Rating: 
Summary: Not useful
Review: I was extremely dissappointed with this book. I am currently a project manager on my first assignment, after 12 years in engineering. I selected this book because I was intrigued by the possiblity of using "visualizing" techniques to deal with the overwhelming details of project management. The book fell short in almost every possible way:1. There is virtually no use of "visualization". (If you don't believe me, check out the appendix, which lists just one reference for "visualization"). There is a diagram which integrates 17 different concepts, and in the CD ROM you can manipulate the diagram to look at it from different angles. Unfortunately, it did not in any way simplify or "visualize" a set of complex issues, it merely cobbled them together on the same page. 2. The book is apparantly written by and for managers of large government or industrial projects. One mans Project Manager is another mans Manager of the Department of Project Managment. 3. My hat is off to the other reviewers who characterized this approach as "simple". I often found myself rereading paragraphs and flipping back and forth trying to work out what the author had in mind. The book describes "The Four Project Management Essentials", "The Three Project Aspects", "The
Ten Project Management Elements". You need merely keep in mind these 17 different concepts while you ponder such statements as "A complex verification process may over-drive cost and schedule and be the determining factor when considering alternative concepts" (pg. 94). 4. The book is poorly organized. The first six chapters keep referring to chapter 7. After my curiosity could no longer be repressed, I flipped forward to chapter 7, which I discovered is 187 pages long, well over half the book. 5. The Project Manager is compared to a Symphony Conductor, who directs the coordinated efforts of talented projessionals in creating coordinated harmony. This image is a constant theme in the book, one which, to put it mildly, does not resonate with my experience. 6. The text does not teach Project Mangement techniques, it merely introduces them. If I wanted to adapt anything recommended in the book, I would be obliged to look elsewhere for all details. Gantt charts are introduced, but MS Project is never mentioned (nor is Primavera TeamPlay for that matter). The spreadsheet, which I find to be the single most useful and versitile PjM tool, is not mentioned at all. I think the authors do not make any unfounded statements, and they have done a reasonably complete job of catalogueing PjM techniques. I just did not find the book useful.
Rating:
Summary: Not useful
Review: I was extremely dissappointed with this book. I am currently a project manager on my first assignment, after 12 years in engineering. I selected this book because I was intrigued by the possiblity of using "visualizing" techniques to deal with the overwhelming details of project management. The book fell short in almost every possible way: 1. There is virtually no use of "visualization". (If you don't believe me, check out the appendix, which lists just one reference for "visualization"). There is a diagram which integrates 17 different concepts, and in the CD ROM you can manipulate the diagram to look at it from different angles. Unfortunately, it did not in any way simplify or "visualize" a set of complex issues, it merely cobbled them together on the same page. 2. The book is apparantly written by and for managers of large government or industrial projects. One mans Project Manager is another mans Manager of the Department of Project Managment. 3. My hat is off to the other reviewers who characterized this approach as "simple". I often found myself rereading paragraphs and flipping back and forth trying to work out what the author had in mind. The book describes "The Four Project Management Essentials", "The Three Project Aspects", "The
Ten Project Management Elements". You need merely keep in mind these 17 different concepts while you ponder such statements as "A complex verification process may over-drive cost and schedule and be the determining factor when considering alternative concepts" (pg. 94). 4. The book is poorly organized. The first six chapters keep referring to chapter 7. After my curiosity could no longer be repressed, I flipped forward to chapter 7, which I discovered is 187 pages long, well over half the book. 5. The Project Manager is compared to a Symphony Conductor, who directs the coordinated efforts of talented projessionals in creating coordinated harmony. This image is a constant theme in the book, one which, to put it mildly, does not resonate with my experience. 6. The text does not teach Project Mangement techniques, it merely introduces them. If I wanted to adapt anything recommended in the book, I would be obliged to look elsewhere for all details. Gantt charts are introduced, but MS Project is never mentioned (nor is Primavera TeamPlay for that matter). The spreadsheet, which I find to be the single most useful and versitile PjM tool, is not mentioned at all. I think the authors do not make any unfounded statements, and they have done a reasonably complete job of catalogueing PjM techniques. I just did not find the book useful.
