97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts

by Barbee Davis

Overview

If the projects you manage don't go as smoothly as you'd like, 97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know offers knowledge that's priceless, gained through years of trial and error. This illuminating book contains 97 short and extremely practical tips -- whether you're dealing with software or non-IT projects -- from some of the world's most experienced project managers and software developers. You'll learn how these professionals have dealt with everything from managing teams to handling project stakeholders to runaway meetings and more.

While this book highlights software projects, its wise axioms contain project management principles applicable to projects of all types in any industry. You can read the book end to end or browse to find topics that are of particular relevance to you. 97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know is both a useful reference and a source of inspiration.

Among the 97 practical tips:

• "Clever Code Is Hard to Maintain...and Maintenance Is Everything" -- David Wood, Partner, Zepheira
• "Every Project Manager Is a Contract Administrator" -- Fabio Teixeira de Melo, Planning Manager, Construtora Norberto Odebrecht
• "Can Earned Value and Velocity Coexist on Reports?" -- Barbee Davis, President, Davis Consulting
• "How Do You Define 'Finished'"? -- Brian Sam-Bodden, author, software architect
• "The Best People to Create the Estimates Are the Ones Who Do the Work" -- Joe Zenevitch, Senior Project Manager, ThoughtWorks
• "How to Spot a Good IT Developer" -- James Graham, independent management consultant
• "One Deliverable, One Person" -- Alan Greenblatt, CEO, Sciova

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449379568
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	08/13/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	252
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Barbee Davis, PMP, PHR, writes a semi-monthly feature for the Project Management Institute (PMI) international publication, Community Post, in which she guides project managers to more successful projects. She is also an international reviewer for the PMI Registered Educational Provider (R.E.P.) program.



Experienced in training and consulting, Barbee has written and facilitated technical training for IBM Corporation and other large customers. She has designed and implemented projects in varied industries, and managed large project rollouts for many national corporations.



As co-owner of ExecuTrain of Nebraska, Barbee provided technical training for solution developers and systems engineers, as well as offering end-user training on all platforms. She came to ExecuTrain from Wilson Learning, where she was an accredited facilitator for their Management Development, Sales, Customer Service, Time Management workshops, and automated personnel selection tools.



Currently, Barbee owns Davis Consulting, formed to provide Training and Development workshops, customized training materials, and Project Management consulting services. She has been on staff with the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Nebraska Wesleyan, and Bellevue Universityand is proficient in online learning instructional design, having both written for and taught on Blackboard for universities and corporate clients. Ms. Davis holds a degree in Education, a Master's, a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, a Professional in Human Resources (PHR) accreditation, and a black belt in Microsoft Project.

