Practice Management Books

The authors define program management as "the coordinated management of interdependent projects, over a finite period of time to achieve a set of business results." The last phrase captures the dimension this book stresses for managers concerned with alignment between business strategy and the day-to-day execution of project deliverables. While this book recognizes the importance of project management as a tactical tool, its key contribution is to distinguish between the disciplines of program management and project management. This distinction is provided and explained to provide a framework for managers. Using this framework, managers will be able to ensure that products and services, however skillfully delivered, meet the overarching interests of the entire business. The authors refer to the "breakthrough" nature of this distinction. My search results for "program management" resulted in few alternatives to books on project management, but included this book. So the "breakthrough" description of this book is a reasonable one.

Chapter 1 lays out the purpose and applicability of the book, and motivates the study of program management. Part II (Managing the Program) and Part IV (The Program Manager) should be required reading in complex and dynamic environments. These chapters will help anchor program management requirements for organizations when significant priorities change in order to address new competitive or political realities.

The busier reader may choose sections for less emphasis on the first reading. I would nominate Part III (Program Management Metrics and Tools) and the first chapter of Part V (Transitioning to Program Management) for a more cursory reading the first time through. The more motivational sections (Parts I, II, and IV) will convince many readers of the value of aligning authority and communication and will challenge them to assess this alignment in their organizations.

This is by far the best book on program management that I've been able to find. Very practical and comprehensive - exactly the book I've been looking for to help me manage programs more effectively.

This fine book is a bit controversial in its contents. One might not agree on the definition of «program» the authors are espousing and use this single reason to reject the book contents as a whole. And maybe this is why «Program Management for Improved Business Results» is, to my knowledge, the first extensive book published in North America on the «elusive, misunderstood» subject of program management. I believe it took some courage to go ahead and produce this very extensive content on a subject that is currently storming boardrooms and giving headaches to senior executives, in their search for better governance of «project-oriented» business activities. An important landmark in project and program management literature, full of valuable information and propositions to tame the beast that is managing multiple projects happening together to serve a same corporate purpose. Many kudos.

Claude Emond, PMP, project management consultant and coach;
member of the Project Core Team for the development of the 1st edition of the PMI Standard for Portfolio Management and the PMI Standard for Program Management

As president of the Program Management Forum and a practicing consultant for almost 20 years in business process development, I have seen and used a lot of material related to program and project management.
I believe that this book is the best collection of valid, practical, usable information on program management that I have seen. Its basic approach is the view that program management, properly done, is a powerful, unifying mechanism for simultaneously coordinating the projects and functions with the strategic alignment, up and down the organization, of strategies, projects, and tasks.
This book clearly distinguishes the tools and functions of program management from those of project management. It clarifies the unique qualities required of a good program management system and team, outlines its unique tools and methods, and even presents a thorough discussion of program metrics, with advice how to customize them to a company's unique situation.
It includes a good presentation of unique program management tools including program portfolio maps, program road maps, program complexity assessments and many others, all of which are distinct from the standard project management tools in their role. The use of these tools is always presented in the larger context of achieving business results and implementing business strategy, not just specific project objectives - which therefore elevates program management to the role of a strategic framework.
In addition to the topic of program management itself, the book spends considerable time on the selection and development of program managers, how they differ from project managers, and how to build their supporting organizations who must implement this discipline.
Finally, the book clearly outlines ways for a company to transition to a Program Management Way of doing business and how the newly introduced role of program management must fit and collaborate with the other functions of a company to operate well.
This book is clearly the synergy of the broad corporate experience of the two of its co-authors with immense business background together with the thoroughness and ability to explain concepts of its academic, but also business-experienced co-author.
The book is absolutely worth its price, as it contains no fluff, is well organized, and is packed with relevant, practical information.
I thoroughly endorse this landmark book and recommend it to anyone wishing to implement or improve a program management organization and develop its program managers. It is easy to read, extremely comprehensive and packed with proven, practical information.

