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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A difficult book to recommend, May 5, 2006
This review is from: On Time! On Track! On Target! Managing Your Projects Successfully with Microsoft® Project (Bpg Other) (Paperback)
I bought this publication because 1) the price seemed reasonable and 2) it's often good to go back over familiar material and learn some new perspectives. And, though I succeeded on point 1, I was generally disappointed with this publication which seems to be directed at new project managers and yet fails to convince that is has been edited with such an audience in mind. The title - suggesting that Microsoft Project might get a strong focus - left me somewhat confused. The first 90 or so pages make little reference to Microsoft project and, when they do, do so in a way that suggests the author presupposes a fair degree of familiarity of Microsoft Project. This seems at odds with the previous text which is an almost simplistic view of project management basics. The terminology seems loose, some of the early examples fail to illuminate the topic and the cartoons that accompnay the test create a 'home published' feel that I don't believe does Microsoft Press many favours. Those expecting to find a gentle introduction to Microsoft Project will need to perservere beyond the initial chapters. And, even then, when Project is introduced it is done in such terms - without explanation - of "task view", "dependency links", etc which, although in themselves not a problem, are introduced without explanation and apparently with an assumption the reader will understand such terms. These problems suggest (to me at least) some real problems with identifying the audience for the book: new PMs, experienced PMs but new to MS Project, or other. I was never sure. This is the kind of book I would recommend to those with no experience in Project Management or MS project. And, if that desribes yourself, this book is a gentle introduction to the techniques of project management. Others familiar with Project management will find the introduction of little value and the segue into the details of MS project abrupt and assuming a familiarity that won't necessarily exist.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Whom it's for and for whom it's not..., March 17, 2009
This review is from: On Time! On Track! On Target! Managing Your Projects Successfully with Microsoft® Project (Bpg Other) (Paperback)
Okay, let's be clear. If you already have been using MS Project and you understand the various processes of PM pretty well, you'll likely only get a few good tips to help you improve how you manage your projects and use of MS Project. But if like myself, you have been told here's a project for you and you have little to no project management training (other that your own good sense of how to plan, thus any mother or father could handle most projects! ;) ), this book is very helpful and especially so for gaining a quick sense of "I can do this!" and "I can do this with MS Project, Excel, Word, etc., the tools I many have already at work (or even with similar products like Open Office, etc.) I purchased this book as part of a bundle (thus it was free) along with MS Project 2003 a few years ago and I still use it to help me understand certain aspects of project management (now that I'm finally really doing projects at work) where as I've hardly ever used the MS Project 2003 book (mainly because now I have the 2007 version and "Microsoft Project 2007, The Missing Manual" is a better aid for me (again someone who prefers simple, layman terminology to understand software even though I'm far from a beginner with using MS products). So, again, if you're an IT tech-type or PM guru who's been using MS Project, already PM certified and prefer tekkie lingo when using a reference book to find a detailed way to solve a MS Project software problem you have, this is not the book for you. But for any newbies or immediate level users who want to understand the PM process and how and when a software tool (in particular MS software tools) can help you within that process, you should definitely try this book out. And hey, you can look at various online stores who offers a "pre-read" if you'd like to make sure before you purchase it!
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
MS Project not included!!!, July 29, 2006
This review is from: On Time! On Track! On Target! Managing Your Projects Successfully with Microsoft® Project (Bpg Other) (Paperback)
Just like the previous reviewer, I was confused when reading this book and still 1/3 into the material the references and practical application of MS Project was virtually non-existent. In fact, you're more likely to find Excel screenshots that MS Project in over 50% of the book. Not to be unfair, the provided material is a good basic primer on project management and covers the surrounding techniques broad enough to get an overview. However, if you already own (or use) MS Project, you most likely read similar material before. (Especially if you had to dish out the hundreds of dollars yourself, you should have covered the basics before.) Overall the tie-in with MS Project is completely misleading as this book does not teach even fundamentals on how to deal with the software. I wish I could say the background makes a few things clearer in my in-frequent use, but frankly it's way to generic for most of the time. Around page 130 was the first time I felt I found about 2 pages worth of interesting material, but that's about the only time. So for general project management it may be a good basic book with a reasonable price tag. (The only reason I gave it more than one star!) For anything more stay clear of this title and look somewhere else.
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