The Barnes & Noble Review
If you want to move up the technical hierarchy, you need to become a skilled, comfortable project manager. For many programmers, that’s a pretty big leap. This book will be your guide and companion. It's careful, patient, practical, and comprehensive. And, unlike many PM books, it’s focused on the specific challenges of managing technical projects.
Colleen Garton and Erika McCulloch bring well over 30 years’ experience to the table, and their book reflects it from the beginning of the project lifecycle all the way to project closure and point releases.
You’ll start by understanding your (many) roles as a project manager, then walk through everything it takes to initiate a project successfully. There’s practical advice on generating preliminary cost and time estimates; building teams; planning effective QA/testing; creating proposal documents (RFIs, RFQ, RFPs, and so forth); and more.
The authors explain what to do as soon as you have the formal go-ahead; how to define deliverables, milestones, and functional and technical requirements; and how to run effective meetings -- especially your crucial kickoff meeting.
They systematically cover both technical issues (for instance, building a complete project plan with Microsoft Project, defining source and build control processes) and human issues (delegation, motivation, managing client expectations, what not to say in an email). You’ll find insights into everything from methodologies (PMI, CMMI, Six Sigma) to documentation and technical support.
Perhaps most valuable, the authors’ “voice of experience” on managing constraints, obstacles, and risks -- including how to recognize when trouble’s brewing. (Garton and McCulloch spend several pages on the classic “hurry up and wait” disorder, and the less famous but equally aggravating “wait and hurry up” syndrome.) Calm, focused, and realistic, this book will help you navigate even “Class 5” project whitewater. Bill Camarda, from the March 2005 Read Only