This is simply the best book written about generating requirements for a project. The approach in the book is direct and useable. The section on requirements traceability is right to the point and is a "must read" for every project manager and business analyst in the field.

Ralph has done a wonderful job describing the criticality of clear requirements as well as the reality that they never will really be clear. I found this book pragmatic and thorough. It triggered some new ideas for managing complexity and provided me with new tools and techniques to be more resilient. Thanks, Ralph!

A book search on "requirements" gets 10,000 hits; "project management" gets 3,000 more. So why this one? I used Young's previous requirements books - Effective Requirements Practices (what to do) and Requirements Engineering Handbook (how to do it) - to good effect earlier in my career as a software developer, so I was interested to see what he has to offer me now in my role as a Project Manager. I was pleased to find this book gives practical, actionable guidance across the spectrum of things a PM must worry about (mostly requirements related, but even a bit beyond) in a complete yet concise way. A key "take-away" from the book is steps to mitigate my two biggest requirements issues: having the REAL requirements identified early on, and maintaining control on requirements changes/additions during the life of my projects.

Compared against the Robertsons' popular "Requirements-Led Project Management," I found this book easier to read & to apply - with specific stuff you can use directly, things like a requirements-related project start-up checklist, requirements products to plan for, and a skills matrix to help you select (or grow) competent requirements manager/analysts for your project. This book manages to cover the waterfront while remaining concise (200 pp plus appendices). Wieger's "Software Requirements" is a classic reference, for example, but it's 500 pages that I don't have time to wade through; the best of Wieger's PM stuff is included here in an appendix. I particularly like the way key ideas are set off in boldface with distinctive dividers - you can get the jist of the book just by flipping pages and reading the callouts, and it helps when you go back to look for something, too.

Like Young's ERP & REH books, this one includes a couple of sections and many sidebars contributed by other luminaries, from both the US and the UK. Appendix A is Palmer's excellent paper on how to do Traceability; Appendix B is a humorous and compelling piece by Neal Whitten on "minimum requirements." Some of the best practices take a broad view of what is related to "requirements" -- the chapter on the PM's role in Quality by Dan Baker provides the best succinct description I've read of what "quality" should be on a project and how QA can make a real contribution; Stephen Waddell adds a terrific summation of Risk Management best practices in a chapter on Requirements and Risk.

The included Index isn't as comprehensive as I'd like, but the very thorough Table of Contents makes up for that somewhat -- and there's a very extensive list of references and links. In addition to the topics mentioned above, there are chapters on Key Requirements Success Factors, Partnering, Teamwork, Coaching, Communication, Process Discipline vs. Agility, Continuous Improvement, and Suggested Implementation Steps.

All in all, this is a very pithy, self-contained book to increase your effectiveness as PM and improve the management of your project. If you have the time (you must not be a PM :-), there are lots of other good, specific requirements books. If you're busy, spending just a little time with this one helps to ensure you're doing the things that are known to foster project success.

Our advances in hardware and software technology have not helped us write better software specifications. A recent popular comic strip shows a software engineer asking the customer about what he wants to accomplish with the software. The customer states that he does not know what he wants to accomplish because he does not know what the software can do. The engineer then explains that she can design the software to do whatever he wants, but first she needs to know his requirements. The frustrated customer finally asks the engineer if she can design the software to tell what his requirements are. In my opinion requirements elicitation on many projects has not matured much farther than the level of this comic.

The buzzword for systems development in today's competitive environment is "Faster, Better, and Cheaper." Yet many software projects struggle just to complete development period, forget completing "Faster, Better, and Cheaper." Well-known failures such as the FBI's Virtual Case File (VCF) make the news while many more failures go unreported. The VCF failure was due to several factors including scope creep and ill-defined requirements. The sad truth is that no software project is ever completed "Faster, Better, and Cheaper" with significant scope creep and ill-defined requirements. In fact, Capers Jones (CrossTalk, June 2006, Social and Technical Reasons for Software Project Failure) lists new and changing requirements during development as one of the five root causes of software project failure.

