The Art Of Project Management

Most books/courses about project management are not directly useful for practitioners. In fact, a very famous Austrian professor permanently states that his lessons are no preparation for programming!

Scott Berkun’s book, The Art Of Project Management, goes the other way. He directly transfers know-how from his years as a project manager at Microsoft. The text is easy/funny to read; there is no formal chit-chat!

The book covers the whole life of a project in industrial strength! The Art Of Project Management starts at the conception phase, moves on to vision documents, and then covers the actual coding and release processes! Politics and crisis management are also discussed. Problems are presented from the viewpoint of a dedicated project manager - a Microsoft-specific executive that is responsible for the welfare of the product.

You may not have a huge amount of programmers - but The Art Of Project Management works for small projects and one-man shows as well! The hints presented can be used for all kinds of projects, even for non-programming applications.

Scott Berkun transfers lots of hints about psychology and keeping the team happy. While a lot of this is common sense, it still can be helpful to have it all in one place.

Paper quality is high, there is no blotting… with a Parker 45 X nib. O’Reilly’s standard cover is sturdy - the book has no problems in a full briefcase.

Overall, this book will not help you pass an exam for project management. However, the hints given here will not be taught in a classroom. $39.95 is not a high price; the lessons learned can save loads of money. A good read overall!

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[tags]microsoft,tamspalm,the art of project management,scott berkun,business project,teamwork[/tags]