Rating: 
Summary: There can be too many courses in a meal
Review: I wish I could share the rave reviews others have posted for this book. It surely presents a novel and vivid model of project management and surelycovers a lot of ground. But it's so breathless, so intent on impressing the reader with diagram after diagram, that there's a real sense of being lost. You could not get more unlike James Lewis's slower, narrower, simpler work. These guys are selling a method of analysis and a way of thinking. If you buy it, great; if you don't, I'm not sure what you'll see in it. Don't get me wrong, everyone should at least open this book just for the fun of it, but I'll stick with Kathy Schwalbe any day of the week.
Rating:
Summary: There can be too many courses in a meal
Review: I wish I could share the rave reviews others have posted for this book. It surely presents a novel and vivid model of project management and surelycovers a lot of ground. But it's so breathless, so intent on impressing the reader with diagram after diagram, that there's a real sense of being lost. You could not get more unlike James Lewis's slower, narrower, simpler work. These guys are selling a method of analysis and a way of thinking. If you buy it, great; if you don't, I'm not sure what you'll see in it. Don't get me wrong, everyone should at least open this book just for the fun of it, but I'll stick with Kathy Schwalbe any day of the week.
Rating: 
Summary: Get the "Big Picture"
Review: I've done a lot of projects, and read roughly a dozen books on project management. Nearly all dealt with details and organizational methods; which PM software is best, etc. This book starts where a "how to" book should- "What is good project management, and why should I care?"
It deals with the reasons many, and in some industries most, projects fail- communications, teamwork and leadership- in a reasonable, easy to understand way with real, concrete suggestions- that I've used successfully.
This book provides a "worldview" of project management. After you finish this book, you'll have a good picture of how projects work and when to apply the nifty ideas and methods you get in other books. Project Management is not rocket science- it's the structure rocket science gets done within.
There are lots of "project managers"; those interested in becoming better ones will appreciate this book.
Rating:
Summary: Call to Arms
Review: In his foreward to Visualizing Project Management (second edition), Norman Augustine, retired Chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin, reminds us of the unfortunate high incidence of failures in IT projects. Mr. Augustine then notes the key role of the project manager in producing success or failure. This book was published in 2000, and I maintain that the failure rate is still too high. In fact, I'll use the book's concepts to very briefly analyze a failed NASA project later in this review. First though, why and how can this book help?
What's unique about this book is that it contains, all at once, a call to arms, weapons handbooks, and mechanisms for producing a battle plan for YOUR project.
The call to arms is conveyed successfully through the many high-level diagrams, and of course the message behind the diagrams. For example, the orchestra metaphor (each musician is a team member and the project manager is the conductor) is one of the most powerful images. The "common vocabulary" (score) keeps everybody on track. Further, the key system engineering concept of the project manager pulling diverse specialties (strings, percussion, etc.) together is illustrated. Chapter I has an explicit call to arms (Why is Project Management a Critical Issue?); the rest of Part I and two chapters of Part II set up the rest of the framework needed to use the weapon handbooks and create the battle plan.
Weapons in the arsenal of the project manager are the Project Cycle and the (ten) Project Management Elements in Part II. This handbook-type information should be reformatted to be more usable. The current very basic numbering scheme, and the interspersed exercises make reference difficult. A separate workbook could be published with the exercises. While much of this information is familiar, there are some real zingers that show more depth of experience than many other project management books. For example, the emphasis on project control (one of the elements) is indeed different from "most project management texts (which) describe project control as comparing actuals to plan (status)." You actually need corrective action! The authors (and I) "were flabbergasted to find that the word "requirements" did not even appear"...."in a well-respected reference from the project management field".
And the battle plan? That is the "orthogonal" project model - with an axis made up of nine elements as the spokes of a wheel (project leadership being the tenth, on the rim) and the project cycle on the axle. You'll have to get the book to appreciate the applicability of the model. But that is the only the first "generic" battle plan. It has to be worked and applied in YOUR organization. No more "we used to have a project management plan, somewhere".
