SUCCESSFUL PROJECT MANAGEMENT: A STEP-BY-STEP APPROACH WITH PRACTICAL EXAMPLES, FOURTH EDITION

SUCCESSFUL PROJECT MANAGEMENT: A STEP-BY-STEP APPROACH WITH PRACTICAL EXAMPLES, FOURTH EDITION

Successful Project Management is a winner! Rosenau and Githens have given us a significantly improved edition of an already quite useful guide to project management. The book is a solid balance of

The authors assert that the book is written for project managers both novice and experienced, project team members, executives, and functional managers-a diverse audience indeed. In fact, they have come closer to that goal than in earlier editions. Their use of many real-world examples to frame the description of key points may be useful for the targeted audiences. The effort to more strongly integrate the various topics is also helpful toward this goal.

This fourth edition attempts to accomplish three specific improvements over the previous edition. First, five chapters were rewritten to emphasize integration in project planning. Readers with considerable project management experience will recognize how well the authors understand this critical dimension of successful project management, and will appreciate how well they have captured it for the less experienced to understand a bit better. Second, the chapter on program risks and issues has been redone. Third, in the authors' words, the book has been generally updated to "reflect contemporary thinking and practices in the project management field."

According to Rosenau and Githens, "The best organizations avoid a rigid set of step-by-step procedures for project management. Instead, the best organizations educate all stakeholders on the principles and allow for discretion and common sense." The book certainly offers up some specific tools and templates, but it also makes a serious effort to communicate the important underlying principles and purposes rather than merely being dogmatic about formulas for success. The material about project scope definition and management is an especially good example of their comprehensive approach.

The chapters on project planning and scheduling offer good but brief overviews of the techniques and methods. The material is adequate for a brief orientation or a quick reminder of such devices but readers would have to refer to other sources if they were not already familiar with the topics. The practical tips and examples of how to deal with real-world situations make these chapters worthwhile.

Of course, no book can be all things to all people and this book is no exception. Three specific areas might have been addressed better. First, the authors address the broader organizational challenges of an organization within which a project may be conducted. They talk early in the book about the leadership roles and then later about organization structures. However, the material is somewhat out of tune with the rest of the book. These sections describe the traditional roles of leaders and the traditional structural alternatives but fail to provide the keen insight so often present in other parts of the book about unique demands placed on leadership by the project environment and the matrix or project organization structures.

Second, the material on proposals seems disconnected from the general outline of the book. The authors describe a project flow (defining, planning, leading, controlling, and closing) in the first chapters and generally adhered to that outline. But they inserted in Chapter 4 a section that deals briefly, and superficially, with proposals. They might better have simply referred the reader to other books on the subject.

Third, the chapter on risk management is both excellent and disappointing. The authors write eloquently about the notion of "risk response" and influencing outcome probabilities. Too often writers would have us believe that risk management is a matter of mathematics derived from lessons learned when in fact it is as much, if not more so, a matter of project team attitude. Rosenau and Githens remind us that a team that believes it can influence its future will be much more likely to manage its risks effectively, even if the risk management mathematics is sloppy. On the other hand, they missed an opportunity to describe opportunity as well as risk management. Teams that are "on their toes" will seek out and manage their opportunities just as aggressively as they will their risks.

All in all, Successful Project Management, Fourth Edition is a fine overview of the art and technique of project management, worthy of the attention of all involved in projects at any level.

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005, ISBN: 047168032X, hardcover, 384 pp., $71.25 Member, $75.00 Nonmember