Projects and Systems Books

Code complete is the right title for this book. Sadly most people find it extremely hart to read it. Its great as a reference but reading it word for word is as interesting as watching grass grow. Don't get me wrong. This is a great book. Everyone should at least hold it for once. But do not try to read it as a book. The first 300 pages will be boring. When the actual code chapters begin it gets better but still tends to be tedious.

A great book for beginners but a little boring read for advanced users.

When I bought this book, I couldn't believe all the 5 star ratings in the reviews. But, now that I've finished it, I have to agree with them. Simply put, this is probably the best computer-related book I've read. In the book's 850 pages, I found a grand total of five minor problems: one was grammatical, two were typographical and two were minor disagreements with how some things were presented. All trivial. Content-wise, if the universities would teach this material and if programmers would follow the methodologies contained in the book, the world of software would be far, far better off. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book and rate it an Excellent 5 stars out of 5.

This was a great book both for me and my team. I've been in the software industry for many years. I started building a team of developers and needed an easy way to bring novice and experienced programmers together on a similar set of standards. This book provided us with the perfect framework from which to start our team. We've developed several major projects using the principles in this book and have experienced a great deal of success.

One warning, the book gets a bit tedious after the first half. If you're looking to improve your C programming skills, it gets really detailed into pointers and other fun, or not, stuff. Also, the examples are in VB.NET...but you still get the point.

If you're an experienced software developer or a newbee in the world of commercial computer programming this book will give a good kick in the right direction. Steve McConnel will keep you hooked by mixing the right guiding concepts with real-life knowledge and examples.

for all programmers. Shall I say Application Developers? Software Engineers? Whatever the title is, programming jobs are alive and well! This book provides a solid foundation. It is too bad very few American students are interested in this profession.

The average students are all studying business marketing. The good students are studying finance.

At Harvard University, they do not teach Accounting. The best ones, study Economics. There are only 21 students studying Computer Science at Harvard. Yet, parents are paying $220,000 to Harvard and other Ivy League. Truly amazing!

Is there anyway we can change this trend?

This is an unusual book, strange in so many ways I'm going to have trouble listing them all. I'll try, though. I will say that at some level I enjoyed this book, and if you can overcome the shortcomings that I'll list below, you may enjoy it more than I did.

For one thing, there's the issue of the author's name. This *isn't* the Michael Collins who was the first president of Ireland (of course not, he's been dead for 80 years) though the author was born over there. He's also not the astronaut who stayed on Apollo 11 while Armstrong and Aldrin wandered around on the moon. And he's also not Dennis Lynds, who has a series of detective novels featuring a one-armed private eye named Dan Fortune, and who writes novels under the pen name Michael Collins. This is the other other other Michael Collins. Very weird.

The plot of the book is pretty complex. All of the plot takes place in the late 1970s, a strange choice for the author. It works at some levels, though. Frank Cassidy is a small-time next-to-nothing, working at a burger joint, married to a woman who is at first a dispatcher for a trucking company. They have two kids, though the older one is from her previous marriage. Frank gets word that his uncle has died, and he decides to return to his hometown for the funeral. However his cousin and the cousin's wife are very angry at this.

This is where things begin to get strange. It turns out that Frank's wife, Honey, was married before, and her husband killed two people and is now on Death Row. She beats the son she had with the first husband. Frank, meanwhile, steals cars and money in order to finance their trip back home. As the novel progresses, there's not a single solitary character in the whole plot who's truly honest, good-hearted, and/or selfless. Everyone's out for themselves, dishonest, and nasty. It's sort of a cross between American Beauty and The Grapes of Wrath.

One point I think worth making is that the author isn't an American. You've got to wonder what these guys are thinking (I'm thinking of the guy who wrote American Beauty) when they move here in order to write stuff and tell us what jerks we are. I wonder if an American could move to Britain or Ireland and write a novel like this, and get it published, let alone receive awards. Needless to say, all the gushing blurbs on the back of the book are from British and Irish newspapers, which all insist (of course) that it reveals "America's long malaise".

The author *can* write, though. There's not that much of a plot, unfortunately. Instead, we get a bleak, desolate account of Middle America a quarter century ago. While the author isn't positive about anything, it's interesting to watch the characters wander through the plot. The mystery angle isn't (as is traditional) important to the book, and the solution, when revealed, seems rather forced and quick. Luckily, as I said, it's not that significant.

I enjoyed this book within these parameters. I might recommend it, but you've got to be aware of how annoying it can be at times.

This is where things get weird, however.

This book is a pleasure to read. The writing style is effortless - Mr Collins is a skillful and inventive writer.

The story follows a 1970s family who return to the Frank Cassidy's hometown for his dad's funeral. As the mystery around the death unfolds, other themes are also addressed. In a couple of generations Frank's family has moved from primary industry, mining and farming, into the service econony (flipping burgers). The novel shows the impact on families, on men and women and their ideas of their place in the world. Some people can survive in the modern world of corporate farming, of colleges which free people from their tie to the soil. It is not an easy journey but the ability of people to survive shines through, especially when the benefits of education are used to change for the better. In the background the impact of a war fought overseas is also in the air.

