Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management (Theory in Practice)

I had a friend refer this book to me, and I'm glad that I took the time to read through it. It's a book that is best digested on a chapter by chapter basis, rather than a cover-to-cover read. It doesn't explore ground-breaking concepts. It touches on project management topics, but it doesn't dwell on any single topic for too long. He says several times that there are more detailed books for any given topic, and references many of them. It's a book about how to approach a project, get it done correctly, and how to work with other people through its different phases. I interpreted the primary foci of the book to be completing projects by collaborating effectively with other people and adjusting management methods to fit the project, rather than trying to fit the project into a particular management method. The book is written in a funny and informal way that allows it to be read and re-read without feeling like you're opening a textbook. I enjoyed how there weren't straight up procedures for exactly how a project manager should go about doing his/her job. There were rough guides, diagrams, anecdotes, and some suggestions for things that a manager could do, but it seemed obvious to me that these were meant to be interpreted and adjusted to fit both the situation and your own style. I purchased this book on the Kindle. Now that I've read it, I'm considering purchasing an actual copy so I have one to flip through for reference in the future. I plan on referring this book to my coworkers as well. It has helped me define several things that I can work on to improve my success in my current job and any future jobs.

I enjoyed this book when it first came out as "The Art of Project Management", and I like it more now. This is a great book to help PMs understand the nuances of their job. It's fun to read, first off. Each topic and subtopic has a clearly stated set of issues to consider, and the end of chapter summaries and questions get you thinking more. I also enjoyed the stories and examples that Berkun uses to explain things. They helped me connect the book with my life managing marketing projects and understanding the perspective of our technical teams. I find myself going back to the book often when I'm trying to think about how to handle project situations - good thing to have in your corner.

This is a solid book on project management. It covers a lot of fundamentals such as effective communication, decision-making, planning, and problem solving. It's good and full of a lot of useful information, but not great. Berkun worked at Microsoft and was a project manager on Internet Explorer 1.0 - 5.0. A caveat - Internet Explorer is not my favorite product (even pre-Mozilla). But it is a complex product that requires extensive analysis, design, development and testing - and Berkun clearly knows the product development process well. The book does not offer any overall paradigm or methodology for project management. Rather it has short sections on subjects such as 'requirements' where Berkun will share whatever gems of knowledge he amassed in his years at Microsoft. Though I'm normally partial to books where the author presents an overall technique, I do find his anecdotes / advice to be useful. It provides a general context to making good decisions in product development. The only place where I'd really fault the book is that it leans very heavily to a waterfall process, and some of the advice is definitely more useable in a large organization than in a small one. If the book had less waterfall assumptions, I'd probably be willing to give it 5 stars. Despite this, Berkun's insights are still quite useful to someone even in a small startup environment, or pursuing product development in an agile framework. The book can be a bit boring in some sections, but is always informative and offers good advice.

This is technical and specific to the software engineering process. And excellent. Well written and organized. It left me with plenty of reasons to apply this to the less intellectual pursuits for my clients. Enjoyable and fulfilling. Highly recommend for not only engineering supervisors, process managers, but their bosses: presidents, COOs, and independent business owners, and their coaches. While I am more strategic, I have bought copies for my tactical associates. He even discusses how to deal with "trouble makers" (my description). As parallel, I suggest Normal Accidents--it is all human, after all.

I love this book. I stumbled upon Scotts work researching about writing. As a developer I found the ideas about actually building products useful for my own projects. Although I dont do any formal PMing myself, I find the ideas useful and have learned what important strategies and tactics that PMs should employ. Also I really like the clear writing and it is so concise thar I frequently pause to really digest it. 10/10 would recommend for PMs and those who have to work in a project.

Ottimo libro, che descrive a fondo un argomento molto complesso come il project management

ok

Muy buen libro. Claridad en los conceptos. Muy útil para los que no sepamos cómo poner en práctica los conceptos de project management

邦訳も出ている『アート・オブ・プロジェクトマネジメント ―マイクロソフトで培われた実践手法』のrevised edition。著者はマイクロソフトでIEの開発プロジェクト等を率いていた人。 邦訳も読んだけど、このrevised editionが出たと聞いて、英語と仕事の両面の勉強のためにと購入したのが2008年の3月。それからゆっくり私が携わってきたプロジェクトの進行に合わせて読んできた。 もちろん、私の英語力では完璧に理解することはできないけれど、比較的平易な文章なので読みやすかった。それ以上に、自分がプロマネもどきの仕事をしているせいか、使われている用語になじみがあるのが大きいのかもしれないが、とても分かりやすい本だった。 おかげで（？）自分のプロジェクトもなんとか成功し、あらためてざっと読みなおしてみると、著者がこの本で強調していること、特にヒューマン・コミュニケーションの良し悪しがプロジェクトの成否に大きな影響を及ぼすことが理解できた。おそらく、この本を読んでいなければ、プロマネの役割と認識することが、失敗していただろう。 PMPの知識体系を学んだだけではわからない、より実践的なプロジェクト管理の本だ。プロジェクト管理は知識だけでも経験だけでもダメ。その双方を兼ね備える必要があるのだと思う。 これからもいろいろなプロジェクトに参画すると思うが、その際に常に手元に置きたい。その意味では私の座右の書としたい本だ。 早く翻訳してくれないかなぁ。

Took a while to get here, but that's the postal system. Book was in perfect condition and is good for what it's worth