Product Description

Projects - and Project managers - are failing at an alarming rate. In the IT industry only 24% of projects succeed according to the Government Office of Commerce. Railtrack and the upgrade of the NHS are high profile examples of large project failures. And there are plenty of low-profile examples available too - as any viewer of Channel 4’s “Property Ladder” programme will confirm.

In an ever growing market, Brilliant Project Management stands out from the crowd. This revised edition is part of the high profile Brilliant series and the first edition redefined the mould for books in this category.

Through its engaging and entertaining approach, Brilliant Project Management does more than just talk you through the process. It provides practical advice and techniques taken from people’s experience in the real world so you always know exactly what to do and say to make your project a success.

Brilliant Project Management highlights the areas where your actions and behaviours will make the difference between failure, an average outcome, and a huge success. Whether you’re always behind schedule and fighting to catch up, haven’t a clue where to start, or simply want your projects to be more successful, this book will teach you simple and effective techniques to leading successful projects every time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3040 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-22
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

From the Author
In this book we've distilled down what we think it takes to be a brilliant project manager. We've drawn on the good, the bad and the ugly - and the eccentric. But above all, we've thought long and hard about what we've learned from rolling up our sleeves and getting our hands dirty. Between us we've got over thirty years of Barker and Cole hands-on project management experience. That's plenty of time to learn lessons at the school of hard knocks!

Our advice has been packaged up as a guide book to project management. You can dip into the topics that interest you most, or read it from cover to cover. Like any guide book, we've had to be selective about the subjects we explore. However, we've focussed our attention on what you'll find of most practical use and can immediately apply. We'll show you the tricks of the trade and the traps to avoid. Best of all, this advice is tried and tested in the real world of project management.

We've got plenty to say about both the traditional project management topics, as well as the people side of the job that often gets overlooked. Project managers don't just struggle with the intricacies of plans and risk logs, they struggle with people too.

From the Back Cover

What does it take to become a brilliant project manager?

Whether you are organising an important event or heading up a large team, running a project can be a daunting process. Spiralling costs and missed deadlines are part of everyday life for many project managers - in fact, more projects fail than succeed!

But project management doesn't have to be this way.  It is possible to manage projects that consistently meet deadlines and come in within budget. Brilliant Project Management shows you how. Drawing on over 30 years of experience, you’ll discover how to ensure your projects succeed every time.  It’s the ultimate guide to becoming a brilliant project manager.

Brilliant Outcomes

• Make a success of any project
• Bring projects in even earlier than expected
• Save money, time and your sanity!

About the Author

Stephen Barker is a project management consultant with over 15 years experience in the field. His clients have included Pfizer, Xerox, Ericsson and Hm Revenue & Customs.

Rob Cole is a project management consultant with over 20 years experience. He runs high profile projects and mentors project managers - specialising in trouble shooting projects and training new recruits.

Customer Reviews

A very clear and useful book
A colleague recommended this book to me and I've used it to help me with a bit of a runaway project I was landed with. The chapter on planning really hit home, it made me sit down and think again. I could see myself falling into the all pitfalls they described. It's given me a list of points to work through and some confidence that I'm going in the right direction now.

I've also used a lot of the ideas in the chapter dedicated to risks and issues. I've had plenty of these to deal with! I smiled and nodded my head when I read about people who see dealing with r&i as a boring administrative exercise. The book provides simple ways to turn this into a very useful exercise, how to get them under control and how to deal with the problems that matter.

I was in firefighting mode when I first read the book so I tended to dip into certain chapters. But now things are back on track I'm taking a more leisurely stroll through the book again. The advice on people management is paying dividends now, especially as I was coming close to making one of classic mistakes they described. Reading the chapter on lessons learned was very useful too, yet another area I paid very little attention too previously.

As a general point, the book helps you to think ahead and try to avoid storing problems up for yourself. The book has got loads of check-lists and "top tips" - which are practical and make the advice easy to take on board. Whilst there's nothing on project management tools (e.g. PRINCE) this is probably a plus point. You know that the advice comes from experience rather than trotting out dry theory.

Brilliant concept - a must buy!
Ive been a project manager for a good few years and accumulated plenty of books on project management - many of which I confess are gathering dust on my bookshelves. There's a lot of stuff out there and some of it is fairly useful but I've never been tempted to recommend anything before. This book is differnt from most of the books I have bought. It's mainly about giving practical advice - and has lots of useful check - lists. It's also been written with a bit of humour, which makes it easy to digest. I also liked the idea of having some chapters on the people side of the job - eg facilitation and running meetings. I think there's plenty here that I can put to good use. Like the previous reviewer says, It's easy to dip into and I can't remember laughing at a book on project mangement before - I particularly liked the war stories. Nice one guys, highly recommended.

What's the difference between a risk and an issue?
As the title suggests and the other reviewers have agreed, this is a great book about project management. At around 150 pages, it is quite short and although it is written in a light-hearted and engaging way it doesn't feel short on content. Real world advice is given in the areas listed below and you also get a feel for how the authors see these different pieces fitting together to support one another (i.e. running a lessons learned log alongside the risk and issues logs - facilitating early utilisation of new knowledge and removing the `chore' perception from an end of project lessons learned debrief). But if you would like really detailed information regarding any of them you may still end up buying supplemental materials, which is something that the authors admit and something I certainly intend to do:

* Project planning
* Risk and issue management
* Delivering quality
* Resource management
* Leading effective teams
* Productive meetings
* Facilitation skills
* Making use of lessons learned

Having started to study the Prince2 Manual, this book has been a welcome relief from its' very dry presentation, and at the same time a very good complement to the ideas and method set out within Prince2. As such I would certainly recommend Brilliant Project Management to anyone studying for Prince2 (which assume would also apply to MSP or other such methodologies); or for anyone new to project management; or for someone with experience under their belt but with a desire to raise the bar, be it in terms of performance, satisfaction, consistency or a combination of aforementioned.