"Of late I have been very weary of reading various books, magazines, research journals and what not on Project Management. So when I received a copy of yet another PM book, I was not at all excited. But, since I had nothing better to do, I just thought what the heck; let me take a shot at it?
Before even completing 2 chapters, I was entirely engrossed in it. The book was so fascinating, I found myself smiling quite often as most of the examples taken, were so close to my own project management experience. It made me look back and think about the various situations I had faced. The author starts each topic with a very simple and easy to understand sample and then advances the subject matters through simple examples and then illustrating them onto detailed case studies.
The biggest difference I see in this book is that the author has not written this book based on any industry standard methodology or theory. He has written this book based on his own day to day experiences in Software Project Management, which most of the project managers would like to read, share and learn.
I found that the author had addressed many complicated project management issues as well. I particularly liked the following which he had mentioned in the introductory chapter:
True professionals know their limitations, and the responsible course of action is to either configure the project in such a way that it stands a chance of success or stamp it "return to sender".
I think this is a fact that even most senior project managers forget about, or do not act upon, due to some negative impact from senior management. But in reality committing yourself to a project which you know at heart will not be successful, will create more problems for you later than convincing management on your decision on not acquiring it.
Again and again he takes real life examples such as planning a wedding in order to explain how the scope of a system can be changed (Determining Scope), and raising a kid and teaching him to walk on the road in order to explain how a PM methodology can be introduced to your organization with stakeholder Buy-in (Introducing Process component to the organization).
I recommend this book for any Project Management professional who wants to excel in their career, and would look to recommend purchasing of this book for our company project office as a resource to mentor new PMs. "
Thushara Wijewardena,PMP
General Manager - Project Office
Development Center ( Sri Lnaka)
KSNZ
You can read an entire interview with Thushara Wijewardena at The Project Management Podcast.
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