Ultimately, a novel about hope. Perhaps even an update of the American dream? Great book, deserves more recognition.

The hero is a pragmatist in a Godless world. The protagonist, Frank Cassidy, had not had a day off in two years when he quits his job in New Jersey to go the the Upper Peninsula, Michigan for reason of a death in the family. He steals a car and later robs a man named Melvin. Frank's brother-cousin and his wife, Norman and Martha, dread the arrival of Frank and Honey and Robert Lee and Ernie, the children.

In the boarding house where they stay there is a hint of opulence. It is learned that the body of the deceased uncle, Ward, is being held by the authorities. Honey feels they should try to get jobs in the town. Frank works as a security guard and Honey in the business office of a college undergoing a transition from a community college to a four years residential college with a Great Books curriculum.

For Thanksgiving it is decided to eat at Cedar Lodge and stay there through the long weekend. Listed winter activities are ice skating and ice fishing. In a telephone call Frank learns that his cousin Norman is collapsing. Norman upended the sheriff's car when served with papers of foreclosure. Frank and his family go to Norman's place where it is discovered the dairy herd has been killed. In the end Frank uncovers and clarifies mysteries that have always surrounded his boyhood. The atmosphere created by the author matches the subject of the search for meaning by being indeterminate, foggy, bewildering. The children are presented in interesting realistic detail.

~ Frank Cassidy learns in a newspaper of the death - possibly, murder - of his uncle, and goes back to North America to investigate any possibility of inheritance; to find out why his uncle died; and to sort out loose ends left in his head from a fire at his family farm in his childhood...

This book starts off quite promisingly. The writer evidently knows the mechanics of how to write well. But the book lacks sufficient plot after about the first hundred pages (of a 360-page book) to keep the reader very interested in continuing with it. The journey to the end of the book becomes boring, too unstimulating, too slow, too drawn out, with too much description and detail just for the sake of giving description and detail, too much describing of humdrum life, with the reader wondering if the book is going to go anywhere sufficiently interesting to be worth going on turning the pages. The characters in the book aren't made particularly interesting in themselves. The story ceases to be interesting. The reader is left in the dark for too long as to where the book is heading to, or why all the details are supposed to be interesting, or what the point of the book is supposed to be. Whilst what really happened many years before, in Frank's childhood, is revealed to us in the last fifteen pages of the book, by the time the reader gets there, he will probably have lost interest in the tale anyway.

A few specifics in the plot that didn't really seem to fit together well:
1. It seemed odd for Frank just to dump Juniper, the family pet, in someone else's car, and for that action then just to be accepted by the rest of the family.
2. It seemed odd for Frank to go back home with specific personal missions in his mind, but yet then never actually to get round to meeting up with Norman and Martha face to face for the whole time he was up there.
3. It seemed odd for Norman and Martha just to run away without saying more to anyone, after their herd was slaughtered.
4. Why Chester Green was suddenly being referred to as 'the Sleeper' didn't seem to be explained.
5. It seemed odd for Frank, not rich, not to want to salvage any possessions from either house before they were bulldozed.
6. It seemed odd and too convenient for Frank suddenly to be interrogating Baxter, his new co-worker, for information, which was forthcoming, as soon as he met him.
7. It seemed odd for Frank just to be allowed to be left alone with Chester Green in a hospital unsupervised, particularly in later visits after he had already been suspected of trying to harm or interfere with Chester Green earlier on.
8. Why Baxter suddenly ended up in the sanatorium following the window-smashing incident and ended up getting ECT treatment wasn't very clear.
9. Frank suddenly realising his mother had died in a fall many years ago, by listening to tapes, didn't really ring very true.
10. The detail at the end of the book (page 357), of Frank killing the paralysed 'Chester Green' in the sanatorium, seemed to be a detail borrowed straight out of 'One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest', where the huge red indian suffocates the comitose Jack Nicholson at the end of that film. That conclusion seems to be borne out by a reference to 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' in this book, just a page later (page 358).

All in all, this was not a very satisfying book, for a variety of reasons - mainly lack of interesting plot and lack of interesting characters.

Frank Cassidy lives on the fringes of society in a succession of demeaning jobs, a wife with an ex-husband on death row in Georgia, an angst-riddled stepson waiting for his father to be executed and an innocent pre-schooler, obsessed with his toy dinosaurs. Frank's edge-of-desperation lifestyle can be traced back to his childhood, his father and mother killed in a fire that erupted on the family farm when Frank was five-years old. His memories of that time are dim, shaped by the overwhelming presence of his uncle, who raised him as one of his own, and the psychological evaluations the doctor hoped would unlock Frank's fragmented memory of the night of the conflagration.

