Customer Reviews

Facilitating the Project Lifecycle: The Skills & Tools to Accelerate Progress for Project Managers, Facilitators, and Six Sigma Project Teams (Jossey-Bass Business & Management)

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After hearing Tammy Adams speak at our local PMI Chapter I was intrigued by the content of her presentation. I found this book as well as the companion book "The Project Meeting Facilitator" and devoured them both. Meeting facilitation has been an interest of mine since my days at Cisco Systems. These books bring incredible insight into facilitation skills in a project environment. I highly recommend this book.

Facilitating the Project Lifecycle is an excellent resource for all project and process improvement professionals. The instruction is comprehensive, the examples crisp, and the added bonus of the CD which contains usable tools make this a must read for professionals looking to improve their craft. I purchased my copy three years ago, and I find myself referencing it and using the templates in my work often. If you are interested in running meetings more effectively, learning new facilitation techniques, improving communication plans, or managing projects to achieve desired results this book is for you!

This practical advice is my GOTO bible whenever I get into a sticky situation on a project regrdless of my role. The well articulated, practical advice can assist you in mining the nuggets of wisdom within your Subject Matter Expertise community and putting them in useful formats that faciliate project progression.

As with anything, the earlier you follow this advice the better, but if you are lost, lack process,or need to get your team back on track, read this through and implement all or applicable tools at any point.
Jet

This is a great book written by Jan Means and my good friend, Tammy Adams, and it lives up to its title. This book provides real world, practical information to establish, facilitate and model effective techniques for project teams. No, it's not a book about project management. It's about supporting project implementation through the use of "facilitated work sessions" - otherwise known as teamwork! Chock full of helpful session agendas, templates, tools and techniques (which are on a CD-ROM for subsequent use), Jan and Tammy catalogued and indexed over thirty years of their experience in an easy to use format. This is the newer and better version of the biblical "Team Handbook" for project managers, sponsors, facilitators and team members.

Out of all of the books in my office library this is the most valuable. It is highlighted, marked up, corners folded and used on a regular basis. As a facilitator who runs process improvement projects this book does a great job of providing the necessary insights and practical techniques to accelerate projects and people through working group sessions. This book is a must have for business analyst, instructors, facilitators and anyone who wants to increase the productivity of meetings in your organization.

The format of this book is easy to read and provides valuable templates on the CD that you can put into practice immediately. I recommend this hands-on guide to those who are motivated to get the most out of project meetings and run more effective and efficient meetings within your organization.