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The No-Nonsense Guide to Project Management
This book provides a ‘no-nonsense’ guide to project management which will enable library and information professionals to lead or take part in a wide range of projects from large-scale multi-organization complex projects through to relatively simple local ones. Allan has fully revised and updated her classic 2004 title, Project Management, to incorporate considerable developments during the past decade, including: the development and wide-scale acceptance of formal project management methodologies; the use of social media to communicate and disseminate information about projects and the large shift in the types of project library and information workers may be involved in. The text is supported by practical case studies drawn from a wide range of LIS organizations at local, regional, national and international levels. These examples provide an insight into good practice for the practitioner, from an individual working in a voluntary organization on an extremely limited budget, to someone involved in an international project. Content covered includes:
an introduction to project management, project workers, and the library and information profession;
different approaches to project management, the project cycle, the people side of projects, and management of change;
discussion of project methodologies, project management software, open source software, collaborative working software, and use of social media;
project initiation, communication, analysis, and project briefs;
developing project infrastructure, scheduling, working out the finances, and carrying out a detailed risk analysis; and
working in partnerships, in diverse and virtual teams, and managing change.
If you are an LIS professional involved in project work of any kind, whether on a managerial, practical, academic or research level, this is an invaluable resource for you.
an introduction to project management, project workers, and the library and information profession;
different approaches to project management, the project cycle, the people side of projects, and management of change;
discussion of project methodologies, project management software, open source software, collaborative working software, and use of social media;
project initiation, communication, analysis, and project briefs;
developing project infrastructure, scheduling, working out the finances, and carrying out a detailed risk analysis; and
working in partnerships, in diverse and virtual teams, and managing change.
If you are an LIS professional involved in project work of any kind, whether on a managerial, practical, academic or research level, this is an invaluable resource for you.
- GenresBusinessNonfiction
240 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2017
2 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Allan
54 books187 followersBarbara Allan is a pseudonym used by Barbara Collins and Max Allan Collins
Max Allan Collins is a writer of mystery novels, screenplays, comics and historical fiction. Collins has collaborated on numerous short stories with his wife writer Barbara Collins. Together they also write the successful “Trash ‘n’ Treasures” mysteries – their Antiques Flee Market (2008) won the Romantic Times Best Humorous Mystery Novel award in 2009.
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Max Allan Collins is a writer of mystery novels, screenplays, comics and historical fiction. Collins has collaborated on numerous short stories with his wife writer Barbara Collins. Together they also write the successful “Trash ‘n’ Treasures” mysteries – their Antiques Flee Market (2008) won the Romantic Times Best Humorous Mystery Novel award in 2009.
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 17, 2022
Summary: the book might be great if you want a guide to start a library system related project with limited previous experience. For overall PM studying it can confuse and simply does not reflect reality of other business areas.
I have to admit I didn’t read the book thoroughly, but took it mostly as a resource for my PM course.
It’s great to find something so concise and straight to the core for PM. However, I ended up disagreeing with many points of the book. For example statement that agile is not a good approach for complex projects. Which looking back might be a right statement for LIS, but definitely doesn’t work for e.g. building a new app or managing ambivalent projects in logistics.
Secondly I was confused quite a few times, because of mixed up terminology. PRINCE2 is a project management method, but in this book it is listed alongside PM approaches. It got me extremely confused, because based on the explanation in the book PRINCE2 is a standalone technique, but it didn’t make sense because there was nothing differentiating it from agile or waterfall.
I have to admit I didn’t read the book thoroughly, but took it mostly as a resource for my PM course.
It’s great to find something so concise and straight to the core for PM. However, I ended up disagreeing with many points of the book. For example statement that agile is not a good approach for complex projects. Which looking back might be a right statement for LIS, but definitely doesn’t work for e.g. building a new app or managing ambivalent projects in logistics.
Secondly I was confused quite a few times, because of mixed up terminology. PRINCE2 is a project management method, but in this book it is listed alongside PM approaches. It got me extremely confused, because based on the explanation in the book PRINCE2 is a standalone technique, but it didn’t make sense because there was nothing differentiating it from agile or waterfall.
May 3, 2018
4.5 stars
No-nonsense Project Management Guide?
Yes, Please!
I got to know Dr Barbara Allan through my Masters of Business (MBA) course that I did with the University of Hull, UK and she was a brilliant supervisor. Little did I know that she wrote excellent, helpful books for the Library and Information Science (LIS) community as well.
One thing that makes a guide perfect for me is when they cut to the chase by getting to the point hence the ‘no-nonsense’ approach which Dr Allan does effectively. She slices and dices on how to project manage simple to large scale projects. Given that Dr Allan has written a book about project management back in 2004, this updated version has bits on the development and wide-scale acceptance of formal project management methodologies to the large shift in the types of project library and information workers may be involved in.
As always, I enjoy guides that have practical case studies as I feel it gives the reader a better understanding of what is being expressed. The case studies in this book features local, regional, national, and international LIS organisations so kudos to the author!
This book is apt for all LIS professionals at any level who are involved in projects (which is extremely likely) as it can be used for big or small projects alike. However, I feel that this book can be picked up by anyone really as some of the tips in there are useful for general project management too since it features similar cradle-to-grave techniques.
No-nonsense Project Management Guide?
Yes, Please!
I got to know Dr Barbara Allan through my Masters of Business (MBA) course that I did with the University of Hull, UK and she was a brilliant supervisor. Little did I know that she wrote excellent, helpful books for the Library and Information Science (LIS) community as well.
One thing that makes a guide perfect for me is when they cut to the chase by getting to the point hence the ‘no-nonsense’ approach which Dr Allan does effectively. She slices and dices on how to project manage simple to large scale projects. Given that Dr Allan has written a book about project management back in 2004, this updated version has bits on the development and wide-scale acceptance of formal project management methodologies to the large shift in the types of project library and information workers may be involved in.
As always, I enjoy guides that have practical case studies as I feel it gives the reader a better understanding of what is being expressed. The case studies in this book features local, regional, national, and international LIS organisations so kudos to the author!
This book is apt for all LIS professionals at any level who are involved in projects (which is extremely likely) as it can be used for big or small projects alike. However, I feel that this book can be picked up by anyone really as some of the tips in there are useful for general project management too since it features similar cradle-to-grave techniques.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews