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 | Absolute Beginner's Guide to Project Management (2nd Edition) |
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Product Description
Why learn project management the hard way?
Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Project Management, Second Edition will have you managing projects in no time! Here’s a small sample of what you’ll learn:
- Key concepts and fundamentals behind best-practice project management techniques
- The mindset and skill set of effective project managers
- Project techniques that work in any industry, with any tools
- The common elements of successful projects
- Lessons from failed projects
- The value and importance of project leadership versus project management
- How to manage growing project trends and tough project types that first-time project managers are likely to encounter
- How to make better use of Microsoft Project
- How to respond when project reality does not match textbook scenarios
- Expert insight on key project management concepts and topics
You’ve just been handed your department's biggest project. Absolute Beginner's Guide to Project Management will show you exactly where to start–and walk you step by step through your entire project! Expert project manager Gregory Horine shows you exactly what works and what doesn’t, drawing on the field’s proven best practices. Understand your role as a project manager...gain the skills and discover the personal qualities of great project managers...learn how to organize, estimate, and schedule projects effectively...manage deliverables, issues, changes, risks, quality, vendors, communications, and expectations...make the most of technology...manage virtual teams...avoid the problems that trip up new project managers! This new edition jumpstarts your project management expertise even faster, with all-new insights on Microsoft Project, challenging project situations and intriguing project management topics of the day.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #31133 in Books
- Published on: 2009-01-26
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.00" h x 6.90" w x 9.00" l, 1.45 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 432 pages
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Five stars. The book is littered with very useful notes, tips and cautions, appearing on average every other page." Kawal Banga MBCS, IT Training, Summer 2009
About the Author
In an ideal world, every new project manager candidate would complete certified project management training programs and serve as an apprentice before starting his or her first project manager opportunity, but...this is the real world. In many cases, a quicker, more accessible, and more economical alternative is needed to guide these candidates in managing projects successfully the first time.
The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Project Management, Second Edition, is intended to provide this alternative with a helpful, fun, and informative style.
© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
"Five stars. The book is littered with very useful notes, tips and cautions, appearing on average every other page." Kawal Banga MBCS, IT Training, Summer 2009
About the Author
Gregory M Horine (Indianapolis, IN) is a PMP/CCP-certified business technology and IT project management professional who has achieved nineteen years of successful results across multiple industries through the use of servant leadership principles. His primary areas of expertise and strength include project management and leadership; complex application development; enterprise solution development; business process analysis and improvement; data analysis and transformation; package implementation and integration; vendor and procurement management; regulatory and process compliance; and the effective use of project management tools. He is co-author of PMP Exam Cram 2.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Introduction
As organizations continue to move toward “project-based” management to get more done with fewer resources, and as the demand for effective project managers continues to grow, more and more individuals find themselves with the opportunity to manage projects for the first time.In an ideal world, every new project manager candidate would complete certified project management training programs and serve as an apprentice before starting his or her first project manager opportunity, but...this is the real world. In many cases, a quicker, more accessible, and more economical alternative is needed to guide these candidates in managing projects successfully the first time.
The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Project Management, Second Edition, is intended to provide this alternative with a helpful, fun, and informative style.
About This Book
Let’s review the objectives and approach of this book.Objectives
The objectives of this book include the following:- To be an easy-to-use tutorial and reference resource for any person managing their first project(s).
- To teach the key concepts and fundamentals behind project management techniques. If these are understood, they can be applied effectively independent of toolset, environment, or industry.
- To reduce the “on-the-job” learning curve by sharing the traits of successful projects and “lessons learned” from less-than-successful projects.
- To balance the breadth of topics covered with adequate depth in specific areas to best prepare a new project manager.
- To review the skills and qualities of effective project managers.
- To emphasize the importance of project “leadership” versus just project “management.”
Approach
Consistent with the Absolute Beginner’s Guide series, this book uses a teaching style to review the essential techniques and skills needed to successfully manage a project. By teaching style, we intend the following:- A mentoring, coaching style.
- A fun, easy-to-read, practical style.
- Assumes that the reader does not have previous hands-on experience with project management.
- Teaches the material as if an instructor were physically present.
- Task-oriented, logically ordered, self-contained lessons (chapters) that can be read and comprehended in a short period of time (15–30 minutes).
- Emphasis on understanding the principle behind the technique or practice.
- Teaches the material independent of specific tools and methodologies.
- Teaches the material with the assumption that the reader does not have access to organizational templates or methodologies.