The problem is not a lack of technology. The problem is not a shortage of qualified people. The problem certainly is not a lack of software development methodologies to follow. We have an abundance of all three. The problem is a lack of leadership in the basics of project management. Leadership on basic issues is what Dr. Ralph Young's latest book (Project Requirements, A Guide to Best Practices, Management Concepts, 2006) is all about. Dr. Young has hit the trifecta with his latest book. His first two books focused on "what" to do (Effective Requirements Practices, Addison-Wesley, 2001) and "how" to do it (Requirements Engineering Handbook, Artech House, 2004). In this book, he describes the basic project management practices needed to prepare the ground for performing the tasks described in the first two books. However, why stress requirements in a book aimed at the project manager? The answer is simple: requirements underlie every other process of the software project. You have to get your requirements right. If you don't, what hope do you have of ever creating a product that meets the customers' needs, let alone creating it "Better, Faster, and Cheaper?"

A quick review of the Table of Contents in Project Requirements shows that the book is not for those who want to learn about the latest fad, or what tools to use, or even how to write a requirement. This book is for those who want to build a sound foundation for their software project to rest on. The real strength of this book lies in how easily it integrates requirements tasks with the Software Quality Engineer Body of Knowledge. The first two chapters focus on prevention of requirements errors early in the life cycle, before they become software errors. [I.A.2 - Prevention vs. Detection]. Chapters three through five address the all-important aspects of leadership, team building, and partnering. [I.C.2-4 - Team Management, Team tools, and Facilitation skills] There are chapters for improving project communications [I.C.5 - Communications Skills], coaching team members in sound requirements practices [I.C.1 - Organizational leadership] and setting goals and objectives [II.A - Goals and Objectives].

The book contains chapter after chapter of good solid advice, based on Dr. Young's real-world experience. However, parts of the book contain exceptional advice. The section on using a QA audit, not as a reporting tool but as a coaching tool, is a good example [II.C.1-3 - Program Development and Administration, Audit preparation and execution, and Audit reporting and follow-up]. The section on risk management [IV.C.1-2 - Risk Management planning methods and Risk probability] is another area that needs more attention in requirements management. We often treat requirements as being equal to each other. Although this approach makes measuring progress easier, requirements are not all created equal. Each requirement has a different potential cost, schedule, and technical risk impact to a project. The biggest risk a project can have is not recognizing this fact. Dr. Young provides a sound systematic approach to integrating risk management with requirements management and mitigating this often-overlooked problem.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in how project management basics apply to requirements management. To ignore the basics Dr. Young covers in his book is to make the same mistake that many projects make, but do not easily recover from. To ignore these basics is the best way to see your project cancelled, written up in the newspaper, and maybe even portrayed in a comic strip.

This book really flows and makes sense. I was afraid the concepts might be too technical but I was pleasantly surprised at how the authors connected the dots. The concepts and methodology detailed in this book are certainly a significant step forward in trading system design.

I have read all of Van Vliet's books on this subject and even taken a class he taught. I think he really has a handle on the future of financial technology.

Quality Money Management is an impressive reference book, very well laid out and pleasing to read. The book presents an innovative methodology that combines quality best practices with Investment Management. The chapter describing the components of the methodology alone is worth having the book on my desk. The book has an innovation technique of using a 'Money Document' deliverable to formalize a business case for presenting to seed capital investors to fund a new investment strategy. The stages and the numerous techniques in the Quality Money Management Methodology provides a clear systematic roadmap for a complex initiative of developing, testing and managing the portfolio of a new trading system. This book is a key tool in my knowledge base that takes my deliverables to a new level of quality and fluidity.

