[.ca] The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management (ISBN 0471692840)

From Amazon.com:
Until the early '90s, project management was definitely located somewhere near the unsexy end of the business spectrum. But now, with the rise of downsizing and outsourcing, it has become one of the hot disciplines. Professional membership of the U.S.-based Project Management Institute has quadrupled in the last decade, and Microsoft claimed recently to have over 2 million users worldwide of its project-management software. The reasons for this growth are simple. Project management is about managing "projects," that is, unique pieces of work (as opposed to ongoing operations). Downsizing, outsourcing, and the accelerating pace of change have meant that, increasingly, work is carried out on an ad-hoc, one-off project basis. The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management is designed as an advanced textbook for businesspeople with a grasp of the basics and insufficient time (or inclination) to go back to school to learn more. Written by Eric Verzuh, president of the Versatile Company, a leading project-management consultancy, this is not a heavy academic text. Like the rest of the Fast Forward series, this book is designed to let the reader extract maximum information in minimum time. There is a strong use of graphics with tables, charts cross-heads, and bullet points. Important passages are flagged in bold and/or emblazoned with the words key concept. When you read it, you realize that there is nothing magical about project management, just the application of careful common sense. The book covers all the basic stuff like planning, time-tabling, quantity and price estimation, resource allocation, and scheduling. But it also acknowledges that there is inevitably a political dimension to every project, no matter how small. So it has important sections on how to ensure that all the stakeholders in the project are kept "on board" and the importance of communication. As Verzuh states in his introduction, "Every project participant from part-time team member to executive sponsor, becomes more effective once he or she understands the basics of project management." Really, this is a book about management that every manager should read, whether he or she has a project or not. --Alex Benady

Wonderful pocket reference:
I love this very engaging and "to the point" book because of its easily "digestable" language. I have 5 project management books in my library now. If I were to be only left with one, this would be it. Robert

One of the best Project Management books:
I've been really impressed about this book: - strongly rooted in reality - covers all areas used in managing projects - give a strong sensation the author got the knowledge from practice, not from books only - concise, clear, easy to understand and put in practice for the experienced project managers - useful to be used line a guide (or bible, whatever you like) to come back from time to time in order remember how to plan and implement, ro to refine your understanding The less experienced project managers might find it too condensed or too "dry". Do not be affraid about this. Just come back to this book a little bit later, and you can discover you understand better what seems to be complicated at the first lecture. The beginners in Project Management might want to use it as a start point in improving knowledge in different PM areas where they feel less experienced. Overall if you easily read and underastand this book, this means you have a good level of understanding and expertise. If you feel not all chapters are crystal clear, this might be a sign you have to work more on different PM areas.

Good 1,000 Mile View:
This is a great book to use for a basis to understand Project Management. It's kind of lacking in the foundation principles, but otherwise it's good. It leads you through the Project Management process (but doesn't give you the background on why things are done a certain way) in a way that's easy for anyone to understand. Good book for Senior Management folks.

Gives theoretical knowledge only:
I ordered two project management books - this one by Verzuh and one called "Fundamentals of Project Management: Developing Core Competencies to Help Outperform the Competition" 2nd edition by James Lewis. This one by Verzuh described core project managment procedures but lacked many real-world examples of these procedures in action, other than cursory remarks about how some process helped some company. The book by Lewis was much more practical and seemed to be written from a person who had actually done lots of PM work rather than learned the theory and then wrote a book on it.

Covers the basics:
This book is a pretty good summary of project management, but does not include critical lessons-learned from practitioners.