eXtreme Project Management : Using Leadership, Principles, and Tools to Deliver Value in the Face of Volatility (Jossey Bass Business and Management Series)

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Summary: Roadmap to Self Mastery in Project Management
Review: Doug DeCarlo has captured unique insights to produce an excellent book on leadership and project management. By advocating a beginning with self-mastery, he sets the tone for this people-focused book.

Project managers can use XPM's "quantum" mind-set, accelerators, business questions, shared values and critical success factors to manage volatile projects with high uncertainty and change.

In sum, a good addition to any project manager's bookshelf.

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Summary: For those wishing to meet the future of project management
Review: During my 20+ years of experience as a project manager for a major US corporation, I found myself struggling to make structured project process charts work. There had to be a better way of coming at this thing called project management, I used to think.

In the past 5+ years as a PM consultant, I have trying to push the entire PM discipline in the direction business. This has to happen eventually.

Doug Decarlo does an outstanding job of dealing with both of these important issues. He outlines a flexible, yet very practical approach for leading projects -- while keeping in focus the business perspective that I believe is so necessary.

This book is written for those who wish to expand the PM discipline as well as themselves. Anyone who reads Doug's book and doesn't "get it" should probably move to another profession. They are ill-equipped to meet the future of PM that Doug so deftly portays.



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Summary: Great resource for newbie PMs on fast-moving projects
Review: eXtreme Project Management has been extremely helpful to me as a functional (rather than titled) project manager. Though the book as a whole provides a wealth of material that is worth reading straight through, desperate PMs like myself can get immediate coaching on coping with fast-paced, no-failure-allowed projects in several small doses throughout. Chapter 2, The eXtreme Model for Success, coaches the reader through the necessary change in mindset for PMs heading up projects that demand measurable success on short deadlines, and managing the inevitable crazy requirements changes. Chapter 8's Flexible Project Model is an invaluable resource for making sure all the bases are covered, and would make an excellent candidate for a blow-up wall poster. Case studies throughout illustrate Doug's principles of project management in action.

In extreme project management, "Failure is not an option. Speed, innovation, and profitability count. Bureaucracy is to be avoided. Quality of life is important." eXtreme Project Management addresses all of those needs, always focused on the ultimate goal of getting it all done and making the customer happy.

This isn't your father's project management. Then again, these aren't your father's projects.

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Summary: Non project manager view of project manager world
Review: I attended a Doug DeCarlo seminar at ProjectWorld and was quite impressed.. so I bought the book.
Like they say about some movies... the trailer or preview is the best part.
Projects as people? A little too left coast! No real depth or new material beyond the spaghetti project life cycle.

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Summary: A breath of fresh air
Review: If you work on projects in the real world, you probably know that most have aggressive schedules, fuzzy and changing requirements, inadequate resources and stressed out teams. For many such projects, conventional project management techniques are inadequate and miss the point.

eXtreme Project Management provides a sorely needed framework to deal with and conquer the project workplace as it really is, not as we might wish it to be. While the book may challenge conventional thinking, its principles and tools are common-sense and flow naturally. This book is an innovative breath of fresh air in the demanding world of project management.

One metaphor from the book strikes me as representative of its significant value. Conventional projects lend themselves to conventional management techniques, as classical music lends itself to a specific score and direction by a conductor. However, most workplace projects are more like jazz pieces performed by ensembles that improvise on a theme, and perhaps even change themes many times in a song. The big problem in the project workplace is that conventional project management tries to force these jazz pieces into a written score that is driven by the conductor. In the middle of the performance, the customer, the marketplace and the technology have all changed into different keys, melodies and tempos and left the orchestra in a state of chaos. It is better to learn to perform, to embrace and to enjoy the jazz project from the start - eXtreme Project Management is the guide to do just that!

Doug DeCarlo's book provides the mindset as well as the principles and toolkit needed for success and sanity in the often crazy world of projects. As someone who has managed technical projects for over 25 years, I have experienced that DeCarlo's approach really works when conventional techniques fail.


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Summary: Extreme Project Management
Review: Rarely in my 25-year project career has a book hit so close to my and my clients' workplace. If change is the only constant on your projects then you need to, as the authors says, "make change your friend" and read this book. It is new, innovating, and a refreshing way to look at how successful projects are delivered. It is packed with knowledge, easy to read, and full of tips you can take away and apply immediately. His 4 accelerators, 10 shared values, 4 business questions, and 5 critical success factors provide an excellent model for delivering projects in today's businesses environment.

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Summary: New and different
Review: This book is different from the many books on my bookshelf around the topic of project management. I found this book to be interesting reading, in contrast to the same-old-stuff in most other books, much of which does not really work.

I consult in the area of project management, and my interest is in things that work and are actually useful in the business world. Doug DeCarlo bases his project management model on the dynamics of what motivates people rather than on the mechanics of traditional bricks and mortar project management. Most of us who have managed significant projects inevitably come to realize it is all about people (thus in this regard I disagree with Thomas Connell's view in a prior review), and the author acknowledges that by the breadth his book covers in this regard.

I find this book to add value in the field of project management. At first read I found many things that are immediately useful. In my view, this book is useful both to pick up "tips", as well as for the "infrastructure" it lays out. It's got actionable information in it for beginners through seasoned, professional project managers. I have to go back and read it again. In the meantime, I plan to use it as a reference tool.