Making It Happen : A Non-Technical Guide to Project Management

Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: 100% agree with the other post. I would recommend this book to anyone who has the responsibility of managing projects. It is very easy and enjoyable reading. It's a great investment and reference book to keep around. Go ahead and buy it, you won't be sorry

James W.

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Summary: Dull Topic Entertaining
Review: I could win awards for being a slow reader. Putting a book down is easy for me. By contrast, I was captivated by this one such that I had difficulty making myself stop reading to eat. While participating in the three-day Priority Project Management Breakthroughs training, our first night's homework assignment was to read the first 30 pages. Long before page 30 I was hooked. Mr. Kyle took an otherwise dull topic and brought it to life with such wit and wisdom that not only did I complete the book before the class ended (a personal record), but I understood Project Management so well that I felt like an expert upon its conclusion. This book makes the complicated art of project management a simple and humorous study in common sense and logic. It is so well written that I tend to think Mr. Kyle ought to quit his day-job and become a full-time author.

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Summary: The book was creatively written embedding facts.
Review: I enjoyed reading this book, because of the humor within the story. The author creatively embedded informational facts about project management within the story line. I was pleased to have a class textbook so enjoyable and factual at the same time. I looked forward to reading the book and was disappointed when I finished, because I felt like I knew MacKenzie and his characters.

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Summary: Real Help. Great Read.
Review: I learned of MacKenzie Kyle's excellent book while reading another excellent book called "Love is the Killer App" by Tim Sanders and immediately went online to purchase it. As a supervising manager of a Graphic/Multi-media design department within a smallish e-learing firm, my job has been undergoing change! Where I once participated in actual design and production of the courseware that we produce for our clients, my responsibilities have shifted to forecasting labor requirements and allocating resources (people) to a variety of courseware development efforts. Interacting with Project Managers (of varying quality), attempting to use gantt charts and other tools (also of varying quality), has often left me unsure of what I ought to be doing. I needed a "cut through the clutter" explanation, based on common sense logic, of how projects really ought to work. I found this in Kyle's book and more. Now understanding how to build logical relationships between tasks, I will be better equipped to diagnose problems in schedules that were made by others, which, formerly, I learned to "live with." Thanks, Mr. Kyle, for entertaining me while dispensing the right medicine.

Rating:
Summary: Real Help. Great Read.
Review: I learned of MacKenzie Kyle's excellent book while reading another excellent book called "Love is the Killer App" by Tim Sanders and immediately went online to purchase it. As a supervising manager of a Graphic/Multi-media design department within a smallish e-learing firm, my job has been undergoing change! Where I once participated in actual design and production of the courseware that we produce for our clients, my responsibilities have shifted to forecasting labor requirements and allocating resources (people) to a variety of courseware development efforts. Interacting with Project Managers (of varying quality), attempting to use gantt charts and other tools (also of varying quality), has often left me unsure of what I ought to be doing. I needed a "cut through the clutter" explanation, based on common sense logic, of how projects really ought to work. I found this in Kyle's book and more. Now understanding how to build logical relationships between tasks, I will be better equipped to diagnose problems in schedules that were made by others, which, formerly, I learned to "live with." Thanks, Mr. Kyle, for entertaining me while dispensing the right medicine.

Rating:
Summary: An Insightful Book On Project Management--Finally
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book. It has managed to make the dull and often linear undertaking of Project Management into a highly dynamic, thoughtful process to follow when managing projects.Ostensibly this book deals with the business environment, but its lessons can easily be applied to other contexts that require a systematic but flexible way to deliver the goods.

The book uses a case-study approach through a well-written story that illustrates what a "typical" non-typical project can look like. We gain insight into the topic as the main character goes through the process and learns how to do it at the same time. An excellent book!

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Summary: Successful Projects Dont Just Happen
Review: Mackenzie Kyle's book "Making it Happen - A Non-Technical Guide to Project Management" is a good basic educational tool which provides an interesting approach to project management.

I have been involved with technical projects in some capacity or other since I graduated from college and took my first engineering position. I have been involved with a wide array of technical projects from modifying and testing the reactor plant fresh water supply system on the aircraft carrier Nimitz; to design, installation, testing, and turnover of a distributive control system for a mixed waste incinerator; to installation of asphalt and seal coating of surfaces and roads at my work area. I realize that this may make me sound a little arrogant and somewhat like Al (primary antagonist in the book. I feel that I have learned a little more each time about the mechanics and phases of project execution. At this point in my career, I feel that I have reached a high level of proficiency and I believe that I fully understand the mechanics for the project portion or project management (again, I sound a little like Al). Unlike Al, the methodologies I have learned and use are closely along the lines presented in the book. For that reason, I found the book reaffirming of my knowledge and skills.

I also recognize that I still have much to learn from the management portion of project management and that the human factor is much different in every case than the textbook example. I found real value in the methodology presented in the book for development of the Objective Statement. The eight questions provided as the basis for development of the Objective Statement are generic enough to be used for any size project yet can be answered specifically enough to clearly define the project.

The book re-affirmed to me that one can not use a production line approach to project management and that one must take more of a custom shop approach. I plan on recommending this book as an excellent introduction into project management presented in a context that is entertaining and enjoyable (as opposed to dry like most project management textbooks). I am going to recommend it to several of my peers and a few of my subordinates!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent reading
Review: This book does exactly what it says it does - it gives a non technical guide to Project Management. I found that this was compelling reading, Mackenzie Kyle has made a boring subject interesting; and if something is interesting you learn much faster. I certainly intend to make use of what I have learned.