This is based on Scott's experience and it will give you good ideas, techniques and advices for project management. But if you're thinking in PMP book this isn't that kind of book.
I red it three times and each time I learn something new. I strongly recommend read this other book "Applied Software Project Management" from Theory In Practice O'Reilly series.

I'm the author and wanted to make sure you were informed there is a new, updated edition of this book, and its now called Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management. It has been revised, polished, and enhanced, with 120+ new exercises, a discussion guide, improved footnotes, and much more.

Since the old edition listed on this page is out of print and hard to find, it's selling for twice the list price of the new edition, and, if you care, I get no royalties from used book purchases. If you really really want it for some reason, go for it, but I wanted to make sure you knew there's a better, and likely cheaper edition available.

Cheers and happy reading.

I'm a rookie, so a playbook that organizes my thinking and allows me to execute the plays each day is perfect for what I need. I was surprised at how much of the role of project manager I do right now, and how much of the work is accessible if not desirable to me. The general feeling upon conclusion of the book is that I was just short of an epiphany in thinking, but it helped solidify my suspicions about project management:
-it is about getting things done through others;
-it requires a disciplined mind and organizational ability;
-it can be learned;
-it can be more rewarding than being an individual contributor.

Mr. Berkun has a lot of commercial software development background, so you'll need to map his model onto yours, but this isn't difficult. The processes for new projects are identical to maintenance work, only you have a smaller timeline and a more focused objective. Really, the ideas and practices scale very well.

Where I was put off, somewhat was in how the footnotes were organized, and how his anecdotes tended to end. Footnotes go at the bottom of the page or, much less ideally, at the end of the chapter. Putting them at the back of the book is the least helpful of the options. I'd have rather seen long parenthetical ramblings than a collection of now-contextless footnotes to read.

The anecdotes were illustrative, but lacked some kind of conclusion or resolution almost every time. "We had a problem, I discovered 'x', and we applied it." So how did it turn out? There's no reflection upon the efficacy of his examples in many cases, and it's an annoying method of storytelling.

Overall, I'm pleased that I found the book, and plan to use it in my expanded role at work. Once I develop some mastery of daily/ weekly/ monthly planning and execution, I'm sure I'll be able to move onto more advanced study, but I'm not ready, and this book is clearly for rookies with some self-awareness.

-C

If you're looking to figure out why you're having problems getting your ideas heard or your projects wrapped up on time, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE NOT THE PM, this is a great book! Almost any software or system project with companies of any size require "project management" skills from anyone interested in getting things done.

Scott will show you how to better estimate time, see the phases a project goes through, and give you some new perspectives and ways you can improve your product. Easy to read and enough ideas to get you thinking. Right now I'm thinking how much better my professional career would have been if I understood this a decade ago.

Good book, read it!

The subject of my review pretty much sums up how I feel about this book. After the first 100 pages, I thought to myself "I've gotten a handful of gems and a few good visuals, but did I need 100 pages to accomplish that?"

Seriously, that sums up my impression of the entire book. There is a LOT to be desired in terms of organization and it really feels like there's a lot of good information, but so poorly organized that it's hard to connect ideas. Several times per chapter, I find myself seeing references to how something will be better dealt with in further chapters. I have to ask myself why that happens constantly, and whether or not it says something about the organization of the book.

There also seems to be a tendency to wander away from central topics into tangents or only loosely related ideas. Very rarely does the author tie his thoughts back to what each particular chapter is about, or to a central idea. I have a hard time learning from books that are written this way. I have constantly found myself reading a paragraph in this book and thinking "Okay, but what does this have to do with the aspect of project management that this chapter is supposed to be about?" I tried very hard not to fall into that trap, but it kept happening.

I am an avid reading and an academic, so I know dry reading and I'm not saying that this is dry or anything like that. Quite the opposite, it's witty and fun to read in places. The thing that gets me so much is that it's poorly organized and poorly optimized. I find the author spends way too much time trying to say things and not nearly enough time relating them back to his main ideas.

I have read the authors second book, on Myths of Innovation, and I have to say that I was disappointed by going back to his first book (this one) on project management. I think his second book is excellent and vastly improved upon. It is much shorter than this project management book and MUCH better written, largely in part because of the organization but also because of how concise it is. In retrospect, perhaps he has since improved his craft, but his first outing (this project management book) is definitely tricky.

I see all the positive comments and I believe those people are being genuine about the content of the book. On the other hand, I do believe they have neglected to mention the issues I'm pointing out here. Don't get me wrong, there is useful information here, and lots of it. I have really enjoyed the nuggets that I've found in several chapters, but I lament the page count I had to forge through to get to them.

Again, the content is good here, but the presentation leaves a LOT to be desired. If you have issues with reading books where the author wanders away from central ideas and loses himself in tangents, and where you can easily forget what you're reading about in a particular chapter, you may have difficulties here. If you're just after the book for some good ideas about project management and plan to skim it, you should be okay. Anyone planning to read this from cover to cover is in for some real disappointment.