The Interactive Project Workout: Reap Rewards From All Your Business Projects (2nd Edition)

Rating:
Summary: A real gem from Buttrick - the project management guru
Review: Having followed Buttrick's guidelines on project management for many years I know they work, even in the most complex and rapidly changing business environments. The most innovative chapters, though, are those on programme management. No other reference deals with this difficult subject so well. Buttrick explains the different types of programmes and how each need to be managed. This book is a `must have' for anyone trying to ensure that their projects meet their company's objectives.

Rating:
Summary: A real gem from Buttrick - the project management guru
Review: Having followed Buttrick's guidelines on project management for many years I know they work, even in the most complex and rapidly changing business environments. The most innovative chapters, though, are those on programme management. No other reference deals with this difficult subject so well. Buttrick explains the different types of programmes and how each need to be managed. This book is a 'must have' for anyone trying to ensure that their projects meet their company's objectives.

Rating:
Summary: Practical ideas and processes - not just concepts
Review: I have spent the last year looking for good project management books. I have found several good ones; however, this one surpasses them all for usability and practicality. If your projects are not overly technical, this could be the only PM book you need. (If your projects have a significant technical component, take a look at Visualizing Project Management for its description of the technical part of projects. But still look at this one for its practicality and directness.)

Rating:
Summary: Project Management
Review: Robert Buttrick's 'Project Workout'accomplishes what few books manage to do, and that is to present its topic with erudition; with clarity and with rock solid applicability that stems from accumulated professional experience.

It remarkably serves to introduce the neophyte and in the same token enlighten the grandmaster...

Rating:
Summary: Superb book for PM processes and PMO
Review: This is one of the few books that covers project management as a coherent process while providing detailed guidance for enterprise-level program management.

The project management processes covered are strikingly similar to PRINCE2 (the UK PM standard), especially with respect to organizational structure. If your approach is aligned to the US standard set forth in the Project Management Institute's PMBOK you discover that you'll have to compensate for gaps between the author's approach and the PMBOK. An example of where such a gap exists is in the chapter on project accounting, where status reporting is not consistent with earned value, which the PMBOK now covers. There are other such gaps in the way process flows are presented. However, this book contains so much valuable information and such a strong approach to managing projects at the enterprise level that the effort to fill in the gaps will be repaid many times over with an approach to project and program management that is absent in the PMBOK.

What distinguishes this book and why I think it's invaluable include:
(1) Strong emphasis on making a business case quantifying project benefits up front, and managing stakeholder expectations.
(2) Focus on deliverables instead of managing to a Gantt chart.
(3) Viable approach for managing project portfolios, which is a true enterprise-approach to program management and an excellent framework for establishing and managing a PMO.
(4) Copious details about the important aspects of project management, including handling issues, quality, and resources.

I particularly like the staged approach to managing projects, which is consistent with PRINCE2, and the use of 'quality gates' as stage entry and exit criteria. I also like the way the book steps you through how to properly set up and manage a single project, then a collection of projects, and finally a portfolio of projects. It is here that the PMO concept starts to become clear and structured, and where the book has the most value to organizations that are struggling with establishing a PMO.

The CD ROM that comes with the book is, in my opinion, more of a novelty than a collection of useful artifacts. The documents are in Acrobat format, making them nearly useless you have the full version of that program, and cumbersome to modify if you do. I would have preferred documents in rich text format, which can be edited by any word processor (MS Word, StarOffice, etc.). However, the forms and checklists are also provided in the book and can be easily replicated.

If your goal is to establish and manage a PMO this book is worth its weight in gold. It's also valuable to project managers who are seeking advanced, proven techniques for single project management. If you fit either of these criteria I also recommend TOTAL PROJECT CONTROL by Stephen A. Devaux, which contains advanced PM and PMO techniques that complement this book nicely.