Visualizing Project Management : A Model for Business and Technical Success (with CD-ROM)
Author: Kevin Forsberg, Hal Mooz, Howard Cotterman
List Price: $50.00
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ISBN: 047135760X
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (14 April, 2000)
Sales Rank: 26,117
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Weighty in its Simplicity
Rarely do I read a book that is weighty in its simplicity while being exhaustive in its subject treatment. Visualizing Project Management succeeds where many have failed. The book focuses on the five common elements of every successful project: a common vocabulary, teamwork, a plan, leadership and management.
Starting with the project requirements, it details the correct way to plan, schedule and control projects. These elements do not naturally occur, particularly in complex technical projects. The techniques and tools presented are applicable throughout the project lifecycle.
The book is full of illustrations, which clarify the techniques being discussed. The best idea I found book was the Cards on the Wall technique, which calls for each team member to attach each WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) to a wall and interconnect the dependencies with yarn. The resulting interaction, I found, encourages group thinking and project buy-in, while anticipating the unanticipated.
There is also a great section on Earned Value, a powerful and effective tool for the early detection of slippages and cost overruns. As the authors correctly note, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it."
Aspiring project managers and executives responsible for supervising it in their organizations should read this book. It will help them successfully understand and apply the project management process in their pursuit of "better, faster, and cheaper."
Rating: 5 out of 5
One of the Classic Project Management Books
This book describes the entire project life cycle and the management disciplines that need to be employed across the various phases of the life cycle. The following attributes of the book were important to me: (1) it presents sophisticated concepts in understandable language and diagrams, and does an excellent job blending conceptual data with the authors' extensive hands-on experience and insight; (2) it helps the reader understand the vital technical and programmatic objectives of important reviews and control gates -- beyond the more common sociological objective of disposing of all review comments in a way that leaves every reviewer feeling that his or her perspective has been honored; (3) it clearly shows how important it is for a project manager to understand system engineering concepts and processes, in order to maintain effective control of the technical baseline (and, consequently, the project schedule and cost); and (4) it describes the teamwork necessary for project success -- not only teamwork internal to the project but also the teamwork needed among the user, the customer/buyer, and the project. This is a book by three authors with long and deep real-world project management experience, and a passion for teaching. It can be appreciated by project managers at many different levels of experience and different backgrounds, and (like the authors' project management training course) merits return visits at multiple points in a project manager's career. I recommend it highly for all serious project managers, current and future.
Rating: 5 out of 5
A practical guide, full of insights
I found this to be an excellent book, particularly for those of us trying to make sense out of the wide range of project management approaches. It is a valuable compliment to the Project Management Institute's PMBOK, which is functionally based and organized as categories of required knowledge. Visualizing Project Management is behavior based and provides a project manager and the project team a roadmap for success and a resource for solving problems. Since project management often encounters the intersection of one or more processes, three-dimensional models are used to clarify these often confusing relationships. Many of these relationships include the technical development or systems engineering aspects and they are plainly conveyed so that the non-technical person can benefit. The section on project control is refreshing. Most books represent project control as only a reactive process to bad news. These authors emphasize proactive project control, establishing the proper control systems, yet are appropriately reactive with corrective action when things go wrong. Overall, an enlightening approach to complexity and technical project management. Similar Products
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Book Index