Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management

"Been there, done that, and here's the proof". Not merely anecdotal information, this book leaves you wishing that Scott Berkun worked down the hall from you. Straight to the point, he defines what works, what doesn't, and why. He lays out the real world examples that create the framework to support his teaching. For a book on project management, this is an easy read. Better yet, the information is easily applied to your current project.

In the field of project management, 'Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management' is one of the finest books I have ever had the chance to peruse. From gathering ideas to managing teams and schedules, everything and anything is in this book that is a MUST BUY for all project managers or group leaders that want to update or learn new techniques for creating widgets in the real world and doing so efficiently and successfully. I think a chapter overview would be helpful to help the reader get an idea of the wonderous content contained within: 01. History of Project Management I - PLANS 02. Schedules 03. What To Do 04. Vision 05. Ideas and how they come about 06. What do to with your great idea II - SKILLS 07. Writing good specifications 08. Good decision-making 09. Communication and relationships 10. Process, Email, Meetings - Don't waste people's time 11. When things go wrong III - MANAGEMENT 12. Leadership & Trust 13. Making things happen 14. Middle-game strategy 15. End-game strategy 16. Power and Politics I was originally going to Highly Recommend this book but I think it's so fantastic I'm going to up it to HPR. If you are any way related to making progress at your job or possibly even life this can be useful, this book is a must read... NOW. ***** HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION

I'm a big fan of Scott Berkun's first book, "The Art of Project Management". But he's really outdone himself with "Making Things Happen". I think it's simply one of the best books you can buy on project management. If you've never read any of Scott's books before, you're in for a treat. On the other hand, if, like me, you loved "The Art of Project Management", you definitely want this book. It's not just a simple update; it's a new and improved book that will not disappoint. Don't let its casual tone and the fact that it's very easy to read fool you -- this is a serious book on the ideas, tools and techniques of project management. The first part of "Making Things Happen" covers planning. But it's not just about building project schedules (although it does have a lot of good information on how schedules work); it gives you incredibly valuable advice about making sure your project starts out with the right vision, and "real life" ideas for planning projects. It goes on to talk about core project management skills that can help anyone, from project managers to team members. While this book has a focus on software development, people who work on all kinds of projects can benefit from this, especially this section. He teaches you about specifying your work, communicating with people, gathering opinions and gaining consensus, maintaining relationships with people, and dealing with problems. And it gives a lot of real-world advice about how to make sure your projects actually finish as well as they start. This is really important -- a lot of project management books forget that that a PM's job doesn't stop when the plan is finished. A good PM needs to be able to guide a project through to completion, and Scott covers that better than anyone I've seen. Just so you know, I'm the author of one of the top-selling books on PMP preparation. And I can tell you this: if you are a PMP-certified project manager, you know how important it is to continue to improve your own project management skills. And this book is a great way to do that. You'll learn all about things that you didn't learn for the PMP exam: where great ideas come from, how to build relationships and work more effectively with people in your organization, manage your commitments, and make your projects run better. If you're looking to be a better project manager, if you're not a project manager but you want your projects to run better, or even if you just want to be a better member of a project team, this book should definitely be on your bookshelf.

§ Perhaps only a little off-key since I am not a project manager -- altho my professional life is made much easier by working with some dedicated ones. I did not read the previous edition as the other reviewers did. In fact, I was not really intending to read this edition straight through. I was going to give it a good skim for those aspects of project management that intersect my own world as a Web application interface developer. I have to say that Scott Berkun is a real teacher because I found the *whole* book to be relevant to my work -- and it was fun to read in the bargain. This book is not in color and does not contain lots of fancy images. The illustrating and illuminating is done verbally. For once, this was enough for me because Berkun finds a way to make things both practical and vivid. From the text, it is reasonable to assume that his public talks are worthy events. This is definitely a book to read for people who may not be project managers but who sincerely want to build their teams by understanding this important role better. §

Okay, let's get the one downer about the book out of the way; it's a second edition of Scott's The Art of Project Management (Theory in Practice (O'Reilly)). Not sure why the name was changed but it might confuse some folks. Okay, it confused me, not sure about anyone else. If you've recently read the first edition then you may want to borrow someone's copy to go over the exercises/discussion at the end of each chapter. If you haven't read the first edition, you're in for a great time! This isn't a reference book, nor is it a cheat-sheet for passing your PMP. Scott writes as friends chat over coffee. To really "get it" you need that same head game. Find your personal motivation for making things happen, either at work or in your life, and slowly reflect on a single chapter over a hot cup of joe. Even better, find a couple friends who are just as success driven as you and work through the exercises together. My introversion is so strong that last sentence was almost painful to write, but a deeply reflective level of mental processing is what you need for this book. When you have a chapter in your head you can go over the events of the past week and generally find ways you could have handled something better. Write them down, go implement the ideas, and keep doing that as your success rate grows. Use the exercies as dry-run scenarios and really put some thought into them. Build your experience and expertise in the shadows; when the spotlight is on you'll be ready to make things happen in a big way.