Project Management

The Challenge:

You are running a project that is supposed to improve the organization to leap out in front of the competition, yet you have had little formal training on what that means. Project managers need lessons in how world class business runs to drive projects to make that happen.

Built to Last, Collins' first book and defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning.

But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?

The Study:

The Guns of August is a military history book describing the events of the first month of World War I. The focus of the book is to provide the history of World War I from the declaration of war through the start of the French offensive that stopped the German advance through France resulting in a stalemate for the subsequent four years. In addition, the book provides history on the plans, strategies, world events and international sentiments prior to and during the war.

This book is currently under review, more details will be added when available

The publisher says:
Do you want to gain business benefits, achieve project objectives, and maximize opportunities? With step-by-step guidelines, this book unveils a revolutionary approach to the management of project opportunities by expanding the traditional risk management process to address opportunities alongside threats-offering valuable tools and techniques that expose and capture opportunities, minimize threats, and deal effectively with all types of uncertainty in your business and projects.

As the title implies, this book discusses identifying and managing risks on projects. Although the book is written in a very generic manner, it has a decidedly high-tech flavor. This partly due to the fact that the author worked at Hewlett-Packard for twelve years.

Kendrick's coverage of risk, or more correctly uncertainty, is complete in a general sense focusing a majority of his discussion on risk in projects due to poor planning and change management processes. Two chapters of the book deal with quantifying risk, but the math is kept simple as he recommends using commercial products to the brunt of the work.

This book is currently under review, more details will be added when available

The publisher says:
A new eBook by the author of the best selling Critical Chain Project Management, Lean Project Management takes you through the key steps to project success. Written for project managers taking on more challenging projects, or wanting to complete projects faster and with less team stress, Lean Project Management helps you identify and deploy the keys to project success. I consider some of these secrets as hiding in plain sight, because the project literature discusses some of them in one form or another. The first problem is that they are hidden in thousand page books with many things that aren't going to help your project. The second problem is that most project managers don't do them, leading to the high rate of project failure and dissatisfaction. Lean Project Management (LPM) is a simple path to overcome both problems.

Womack is often considered the father of writing on lean manufacturing. Nearly all books on this subject use his books as reference material.

The publisher says:
"Expanded, updated, and more relevant than ever, this best selling business classic by two internationally renowned management analysts describes a business system for the twenty-first century that supersedes the mass production system of Ford, the financial control system of Sloan, and the strategic system of Welch and GE. It is based on the Toyota (lean) model, which combines operational excellence with value-based strategies to produce steady growth through a wide range of economic conditions.

This book is currently under review, more details will be added when available

The publisher says:
"Risk Management—A Clear and Uncomplicated Approach to Business and Project Risk—Here is risk, simply put, with practical stories and cases.

"Barkley's approach to project risk management includes and enhances the current Project Management Institute Body of Knowledge on risk. Clearly spelling out simplified steps and useable risk matrix format, making risk management a team-based art as well as a science, Project Risk Management shows you why do risk and how to:

To be a great project manager, you need to understand business. Your job is applying change to improve an organization, you had better understand why some changes and some leaders can create a metric differ to a company.

Project managers spend 90% of their time trying to persuade people to do something be it stakeholders, executives, end users, or the project team. They spend very little time learning how to do it better. Yes! gives you fifty ways to change your message and help you persuade anyone to do anything (well, almost). You can also get our excel spreadsheet that helps you focus on the right tools for what ever you are trying to do.

New York Times bestselling introduction of fifty scientifically proven techniques for increasing your persuasive powers in business and life.

Small changes can make a big difference in your powers of persuasion.

One of the primary tasks of a project manager is to negotiate—negotiate scope, negotiate for resources, negotiate for money, negotiate end dates, etc.—there is almost nothing that a project manager has as a give. Even in your personal life, negotiation skills are essential for dealing with everything from your kids' bedtime, to the price of your next car. Understanding the art and science of negotiation is critical. This book, especially in conjunction with one of our classes, is a great way to get you down the road to improving you negotiation skills. Don't be fooled though, negotiation takes practice.