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Microsoft Press

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Microsoft Press

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Microsoft Press

Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Successful Project Management: Applying Best Practices and Real-World Techniques with Microsoft Project has a slightly misleading title - you won't really see MS Project used until chapter 4. This book is really about translating the Project Management Institute (PMI) methodology into a format which can be readily understood, with the occasional diversion to the use of Microsoft's Office tools. Project 2010 version is assumed, as is the availability of other Microsoft tools like Excel and Word.

If you have experience with formal project methods, this is probably not the book for you. New or part-time project managers would benefit from the text, as it discusses most of the touchpoints of project management in easily accessible language. That's not a small accomplishment, and is complemented by a clear, direct writing style.

The most common tasks in Project (work breakdown structure, resource information, etc ) are covered at a level sufficient to make the reader functional, but not necessarily expert. There are also a number of frustration-saving tips, such as those on where to use fixed dates on tasks.

In addition to the tool-related narratives, there are also chapters on ancillary topics like budgets, reporting and some financial analysis. This should be of great value to the novice PM.

Overall, a good purchase for anyone just starting out in project management.

Disclaimer, I was provided access by O'Reilly Publishing to an electronic copy of this book for review purposes.
Okay, my first O'Reilly book that isn't exactly a technical programmer's book, but rather a management book. I think a programmer needs to know more than just how to use APIs, and this book introduces a new perspective to a developer's mind.
Especially if you are very entrepreneurial at mind, like I am,

The book focuses on a prescribed methodology, formulated by the Project Management Institute, structured via Microsoft's management tool, Microsoft Project 2010. Okay, well I don't use and won't use MS Project, as I use a mac, but applying basic principles to other tools, such as Merlin for Mac I still find this book to be potent in helping me manage my own project, or a project with a collaborator.
Relating the philosophy of project management by breaking down projects into tasks, and units and resources, visioning milestones and goals, and working with dependencies is what this book will give you, and perfect for the agile developers out there, who want to manage a project agile-ley as well.

I certainly recommend this book, in your bookshelf of other books that you will need to master, in order to be a more holistic programmer and businessman, a role that has blurry boundaries these days.
I'm the author of this book and am very excited to announce that Successful Project Management won a Distinguished Award from the Society for Technical Communication and is now in the international competition.

In addition, I would like to echo the comments of other reviewers. I wrote this book primarily for beginner project managers or people who are interested in the field -- particularly folks who accidentally find themselves managing a project and wanting to learn what is involved. I tried to make the book easy to understand as well as engaging (with a fair amount of humor) because most project management books don't do either.

I hope you enjoy reading it.

Bonnie
 
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