As soon as he is old enough, Frank leaves the farm behind, along with all family connections, to make his way in a hostile world with no patience for an emotionally damaged survivor. His life since then has been a series of misdemeanors, an anti-social approach to the rest of mankind. Frank views his occasional petty crimes as the natural evolution of a careful society, like car theft, his deeds "preordained statistical probability", but refuses to believe that "stupidity and desperation equate to evil". When he reads of his uncle's murder, Frank gathers his family and heads for the past, a dark trek from New Jersey to the vast, empty cold of the far north in Michigan.

Along the way, Frank telephones his cousin at the farm, arguing about the purpose of the trip and the resolution of a shattered history. For Frank, this journey is like poking a stick at a bad tooth, as painful memories surge, taunting and confusing his every action, his haunted youth returning with savage intensity. He makes his way back to the kind of town nobody would willingly return to unless called by tragedy or loss. People here live in despair, inhabiting days frozen in minimal needs and obligations, waiting to thaw. At each phase of his odyssey, Frank is beset by images and memories, the flickering light of a television screen in a starless night, black and white reruns the backdrop for a tragedy buried in his subconscious that fills him with a vague sense of guilt, a mistrust of his own motivations.

Thirty years after the traumatic events that stole his childhood, Frank is called back into the chaos of his youth, the self-destruction that has defined every rebellious action since. Both distressed and comforted by a suffering family he can barely provide for, Frank plunges into what remains of his world, forced to redefine time and place, to make a stand in this frozen wilderness, drawing courage from his own need for resolution and the love of his dysfunctional family. He does so with consummate grace, a tragic character cart-wheeling through free-associative hell on a collision course with the truth. The prose is shadowed and disturbing, a painful view of the underbelly of American life, where the have-nots gather around a burning trash can in hopes of warmth in an indifferent landscape. Luan Gaines/2005.

This a very good book. It is written by two people that together have more than 40 years of experience in project management (PM) and provides with real and usefull examples.
I strongly recommend reading to people that already know PM. Its not a basic book in PM.

This is very good book on project management, i am a member of pmi, but in pmi u learn more about project management in general but this book is for IT guys, esply chapter on project management process is good, allso about tackling issues is well documented.

I have applied methods in this book and a related seminar to a number of real projects and have gotten excellent results. I am not an IT person and was placed in charge of systems. The book helped me to plan and execute a huge IT project from scratch.I have 12 staff who were applications programmers of which 2 were analysts. I divided their tasks and attached them to users per the ideas in the book. The approach was applied to enhancements, new systems for tender evaluation and purchasing, and hardware. Per the methods of the book, all arising matters with management, vendors, and users were seen as issues and not as problems. By the team approach we were able to sack one person and reassign his roles. A 4 year project was finished in 2 years. Hardware and WAN were completed in two months. Right now we are planning a project to reach out to the remotest plantations that we own that is another 170 areas. We are using the book here as well. The key idea here is that the methods in this book are different and WORK.

IT projects are very different from standard projects. This books provides an in-depth approach to managing IT projects. It has some very good specific tips regarding risk analysis, the management critical path (as opposed to the critical path), the use of score cards for project evaluation, how to deal with issues, and how to use lessons learned and experience to get continuous improvement in project management. In addition, the book focuses on templates rather than the traditional work breakdown structure-so it is gives greater flexibility. Another novel approach is use of the team members in participating in project management. Overall, very useful and informative.

Our organization has reviewed over 50 books in IT and general project management from the view of usability and useful methods for a multiple project, complex environment. We found books like Schwabe and Menche somewhat useful, but very limited in dealing with the actual problems faced in projects. There was just too much introductory material. This book, on the other hand, is very useful in that it addresses problems such as scope creep, changing requirements, high management expectations, dealing with vendors and users, and other specific issues. It is also being translated into Chinese. This is the book you should get if you want to address problems in real projects and want specific guidelines.

This book will definitely help you get your projects into Project 2000. Great ideas on both Project Management and Project 2000.

Eric,
Thanks for a superb job on your Dynamic Scheduling book and the accompanying CD, which I make use of as well. I have been managing projects at fortune 500 companies for nearly a decade. I have read many books, I have taught and I've done some writing of my own and with out question, your book is the best I have ever read. It is obviously written from the perspective of someone who knows project management as well as Microsoft Project. Often there a slight disconnect between instructors and authors and those of us in the real-world of project management, Dynamic Scheduling shows that you have your foot firmly planted in both worlds. Some people consider me a Microsoft Project expert, but I have stolen so much useful information from your book that I probably should be paying you royalties. Thanks again and I will be on the lookout for your next book.

I've been using MS-Project for a few years now, starting with Project 98, and now 2000. I've always looked at it as a quirky tool that I use to create task lists, rough schedules, and charts to use in project plans. I've never considered it a serious tool for planning, let alone controlling a project. "Too many inconsistencies," I thought, considering myself an intermediate user. I've taken CBT's, and read MS-Project for Dummies - what more should I need?

