Saturday, June 4, 2011

Succeeding In The Project Management Jungle: How To Manage The People Side Of Projects By Doug Russell PMP

Succeeding in the Project Management Jungle: How to Manage the People Side of Projects

Succeeding in the Project Management Jungle: How to Manage the People Side of Projects
By Doug Russell PMP

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Product Description

It's a jungle out there and project managers are fighting to survive! With countless man-hours clocked and billions of dollars spent every year on project tools, the success rate for projects remains astonishingly low. So what's the solution? Introducing TACTILE Management[trademark], a people-centric system that works in conjunction with an organization's existing processes. Based on the seven characteristics of high-performance project teams transparency, accountability, communication, trust, integrity, leadership, and execution this book shows project managers how to: take project teams out of their functional silos and transform them into a powerful, integrated force Balance the expectations of customers, management, and project teams with the technical requirements of cost, schedule, and performance; apply practical phase-by-phase project guidance to real-life situations; avoid or minimize possible pitfalls; and, every successful project involves someone in the trenches who has the people skills to match process with the capability of his team and organization. This innovative book shows readers how to make the most of their people! and ensure project success.

Product Details
  • Amazon Sales Rank: #180392 in Books
  • Published on: 2011-03-06
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 262 pages
Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"Succeeding in the Project Management Jungle addresses a subject that doesn't get enough coverage in management books. It's a practical and definitive work that will enable you to get results from your people no matter how many solid or dotted lines fill up your organization chart." — John Berra, Senior Advisor and past Chairman, Emerson Process Management

It's a jungle out there for project managers, and no amount of Lean, Agile, or Six Sigma finessing is going to tame a massive project that's threatening to unravel. No matter what process you've got in place, there's one key ingredient that can make or break your success: managing the people.

Introducing TACTILE Management™, a people-based project management system that works in conjunction with your organization's existing processes. Based on the seven char­acteristics of successful projects—transparency, accountability, communication, trust, integrity, leadership, and execution—Succeeding in the Project Management Jungle's system shows you how to:

• Take a project team out of its functional silos and transform it into a powerful, integrated force.

• Balance the expectations of customers, management, and project teams with the traditional technical requirements of schedule, cost, and scope.

• Use people management skills to successfully navigate each process group, including initiation, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing.

• Troubleshoot the pitfalls that frequently jeopardize knowledge-worker projects, and eliminate or minimize their impact.

Complete with practical, real-world advice from practitioners in the field and a run­ning case study that astutely contrasts a standard project with a TACTILE-managed one, Succeeding in the Project Management Jungle is immensely practical, remarkably easy to master, and packed with invaluable insights for overworked, overstressed project leaders everywhere.

Doug Russell, PMP, is currently director of engineering at a Fortune 200 company. He has more than 25 years of experience in high-technology project management for commercial and government organizations, including Motorola, Intel, Textron Inc., and others.

About the Author

DOUG RUSSELL, PMP, is currently Director of Engineering at a Fortune 200 company. He has more than 25 years of experience in high-technology project management for commercial and government organizations

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
5Take advantage of the experiences of others
By Laura Stein
This book is exceptionally readable and was very hard to put down. From AMACOM, I expected a thoughtful accounting from a successful professional, and it was that, and more. It is clearly but unobtrusively based on a great deal of practical experience. Suggested time-saving procedures and use of minimal metrics were presented simply and memorably. One surprise was the strong foundation in project management literature. This makes "Succeeding..." a bit of a primer for the uninitiated with pointers to the classics in the field. This academic approach to "How to" also resulted in some eye-opening conceptual elements, such as the hidden dimensions of managing customer and managerial expectations, and the TACTILE mnemonic itself. Last, but not least, the personal touch, empathy, and quiet humor of the author shine through on almost every page. Numerous scenarios and examples of applied integrity and transparency scale these ideals into everyday behaviors suitable for the office and conference room.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
5This one really hits the nail on the head
By Scott
As an MBA and PM, I've been working at a high tech fortune 500 company for almost a decade and half and been subjected to countless methodologies all promising results, and all returning more overhead and wasted time than results, and each year we get subjected to yet an new one in some endless cycle. I wish instead of the methodology/ process of the month more of our senior leaders and thinkers would take a step back and look at things from the perspective Doug lays out vs. implementing yet another management cure all. its not that complicated really, its really quite simple and logical. This a relatively quick and easy to read book and Doug gets to the heart of the matter which most managers and experts today miss. There is no canned step by step methodology "/TOC/Agile etc" cure all that you can pull off the shelf and implement for instant results, despite legends you can't hire the most technical guy or the best MBA from Wharton and expect them to turn the company around, nor can you expect your career to skyrocket with those credentials alone. With his TACTILE management approach, Its more about the varying people "customers, employees, managers, senior managers their different motivations, their different concerns, the company culture and how YOU acknowledge them and work toward realistic compromises across the board that everyone can accept, where everyone feels integrated where you really get results and rewarded for it. Ignore any one of them at your peril even if you get results, somebody will come back for you!

His articulate description of this pyramid similar to the scope/resource/time triangle is an easy to grasp, easy to remember way to keep track of what's important. We seem to have forgotten in modern PM theory humans are not machines or parts, "insert X process does not guarantee Y results based on z methodology." Humans behave chaotically but predictability if you take a step back and try to understand why people "customers, management, employees behave the way they do, then you can take steps to change the environment you control to help change their behavior to one thats more favorable for you.

Is it a step by step guide on how to handle any problem any situation? No "no such thing exists anyway, and what exactly is the company paying that big salary for anyway:)" but it gives you the basic background to make your situation as good as it can be vs. the track you are on today. Yes you are going to have to think and change the way you think and manage the people around you and no you cant hire a consultant to do it for you.

If you are frustrated by your companies culture, results or people this book is for you, it will give you a fresh perspective on what you can do to change that and what you may be doing to foster that frustrating environment yourself.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
4Valuable Insights on Managing Teams for High Performance
By TBaker
"Succeeding in the Project Management Jungle" compellingly illustrates the value that derives from and the absolute necessity of principled communication among the disparate stakeholder groups that determine the success of any project - customer, management, and staff. In a practical and readable style, Doug makes a strong case for why those who ignore such things do so at the risk of their project, personnel and careers. - Tom Baker, VP Engineering, Overwatch Systems.

 

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