Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management (Theory in Practice (O'Reilly))

Product Information

Why did the author in the second addition of the text change the pronouns to they/them instead of she/her or he/him so NO sex was directed attention to? Coming from the rare perspective of someone who fought difficult battles on Microsoft's biggest projects and taught project design and management for MSTE, Microsoft's internal best practices group, this is valuable advice indeed. This book provides very general strategies and tactics to carry out successful software project management, including communication, politics. Like software development is managed nowadays, the building of the Egyptian pyramids was managed thousands of years The APMG International AgilePM® and Swirl Device logo is a trademark of The APM Group Limited, used under permission of The APM Group Limited.

Moreover, in general, project planning success is arrived at in the intersection between the different points of view. Imagine that you are the manager of a project where the engineers and marketing staff don’t like each other, and they are fighting about basic decisions. This is an excellent book for anyone who wants to understand project management on a practical level. Why was Humphrey Bogart's screen presence and persona so vital a factor for American morale during World War II?If on any day the project is not going well, it’s your job to figure out **what the problems are and to act** so that the project goes well again. In general, if you are interested in project management or in general how a project and a team is directed successfully to the end, then this book is a good starting point. Scott Berkun is an author and speaker who has worked at Microsoft for 9 years as a project manager going from Internet Explorer, Windows and MSN. If moving faster does not result in definitive design decisions promptly and things are not well managed, disaster hits you in the face.

I would have liked it better if the author framed such questions to fit all project managers, whether they are solo or part of a team. Please see the below print size guide to help you choose the right print / poster size for your frames. If you want to think differently about entrepreneurship, management, or life in general, read this book.

The idea her is that with software development it can be very difficult to appreciate the team aspect. The requirements definition process is difficult, but there are some good reference books on how to do it. You will improve your decision-making skills by reviewing past decisions made and exploring them to find lessons and opportunities for better tactics in the process of making things happen. At work we don't really have project managers, in fact they try to keep responsibility as diffuse as possible. Power is **misused when it is applied to things that do not further the objectives** of the project.

Human beings, who are almost unique [among animals] in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. Autocrat/Delegator: In certain situations, the most important things are a strong and clear authority, and a quick response time. This book is useful to anyone involved in ongoing projects, regardless of whether they have an official leadership role.

Actually, writing is undoubtedly the greatest technology man has ever invented because it decouples the abilities of our brain, of which memory is notoriously unreliable, especially when it comes to retaining complex things.

Leadership and management are also difficult, but their nature – making it so that things happen in a specific way towards a specific objective – is simple. In my early 20’s, an ideal time for opening one’s self to new experiences, I instead settled down and had a family when most of my peers were traveling, discovering themselves, getting educated. One thing I like is that he shows his own growth and how he learned lessons in the course of his work, instead of just handing down pronouncements from on high. Sit down with your back to the other manager, until one of you creates something with the LEGOs (it doesn’t matter what it is). The author begins by telling us that the idea of project management goes back a long way in human history.It seems like he wrote this book for software designers (that I'm not), and the chapters towards the end were more relevant to me. He currently works as an independent consultant in project management and product design, and runs the pmclinic, a friendly discussion forum on project management issues at www. They are easily converted into design ideas without losing what is important and what is not about them. One of the challenges for a project leader is keeping people focused on the same objectives for long periods of time. Keep the vision alive by asking questions about the usefulness of the vision and about the daily decisions of the project.