This book has changed how I look at the tool, and how I schedule projects. MS-Project really does work - you just need to know what is going on behind the scenes to make it work for you! The author clearly walks you through how to perform tasks from a project manager' perspective (I' not a PM, but happen to do some of it, so don't think you need to know all about PM to benefit from this book), and examines common pitfalls and best practices gathered from obvious extensive practical experience using the tool. The title is accurate - the book revolves around creating a "dynamic schedule," i.e. one that easily updates as variables in your project update. The chapter on optimizing the schedule was especially helpful, and immediately applicable.

MS-Project is not a quirky tool for high-level plans and pretty pictures - it is a powerful project planning and controlling tool that will cut hours and frustration out of your project. Impressive text - do yourself a favor and read it cover to cover. You'll be happy that you did.

Finally, a book that promotes the use of MS Project to do real project planning and tracking, rather than just using it to draw pretty charts. The author brings the reader up to speed on the essentials of MS Project, and then takes the reader through the process of optimizing the plan and ongoing project tracking. It provides a clear rationale for using MS Project to build a model of the project that can be used to do what-if analysis and to help the project manager to see the effects of change on the plan when reality differs from the plan (always does). The book clearly draws on real-world experience in trying to balance and optimize resources, as shown in the section that describes a resource critical-path method. The book is clear, concise and practical. The techniques show how MS Project can actually be useful, rather than as something a project manager is forced to do just to keep management happy.

I was searching through bookstores and Amazon.com for a good book on how to best use Microsoft Project. There are a ton of books out there that teach you Microsoft Project, and I own two of them (Mastering Project 2000 and Project 2000 Step-by-Step). These books are great at describing features, but you can also get that information with the Help files.

For anyone who has used Microsoft Project can tell you, there are several ways to set up the application, some of which is helpful, and some of which can have you very frustrated.

What I wanted was not a description of all the features, but how to best set up Microsoft Project. I stumbled on this book on Amazon.com, and it proclaimed to be the book I needed.

I was not disappointed. The author draws upon his years of experience in developing and managing with Microsoft Project and leading the Microsoft Project department at the International Institue for Learning (IIL), upon the lessons from the many other instructors, and from his students. Being able to learn from others mistakes and tips is worth the price of the book alone.

The author's stated objectives in setting up Microsoft Project are to:
- allow the schedule to be dynamic, so that when reality comes, as it will do several times during a project, then the schedule will dynamically adjust to reflect the future
- need as little care and feeding throughout the life of the project as possible, so you can spend your time managing the project, not in front of a computer trying to update the status and plan the future (when you don't have the time).

The author walks you through step-by-step on how to set up Microsoft Project to achieve those two goals. He discusses:
- the best settings for the project's properties
- how to properly establish a work breakdown structure (WBS) and describe its elements in the project tasks
- what variables need to be visible on the Gantt data entry chart to watch how Microsoft Project will alter variables
- a complete discussion of the Scheduling Formula
- descriptions of Fixed Work, Fixed Duration, and Fixed Resources, and the concept that a task does not remain as one of these, but should be changed to control how Microsoft Project will react to replanning
- when to use constraints, deadlines, and milestones, and how to add constraints so you aren't held responsible for the impact of other organizations not fulfilling their commitments
- assigning responsibilities
- how to title resources
- when resources can be "pooled"
- how to optimize the schedule (whether for time only, time and cost, or for time, cost and resources through the use of a Resource-Critical Path - aka Critical Chain)
- the use of Monte Carlo simulations
- how to handle (and possibly hide) project buffers in a schedule
- the use of one-page reports (always!)
- establishing baselines
- tracking progress (the six basic situations and how to indicate them) and updating projections and assignments (through workgroup features or manually).

The author also describes three "hazards" with Microsoft Project, namely facility and machinery costs, gross work time vs. dedicated work time, and the use of the Effort Driven tag.

Facility and machinery costs are poorly handled by Microsoft Project, and the author describes some workarounds.

The author does describe the difference between gross work time and dedicated work time, and that planning usually is done with dedicated work time, but the difference between the two are often not correctly accounted for. Recent findings suggest that worker efficiency is not better than 65%, so this difference can be enormous. The author describes two ways of handling it when he describes the subject, and then describes a third method much later in the book (and says that method is popular). Unfortunately he does not describe the advantages and disadvantages with the approaches, to include cost implications. I would highly suggest that you only plan in gross work time, knowing the inefficiencies. By the way, Microsoft doesn't make this very easy either as the efficiencies of individual resources against a task is not an included field for the assignments.

The author describes that there are problems with using the Effort Driven tag, and gives great advice on how to deal with it (always turn it off if the task is not Constant Work - but watch it as Microsoft Project can and will change it on you). His description of how Microsoft Project treats the Effort Driven tag, however, was not complete. The Effort Driven tag attempts to hold Work constant in addition to the variable that you declare as fixed. Since the Scheduling Formula only has three variables, trying to hold two of them constant while changing the third obviously causes some confusion. I don't have room to describe how Microsoft Project will react when you set this tag, but it's not always "Effort Driven". Just keep it turned off!

