97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts

by Barbee Davis

If the projects you manage don't go as smoothly as you'd like, 97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know offers knowledge that's priceless, gained through years of trial and error. This illuminating book contains 97 short and extremely practical tips -- whether you're dealing with software or non-IT projects -- from some of the world's most experienced project managers and software developers. You'll learn how these professionals have dealt with everything from managing teams to handling project stakeholders to runaway meetings and more. While this book highlights software projects, its wise axioms contain project management principles applicable to projects of all types in any industry. You can read the book end to end or browse to find topics that are of particular relevance to you. 97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know is both a useful reference and a source of inspiration.Among the 97 practical Clever Code Is Hard to Maintain...and Maintenance Is Everything -- David Wood, Partner, ZepheiraEvery Project Manager Is a Contract Administrator -- Fabio Teixeira de Melo, Planning Manager, Construtora Norberto OdebrechtCan Earned Value and Velocity Coexist on Reports? -- Barbee Davis, President, Davis ConsultingHow Do You Define 'Finished'? -- Brian Sam-Bodden, author, software architectThe Best People to Create the Estimates Are the Ones Who Do the Work -- Joe Zenevitch, Senior Project Manager, ThoughtWorksHow to Spot a Good IT Developer -- James Graham, independent management consultantOne Deliverable, One Person -- Alan Greenblatt, CEO, Sciova

Genres: Management, Business, Software, Computers, Nonfiction, Leadership, Technology

252 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Michal Ormoš · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brief anecdotes about best practices or warnings about potential pitfalls for starting manager as well as experienced. A useful collection of various observations in the field. Nothing specially oriented or lead to best practices step by step, but easy and funny to read. My second book from the collection "97 Things..."

[Andrés Ahumada gómez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good project management recommendations in small chunks from industry experts.

[Prenex · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was quite mediocre for my liking, but surely interesting is the many different approach one can see in only one book because of the many authors! Some of the authors are actually quite clueless about software project management and would be much better if they work in other fields and there are some gems who are really good at it - not forgetting all those people in-between.

The reason why this book is worth to be read in my opinion is to see this broad view. You should not think about the written words as recipes though haha.

I gave 3 stars, because I already gave 4 stars to books that are much better in this areas, but the book is not shitty, just avarage and still worth reading.

[Vuk Trifkovic · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sounds interesting, but one too many generic project manager snippets. Manage your deliverables, communicate clearly and other "motherhood and apple pie stuff". Yes, there are some good snippets and some of the contributors are far more insightful than others... All in all, probably not the key text, but some PMs might find it comforting to get reinforcement of the usual practices from the fellow practitioners.

[Eduardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Formatted like a compendium of tips and tricks, this book provides some advice we can follow on those projects that we have under our responsibility. Without being a reading that reveals "the meaning of life", I consider prudent to read this book in your spare time, to better understand about the world of project management and how projects can be brought to fruition, from a non-technical perspective.

[Evghenii · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many of the tips are really helpful, but often too superficial. They won't provide basic knowledge on how to manage projects, but give you good advice for many problematic situations you will surely encounter.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh.

[Paul Vargas Machuca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Practical tips, from experienced project managers around the world, about how to deal with the most common issues in software projects.

[Nelson Faria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting views from project managers and the difficulties they have faced in their projects.
A good way to learn from other's mistakes and advices!

[Jose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Currently on Chapter 12. It is geared towards software project managers, but the wisdom in the book is highly applicable to all kinds of projects.

[Aaron Tesauro]

Very heavily geared towards software project managers. Skimmed a lot of it.

[Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not so good as I expected. Only 1 story from those 97 was really inspirational for me. It was about hiring people - do not search for skills, search for talents.

[Le Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

normal & lame in some ways...

[Darcy · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is some useful stuff in this book.