How to Save a Failing Project: Chaos to Control [Paperback]

Ralph R. Young (Author), Steven M. Brady (Author), Dennis C. Nagle (Author), Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 27, 2009 | ISBN-10: 1567262392 | ISBN-13: 978-1567262391

You CAN Turn Around Failing Project!

Poor project results are all too common and result in dissatisfied customers, users, and project staff. With countless people, goals, objectives, expectations, budgets, schedules, deliverables, and deadlines to consider, it can be difficult to keep projects in focus and on track. How to Save a Failing Project: Chaos to Control arms project managers with the tools and techniques needed to address these project challenges. The authors provide guidance to develop a project plan, establish a schedule for execution, identify project tracking mechanisms, and implement turnaround methods to avoid failure and regain control.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In summary, the book is a great reference for newcomers to project management or people who are dealing for the first time with failing or struggling projects, but it still offers new reference material for experienced project managers, too...It's a source for inspiration and contribution for project mangers who successfully shifted a failing project from chaos to control." How to Manage a Camel, November 2010

About the Author

Ralph R. Young, DBA, has led projects in local government, management information systems, systems and software engineering, process improvement, and systems integration. He is the author of four books that address aspects of requirements engineering. Dr. Young is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire and holds an MA in economics and a DBA from The George Washington University.

Steve M. Brady, PMP, has worked extensively in the information technology industry, providing project management, organizational process development, business analysis, and strategic planning services. Mr. Brady holds a BS in management of information systems and an MBA from Wright State University.

Dennis C. Nagle, Jr., has spent more than 20 years as an engineer on project teams, both as a programmer and also as the principal software architect. He is certified in the personal software process (PSP) as defined by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Mr. Nagle holds a BS in Computer Science from Virginia Tech and an MS in Computer Science from Wright State University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 234 pages
• Publisher: Management Concepts (May 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1567262392
• ISBN-13: 978-1567262391
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #556,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Ralph R. Young has invested his career in assisting individuals, projects, and organizations to improve and helping others to grow. He has a wide diversity of experience, including businesses, Federal Government, local government, military, and oversight. His most rewarding professional role was managing a process improvement group over many years that utilized the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) as its improvement framework. His experience is that the CMM and its successor model, the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), are very useful in enabling practical and useful improvements. Utilizing these frameworks effectively requires a champion in the organization who can articulate how they support improved project and business results. Ralph has written a series of five books to date: Effective Requirements Practices (that describes what to do); The Requirements Engineering Handbook (that describes how to perform requirements-related work); Project Requirements: A Guide to Best Practices (which is written for program and project managers, to communicate the importance and value of incorporating good requirements practices); Performance-Based Earned Value (with Paul Solomon), which proposes a change to industry Earned Value Management practices; and How to Save a Failing Project: Chaos to Control (with Steve Brady and Dennis Nagle) that identifies and describes good project management practices. Ralph contributed to another recent book, The 77 Sins of Project Management. Ralph enjoys the outdoors, boating, reading, writing, and family activities. He is currently working on his next book concerning leadership. He welcomes comments and feedback and can be reached at [e-mail].

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, Solid Advice, October 21, 2009

By 

Susan de la Vergne (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Save a Failing Project: Chaos to Control (Paperback)

HOW TO SAVE A FAILING PROJECT: CHAOS TO CONTROL by Ralph R. Young et al is a competently written book with a misleading title. It should have been called HOW TO KEEP A PROJECT FROM FAILING, since it's a collection of good project management advice from a voice of experience, but it's not how to triage a project in trouble. Still, it's well-organized and well-presented and could probably replace dozens of its predecessors already lining the project management bookshelves, covering this territory before but not as well. If I were teaching basic project management, I'd certainly consider using this book in class. Planning, team-building, managing expectations, sharing a vision--it's all there, and the authors have obviously been there, done that.

I would, however, like to have found more insights, what to do when you apply this good advice and it doesn't work, when you don't "get stakeholder buy-in" or you can't get the team together for a weekly review of progress or when conflict erupts. I would like to have heard about assembling teams that aren't co-located, teams that span geography, cultures, and languages, which is now often the case.

I also wish the book included more stories. There are a few, but given that our authors seem to have considerable experience, it's too bad they didn't share more of their first-hand experience. Stories always make for better reading than one "now do this" section after another.

I was glad to see, at the end of each chapter, a list of recommended further reading on the topic, including summaries of each book or article so prospective readers will have some idea whether they wish to actually spend time on it. I was glad to see, too, a new (I think it's new) term in the Project Management lexicon: "inch stones." It's about time we stopped thinking everything must be measured in "milestones"!

If you buy only one project management book this year, you'll get your money's worth if you buy this one. It won't catapult your to new heights, but it won't disappoint you if you're looking for a comprehensive view of what it takes to manage projects well.

5.0 out of 5 stars Learning from experience, August 26, 2009

By 

Gregory M. Horine (Indiana USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How to Save a Failing Project: Chaos to Control (Paperback)

There's nothing like learning from experience, especially when it is the experience of others you can learn from. This book is a stellar example of that. These three authors bring a ton of experience and insights that will improve the effectiveness of any IT project manager...not just ones that find themselves trying to recover a troubled project.

This is a book for every IT project manager's personal library.

NOTE - The book "reads" as if it was authored by a single person rather than three...very impressive example of collaboration.

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding PM Resource!, August 11, 2009

By 

Clifford B. Vaught (Glen Allen, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How to Save a Failing Project: Chaos to Control (Paperback)

This is, simply put, an outstanding resource for any project manager, whether your project is going well or failing. It's written in plain English, is a fast read, and is loaded with valuable information. I would recommend that this book be read before starting any project just to put in place the mechanisms and processes to prevent the chaos from developing. My favorite aspect of the book is the notes and references. Ralph, Steven and Dennis have loaded this book with numerous references - hard copy and on the web - and I can't wait to go back through the book a second time just to begin following up on those. I will be using this text with my project managers as well as my offshore team to reinvigorate the process-based approach and the fact-based management techniques. I strongly recommend this book to all project and program managers.