There is some room for improvements in this book:
- Earned Value Management was not mentioned (except in the glossary). The author should either explain that he doesn't find it useful, or explain how he's used it productively
- The Index is weak for the volume of information included in the book
- The advantages and disadvantages of each of the approaches to hide management reserve in the schedule should be described
- There should be graphics showing how to set up constraints, milestones and deadlines, to include un-hidden management reserve
- There should be example one-page reports included
- Update for Microsoft Project 2002

Despite these shortcomings, you will not find another book that comes close to this on how to use Microsoft Project. If you manage projects with Microsoft Project (even if you use Project 2002), you should have this book on your desk (not your shelf).

Issues specific to Open Source are well-covered in this book. I found the section titled "Handling Difficult People" especially useful; his advice in this dodgy area is to act eloquent and keep feedback directed at the problem, not the person. If the person *is* the problem, nip in-public issues in the bud and contact the person directly to resolve the personal issue(s).

Fogel presents lots of down and dirty day-to-day details on how to create excellent software. Not just Open Source, either... the transparency built into the processes he describes are also useful within a company firewall.

Fogel places a huge emphasis on development by random unsalaried people, but I feel that most important and rapid development is due to corporate sponsorship.

Overall: excellent. Read it cover to cover, refer back to it often.

If you are thinking of starting/managing a project in an "open-source" model, this is the book you MUST read.

The book is very well written and goes over lessons learned of others that created their own open-source projects. Believe me... every step so you don't have to guess anything!

How to start, how to document, where to deploy the project, what people to invite, whether or not coding standards are necessary, democracy versus dictatorship, all of these questions are answered inside.

A friend of mine has told me that much of the information in this book can be seen for free in video in Google. It's worth looking for.

I read the book in 5 hours and i think my time was very well invested. I now believe that this model is not only suitable for small projects but to larger projects. The complexity of the system will not the an issue if you apply the rules in the book. I still have to try it though... ;-)

Just yesterday I was talking to a friend about this book and we discovered each other very glad with it. First of all, the author has a lot of experience with the theme in question. Furthermore, Karl Fogel is very compelling with words. He knows how to write down his experience in a way that is pleasant, certainly due to a lot of writes he had made through plenties of open source projects.

With this book you will be in touch with topics like the needed infra-structure to setup open source projects, the dinamics of the open source community, strategies for packaging and releasing software, common issues that arise in open source daily development and how to workaround then, a brief about licenses (with properly links for more information on this topic); just to highlight some aspects.

This book was the first hand someone land me into the open source world. It's helping me in three ways: to extract more from open source softwares that already exist, to start my own open source project, and to look at software development through a new, different, and till now better perspective.

Hope this review helps you!

If you have already read pretty much everything that there is to be read about why you'd want to start, manage, fund or participate in an Open Source project, but want to know everything about how best to do it, then Karl Fogel's Producing Open Source Software is the book for you.

Drawing from his extensive experience with the Subversion project, Fogel provides in this book a comprehensive overview of all aspects of Open Source software development, covering technical, social, political, economical, legal, and managerial aspects.

While the book is more aimed at medium-to-large scale projects, especially those involving some kind of corporate entity, there is much in it that is applicable to most projects, excluding maybe only those little, one-man efforts that rarely become successful. But if you are the originator of one of the latter and, should it suddenly attract a wide following, you'd better be prepared to face the unavoidable problems that popularity brings.This book will come in handy in this case.

Here are, in my opinion, the strong points of the book:

* Providing a concise, yet comprehensive, overview of all aspects of Open Source development. This is really the manual of open development.

* Demonstrating that there is much in open development that is similar to more traditional, corporate-style software development (you cannot always rely on good will and volunteers), but also much that is different, in motivation, rewards and objectives.

* Putting the accent on the human aspect of development: mutual respect between participants is often the deciding factor in determining whether a project will thrive or fail. Since even the best of intentions sometimes are not enough to foster a peaceful, productive and collaborative environment, Producing Open Source Software contains a lot of useful, practical advice that you can follow if you want to keep developers happy and motivated.

It's easy to make the mistake of viewing this book as "too fluffy" or perhaps too soft to be of any use to the practical user or developer of open source software. Nothing could be further from the truth: in a classic open source way, the author has compressed man-centuries of OS community experience into a practical working guide for anyone who wants to do something serious in this area.

Hal Mooz, Kevin Forsberg, and Howard Cotterman once again offer a timely and practical resource for systems engineers, project managers, and process managers.

I am recommending this book to all my friends and colleagues.

Communicating Project Management offers readers many examples of communications techniques to use; pitfalls that often occur as well as suggestions for sidestepping them. The authors also provide excellent examples of the type of business aspects that must be considered and communicated throughout the project life cycle.