The authors' preface mentions that Chapter 9 (Applying the Process) has been added to address the Internet time goal of "better, cheaper, faster". The book has numerous case descriptions. I've applied some of the book's concepts to the WIRE case study. NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE) mission failed soon after launch on March 4, 1999 when the telescope/cryostat ejected prematurely. NASA has published some very valuable lessons learned (by the way, the book highlights the need for "lessons learned to get into the hands (and minds) of those who would benefit most")... One of NASA's lessons can be related to the orchestra metaphor: "WIRE failed because people could not or would not communicate well with each other. ...These folks feared oversight and criticism and hid behind organizational boundaries". Another lesson concerns the risks in shortcutting the project cycle: the "belief that we pushed the faster, better, cheaper paradigm too hard, such that key corners were cut too closely." So heed the call to arms, master the weapons, and create your own battle plan. We'll win more battles if we really apply the lessons of this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Integrates Project Management and System Engineering
Review: Most Project Management books ignore the technical and system engineering aspects of managing projects. Most System Engineering books ignore the Project Management aspects of technical management. Visualizing Project Management is unique in that it combines Project Management and System Engineering as an integrated process and describes the process with a unique, integrated, three dimensional process model. This model clearly describes and depicts the perpetual, sequential, and situational properties of managing projects. Many real life examples and illustrations are provided to reinforce the concepts presented so that the reader can effectively implement them.
Rating:
Summary: Weighty in its Simplicity
Review: Rarely do I read a book that is weighty in its simplicity while being exhaustive in its subject treatment. Visualizing Project Management succeeds where many have failed. The book focuses on the five common elements of every successful project: a common vocabulary, teamwork, a plan, leadership and management. Starting with the project requirements, it details the correct way to plan, schedule and control projects. These elements do not naturally occur, particularly in complex technical projects. The techniques and tools presented are applicable throughout the project lifecycle. The book is full of illustrations, which clarify the techniques being discussed. The best idea I found book was the Cards on the Wall technique, which calls for each team member to attach each WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) to a wall and interconnect the dependencies with yarn. The resulting interaction, I found, encourages group thinking and project buy-in, while anticipating the unanticipated. There is also a great section on Earned Value, a powerful and effective tool for the early detection of slippages and cost overruns. As the authors correctly note, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." Aspiring project managers and executives responsible for supervising it in their organizations should read this book. It will help them successfully understand and apply the project management process in their pursuit of "better, faster, and cheaper."
Rating:
Summary: Weighty in its Simplicity
Review: Rarely do I read a book that is weighty in its simplicity while being exhaustive in its subject treatment. Visualizing Project Management succeeds where many have failed. The book focuses on the five common elements of every successful project: a common vocabulary, teamwork, a plan, leadership and management. Starting with the project requirements, it details the correct way to plan, schedule and control projects. These elements do not naturally occur, particularly in complex technical projects. The techniques and tools presented are applicable throughout the project lifecycle. The book is full of illustrations, which clarify the techniques being discussed. The best idea I found book was the Cards on the Wall technique, which calls for each team member to attach each WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) to a wall and interconnect the dependencies with yarn. The resulting interaction, I found, encourages group thinking and project buy-in, while anticipating the unanticipated. There is also a great section on Earned Value, a powerful and effective tool for the early detection of slippages and cost overruns. As the authors correctly note, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." Aspiring project managers and executives responsible for supervising it in their organizations should read this book. It will help them successfully understand and apply the project management process in their pursuit of "better, faster, and cheaper."
Rating:
Summary: Visualize - the Right Way to Plan and Control Projects!
Review: Starting with a work categorization structure through to managing schedules and cost using earned values, this book clarifies the right way to plan, schedule and control projects. The authors clearly explain what needs to be done in order to take the hands-on approach in managing to budget and schedule. This book also explains in an easy-to-understand fashion the concept of earned value project management. This section that should be considered as mandatory reading by all involved in project implementation. Also don't miss the section on project vocabulary, reiterating the need for clear and understandable communication among all participants. A key mistake that is constantly made in project management is the assumption that one needs immediately start producing Gantt charts with Microsoft Project from the inception. A far better approach, as outlined by the authors, would be to use the "cards-on-the-wall" method to illustrate roles, sequences and dependencies, forming the basis for a good basic project plan. This results in a well-organized basic plan, which has a far greater chance of success and meeting budgets. There is still ample time to introduce the Gantt chart schedules from Microsoft Project, but as a part of the process. There is an accompanying CD-ROM that has an excellent presentation of the "spiral" model opening onto the authors' "Vee" model that shouldn't be missed. More visual exhibits that give emphasis to concepts presented in the book are there as well. Visualizing Project Management should be considered as must reading by not just project managers, but those involved in change control and IT personnel in general.
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