This book is a valuable checklist for managers responsible for the development of financial (software) systems. Development teams will profit by studying this book before starting a new project.
Although formal process quality improvement has been around for several years, the contribution of these authors is unique in the way they have combined the best of the many techniques available and explained where and when their use is appropriate in the development of a financial application.
The reader should be aware that despite its encyclopedic and cookbook appearance, this book is only a starting point for the practitioner. As the authors point out: Every project will need its own customized set of processes. Their K|V methodology provides the framework.
The second thing to be aware of is that a book that covers the entire methodology can not possibly cover the details on all techniques. It is especially important to keep this in mind in the quality improvement area where technique seem trivial. In my own experience I have seen teams dismiss techniques such as the "Five whys" and fish-bone diagrams, because their facilitators were insufficiently aware of the subtleties of these methods. Both of these techniques are described in the book in sufficient manner so that the prospective user will understand their usefulness. The next step will be to learn the details in specialized books. Similar comments could be made in regards to code inspections and reviews.
There are many more techniques in this book with whom I do not have personal experience, so I am extrapolating when assuming that the level of treatment would be the same. If it were not, than we could complain about unequal treatment. If it is, then we still have an excellent book that not only raises awareness but also gives very direct and specific guidelines.
An advantage of the chosen level is that the book can touch upon many more techniques without being too voluminous.
And maybe most importantly, it keeps it readable for higher management which is important when using the book to get their support.
Teams starting a new project should read this together, then decide how to proceed. Teams finding themselves drowning might very well find some ideas to work themselves out of their problems.

This is a well organized book that includes relevant real-world examples and all the latest in contemporary population dynamics. Aside from an appalling cover design, this book is a winner!

This one is a keeper! A comprehensive masterpiece of the world of dynamic fish populaton modeling. Excellent examples using a multitude of fish species makes this book a must for anyone involved in fishery research or management into the new millenium. I give the books content 5 stars although I, also, would like to see the release of a new book jacket.

This is the book -I- keep on the nightstand. Covers a broad base of contemporary population dynamics with relevant examples. Disregarding the insipid cover design, its an essential addition to any biologist's library

An excellent resource for anyone involved in the world of fisheries stock assessment or population dynamics. I only give it 4 stars because of the poor cover design.

To the extent that this gem of a book demonstrates how the way we handle money is a metaphor for much else that ails us, it helped me face and deal with an array of things that were dysfunctional in my life - not just my indebtedness. Written in a style that's both personal and universal, Margaret St. John's book has a formula that works.

....and read this book! Written with the understanding and compassion which comes only from experience and hard work, Margaret St. John will help those willing to gain insight into the reasons they suffer with debt. The reader will empathize with people who reacted to early childhood circumstances by becoming adult debtors, and underacheivers. I learned the reasons we undermine our foundations with needless debt, and how best to allocate what we earn. The method used is practical and has helped many who thought there was no hope. This book helps even those of us who have no debt, but who, by mismanagement have wasted money we may need in time. Buying this book is a wise investment.

This book takes a hard hitting approach to debt. While reading the book, I quickly discovered it wasn't about the money. Wow! What a revelation. This book has helped me to "peel away the layers of the onion" and discover the reasoning behind my debting. It even inspired me to go to my first Debtor's Anonymous meeting. Today, I'm much closer to becoming debt free. The future is much brighter now that I don't debt one day at a time. Thanks, Margaret!

This gem is a do-it-yourself guide to the solvency we all desire. The practical exercises are fun to do, and they hold the key to opening those doors of awareness as to why we do the things we do.... More than just a "how to manage your money" treatise, this book delves much more deeply into the beliefs that keep us indebted monetarily and otherwise. Excellently written, with plenty of anecdotes and personal experiences, I found it insightful and empowering. This book comes from the heart - Ms St. John has suffered through and found solutions to problems more common than most would care to admit. Thanks so much for sharing.

