Product Description

Projects have been around since ancient times. Noah built the ark, Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine – all projects. Why then, is the topic of project management suddenly of such great interest today? The answer is simple. The audience has changed and the stakes are higher.

Successful businesses and organizations create projects that produce desired results in established timeframes with assigned resources. As a result, businesses are increasingly driven to find individuals who can excel in this project-oriented environment. And that's where this guide comes into play.

Reading Project Management For Dummies could help a diverse group of people, some of which include the following:

• Senior managers and junior assistants (the senior managers of tomorrow)
• Experienced project managers and people who've never been on a project team
• People who've had significant project management training and people who've had none
• People who've had years of real-world business and government experience and people who've just entered the workforce

By reading this guide, you'll gain insight into beginning a project, supporting it throughout its life, and bringing it to a successful closure. You'll discover how to manage the uncertainties surrounding a project, and uncover the definitions to the most common project management terms. And you'll figure out how to handle some of the more common project management situations you'll encounter, from dealing with the people involved to organizing the mountains of paperwork.

While most businesses are looking for ways to get a better handle on their projects, what no one is saying is that the majority of people who become project managers aren't doing so by choice. Instead, project management is often an unexpected but required progression in their chosen career paths. Think of this guide as a friend or comfortable resource that has more to share each time you crack it open as you experience new situations in which you can apply the knowledge.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #87134 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 350 pages

From the Back Cover
Real-life examples show how to handle typical problems

The fun and easy way® to lead a project successfully from start to finish Whether you're preparing an important presentation on your own or heading up a task force of several dozen people, managing a project means dealing with schedules, budgets, deadlines — and pressure. Relax! This friendly guide delivers the practical know-how you need to manage your resources and get the job done — on time and within budget.

Discover how to: Develop schedules Build a project team Work within your budget Manage risk and uncertainty Motivate people who don't report to you Use technology to stay on track

The Dummies Way™Explanations in plain English "Get in, get out" information Icons and other navigational aids Tear-out cheat sheet Top ten lists A dash of humor and fun "Stan Portny is the best in the field." — Maggie Grace, Education and Training Administrator, U.S.

About the Author
Stanley E. Portny, PMP, is a renowned project-management consultant who has trained more than 25,000 people in over 100 organizations, including Hewlett-Packard and AT&T.

Customer Reviews

A Pragmatic, Insightful and Extremely Helpful Resource
I don't normally post reviews of books I read. However, this time I am making an exception; and I hope you take a moment to read this, if you are seriously considering buying this book.

I have been performing projects for several years at work; but recently, I began to receive expanded project responsibilities. I have never had formal project management training; and I decided it was time to look for resources to help me improve my planning and management practices. My boss and several colleagues highly recommended this book; and, after reading it, I can see why.

This book is a wonderful resource for anyone who plans and performs projects. The author takes what could certainly be a very complex and dry topic and makes it seem logical and easy to apply in many different situations. His examples are to the point and easy to relate to. His discussions on several topics (for example, assigning team member roles, defining outcomes, identifying work to be performed) helped me see why several projects with which I had been involved in the past had failed. His insights on how to ensure the tools and techniques are used most effectively are invaluable.

I was able immediately to start using many of the techniques at my job; and I saw their positive effects almost at once. I felt I had greater control over what happened in all aspects of my projects. I was even able to influence team members' behavior on some of the larger projects on which I was working.

What really motivated me to write this review, however, was a review by Joseph Dewey that I saw on this site before I bought this book. After I read the book, I realized that, sadly, his "review" consisted mainly of a combination of unsubstantiated criticisms ("this is a bad book", "(the author) is a bad author", "(the author) is arrogant", etc.) and grossly exaggerated or just plain false statements ("I'm not kidding, every one of the 100 examples in this book follows the same model", "all the techniques sound the same", etc.).

I understood that this review reflected the feelings and opinions of one person. However, it occurred to me that someone who had not read the book might read this review and actually believe some of what it says. And I truly feel it would be a shame, if this review caused even one person to miss out on this uniquely valuable resource. If you are seriously looking for insights and approaches to help you dramatically improve your project performance, I strongly suggest you buy this book.

Too Basic
Individuals with any experience in running a project, whether it is a small focused job or a large-scale product development effort, will find subject treatises too fundamental. The chapters lack the in-depth coverage and focus as the apparent goal is to present a broad-based overview of basic concepts in the field of project management.

Here is a guideline to use in deciding whether or not to purchase this book:
How comfortable are you with using the Microsoft Project software?
If you are very comfortable with MS Project, I recommend that you try "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge" instead.
If you have never used MS Project and/or have no idea what it does, then you should probably buy this book.

Unbelievably bad
I can't believe how bad this book is. I read this book from cover to cover. Toward the end, I plugged on just so that I could write a negative review on amazon. But, I think that this book changed my mind about reading bad books all the way through just so that I can review them.

This is the third of five project management books that I'm reading. But, after this book, I need to take a break from project management books for a while. My head hurts--bad.

And, this is the worst "For Dummies" book that I've read, and I've read about 20 of them. John Wiley and Sons really needs to recall this substandard book.

What makes this book so bad? A few things:

1) Stanley Portny is a bad author. This book has no life. This book has no soul. I've read algebra books that breathe more life into the subject material. I've read statistics and economics books that breathe more life into the subject material.
2) This book is extremely repetitive. Project management has a lot of different subjects to it. Project management is an exciting subject. However, he makes everything from Gantt charts to risk management to a work breakdown structure seem like the exact same thing.
3) Stanley Portny is extremely arrogant. This is the first "For Dummies" book where the word "I" is the most commonly used word in the book. The authors of the "For Dummies" books usually quietly take a back seat to the subject material. Not in this book--the author is very prominent.
4) All of the examples are the same. This really bugged me. All of the examples in the book go something like this:

At a recent training session, someone came up to me and said, "I don't think I need a certain aspect of project management." Well, I, Stanley Portny, disagreed with this person, and I made every effort to show this person that they were wrong, and that they did need the certain aspect of project managment.

You probably think I'm kidding--I'm not. Every one of the 100 different examples in the book follow this same model. It seems that Mr. Portny hasn't ever heard the maxim, "There's no such thing as a stupid question." It seems that Mr. Portny's adage that he lives by is, "Every question is a stupid question--and an opportunity to show how brilliant I am."

Please don't buy this book...unless you're buying the one that I just read that I'm immediately selling used on amazon.