Goal Directed Project Management: Effective Techniques and Strategies

GDPM is the best tool for planning organisational change projects. It is not suitable for technical projects. GDPM is both a philosophy and a method and exactly that is what makes it so powerfull. Apart from adressing the five pitfalls in the beginning of the book it introduces layered planning. GDPM is about planning the WHAT and making people responsible (the WHO) for results before the project starts. After that the planning of the HOW is a cascade. In an organisational change project you can't plan activity 216 at the beginning of the project. You should only plan the activities of the first 3-5 milestones. GDPM forces you to organise your communication as well and makes sure you communicate (the 2way street) and not inform (the 1way street). The nice thing is that you need only two A4 forms to plan your project which makes it not only an effective method but also an efficient one. Buy it, use it and get hooked to it.

The book presents good materials on the pitfalls at the beginning of projects and how to balance organizational aspects with the actual tasks of a project. I found a lot of value in the approach to milestones as a way to delegate responsibilities and accountabilities in a project. This breaks the cycle where the project manager is responsible for the results, and everyone else in the team is accountable for tasks but not outcomes. Can be recommended for all practicians, even very seasoned ones will find some good hints.