I particularly like the use of illustrations and examples in Part 5, Terms and Definitions; all organizations should use this technique to communicate the domain-discipline glossaries for all project team members.

For anyone who has communication problems on their projects, here is an answer.

Hal Mooz, Kevin Forsberg and Howard Cotterman have written a dictionary. Comprehensive in its scope, the authors have integrated definitions of project management, systems engineering and software engineering. In short, they have added to the legacy created by comprehensive book: Visualizing Project Management

Like it, the nearly 2.000 definitions in the new volume are supported by practical illustrations. The explanations employed span the chasms that often separate the diverse disciplines that rely on the art of project management.

I would be remiss if I left readers with the impression this is a mere dictionary. It is not. It is a unique reference. It bridges the unique vocabularies of the many disciplines that contribute to an organization. It includes special sections that speak to the problems and techniques of communicating in the project environment.

If accepted and adopted by the diverse project management community, this book has the potential to establish a consistent platform. Team members would free their creative talents. No more time wasted time attempting to communicate.

Once, I believed all project management practitioners should own three books: Visualizing Project Management, Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling and The Fast Forward in Project Management.

It is time to clear some space on your Project Management bookshelf. Communicating Project Management has earned a spot there - and it promises not to collect dust.

This book augments the author's "Visualizing Project Management" (ISBN 047135760X), which I consider to be one of the best books about project management.

The reason why I consider this book to be invaluable is in the collection of techniques and models that foster or directly support collaboration and communication. I especially like the emphasis on communication at the human level, and how the authors highlight barriers and how to overcome them. This material is more than anecdotal - it is reinforced with formal techniques, process models, and cognitive factors. More importantly, the authors delve into communications between and among members of global or geographically dispersed teams, including cultural factors. Given the growing number of teams that are comprised of internal company resources, and off-shore outsourced providers this information is topical and invaluable.

Visualizing Systems Management - The Visual Process Model in Chapter 2 is a direct tie-in to the authors' earlier book, and is the foundation of their approach to facilitating communications. The reference project cycle in Chapter 4 is another touchpoint to their earlier book. However, that earlier book is not required to get maximum benefit from this one - this material will augment any book on project management, including standards such as the Project Management Institute's PMBOK and the U.K. standard, PRINCE2.

The foregoing material comprises approximately a third of the book. The remaining two thirds is devoted to general project management terms and definitions, and acronyms. The terms and definitions are more like an encyclopedia than a dictionary because many are lavishly illustrated and many entries are full explanations of the term, concept or technique. The value of this is your project team will be working from a common set of terminologies, and the book will serve as a ready reference for anyone unfamiliar with a particular technique or concept associated with project management.

I have a well-worn copy of the author's Visualizing Project Management that has helped me understand and then communicate to others the intertwined processes of Project Management and Systems Engineering. I have found no other book that does this as well. Now I have acquired Communicating Project Management that along with providing valuable insights into verbal and non-verbal communication provides a very complete integrated lexicon of Project Management, Systems Engineering, SEI CMM/CMMI, and other relevant terms in a single location. Best of all when definitions can be enhanced with illustrations and examples they are. I have actually found myself reading these definitions for enjoyment after having entered the book to resolve an issue. This book is a must have reference for every leader and practitioner in the PM and SE profession and is essential to establishing a common vocabulary across organizations.

The words of a profession often start as jargon that is coined and applied by colleagues seeking to communicate. Others "adopt" and "adapt" these invented words, but too often incorrectly or outside the intended context. Years can pass before these now "profession-unique" words and phrases are formally defined for others to appreciate and use.

This book finally does just that for both project management and systems engineering. This is a must-have reference for all who wish to communicate effectively within, across, and to these two professions.

I have been in charge of some small companies IT departments over the years. Technology changes at the speed of light and it is very difficult to keep up with it. This book gives no nonsense information, checklists, etc about various topics in project management. I think the reason why they named it 'How to Cheat...' is because it is a single book containing all the information needed to understand what IT project management is all about. I especially like the sections on dealing on how to understand corporate and business strategies and how IT is supposed to support them. When you don't have the money to go to school, this is a great book to have!

After taking Project Management I, II and III, and reading the classics like Kerzner's _Project Management_, this book is a solid supplement. In addition to the "basics" it gives insights on dealing with people, organizations and requirements in straight manner format.

The grey box inserts give real life examples on the topics discussed. I found the section on "forming the team" to be of great value. The sections on "quality" and "diagraming the processes" are full of valuable suggestions.

This is most certainly a book of value and I'm glad to add it to my library.

Where other books cover IT project basics, How To Cheat At It Project Management goes a step further in showing project managers how to make sure an IT project is in line with company strategic objectives, and which will deliver the best results. Learn how to link work process to project tasks and budgets, and how to manage a team more effectively through a book which covers 'cheating' or shortcut methods to get a project back on the fast track. From when and how to report to identifying risks, How To Cheat At It Project Management holds all the answers to decreasing errors and increasing returns.