- Provides a summary map of the main ideas covered at the end of each chapter. Research has shown that this type of “mind-map” approach can drive better memory recollection when compared to traditional linear summary approaches.
Out-of-Scope - The scope of this book is clearly outlined in the table of contents, but as we will cover later, it is always good to review what is out of scope to ensure understanding of the scope boundaries. Because the field of project management is extremely broad, and we needed to draw the line somewhere, this book focuses on the proper management of a single project. As a result, the following advanced project management subjects are not covered in this book:
- Program management
- Enterprise portfolio management
- Enterprise resource management
- Advanced project risk management topics
- Advanced project quality management topics
- Advanced project procurement management topics
Who Should Read This Book?
The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Project Management, Second Edition, is recommended for any person who fits into one or more of the following categories:- Individuals unsatisfied with other introductory project management books
- Individuals new to project management, such as
- Technologists
- Knowledge workers
- Students
- Functional managers
- Professionals taking a first project management assignment, such as
- Team leaders
- Project coordinators
- Project administrators
- Project support
- Functional managers
- Experienced project managers needing a refresher course
- Experienced project managers with limited formal project management education
How This Book Is Organized
This book has been divided into five parts:- Part I, “Project Management Jumpstart,” sets up the general framework for our project management discussion and accelerates your project management learning curve, including an insightful review of successful projects and project managers.
- Part II, “Project Planning,” reviews the processes that establish the foundation for your project.
- Part III, “Project Control,” reviews the processes that allow you to effectively monitor, track, correct, and protect your project’s performance.
- Part IV, “Project Execution,” reviews the key leadership and people-focused skills that you need to meet today’s business demands.
- Part V, “Accelerating the Learning Curve...Even More,” provides experienced insights and tips on making better use of MS Project, managing specific real-life project situations, and on many hot project management topics to further accelerate the knowledge base and skill level of the new project manager.
Conventions Used in This Book
- At the beginning of each chapter, you’ll find a quick overview of the major topics that will be expounded upon as you read through the material that follows.
- The end of each chapter provides a list of key points along with a visual summary map.
- You will also find several special sidebars used throughout this book:
Note - These boxes highlight specific learning points or provide supporting information to the current topic.
Tip - These boxes highlight specific techniques or recommendations that could be helpful to most project managers.
Caution - These boxes highlight specific warnings that a project manager should be aware of.
© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews48 of 48 people found the following review helpful.
Missing the practical approach By wibe
This is one of the better books about PMBOK-based ProjectManagement. But what I really miss, is a practical explanation of how to switch theory to reality. For example: The PMBOK defines 44 processes. Some of them have to be done one time (e.g. defining a Project Charter), but many process steps have to be done daily, weekly, monthly and with different participants. So, what I miss is a description how to organize all these processes during a concrete project including a project plan with all these process steps defined as meetings.
This book is a really good introduction to PM and it helps to understand every PMBOK process. But when trying to use this methodology in daily work, you dont know what steps to do with whom and when. I simply miss a kind of project calendar showing how to spread these processes over the timeline.
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful.
For Beginners and Much More... By M. Zakaria
I enjoyed this book. It is jam-packed with theories and a wealth of practical experiences and lessons learned. This book is very comprehensive and goes beyond the catchy series title of "Absolute Beginner's Guide".
I particularly found the Tip/Note/Caution pop-up style side-bars amusing and very helpful (I cheated and read them first before every page). Some of these pop-ups are very insightful (e.g. Caution: Page 32 - "A good project manager can still end up managing and delivering a troubled project").
The summary/review section entitled "The Absolute Minimum", at the end of every chapter, is a very smart and practical method to review what the previous chapter was all about.
This book goes beyond the mechanics of pure project management. As an example, in Chapter 16 "Leading a Project" this book discusses leadership, techniques and success factors. The "Servant Leadership" approach is extremely effective and I am also very glad that someone had already named it and documented it as early as 1970.
Job very well done. This book is HIGHLY recommended for beginners and experts alike.
Marwan F. Zakaria, PMP
29 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
It really does deserve its 5-star rating! By Carlo R. Montoya
If you're either a new project manager (without PM training), or
somebody interested or involved in project management, then this
book is for you.
I've read the Project Management Institute's Project Management
Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) cover to cover and I honestly don't
know how I prevented myself from going to sleep.
This book, on the other hand, is the most exciting book I've
ever read about project management. Greg's 16 years of
experience is evident in his writing.
Get this book, read it and before you know it, you're on your
way to become a better project manager.
See all 25 customer reviews...
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