This book tells how to confront the harasser. If the harassment continues, the legal steps are covered. For an employer, it provides information on policies, complaint procedures, training sessions and monitoring to prevent harassment.
NOLO Press is noted for making legal information accessible to ordinary people. This topic is something that every supervisor and employer needs to be briefed on.

As an employment attorney and human resource consultant who trains organizations on harassment policy, I use this book as a great reference material. I often suggest it to supervisors who want to know more about how to deal with this complex and difficult problem....

I found the book to be pretty straightforward and easy to read. It gives all the pertinent information on the subject from the law to how to stop sexual harassment to your legal remedies. One of the best features is that provides an array of case studies that clear up a lot of the gray areas. I used the book to help me develop a training on the subject, I recommend it to anyone who needs more info on the subject.

Every business with employees that does not have a sexual harassment policy in place needs to buy this book now.

Actions the authors say employers need to implement regarding sexual harassment include: Do whatever it takes to understand the law, the issues, and keep current; put in place a zero tolerance sexual harassment prevention policy that prohibits specific behaviors of verbal harassment, non-verbal tactics, and physical harassment; take action to stop sexual harassment that does occur and prevent reoccurrence and reprisals.

I've looked up a lot of resources on the net. You can do so many things for free on your own, don't pay the services on the web to do it for you. This book will help a lot. I've found answers to all of my questions here, in simple plain English:

Naming your business

Trademarks/servicemarks

Pricing your work or goods

Taxation (including some great ways to save money on your taxes)

Web domain registration

Choosing the type of business you want to own (sole proprietorship, LLC, etc.)

Web sites and e-business

Location (working from home, leasing a commercial site, etc.)

Writing contracts

Hiring workers if you choose to

Changing ownership in the future

Marketing

And a lot more...

The book also includes many of the legal forms you will need both in tear-out page form and on a CD-ROM so you can print out more copies on your computer. This book is easy to follow and thorough. I highly recommend it.

I have always trusted Nolo products so this book was a given for me. I like the CD that came with it. It is a very well written, easy to understand book.

If you want info clear and concise....English!!! Better than those for dummies!!

Skip the Small Business Administration or state small business websites. Forget the "For Dummies" or "Idiots" guides. This is the one book you need to read if you're serious about starting a business.

From taxes to finances to planning entry into a market, Nolo's book covers the gamut. Starting a business sounds intimidating, but it's really not...if you have this book by your side. The CD-ROM has a couple of useful files, but to really get the most out of the book you may have to follow their recommendations for further reading. It's a great place to start, however.

And be sure to order the latest edition, as laws change! [I reviewed the 5th edition.]

This book is written specifically for anyone who desires to be an effective seminar leader and marketer for that business. The author gives excellent information, as well as very useful forms and tools for showing up as the professional you desire to be. I recommend this book for anyone who is either starting out, or who would like to move to the next level in their business. One of the most valuable things I found was the assurance that I had the kind of answers I need when approaching a corporation to do seminar work for them.

Speaking As A Professional: Enhance Your Therapy Or Coaching Practice Through Presentations, Workshops, And Seminars isn't just another public speaker's guide: it addresses those involved on a professional level and tells how to enhance a therapy or coaching practice by giving presentations, workshops and seminars. Chapters specific to this purpose offer author/therapist/business coach Dan Grandstaff's practical tips on how to expand a coaching or therapy practice through public speaking. From locating groups which use speakers to presenting onesself as an expert, this will make an important guide for a wide range of professions who would turn expertise into a side-business.

Speaking as a Professional is a very helpful how-to book filled with practical advice, relevant worksheets, and well-explained examples that offer even the most seasoned speakers valuable ideas for enhancing their therapy or coaching practices. As a business writing coach, I appreciate the guide's clear, organized, and easy-to-read format, as well as the solid content itself. While all the chapters are helpful, I especially like the one on "Delivering an Effective Presentation," where Dan Grandstaff's tips will definitely help me take my presentations to the next level.

