Customer Reviews

How to Save a Failing Project: Chaos to Control

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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.

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.

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.

This book provides not only tools and techniques for helping failing projects, but it also reinforces good project management practices. This book is also very well done with practical information for all levels of project management.

Poor project results are common and result in unhappy customers and users alike: that's why How to Save a Failing Project: Chaos to Control, the collaborative effort of Ralph R. Young, Steven M. Brady, Dennis C. Nagle, Jr., is key for any project where project managers want to assure success. Ralph Young has led projects in local government and management information systems, and has written four books on requirements engineering: others have worked extensively on project teams. The basics of what differentiates success from failure and key tipping points along the way make this a powerful pick for any business library.

This is an excellent book written in very straightforward terms using pertinent examples that provide a solid foundational approach to PM. Important focus is directed at the fundamental and common sense aspects, whose oversight/devalued importance has commonly contributed to project failure.
Having worked with Mr. Brady and Mr. Nagel, (I represented the user community on a very large government project) I witnessed the application of the processes/techniques detailed in this book and can testify to their effectiveness.