You are new to Project Management or want to improve your performance having run your first few projects. In a world of many books about the subject, why should you pick this one?This book is a practical, focused guide on the skills and the simplified processes needed successfully to deliver projects.It has been written by an experienced consultant Project Manager with a good track record, who has honed these techniques in 100+ projects and programmes of varying scale in different types of organisational culture over 35 years of doing the job day in day out.The style of the book is one, which has been used personally to mentor many budding PMs. It uses analogies and proverbs as well as over 70 hopefully humorous cartoons to help you remember the skills and techniques needed. There is scientific research, which backs up what the author has seen in practice about using this learning approach. Rather than learning by rote that Risk Management is really important to apply in your project, it is easier to remember the proverb Attack the risks before the risks attack you! especially when under pressure.The author has priced the book competitively to cover costs of production, because rather than aiming to make money he is motivated by a desire to improve the performance of the next generation of Project Managers.In terms of chapters, the book first examines an important concept which is what success represents in a project before moving onto the key behaviours, softer and harder skills needed by a Project Manager. It finishes with the 3 processes I believe are needed to run a project, Define, Do and Close. The actual chapter names are:The two dimensions of project successYour behaviours, it's all up to you!Always remember the human sideThe single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken placeDo the Right Project BEFORE Do the Project Right (Business Case)Forget Stakeholder Management at your perilPlanning & Estimating, the Bonnie & Clyde partnership of Project ManagementAttack the Risks before the Risks attack you! (Risk and Assumption management)Manage External Dependencies or face the Risk of a dropped baton in the relay race (Dependency Management)Money makes the Project go round (Financial Management)Quality is generally transparent when present, but easily recognised in its absenceConfiguration Management - boring to some but an important piece of the project jigsawA pilot doesn't try and fly a plane without instruments, neither should a Project Manager (Monitoring and Control)A Problem Shared is a Problem Halved (Issue Management)The Ancient Greeks called it correctly - Everything changes and nothing stands still (Change Management)Process - Define a ProjectProcess - Do a ProjectProcess - Close a Project
