The One-page Project Manager: Communicate and Manage Any Porject With a Single Sheet of Paper

by Clark A. Campbell

The One-Page Project Manager shows you how to boil down any project into a simple, one-page document that can be used to communicate all essential details to upper management, other departments, suppliers, and audiences. This practical guide will save time and effort, helping you identify the vital parts of a project and communicate those parts and duties to other team members.

Genres: Business, Management, Nonfiction, Reference, Productivity

140 pages, Paperback

First published October 16, 2006

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like most business writing, it's solid information that's about ten-times longer than it needs to be.

Book summary: Concise information is better. Here's how to describe a project in one page.

[Roy Klein · Rating 2 out of 5]

A useful idea masked by fluffed, self centered writing. You will find yourself struggling to extract info from this unwilling booklet. The info itself is worthwhile, but there's enough of it for a blog article, rather than a book.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like to see things laid out on a single page. It's not quite as useful for the implementation tracking, but this is a great method to show where all the parts and pieces of a project fit together in the planning stage.

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sure this was revolutionary when it first came out, but now it is de riguer. And I'm sure every company in the country, maybe even across the globe has their own variation of this useful report. This would be a good resource for someone brand new to project management.

[Saul · Rating 5 out of 5]

2nd or 3rd read.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my work life, I've always refused to publish anything that didn't fit on an 8.5"x11" sheet of paper. Who wants to try to manage legal-sized paper? And why does legal-sized paper exist at all? Because someone wanted to flip to the next page 40% less often. Weird.



Communicating the status of a project, no matter how complex, can be boiled down to one page. Clark Campbell shows us one way to do it. One pretty impressive way, in my opinion. Frankly, I think that the bigger the project the more effective this would be. Today, I work on projects that are so small and so fast-moving that a) one could scarcely call them projects and b) I've not yet decided this will work. But it will work for the bigger initiatives I have planned. Indeed, I am hopeful that this higher-level view of the work being done will help draw people's attention out of the muck and mire of their day-to-day tasks. We'll see.



As a final point, which has nothing to do with the above, did you read this whole review? Why? I don't know why I didn't delete it. I write these only as an exercise for myself. This one is terrible. Go do something useful.

[Ira Burton · Rating 3 out of 5]

The one-page project manager is a method that Clark Campbell created while working as a high level manager at O.C. Tanner in Salt Lake City. The writing in the book is a little on the light side, and quite boring, however the concepts presented are invaluable. At 129 pages this is a quick afternoon read, after which you should be able to easily implement a project management style similar to his.

The beauty of the one-page project managers is that they provide a quick visual way of tracking tasks and responsibilities and provides an easy way to communicate progress to project stake holders.

I would highly recommend that people read this book if they would like a nice and easy way to manage projects the do not merit the complexity and cost of Microsoft Project. He has most of the files from the book available on his website for free download. I found the presentation quality o

[Muhammad Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are many ways of visually displaying information to satisfy different audiences. This is especially true in project management reporting. This book is not offering a ground-breaking concept, however it introduces a very real tool that can be used to effectively communicate the essence of a project's status, satisfying the needs of most stakeholders.
Especially useful is its of use of plain old Excel as a reporting tool.
The multi-dimensional nature of the OPPM is interesting and appealing. Although some training is required as no one will immediately understand everything about the report.
Nevertheless this is an interesting publication, Clark Cambell does well in explaining the concepts. I have yet to use this template in my job...
There is a follow-up edition to this book for IT projects, which is mostly waffle and should've been part of this original works. So whilst I do recommend this book, the sequel doesn't come well recommended.

[Victor Gonzalez · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book explains how to easily communicate to others the progress of the project. I don't quite understand how this became a book and not just an article on a magazine. The book can provide you with ideas that you can use when presenting the projects to others. I don't think this framework would be useful most of the time but just to communicate to those that are not really interested in the project. I think the people who actually care for the project would need more information that it is provided in this one page project manager. I would use the information in this book to inspire in the creation of your own framework to explain your project in a concise way.

[Reggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you need a way to communicate high level project status information then this book offers the solution. It describes an excellent format; especially for communicating to upper management.

However you do have to ignore the employee recognition philosophies as they're all wrong. The author works (or worked) for a company that creates employee recognition awards and this bias shows through. Or maybe I should say they're wrong for the highly skilled class of workers like those found in the software development business.

[Marsha Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really is good. It is really straightforward way to communicate the status of your project. It would be a great tool for communicating to the team for who needs to do what when for those team members who are overwhelmed from the MS Project Plan. I will definitely use this for the next projects I manage. I have also ordered the version for IT&S project to see if there is a difference in the approach.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only about half-way thru but already excited about its potential for better project communication and management. The book shows you how to create one-page status overview with project objectives, major tasks, owners, target dates, costs, as well as summary and forecast notes. If task owners create also one for each larger sub-projects, the series of interrelated one-page managers allow project owners to communicate up, down, and out to all involved parties. Brillant!

[Molly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read this for my new job, and while it's a useful tool, it amazes me that books have been written on project management. Especially since so many of the "key concepts" are so intuitive. No one should have to be told that communication is an important aspect of completing a project.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a detailed explanation of the spreadsheet the author developed. Worth picking up if you feel the spreadsheet could be useful to you, and a quick read, but nothing particularly earth shattering.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are using this extensively, and I find it an extremely useful, one-page way to summarize a great deal of data. Having a standard look and feel to project reporting allows people to see where we are at a glance.

[Yeso]

I want study from the Book.

[Bexhead · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the type of book it is, it really had a lot of great information. It is a great way to manage all projects big or small.

[Curt · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love that this guy is trying to do something 100 times easier and more effective than what the PMI will ram down your throat. He's keepin it simple and that's a great thing

[Shauna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great Project Management tool. Since finishing the book I have already started using it. It's a fast, easy read and he explains step by step how to use the tool.

[Allisonperkel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basic PM book on managing up. Some good info but I found the one pager convoluted. Additionally too much time is spent selling the idea - maybe 30% of the book. Not what I was hoping for.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

So far, the large print and explanation of basic project management concepts is turning me off.

[Sue Andersen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok but not that useful.

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great concept, and the steps to building a one-page project update for project sponsors are well explained. This book is only about building this "OPPM" document, not about managing projects.

[Trang Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quite good frame if you want to present your project in a simplified way!

[Lori Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read book on project management for knowledge workers, managers, executives, and entrepreneurs.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The template is good, but no need for the far too detailed explanation of an entire book.

[Workingitin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Agree with other reviewer, info good but not enough for a real book.