Most books/courses about project management are not directly useful for practitioners. In fact, a very famous austrian professor permanentely states that his lessons are no preperation for programming!
Scott Berkunn’s book goes the other way. He directly transfers know-low from his years as a project manager at MicroSoft’s. The text is easy/funny to read, there is no formal chit-chat!
The book covers the whole life of a project in industrial strength! The Art of project management starts at the conception phase, moves on to vision documents and tlen covers the actual coding and release processes! Politics and crisis management also is discussed. Problems are presented from the viewpoint of a dedicated project manager-a Microsoft-specific executive that is responsible for the wellfare of a product.
You may not have a huge amount of programmers-but Art of project management works for small projects and one-man-shows as well! The hints presented can be used for all kinds of projects, even for non-programming programs.
Scott Berkunn transfers lots of hints about psychology and keeping the team happy. While a lot of this is common-sense, it still can be helpful to have it all in one place.
Paper quality is high, there is no blotting,… with a Parker 45 X nib. O’reilly’s standard cover is sturdy-the book has no problems in a full briefcase.
Overall, this book will not help you pass an exam for project management. However, the hints given here will not be tought in a classroom. 39.99$ is not a high price, the lessons learned can save loads of money. A good read overall!
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