HBR Guide to Project Management

by Harvard Business Publishing

MEET YOUR GOALS—ON TIME AND ON BUDGET.

How do you rein in the scope of your project when you’ve got a group of demanding stakeholders breathing down your neck? And map out a schedule everyone can stick to? And motivate team members who have competing demands on their time and attention?

Whether you’re managing your first project or just tired of improvising, this guide will give you the tools and confidence you need to define smart goals, meet them, and capture lessons learned so future projects go even more smoothly.

The HBR Guide to Project Management will help you:

• Build a strong, focused team
• Break major objectives into manageable tasks
• Create a schedule that keeps all the moving parts under control
• Monitor progress toward your goals
• Manage stakeholders’ expectations
• Wrap up your project and gauge its success

Genres: Business, Management, Nonfiction, Leadership, Self Help, Productivity, Reference

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 2011

About the author

Harvard Business Publishing (HBP) is a publisher founded in 1994 as a not-for-profit, independent corporation and an affiliate of Harvard Business School (distinct from Harvard University Press), with a focus on improving business management practices. The company offers articles, books, case studies, simulations, videos, learning programs, and digital tools to organizations and subscribers.
HBP consists of three market units: Education, Corporate Learning, and Harvard Business Review Group. Their offering consists of print and digital media (Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business Review Press books, Harvard Business School cases), events, digital learning (Harvard ManageMentor, HMM Spark), blended learning, and campus experiences.

Reviews

[Mishari AlGhamdi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice read. Needs more depth. Good as an introductory book

[Bota Maxat · Rating 4 out of 5]

super practical thing, every single step is explained in a very precise way

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is most useful to those who have some project management experience or some background industry experience. As a fresh graduate, this book is definitely not a definitive guide to project management but a short collection of best practises. This has many helpful tips and guide through the entire project management process. The short time required to read the book, about 2 hours, is well worth the effort. Its practicalness makes it an excellent reference book

[5H3MS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Как интродакшн пойдёт

[Max D'onofrio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short book that is just a collection of articles from their magazine. There are some interesting things to take out of it, but not what I was looking for.

[Anshul Goel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a step by step guide to project management which is divided into four sections - Planning, Build-up, Implementation and Closure.

Reading this book after having delivered a lot of projects actually helped me understand the subject better. I could easily relate to the white spaces that I have left while managing these projects across all these four stages. I could actually write down the mistakes that I had committed and could envisage how project delivery would have been different had I knew this before. The book gives various frameworks at each stage of the project management and goes on to explain how it needs to be applied for a better project delivery. Some of the frameworks that I liked the most are - Time-boxing technique, Rapid results delivery, Scope creep management, Defining dependency and critical path for the project...and so on.

This book is a must read if you have anything to do with Project Management in your professional life,

I will give 5/5 to this book.

[Blaire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview of project management basics & nice refresher for existing PMs looking to dust up on process and best practices.

[Martin Smrek · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book you are looking for when you realize that your current project management system sucks and needs quick fix.

[Lukasz · Rating 5 out of 5]

W ramach samokształcenia i poszerzania własnych kwalifikacji zawodowych postanowiłem sięgnąć po książki fachowe z dziedziny zarządzania projektami. To też swego rodzaju postanowienie noworoczne.

Pierwsza fachowa pozycja po którą w tym roku sięgnąłem to właśnie niniejsza pozycja wydawnictwa Harvard Business Review. Jest to kompedium wiedzy ogólnej o zarządzaniu projektami, zbiór artykułów wcześniej publikowanych w czasopiśmie “Harvard Business Review”. Niektóre artykuły są bardzo krótkie, niektóre dłuższe. To co mi bardzo odpowiadało, to że niektóre artykuły zostały napisane przez praktyków którzy w treść artykułów wplatali również anegdoty, historie “z życia wzięte”.

Książka podzielona jest na pięć części. Pierwsza część to krótki, ogólny wstęp. Opisane w nim są ogólne fazy projektu, powiązanie między poszczególnymi fazami oraz podstawowe role oraz funkcje które są niezbędne aby z sukcesem zrealizować projekt. Podstawowe fazy projektu to oczywiście: 1) planowanie 2) przygotowywanie (tu mnie zastanawia jak fachowo na język polski przetłumaczono angielskie określenie “build up”) 3) wdrażanie 4) zamykanie.

Właśnie po pierwszej wstępnej części cztery kolejne części książki poświęcone są każdej fazie. Sporo jest ciekawych artykułów, te które szczególnie utkwiły mi w pamięci dotyczyły ustalania celi projektu, zakresu, obsadzania podstawowych roli, formułowania celów projektu, radzenia sobie z niepewnością, zarządzanie niepewnością, tworzeniu zespołu, komunikowania z zainteresowanymi stronami.

