Customer Reviews

The One-Page Project Manager for Execution: Drive Strategy and Solve Problems with a Single Sheet of Paper

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One Page Project Management (OPPM) for Execution is the third book in the best selling OPPM series. All are based on an innovative technique of populating an OPPM template with all of the information needed to provide project status to those who need it, in the areas of goals, ownership, tasks, schedule, and cost. For those new to the series, this book contains the full 12 step tutorial you will need to understand and make effective use of this valuable tool for all your projects. For those who have already read either One Page Project Manager or One Page Project Manager for IT Projects, the descriptions here will provide a refresher and deeper insights into the individual areas of the template and its uses.
I found this book particularly valuable in 3 ways:
1. Showing how the OPPM works for a particularly complex, labor intensive and time consuming project. Many times we see a simple tool and can easily believe it will work for a simple implementation, but can't imagine it working for "my projects". This book contains in-depth examples and shows how a large number of underlying objectives, owners, tasks, months, are managed handily on just one page, leaving no questions unanswered.
2. For those companies interested in continuous improvement of their processes, this book provides full description, explanation, and examples of a comprehensive one page report (here 11x17 is the size of the page) along the lines of the Toyota A3 report. This report provides the context surrounding a project, typically using the Deming cycle of Plan, Do, Check, and Act (PDCA) as Toyota did for continuous improvement of its processes.
While the OPPM alone provides a valuable look at project information, this A3 report, with the OPPM embedded in it gives a larger picture. It may be used to:
* communicate business strategy,
* define and communicate a problem to be solved,
* provide the steps of a problem,
* identify possible solutions,
* test the proposed solution, or
* implement a solution.
Mr. Campbell describes and gives in-depth examples of using both the Deming cycle of Plan, Do, Check, and Act as Toyota did as well as the STEPS model of See, Think, Experiment, Prove, and Sustain as used at O.C. Tanner Co.
3. Finally 2 small additions to the OPPM template provide very large value.
* The first provides, in a single annotation to the basic OPPM template, answers to questions regarding critical path. It identifies tasks on the critical path as well as showing their completion status.
* The second allows you to track the value that you are earning as the project progresses. It provides the ability to see and track earned value as you complete the work. Using 3 stacked cost bars in the cost section of the basic OPPM template you can show actual cost for actual work (AC), planned cost for planned work (PV) and planned cost for actual work (EV). Schedule variance can be seen by comparing EV to PV, while cost variance is shown by comparing EV to AC.

All in all, I found this book to be very interesting and educational. It provides in-depth examples that show how to use and tailor the OPPM and the A3 report to my best advantage, no matter the size, scope, length, or complexity of project. And...all in one page!

03/15/10 Update: I'm pleased to report that the author personally contacted me to apologize for the oversight detailed below, and is actively working to remedy the situation. Based on the great customer service and positive outcome, I am updating my rating of the product.

How ironic. Conceivably, if the author used his own product for this book project, you would think that "Upload to website the A3 template promised on page 82" would be a task on his OPPM, slated for completion prior to the book's publication date. This type of oversight is inexcusable, especially so for those espousing what they claim is a superior project management tool. I called and left a voice mail message at the contact number listed on the author's website (which features the same stale templates that have been there for years, some dating back to 1995), as well as sent an email, and received absolutely no response whatsoever. That was two weeks ago. Deplorable. The A3 template "bait-and-switch" is all the more egregious, considering there is really little else new that this book offers over the others in the series. Same premise, different application, and you can't even be bothered to make available the one element (new Lean template) that would merit the investment...especially given that it is such a structural departure from the original template format, and not easily replicated unless you happen to be one of the original developers of Excel with a week or more on your hands to do nothing but work on configuring this complex template from scratch. I plan to return the book.

I work with organizations that use the A-3 report format. I also use the One Page Project Manager to help communicate my project progress. I think that combining the One Page Project Manager with the A-3 is a great idea! It makes a very useful document (the A-3) even more effective through visual tracking of progress. What a great way to visualize and communicate both strategy and progress.

Finally, a simple and concise approach to managing projects using lean methodology. The book builds on concepts introduced and adopted by many from the first two books by the author, Clark Campbell. This third book in the series provides insight on how to leverage the One Page Project Manager templates into other areas, including Toyota's A3 one page approach. Also, the appendix explaining the origins and mathematics of A3 is particularly interesting. I have used these templates for both large and small projects and highly recommend them.

If you have to provide overview of a project to executives, this is the book and methodology for you! The whole line of OPPM books are short, sweet, and to the point.