This book is thorough, practical, and inspirational. Although all the chapters were helpful, I found Chapter Seven to be particularly so. The tips for managing anxiety helped me to sail through a recent presentation at a professional writers' conference. In fact, I enjoyed giving the presentation so much that I signed up for an upcoming workshop on "Getting on the Lecture Circuit." Thanks to Dan's book, I now have more confidence on the floor and on my feet.

The authors provide an invaluable reference for physicians and other care givers who assistant have a special interest in skin disorders. This book would make a great gift for budding dermatologists.

A superb collection of dermatology eponyms. The book is well-researched and well-written and I highly recommend it to anyone involved in dermatology or dermatopathology.

Those of us who continue to be involved in academic dermatology can attest to the constant use of eponyms in this field. I found this book well organized, extremely comprehensive, and precisely written. This reference tool is highly recommended for every dermatologist.

Exemplary work. It is well organized, easy to use, exhaustive, up-to-date and rigorously researched and cross-referenced. Because of its excellent cross referencing, it is also a fabulous launching pad for doing in-depth research. Furthermore, its appendix on acronyms and abbreviations is unparalleled.

Note
This is an excerpt from the in-depth review I have written for the Dictionary Review Committee of the American Translators Association. For those interested, it will be published in the July 2005 issue of the ATA "Chronicle" and will be accompanied by a brief interview with its main author, Benjamin Barankin, and by short biographical information of its three physician authors.

Although in writing this review I have compared the IDDE to comprehensive general medical dictionaries and to other dermatology dictionaries such as Carter's (1992) "A Dictionary of Dermatologic Terms" and to Goeltzenleuchter's (2002) "Dorland's Dermatology Word Book," in all fairness to these earlier and less focused dictionaries, and as a challenge to the newly-issued IDDE, I opted to make my strongest comparison primarily with online sources on medical eponyms. According to Dr. Barankin, the IDDE was three years in the making, and, in spite of it being a paper publication, the relevance and actuality of its content favorably compares to Internet databases (a number of them restricted) that are regularly updated. Now that Barankin, Metelitsa and Lin have done the work for us in compiling this unrestricted corpus of the hardest terminology in dermatology (eponyms and acronyms) between two covers for quick, comprehensive, and easy reference, conducting additional research in dermatology terminology has been simplified. For medical translators this book is not only informative, it is a time-saver.
Verónica Albin

I have used this book at work and am now purchasing it for home use. This is a must have book for any medical transcriptionist who cares about his or her work and its quality. If you purchase no other book, purchase this one!

I high recommend this book to anyone who is studying or working in Medical Transcription. This book is very use friendly. It is quick and easy to find what you need. There are 2 different ways you can find information in this book. For example, lets say you were trying to find "Lachman test". You could find it one of two ways. You could either look under L for Lachman. It is there. But you can also look under T for test. When you look under "test" you will find almost 6 pages of listings and spellings of different medical tests from a variety of medical specialities. If you are just beginning your studies in Medical Transcription, do yourself a favor. Pick up a copy of this book. If money is a problem, I would recommend getting a used copy. But even if you pay full price and buy it new, this book is well worth the money.

Easy to use and has all the words you will need for your medical reporting. Recommend highly.

As a general medical transcription reference, "Stedman's Medical Speller" is an outstanding first-line choice. Distilled from the vast tome of the 26th edition Stedman's Dictionary, this has, according to the editor, 113,000 entries that not only include medical terms but also variant spellings, phrases, and some useful medical jargon. It is completely cross-referenced which is a godsend when one is trying to interpret that-all-too-frequent mumbling dictator. Excluded from this book are terms in pharmacology, pathology, biochemistry, veterinary and abbreviations.

It has several appendixes which include rules of hyphenation [admittedly not used much nowadays with word-wrap computer programs] and another on medical prefixes, suffixes and combining forms.

This 1996 Second Edition book is an excellent reference source. As a full-time medical transcriptionist, I have used it frequently and can vouch for its comprehensiveness.