Creative Project Management

by Michael S. Dobson

The seven essential tools for keeping projects on time and under budget You're executing risk management, leadership, and planning--all hallmarks of outstanding project management. And yet you're still having trouble keeping your projects on schedule.

"Creative Project Management" adds two new elements to the mix: creativity and innovation.

Internationally renowned project management consultants Michael Dobson and Ted Leemann combine traditional project management skills, such as risk evaluation, decision-making, and human dynamics, with outside-the-box thinking and business creativity. They provide seven new tools and approaches you can apply to any project.

The methods discussed inside "Creative Project Management" show you how to: Realistically imagine the outcome of your decisions Work with--and around--the realities and constraints that affect your decisions Read and predict trends Manage the long- and short-term ramifications of your decisions Evaluate the impact of present and future technologies on your decisions Imagine new choices you didn't think you had

"Creative Project Management" provides an invaluable new set of tools for any project management professional tasked with making difficult decisions in these uncertain times.

Genres: Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published July 28, 2010

About the author

Michael Singer Dobson is an American author who writes on Business (particularly office politics and project management). He also has written Alternate History novels (relating to WWII) and Role-playing game adventures (D&D, Indiana Jones, and Buck Rogers XXVC).

Reviews

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Project management books can be very dry and clinical. That was not true with this book. The author worked hard to give practical and real-world examples and for me, that made the difference in rating it four stars.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has been a practicing project manager and looking for ways to broaden their skills.

[Stef Garvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful tips on integrating project management practices. I think the title might have thrown a lot of other reviewers off thinking this was more about creativity than project management. It's more about project management with a bit of a creative slant thrown in. I found it a good refresher in an easy-to-digest style.

[Shh I'm reading! · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was t0o obscure theoretical to be the useful guide that I was hoping for. The best chapter (which isn't saying much) was Ch. 9 which talked about change management.

[Sharon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Excessively complex and not very applicable. Not really the read that I had hoped it to be.

[Kate Elliott]

Some decent principles— a lot of instances of “oh I totally do that but hadn’t articulated it yet”—so the confirmation felt good? But a lot of the pieces are things you learn by doing over time, not something you can read once and then know how to implement socially. Weird gray area of lessons that beginners need but won’t be able to feel their way through until they hit a more intermediate stride & have witnessed some irl examples. (And maybe too redundant if you’re further along in career.) But I guess that’s the rub with most professional development books.

Also realllly could’ve used fewer military examples. Had a hard time being comfortable with metaphors about pm work that were about strategic killing. I get that he was trying to set up a paradigm of planning + flexibility + high stakes but there are SO many other possible historic examples. I quit being a history major because I was sick of listening to battle simping. Why put it here? Using militant metaphors in business is a gross trend that needs to stop.

[Arcane Elephant · Rating 1 out of 5]

I loved Managing Multiple Projects by Dobson, but this whole book is a hack conglomeration of story times. It reads like a Malcom Gladwell TED Talk.

[Krystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly entertaining and approachable for a book on project management. I liked the focus on using creative thinking in dealing with project planning and troubleshooting especially as well as the focus on questioning projects so that you're looking at them from different angles throughout the process.