Customer Reviews

Project Manager's Partner: A Step-By-Step Guide to Project Management

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I have used this book for 2 purposes. Along with the facilitator's guide, I've conducted introductory project management work sessions to introduce people to project management concepts, terminology and processes. Session evaluations from attendees have been overwhelmingly positive. We have also used many of the tools on the disk, some in exact format, some with revisions, to build tools for use in developing our project planning documentation.

Also use the tools, worksheets and checklists for both work projects and personal projects at home. The book and the tools are very helpful to ensure projects get off in the right direction. The terms, concepts and exercises have been extremely well received by participants. Have so far had 75 particpants in six 2 to 3 day sessions.

Every day, at numerous workplaces, somebody in power asks-or tells-someone to assume control of a project. In some cases, the designee is an experienced project manager. In most cases, however, the assignment is given to someone who has little or no knowledge or experience in project management. Consequently, too many new project managers stumble, flounder, look foolish, and don't achieve desired project results.

Give that neophyte some help! A partner to accompany the project manager step-by-step with guidance, advice, forms to use, and answers to the questions that are sure to bedevil you if you didn't have an expert by your side. The expert-the author-is a consultant and trainer in project management. His focus is to work specifically with people who do not manage projects as the principal element of their job, but who want-and need-to learn the techniques to do a great job.

Your learning will begin with a short introduction about how to use the handbook. This section will build your comfort and help you see the all-important big picture. Part One explores deliverables, project phases, and life cycles. After a brief time in Part Two, looking at project management processes, you'll dig right into a treasure trove of action items that take you right through the steps. The action items tie right back into the knowledge gained in Part Two, so the flow is easy to grasp.

Then come the appendices! Tips for Managing Experts Outside Your Expertise. Glossary of Project Management Terms. Shortcuts. And even guidelines for deciding when to kill a project. And this is only part of the picture.

Excellent resource for managers and would-be managers in any field.

As the leader of the Project Management Office and the initiator of project management standards for a large metropolitan school district, I needed a reference to give my new project managers an introduction to the things I was asking them to do. I found this book to be an excellent reference for that purpose. Also using the associated training program, I have offered very effective training classes for many people throughout our school district.

In adapting project management standards for our district, I also drew upon many of the princples outlined so effectively in this book. It makes project management easy to understand for people who have little or no exposure to the concepts.

I also found that I, as a veteran of many years of project management, found many excellent refreshers and reminders for the best practices of how we should pursue project management.

I would recommend this book to new and experienced project managers, alike.

As the leader of the Project Management Office and the initiator of project management standards for a large metropolitan school district, I needed a reference to give my new project managers an introduction to the things I was asking them to do. I found this book to be an excellent reference for that purpose. Also using the associated training program, I have offered very effective training classes for many people throughout our school district.

In adapting project management standards for our district, I also drew upon many of the princples outlined so effectively in this book. It makes project management easy to understand for people who have little or no exposure to the concepts.

I also found that I, as a veteran of many years of project management, found many excellent refreshers and reminders for the best practices of how we should pursue project management.

I would recommend this book to new and experienced project managers, alike.

If you have no background in project management, and no time for formal training, you could do worse than starting with this book. It is full of checklists and charts to handhold you through a project from start to finish. It also gives helpful follow-up references, both in-print and online. For the curious I particularly recommend searching for other publications by the Project Management Institute, and their associated work the Project Management Book of Knowledge (aka the PMBOK).

The Project Manager's Partner (which I got in spiralbound) will disappoint project management veterans because it neither provides any case studies nor tackles some of the thornier issues encountered in real world projects. There is a disk included in the back of the book (3-1/2" floppy) which just repeats some of the pages in the book in case you want to print out the checklists for yourself.

After a fairly brief introduction in the first 30 pages the book spends the next 120 pages covering the nuts and bolts of project management, the project's action items. It is up to you to breathe life into each of these in turn. A handful of helpful appendices follow.

One thing you should keep in mind (or, maybe it's just a reminder to myself) is that a project is generally intended to involve a committed team, and it is not something that you are supposed to scribble away about in a dark corner by yourself (how would your project get funded in that case?). If you don't have a group of interested, or, dare I say, passionate, coworkers to see you through the twists and turns of planning and implementation, your fruits are likely to die on the vine. You will even require moral support, criticism and celebration on occasion together with others to make the effort ultimately worthwhile. As an aside you might want to read "Encouraging the Heart" or similar works on the topic of rewards and recognition.

Please don't snub this book because its writing is inelegant and its structure is simple. For a larger library of project management books, this one definitely has its place, and you will often find yourself dog-earing the pages as you remind yourself what stage you are in and what you should think about working on next (assuming you don't have a software package with reminders, prompts, bells and whistles).

As a criticism, if you are not inspired by your project, this book will not provide the poetry to set you in motion. If you want inspiration to vigorous action, I humbly suggest instead reading Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton, which at 700+ pages is ten times as interesting as this book's 150 pages. Hamilton orchestrated a number of "projects" during his late eighteenth-century lifetime, including writing the Federalist Papers, reorganizing the national debt, laying the foundation for the US federal bureaucracy, and lobbying for the controversial Jay Treaty. He also worked himself to exhaustion on a number of occasions, and was embroiled in a major adultery scandal, so make sure you balance any enthusiasm you take from Hamilton's life with some time for mellowing out.

The book is very good and I recommend it. However, I had to order it from somewhere else. I ordered 8 books from Amazon. The Amazon Web Site noted that 10 books were in stock. I was expecting them within 10 days, however, 7 days after I ordered them I received an e-mail saying they cannot be found. I went back into the Web Site and it still said there are 10 in stock. I was not happy because I was counting on these books within a certain time period. I no longer am confident about the number of books that are actually in stock, if any.

I purchased this manual with the assumption that it could be used a reference book concerning Project Management related issues. Unfortunately, I find that I have no need for this book. It would be better suited for people, who don't know anything about project management, and need to survive for a short period of time. It does not contain any more useful information that common sense would dictate.

I thought that the accompanying computer disc containing sample templates would prove to be this manual's redeeming feature. Again, nothing more than what common sense would dictate.

One thing that I had hoped for was that this guide would dovetail the Project Management Institute's Knowledge Area. I found that the Project Manager's Desk Reference does a much better job.