking, and implementation. Specific problems and issues are addressed individually including how to avoid the problem, how to deal with the problem, and the impact. The authors have adopted an upbeat tone that stresses collaboration, the use of project templates, and lessons learned. These are key factors for success in IT projects from experience in over 40 major projects over a 15 year period. The book contains many useful guidelines for organizing the team, dealing with team member problems, management reporting, presentations of projects, how to establish the project plan quickly using templates, how to employ collaboration to define and update the work, how to do estimation and contingency planning, and how to address risk. There are chapters on dealing with specific issues. Rather than deal with fuzzy concepts, this book gets down to the nitty-gritty of doing a project. The book addresses how to allocation time between project and regular work--something that other books do not do. In addition, there is an emphasis on multiple rather single projects. In the world of IT there are very few instances where you deal with just one project. There are many interrelated projects. This is a well written, complete and innovative project management book. It is no wonder that it has been widely adopted.

Our organization has reviewed over 50 books in IT and general project management from the view of usability and useful methods for a multiple project, complex environment. We found books like Schwabe and Menche somewhat useful, but very limited in dealing with the actual problems faced in projects. There was just too much introductory material. This book, on the other hand, is very useful in that it addresses problems such as scope creep, changing requirements, high management expectations, dealing with vendors and users, and other specific issues. It is also being translated into Chinese. This is the book you should get if you want to address problems in real projects and want specific guidelines.

IT projects are very different from standard projects. This books provides an in-depth approach to managing IT projects. It has some very good specific tips regarding risk analysis, the management critical path (as opposed to the critical path), the use of score cards for project evaluation, how to deal with issues, and how to use lessons learned and experience to get continuous improvement in project management. In addition, the book focuses on templates rather than the traditional work breakdown structure-so it is gives greater flexibility. Another novel approach is use of the team members in participating in project management. Overall, very useful and informative.

About a month ago, I purchased several project management books to improve my knowledge of project management for use in IT projects. This was the most useful book of the bunch. It is directly relevant to IT projects which involve non-dedicated resources, short time frames, changing priorities, and management changes in direction. The book clearly addresses how to handle many IT project issues--going beyond technology and technical areas. The book was very easy to read and has been easy to use due to its structure and organization. I would hope that the book in a later edition expands on the number of IT issues that are addressed as it serves a real need in IT projects.