Table of Contents

Preface; Permissions; How to Contact Us; Safari® Books Online; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: Get Users Involved As Early As Possible; Chapter 2: Avoid Whack-a-Mole Development; Chapter 3: A Word Can Make You Miss Your Deadline; Chapter 4: Make Project Sponsors Write Their Own Requirements; Chapter 5: Favor the Simple Over the Complex; Chapter 6: Pay Your Debts; Chapter 7: Add Talents, Not Skills, to Your Team; Chapter 8: Keep It Simple, Simon; Chapter 9: You Aren't Special; Chapter 10: Scrolling Through Time; Chapter 11: Save Money on Your Issues; Chapter 12: How to Spot a Good IT Developer; Chapter 13: Developer Productivity: Skilled Versus Average; Chapter 14: Size Matters; Chapter 15: Document Your Process, Then Make Sure It Is Followed; Chapter 16: Go Ahead, Throw That Practice Out; Chapter 17: Requirement Specifications: An Oxymoron; Chapter 18: Success Is Always Measured in Business Value; Chapter 19: Don't Skip Vacations for the Project; Chapter 20: Provide Regular Time to Focus; Chapter 21: Project Management Is Problem Management; Chapter 22: Empowering Developers: A Man Named Tim; Chapter 23: Clever Code Is Hard to Maintain; Chapter 24: Managing Human Factors in IT Project Management; Chapter 25: Use a Wiki; Chapter 26: The Missing Link; Chapter 27: Estimate, Estimate, Estimate; Chapter 28: Developers Unite—PMOs Are Advancing; Chapter 29: Value Results, Not Just Effort; Chapter 30: Software Failure Is Organizational Failure; Chapter 31: A Voice from the Other Side; Chapter 32: Keep Your Perspective; Chapter 33: How Do You Define "Finished"?; Chapter 34: The 60/60 Rule; Chapter 35: We Have Met the Enemy...and He Is Us; Chapter 36: Work in Cycles; Chapter 37: To Thine Own Self Be True; Chapter 38: Meetings Don't Write Code; Chapter 39: Chart a Course for Change; Chapter 40: IT Program Management: Shared Vision; Chapter 41: Planning for Reality; Chapter 42: The Fallacy of Perfect Execution; Chapter 43: Introduce a More Agile Communication System; Chapter 44: Don't Worship a Methodology; Chapter 45: Don't Throw Spreadsheets at People Issues; Chapter 46: One Deliverable, One Person; Chapter 47: The Fallacy of Perfect Knowledge; Chapter 48: Build Teams to Run Marathons, Not Sprints; Chapter 49: The Holy Trinity of Project Management; Chapter 50: Roadmaps: What Have We Done for You Lately?; Chapter 51: The Importance of the Project Scope Statement; Chapter 52: Align Vision and Expected Outcome; Chapter 53: Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore; Chapter 54: Avoiding Contract Disputes; Chapter 55: You Get What You Measure; Chapter 56: Don't Fall into the "Not Invented Here" Syndrome; Chapter 57: Favor the Now Over the Soon; Chapter 58: Speed Is Life; More Is Better; Chapter 59: Building the Morale on Your Team; Chapter 60: A Project Depends on Teamwork; Chapter 61: Serve Your Team; Chapter 62: The Fallacy of the Big Round Ball; Chapter 63: Responding to a Crisis; Chapter 64: Know Your Integration Points; Chapter 65: Aggressively Promote Communication in Distributed Projects; Chapter 66: Start with the End in Mind; Chapter 67: Clear Terms, Long Friendship!; Chapter 68: The Best Estimators: Those Who Do the Work; Chapter 69: Communicating Is Key; Chapter 70: A Project Is the Pursuit of a Solution; Chapter 71: It's the People, Stupid; Chapter 72: Documents Are a Means, Not an End; Chapter 73: Can Earned Value and Velocity Coexist on Reports?; Chapter 74: Scope Change Happens; Get Used to It; Chapter 75: Buying Ready-Made Software; Chapter 76: Project Sponsors—Good, Bad, and Ugly; Chapter 77: Should You Under-Promise, or Over-Deliver?; Chapter 78: Every Project Manager Is a Contract Administrator; Chapter 79: Important, but Not Urgent; Chapter 80: Teach the Process; Chapter 81: The Fallacy of Status; Chapter 82: What Do They Want to Hear, Anyway?; Chapter 83: Recognize the Value of Team Morale; Chapter 84: Engage Stakeholders All Through Project Life; Chapter 85: The Value of Planning; Chapter 86: Don't Always Be "The Messenger"; Chapter 87: Effectively Manage the Deliverables; Chapter 88: We Are Project Managers, Not Superheroes; Chapter 89: Increase Communication: Hold Frequent, Instant Meetings; Chapter 90: Flexibility Simplifies Project Management; Chapter 91: The Web Points the Way, for Now; Chapter 92: Developers Hate Status Reports, Managers Love Them; Chapter 93: You Are Not in Control; Chapter 94: Share the Vision; Chapter 95: True Success Comes with a Supporting Organization; Chapter 96: Establish Project Management Governance; Chapter 97: 9.7 Reasons I Hate Your Website; Contributors; Colophon;