Pozycja nie jest obszerna. Na wstępie autorzy wspominają iż pozycja powstała z myślą o tych którzy nie mają zbyt wiele czasu aby mocno się zagłębić w teorie, ale chcą poznać bliżej podstawowe zasady zarządzania projektami. W ciągu jednego lub dwóch popołudni można ją przeczytać. Poza tym warto jest ją mieć w swojej biblioteczce, gdyż w razie potrzeby można zawsze po nią siegnąć lub też spontanicznie szukać inspiracji na rozwiązanie problemu gdyby taki się pojawił w projekcie nad którym aktualnie pracujemy. Polecam mocno dla zainteresowanych. Będę też regularnie sięgał po dalsze pozycje HBR.

[Black Tea Lady ☕️📚 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una de las mejores y más concisas guías sobre gestión de proyectos para principiantes que he leído por el momento. Cuando te proponen en el trabajo que dirijas un proyecto, agradeces la confianza pero no siempre se tiene una idea clara por donde empezar. Este libro ofrece la confianza y las herramientas necesarias para gestionar proyectos de forma eficaz, motivando al equipo, controlando los objetivos, resolviendo posibles conflictos para al final se obtengan los mejores resultados posibles. Muy recomendable.

[Cristo Gastelum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este libro es como un mentor en papel para la gestión de proyectos. Ofrece consejos útiles y aplicables, y hace un excelente trabajo al desglosar conceptos complejos. Los estudios de casos son una gran adición, y te ayudan a visualizar los conceptos en acción. Pero no todo es perfecto. Algunas secciones pueden ser un poco teóricas y menos prácticas de lo que te gustaría. Además, si ya tienes experiencia en la gestión de proyectos, podrías encontrar algunos contenidos demasiado básicos. Aun así, es un buen recurso para entender mejor la gestión de proyectos.

[Matiinu Iman Ramadhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Readings for Beginner

As a person who relatively not getting a formal training or class towards Project Management, this guide helps me to provide an insight and about Project Management from start until its end. The suggestions are practical and be implemented right away to the working place/organization works. I encourage an experienced or even newbie to read this if they want to improve their Project Management skill.

[Michael McCormick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super good HBR guide! It was a good project to read this guide about how to do a good project. The chapters are organized along the lines of the phases of project management. The writing is clear and concise. Thank you Harvard Business School publishing for all of your help, from the magazine to the digital stuff and to Harvard Business School, for all the great educating you do and for all of your wonderful graduates, especially Modupe Akinola!

[Luis Cisneros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contiene lineamientos básicos acerca de como llevar un proyecto en sus distintas etapas, es bastante ligero aunque creo que en algunos términos son repetitivos y puedes sentirte un poco perdido, pero lo recomiendo ampliamente ya que como profesionista puede ampliar tu conocimiento en management, aunque en muchos puntos creo que es management mas tradicional, pero lo recomiendo ampliamente.

[Joey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great book I read for my Project Management class. It gives lots of examples of the strategies in action. I read it alongside Harvard Business Essentials Managing Projects Large and Small where it goes deeper into the strategies applied.

[Nate Irwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great high-level overview of project management. A lot of good guidance on what to do and what not to do on a big development project. This will likely be a good reference book at the office.

[Estef Najera · Rating 5 out of 5]

This HBR guide will help you to avoid unnecessary scope creep, which is useful during the planning of activities
Of course need to be in sync with your company objectives.
I really like how they simplify the activities

[Nabeel Nasir · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a project management practitioner, I didn't get a lot of this book that I didn't already know. I was hoping to get some tips and tricks that I could introduce into my regular practice.
Perhaps for those newer into the field or wanting to get into the field, this book will be more useful

[Anwar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive Guide to Project Management

This is a great prerequisite to project managment. From its breakdown in stages to each step therein, this is a helpful step-by-step outline to effectively manage projects, short and long term.

[Janet Schalk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick book, composed of lots of bullet points. Helpful as a reference for project management. I'll probably turn to it the next time I have a project and want to proceed with intention rather than muddling through.

[Arun Narayanaswamy · Rating 2 out of 5]

An average book on project management. Probably a good book for early 2000’s and not anymore.
Very generic like most of hbr books and absolutely not worthy of spending any money. Most of it you will find on simple blogs online.

[Nik Azan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for newbie want to start with project management.

[Daniel Garcia gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great primer on Project Management. Very straight forward, lot's of good practices.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

After activity review and Before activity review are interesting with case studies., good guide to know the projects from Planning to postmortem.

[Singalongalong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful basic and review.

[Soksophay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good material with practical example.

[Daniel Hausmann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such common sensical stuff

Though the articles are all well-written, unfortunately, I found very few ideas unique. As a result, I’m not sure I really got much out of the readings.

[Miftah Faridh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good to refresh my understanding about project management and additional point of view from IT project.

[Teerasak · Rating 5 out of 5]

อ่านแล้วใช้ประโยชน์ได้ดีทีเดียว เก็บไว้เป็น Reference ได้เวลาทำงาน และได้นำมาใช้ฝึกสอนทีมงานได้

[Ahmed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful as an introduction to the a more material heavy book