Product Description

Get detailed, practical advice on how to avoid project failure in any industry with help from forms, checklists, and templates in the book and online. Learn to quickly identify troubled projects, diagnose the situation, and plan an intervention. Then, execute the intervention with confidence, manage the entire process effectively, and make incremental adjustments as needed. Follow proven techniques to keep communication open, build cooperation, and manage conflict. Case studies help illustrate the methodologies discussed.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1230157 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
sequential approach to rescuing failing projects...anyone who works...IT...easy to follow and digest...practical advice without being preachy -- ComputerWorld, Jan. 31, 2005

Review
This book, which was written by two executives with nearly 50 years of IT management experience between them, is structured as a sequential approach to rescuing failing projects (i.e. identifying troubled projects, assessing the problems, planning the intervention, executing the intervention and so on).

The book is aimed at anyone who works on IT projects, and it's very easy to follow and digest. It includes a slew of project checklists, methodologies and questions to ask at various stages of a project rescue attempt.

Unlike IT management books that take a Sermon-on-the Mount approach, this one manages to offer practical advice without being preachy. (Computerworld )

From the Back Cover

“A must-read for anyone involved in managing complex projects.” --David Brassor, Sr. Manager, Technology Integration, Deloitte

“The insight in this book will turn good managers into superior ones.” --Fayek Bastowros, Project Manager, PMP

Follow the exact steps the experts have successfully taken to rescue a project from failure. This informative and concise book will guide you step-by-step through an effective intervention, allowing you to salvage more than you might think of a project’s deliverables and goals. Recognize the early warning signs of decline, then develop swift strategies to handle communication and consensus, research, diagnosis, and timing. Proven techniques, along with case studies and sidebars, help you understand exactly how to save your project--and possibly your career.

• Recognize warning signs in external events, strategies, behaviors, and infrastructures
• Manage an effective rescue--learning and adjusting along the way
• Examine the detailed processes and deliverables within each phase of a project intervention
• Monitor and retain control over the direction of the rescue effort
• Use the project rescue framework to realign your project with PMI principles
• Maximize team competencies, skills, experience, and attitude
• Construct a risk management strategy that can deal with unforeseen events
• Provide fact-based proof that a successful turnaround is possible for your project
• Manage conflict, build cooperation, and employ a strong project management discipline
• Improve the success of off-shore and near-shore projects
• Use the forms, checklists, and templates in this rescue toolkit to assist in your intervention

Sanjiv Purba is an IT executive with more than 20 years of industry and consulting experience with organizations such as Deloitte Consulting, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Microsoft, Blast Radius, and TD Waterhouse. He has rescued projects that range from small six person teams to those that include hundreds of employees, dozens of vendors, and hundreds of consultants. He has written more than 12 books and hundreds of articles for such organizations as The Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star. Joseph Zucchero is an IT executive with more than 24 years of IT program and project management experience with firms like IBM, Ernst & Young, and The Casey Group. He is recognized as an industry leader in IT organizational effectiveness and rescuing runaway projects. His work has been published in Wall Street & Technology and Financial Executive.

Customer Reviews

Must on your bookshelf
Sanjiv Purba et al do a fabulous job of writing a very practical and handy book that serves as an aid to Project Managers. The book outlines a four phase rescue framework that can be used for projects in trouble and as a best practices for projects in progress.

The authors layout the four phase framework as
1) Assessment
2) Intervention Planning
3) Intervention Execution and
4) Post Intervention Review.

The book comes with a bunch of questions that one can keep on asking to arrive at the problem source. The authors say "Asking questions of different members of the team is also a nonthreatening technique for posing difficult sceanrios. Instead of telling professionals to do a job that they may already be doing, a series of questions can be asked that does not make them feel like they are being accussed of messing up. It also allows them to suggest corrective courses of action"

They go on to list down the questions and they are non-toxic questions.

Now the downsides:

* The book claims to have online forms at their publisher site, what would have been appropriate is if the authors would have gone a step ahead to create an accompanying site for the downloadable stuff.

* I would have preferred to have one or two pages containing all the checklists that could be torn and carried out.

Apart from the above, I think the book is a good buy at 500 bucks for an Indian Reprint! I paid $43 for my copy and am sure that it delivers value for every buck that I spent!

Congratulations Sanjiv and Joseph!
Congratulations Sanjiv and Joseph! If there are projects that are "recipes for disaster", this book is the "recipe for rescue". It's one of the best I've read in terms of the information contained and usefulness. It lays the information out in a logical way and strikes a perfect balance between theory and practice. Don't read this book and relegate it to the shelf: keep it on your desk to refer to when you encounter difficulties in your projects. In fact, I'd recommend it before tackling your next project. Just follow the steps in the book you'll avoid having your project go off the rails in the first place.