Are you an IT professional who's looking for a fast and easy way to do project management? If you are, you're in luck! Author Susan Snedaker, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that synthesizes project management fundamentals, IT processes and procedures, and business fundamentals.

Snedaker, begins by looking briefly at business process improvement and how project management fits into that world. Then, she explores corporate strategy issues so you can navigate through the sometimes confusing world of corporate IT funding. The author continues by showing you the why and how politics operate in organizations, and the insight and knowledge you'll gain that will help you navigate corporate policies more effectively. Next, she explores the skills that are required to manage the IT project team. Then, the author starts digging into IT project management itself. She continues by developing a bit more project detail including elements such as priorities, specifications, user requirements, and project infrastructure, to name just a few. Next, she looks at some of the ways you can build quality into your project without implementing an additional quality management program. The author continues by showing you how to put together a project team and how to assign roles and responsibilities to team members. Then, she shows you how to break the project down into manageable components so that you can not only plan the work, but you can develop a more realistic schedule and budget.
Next, she discusses strategies for managing your IT project. The author continues by reviewing a few more technical approaches to measuring project progress. Finally, she looks at the inputs, actions, and outputs from this final phase of IT project management.

This most excellent book shows you how to align your IT projects to the company's strategic objectives. It also shows you how to determine which project will solve the right problem at the right time while still delivering high-quality results.

This is a solid work on traditional IT project management. I'm not really sure what the whole cheating thing is about. This is the basic IT project management book written in a text book style (questions at the end, checklists, etc.) There is information on politics, team management, managing and tracking implementation and more.

It's more holistic than most of the books I've read on this topic and I liked that. IT projects don't exist in a vacuum and understanding how to operate within the larger corporate framework is important.

The only issue I have with the book is that it's overly formatting. There are lots of graphics around the headers and sidebars and that gets old fast.

Integrated Enterprise Excellence Volume III fuses enterprise strategy with operational execution. In the most comprehensive step-by-step Lean Six Sigma manual on the market today, this 1,100+ page guide is the perfect companion aid for any engineer, technology or business student, consultant, project manager or Lean Six Sigma practitioner who is serious about their career advancement and driving enterprise excellence in their company.

From business strategy and balanced scorecards to project management steps and detailed design of experiments, this is one of the most important handbooks on business performance improvement.
- Frank Shines, former IBM Principal and Director of Industriaplex

Integrated Enterprise Excellence Volume III (IEEV3)is one volume of a three volume series - but as a standalone text, it is essentially a highly evolved sequel to the award-winning Implementing Six Sigma (ISS) books which were first published nearly a decade ago, in 1999. Although the second edition of ISS (2003) introduced a substantial amount of new reference material to the original book, it was still largely a handbook for implementation of conventional Lean/Six Sigma systems at the operational level. IEEV3 introduces new topics, new text, and new graphics to provide a significant step beyond both earlier ISS books in scope, structure and content.

Although both earlier books generally address the wise application of improvement systems and analytical tools to resolving business problems, the scope of IEEV3 has been broadened to acknowledge and more clearly define two distinct yet interdependent levels of study and improvement: the operational level and the enterprise level.

IEEV3 takes the position that to focus on specific operational process improvements without consideration of effects throughout the enterprise can result in suboptimization of results if not counterproductive unintended consequences. To be effective, operational level improvement projects must derive from the study of enterprise level "top down" requirements that consider the needs of the entire enterprise.

At the outset, IEEV3 reviews the limitations of traditional improvement systems and methods and describes how, using the principles of IEE, established project improvement tools - like DMAIC and TOC- can be combined with innovative analytical methods for enterprise level goal setting and measurement to avoid problems and enhance performance.

The main body of the book walks the reader through a detailed DMAIC project level execution (P-DMAIC) roadmap using the enhanced measurement and scorecard techniques of IEE. It also includes extensive discussions on essential project management techniques: building team effectiveness, encouraging creativity, and how to document and present resulting improvements.

The Appendix includes additional concepts that are used in the enterprise process or project execution roadmap steps, including drill downs, check sheets, and reference tables.

In summary, Volume III of the new series is an expanded sequel to Forrest's previous award winning book - Implementing Six Sigma . It focuses on meeting the demanding business challenges of the 21st Century and avoiding the unintended consequences of earlier implementations. It provides additional analytical tools and a new, expanded and improved practical roadmap for successful implementation of Lean Six Sigma and the DMAIC process at the operational level, orchestrated to align with business needs and support the attainment of meaningful enterprise level goals.

If anyone wants to understand how process management works on an enterprise level, this is the book to get. If anyone wants to know the future look of Six Sigma, this is the book to get. If anyone want to understand Lean principles and how they should work, this is the book to get. Forrest Breyfogle has been one of the most proflilic writers in the world of Six Sigma and process improvement. Even people who are afraid of math and statistics will understand the value of the tools and techniques that he writes about. His crisp style and many examples help the reader to understand the fundamentals and the outcomes of using these approaches to business excellence.
Every Six Sigma practitioner should have this book.

