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Managing IT Projects: How to Pragmatically Deliver Projects for External Customers
Urgent deadlines, constant lack of time, permanent delays - these are the most faithful companions and, at the same time, the greatest enemies of the project manager. Even certified project managers, people with enormous knowledge and a lot of experience, find themselves in a situation where they need great mental resilience in order not to give up. The book is a complete manual for all critical situations a project manager might need to handle along the project’s lifecycle.
Written by a project manager with many years of experience, each chapter contains real-life examples with analysis and guidelines. You’ll benefit from the down-to-earth knowledge that usually project managers learn over the course of years in critical and stressful situations with no preparation beforehand. It’s not about academic methodologies – it’s about pragmatic solutions that work in real-life.
Far too often, the wise theory of IT project management has nothing to do with reality. Managing IT Projects is your special compendium of knowledge, featuring "project management black magic,” chock full of proven recipes for project managers and IT organization managers, as well as advice on how to act in critical situations.
What You'll Learn
Examine the main reasons for delays in projects and see where they come from Review the key success factors in managing projects beyond project management methodologies and techniquesUnderstand the critical moments of projects and see how to prepare for themApply a pragmatic strategy and philosophy for successful project delivery and cooperation with customers
Who This Book Is For
Software developers, project managers, engineering managers and software development directors, sales reps, executive and founders
"An extremely powerful book which describes well the highlights of critical project management well supported by real-life experience."
-Antonietta Mastroianni, Chief Digital & IT Officer at Proximus, Telco Woman of the year 2022
"Managing IT Projects" by Marcin Dąbrowski is a reference work, a textbook for project management in general and for the implementation of IT projects in particular [...] The best book I read this year."
-Holger Weichhaus, Senior Director for Development Quality, AUDI AG
"The book is full of hints and tips for how to succeed and avoid the many pitfalls that await the unwary. The book is recommended reading for IT professionals on either the client or supplier side especially those with only a handful of projects under their belt."
-Mike Corrigall, Former Vice President of T-Mobile International
Written by a project manager with many years of experience, each chapter contains real-life examples with analysis and guidelines. You’ll benefit from the down-to-earth knowledge that usually project managers learn over the course of years in critical and stressful situations with no preparation beforehand. It’s not about academic methodologies – it’s about pragmatic solutions that work in real-life.
Far too often, the wise theory of IT project management has nothing to do with reality. Managing IT Projects is your special compendium of knowledge, featuring "project management black magic,” chock full of proven recipes for project managers and IT organization managers, as well as advice on how to act in critical situations.
What You'll Learn
Examine the main reasons for delays in projects and see where they come from Review the key success factors in managing projects beyond project management methodologies and techniquesUnderstand the critical moments of projects and see how to prepare for themApply a pragmatic strategy and philosophy for successful project delivery and cooperation with customers
Who This Book Is For
Software developers, project managers, engineering managers and software development directors, sales reps, executive and founders
"An extremely powerful book which describes well the highlights of critical project management well supported by real-life experience."
-Antonietta Mastroianni, Chief Digital & IT Officer at Proximus, Telco Woman of the year 2022
"Managing IT Projects" by Marcin Dąbrowski is a reference work, a textbook for project management in general and for the implementation of IT projects in particular [...] The best book I read this year."
-Holger Weichhaus, Senior Director for Development Quality, AUDI AG
"The book is full of hints and tips for how to succeed and avoid the many pitfalls that await the unwary. The book is recommended reading for IT professionals on either the client or supplier side especially those with only a handful of projects under their belt."
-Mike Corrigall, Former Vice President of T-Mobile International
322 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 9, 2023
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July 19, 2024
Business projects involving information technology require their own set of required skills. The product is electronic, not physical, but the implementation is very abstract and technical. Planning and monitoring the work itself pose their own set of risks. Further, because everyone uses software, many think that designing software does not require special expertise, so projects become improperly designed from the start. Project management education does not routinely cover this niche of practical problems, but in this book, Marcin Dąbrowski describes his wisdom gained from years of work experience in industry.
Project managers often face a difficult first few years in the field as they learn by trial and error what the classroom could not teach them. To supplement academic training, this book offers insights gained specifically from delivering projects to external clients.
Dąbrowski is keen to ensure that projects are designed right from the start. He spends several chapters criticizing how salespeople can sometimes overpromise and overcommit their project to make a sale. Instead, he advises consulting with subject matter experts before a contract is signed. Good software architecture and design play pivotal, even foundational, roles in his mind to successful project completion. He goes on to discuss other topics, including personnel management, bug fixes, delays, and recapturing momentum after failed projects.
This book has a few weaknesses, however. First, the sentences don’t always follow standard grammar, and adverbs like “firstly” are commonly used instead of the simple “first.” These errors are common enough to distract from the book’s overall message, sadly. Second, as the subtitle alludes to, the book is focused on the specific scenario of delivering work for external clients. While these skills are broadly helpful, internal projects for internal clients are not discussed at all. A more generalized approach of just delivering IT projects to any client would help. This book creates a niche where one is not needed.
This book’s audience consists of IT project managers and those invested in delivering successful products to external clients, whether direct to consumer (“B2C”) or to other businesses (“B2B”). It seeks to communicate non-technical “soft skills” that can make or break a project. Building software is both a science and an art, but applying final polish so that the user can adopt it – the work of project managers – represents its own challenge. Dąbrowski informs us about pragmatics to accomplish this task to build both a business and a successful project.
Project managers often face a difficult first few years in the field as they learn by trial and error what the classroom could not teach them. To supplement academic training, this book offers insights gained specifically from delivering projects to external clients.
Dąbrowski is keen to ensure that projects are designed right from the start. He spends several chapters criticizing how salespeople can sometimes overpromise and overcommit their project to make a sale. Instead, he advises consulting with subject matter experts before a contract is signed. Good software architecture and design play pivotal, even foundational, roles in his mind to successful project completion. He goes on to discuss other topics, including personnel management, bug fixes, delays, and recapturing momentum after failed projects.
This book has a few weaknesses, however. First, the sentences don’t always follow standard grammar, and adverbs like “firstly” are commonly used instead of the simple “first.” These errors are common enough to distract from the book’s overall message, sadly. Second, as the subtitle alludes to, the book is focused on the specific scenario of delivering work for external clients. While these skills are broadly helpful, internal projects for internal clients are not discussed at all. A more generalized approach of just delivering IT projects to any client would help. This book creates a niche where one is not needed.
This book’s audience consists of IT project managers and those invested in delivering successful products to external clients, whether direct to consumer (“B2C”) or to other businesses (“B2B”). It seeks to communicate non-technical “soft skills” that can make or break a project. Building software is both a science and an art, but applying final polish so that the user can adopt it – the work of project managers – represents its own challenge. Dąbrowski informs us about pragmatics to accomplish this task to build both a business and a successful project.
Displaying 1 of 1 review