Essential Managers: Project Management (Essential Managers Series) [Paperback]

Andy Bruce (Author), Ken Langdon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2000 | Series: DK Essential Managers

Learn about quality control, communication, deadlines, budgeting, and planning risks. From setting out objectives to compiling the close--down report, from choosing priorities to selecting the right team, Project Management shows you how to plan, run, and monitor a project, and explains what to do if things go wrong. It contains a wealth of straightforward, expert advice on scheduling and budgeting, managing and communicating information, planning activities, and developing leadership skills to ensure successful completion of all your projects. The Essential Manager have sold more than 1.9 million copies worldwide! Experienced and novice managers alike can benefit from these compact guides that slip easily into a briefcase or a portfolio. The topics are relevant to every work environment, from large corporations to small businesses. Concise treatments of dozens of business techniques, skills, methods, and problems are presented with hundreds of photos, charts, and diagrams. It is the most exciting and accessible approach to business and self--improvement available.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Classify this itsy-bitsy book as a project management guide that isn't a project to read but that distills all the basics for you into a quick thumbnail guide on everything from establishing objectives and keeping to schedules and budgets to providing effective leadership and tackling problems efficiently. Along the way, simple checklists enable you to be fully prepared at every stage, from starting up to closing down, and accessible diagrams and flow charts explore different options for action and provide useful examples. Granted, if you're looking for very specific or in-depth guidance, you may find this book too cursory and general in its approach. But if you're looking for a thumbnail guide to the basics, it'll do you just fine.

It's worth mentioning that the book is also part of reference publisher Dorling Kindersley's Essential Managers series--20 itty-bitty li'l books on business and career topics ranging from communication, leadership, and decision making to the management of time, budgets, change, meetings, people, projects, and teams. Combining the For Dummies book series's talent for breaking down a lot of information into bite-size bits and sidebars with Dorling Kindersley's signature design style of crisp, classy graphics on a gleaming white backdrop, they don't represent the cutting edge of business thinking and they don't necessarily reflect any unique individual perspective. Instead, it's as though someone collated the best general thinking on these 20 topics and rolled them out into 72 brightly designed and easy-to-read pages, studded along the way with boxed tips, color shots of a multiracial cast of "coworkers" animatedly hashing through the workplace issues of the day, and a self-test of one's skills in the topic at hand on the last few pages of each volume. Again, they're not for anyone looking for more in-depth or focused help on any of the subjects they cover, but they're perfect as a quickie general-interest reference... and let's face it, they're so cute and look so smart in a neat little stack or row that you'll probably want to buy a whole bunch to give to your entire staff or department. --Timothy Murphy

Review

It hits all the bases... -- Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: DK ADULT; 1st edition (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078945971X
• ISBN-13: 978-0789459718
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #734,975 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Managers: Project Management, December 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Essential Managers: Project Management (Essential Managers Series) (Paperback)

An excellent, very portable, reference crammed cover-to-cover with easy to read information, including a multitude of diagrams and clear instructions that will allow managers and team players alike, to plan, monitor and control business projects to successful completion.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Guiding Light!, February 4, 2004

By 

Ilaxi S. Patel "Editor, kidsfreesouls.com & A... (India) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Essential Managers: Project Management (Essential Managers Series) (Paperback)

The Book is a great 'Guiding Light' - I mention this because Project Management is a wide topic. Any good business needs to begin with a plan to blueprint for operating and building company eg. Establishing, Budget, Targetting market, Competition etc. This book provides check lists with diagrams, graphs and examples that focus on SWOT (Strength, weakness, Opportunities and Threat) analysis of business. There's expert advice on team work, communication and developing Leadership and the authors' co-experience brings to limelight the basics of understanding the Project with topics like:

1. Defining Project
2. Planning Projects
3. Implementing Plans
4. Monitoring Performance

Quickie tips and perfect gem picks, this book from Defining leads to non stop information through monitoring and tracking progress tips, overcoming probs, dealing with change and summarizing assessment on management skills too. Dorling Kindersley's reference books has been a classy pick and gem on book shelf, this book also stands a 'Sure Pick' for lovers of Management field.

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Bad, Could Be Better, September 19, 2009

By 

Josh D. Nankivel (Sioux Falls, SD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Project Management (Essential Managers) (Paperback)

This is not a bad overview for a newbie project manager, but it tries to cover a lot of ground in a small area so essentially each point is only given a paragraph or two. Because of this, not much context is provided or a discussion of various situations that may arise. This is much more like one version of the "what" and not much of the "how".