Radical Project Management [Paperback]

Rob Thomsett (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0130094862 | ISBN-13: 978-0130094865 | Publication Date: April 25, 2002 | Edition: 1

Radical Project Management introduces eXtreme Project Management (xpm), the first radically new approach to project management in decades! Traditional project management is inward looking, static, and doesn't respond to rapid, constant change. xpm looks outward to stakeholders, management, and clients, and thoroughly involves them in an agile process that assumes everything will change. Rob Thomsett presents xpm from start to finish and introduces every tool and technique you need to make it work in your organization.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Project management for today's complex, chaotic business environments.

• XPM: the first radically new approach to project management in decades!
• Designed from the ground up for today's high-speed, fast-changing projects
• Refocusing project management focused on people, relationships, and adding value!
• Innovative new XPM tools: how to make them work in your organization

Traditional project management doesn't work any more: it's inward-looking, static, and just can't respond to rapid, constant change. Radical Project Management looks outward to stakeholders, management, and clients—and thoroughly involves them from start to finish. Moreover, it assumes that everything will change—and defines a flexible, ongoing project management process that encompasses both project development and support. In this book, Rob Thomsett, one of the world's leading project management consultants, presents XPM from start to finish—and introduces every tool and technique you need to make it work in your organization.

• Refocusing project management on what matters most: people, relationships, and adding value
• 11 radically new rules for project managers to live by
• Innovative new XPM tools, and how to use them
• "Open Planning" and stakeholder ownership: the heart of successful project management
• New XPM metrics and project-tracking techniques
• Why project managers don't need to know the gory technical details
• Detailed case studies: how XPM is enabling creative people to do truly great work

If you've always suspected there's a more agile, flexible, intelligent way to manage projects, you're right—and XPM is it. Discover for yourself, with the most authoritative, complete, useful XPM guide ever written: Radical Project Management by Rob Thomsett.

About the Author

ROB THOMSETT is a Senior Consultant with Cutter Consortium's Agile Project Management and Business-IT Strategies Practices, a contributor to Cutter Consortium's Advisory Services, and director of The Thomsett Company. He has consulted in and taught project management since 1974. Over 20,000 professionals have attended his workshops in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Hong Kong, Italy, and Australia, and his radical approach to project management has been adopted by many major global organizations. Thomsett is author of People and Project Management and Third Wave Project Management, both from Prentice Hall PTR. Ed Yourdon has called him "one of the world's leading project management gurus."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (April 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130094862
• ISBN-13: 978-0130094865
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #196,426 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Today's guide on project management for the IT professional, May 27, 2002

By 

David Williams "I.T. consultant" (Newcastle, NSW, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Radical Project Management (Paperback)

Five years ago I read the most insightful and inspiring book on project management I had ever seen. This was morbidly titled "Deathmarch" due to the proliferation of unrealistic projects that I.T. teams found themselves caught up in.

I have now found a new contender for my favourite book on the topic, in Radical Project Management by Rob Thomsett. Coincidentally, it is part of a series edited by Ed Yourdon, the author of Deathmarch!

This book is novel in its approach by embracing two key facts.

Firstly, project management is no longer a dry topic, best left to crusty managerial types. The modern I.T. professional needs to be all of network guru, web developer, database administrator, software developer and, of course, project manager. Hence, even the most hands-on techie has to grip this topic!

Secondly, traditional project management methodologies are losing relevance in today's wired world where the only constant factor is change.

Thomsett argues that such practices are inward-looking and static. Conversely, his "Radical" philosophy looks outward, embracing stakeholders, management and end-users, seeking to involve them in the project's development from conception to implementation.

This is what Thomsett means by calling his philosophy "radical" - it departs from tradition. The term also, to my mind, plays on the "RAD" - Rapid Application Development - paradigm that boosted languages like Delphi and Visual Basic into the limelight. RAD languages also sought to involve end-users in the creative development process by allowing the rapid construction of functional prototypes.

Of course, a mere philosophy by itself is insufficient (consider the USSR!) and pleasingly, Thomsett fills his pages with case studies, details of new project management tools and how to successfully use them, and just good common-sense and stories "from the chalk face". As one reads this book, it is abundantly evident that the author is writing from a wealth of experience - this book is by an I.T. professional for I.T. professionals.

I wholeheartedly recommend it, and it certainly has found a place on my desk.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Going beyond the Gannt Charts, June 11, 2002

By 

J Pieters (Willoughby, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Radical Project Management (Paperback)

Finally a practical project management book that goes beyond Gannt charts, time lines or budgets. I have already found it useful in finding out why and where some of my projects went wrong and the lessons I can learn for the future.

Thomsett has added principles to project management that have often been talked about, but that are rarely (and effectively) applied; for example quality, realisation of business objectives, distinction between project objectives and solutions.

This is not just a book for project managers; anybody who is involved in projects in some way or another (business analysts, HR professionals, people who commission projects) will get a better understanding of what it takes to deliver projects successfully.

And if you're a movie fanatic - you'll love the references to some great classics.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some good ideas, but heavy on jargon and distraction, March 16, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Radical Project Management (Paperback)

This book loses its momentum by focusing on jargon and buzzwords intead of clear and solid points. The effort of reading this book is not a complete loss - there are some good suggestions and models, but any of Gerald Weinbergs books are shorter and better reads with 10x less pretension and unnecessary complexity.