Integrated Enterprise Excellence Vol. III is one of Forrest's best books that must be read by anyone who is seriously thinking to implement Lean Six Sigma, and it is also an excellent reference book for those who jobs entail the start and sustaining continuous improvement initiatives. This books presents and describes in detail a road map of DMAIC process that, if it is followed and the tools presented used, will lead to success.

Forrest packs a wealth of information into this edition. It can serve as guide to both project selection and execution. It helps you identify and use the tools that are most appropriate for the specific opportunity. Both traditional Lean and Six Sigma tools are covered. This volume is quite strong on DOE's and other advanced tools for analysis. Would highly recommend as a solid reference for anyone leading continuous improvement efforts in their organizations. Would also make a first rate text book!

This book is filled with GREAT information for anyone interested in working with various 'toys' for Linux. I was privileged in being part of a class presented by Tom Weeks in regards to MythTV (he assisted with the chapter in the book) and it is great information!

If you are interested in getting the latest information for various additions to your Linux box, then this is a must-have. If you are even interested in any extra features you can configure on your Linux box then you will not be disappointed!

WARNING: Your pocket book might suffer after reading this book from all the new hardware you want to buy!

You can make really useful things based on the Linux OS, and this book makes it easy! Highly recommended!

Readers of this book will find it VERY well written. It appeals to everyone, from those more proficient in Linux, to those (like myself) who are still learning. I'd highly recommend this book!

This book clearly explains the details needed to accomplish all projects.

I recently saw Tom Weeks do a Myth TV presentation where you can build your own Linux based PVR, which is covered in his chapter written in this book. This is a great resource for the computer hobbyist, amateur or enthusiast of gadget-lover! Easy to follow and fun to read!

As an IT Project/Program Manager, senior IT executive and fellow-author for more years now than I care to remember, I found Marsha Lewin's new book, "Better Software Project Management", a pleasant and informative surprise. Ms. Lewin has distilled her obviously vast experience into a highly practical "how-to" book which will prove invaluable to Project Managers and all other managers with IT connections. Her advice and suggestions throughout this well-written book vibrate with hard-won experience and a strong aura of "been there, done that". Newly minted project managers will find a wealth of tips and templates to get them started and to provide project deliverables with the aplomb of seasoned veterans. Veterans will themselves find plenty to learn and re-learn from Ms. Lewin's hard-nosed, yet humorous approach. The author dispenses with the usual theoretical approaches to the subject but illustrates the best of the available theory with practical and thoughtful "cases".

If you have one project management book to read this year, read this one!

This is a short and easy to read book that is packed with practical advise. Marsha gives detailed examples that can be adapted for other projects. She discusses the role of tools for project managers but also discusses the unquantified problems that cause projects to fail such as personnel turnover, changes in scope, and defining the end of a project. She has obviously managed some large projects and is speaking from experience. I must contrast this with "Extreme Programming Explained" which might work for very small projects but which does not work for a large project.

Whether you are an experienced project manager or just starting out, this book should be on your shelf. For the beginner, it covers all of the basics...and much more. For the experienced project manager, much of it will be familiar, but you will find many opportunities to improve your techniques.

Better Software Project Management goes beyond the oversimplified approaches that confuse project management tools with project management. Real project management means dealing with people as well as tasks, schedules and budgets. This book offers insights into them all.

I have been engaged in the management of software projects for more than 30 years. This "primer" is, by far, the best and most concise book that I have ever read on the subject.

Of particular note, it is written by an experienced project manager to meet the needs of real life project managers. The author offers practical answers and presents usable examples that clearly show how her methods may be applied.

One of the hardest things for a new project manager to do is to sort out all of the acronyms, buzzwords, means and methods spoken of when describing the management of a project. The author cuts through the professional fog that obscures the subject and makes clear what is entailed in this art/science. Even after 30 years I found myself learning from her.

I strongly recommend this book.

As an IT Project/Program Manager, senior IT executive and fellow-author for more years now than I care to remember, I found Marsha Lewin's new book, "Better Software Project Management", a pleasant and informative surprise. Ms. Lewin has distilled her obviously vast experience into a highly practical "how-to" book which will prove invaluable to Project Managers and all other managers with IT connections. Her advice and suggestions throughout this well-written book vibrate with hard-won experience and a strong aura of "been there, done that". Newly minted project managers will find a wealth of tips and templates to get them started and to provide project deliverables with the aplomb of seasoned veterans. Veterans will themselves find plenty to learn and re-learn from Ms. Lewin's hard-nosed, yet humorous approach. The author dispenses with the usual theoretical approaches to the subject but illustrates the best of the available theory with practical and thoughtful "cases".

If you have one project management book to read this year, read this one!