The Definitive Guide To Project Management by Nokes and Greenwood

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satisfactionuk
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Joined: Wed 08 Sep 2010 1:38 pm
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Hi
Browsing through this book it appears to be very good, the writing style is easy to read and comprehend and there is not too much waffle from the author. He seems to cover each topic adequately and brings together some additional very useful insights and information. My first impression is that this book would make the perfect follow on compliment to filling in the blanks left by the standard Prince2 course books.

The book focuses on the critical chain method of project management that gives me the impression that this method is highly compatible with the Prince2 methodology. The author does briefly describe how the books methodology links to various project management systems such as Prince2, PMI, AMP and the methods used by Australian and New Zeeland project managers which on first impression seems to be a very good system.

Chapter 1 is a good introduction to the book and covers the reasons for having projects and then goes on to look at the project life cycle.

Chapter 2 takes a refreshing look at the basic business principles and looks at management control and the importance of people skills in project management.

Chapter 3 delves more into what project management is all about and looks at the project organisation, project roles and team management. The author brings up some very interesting perspectives on team management and I like his idea of having boxes that highlight what he terms as common sense approaches.

Chapter 4 focuses on the more administrative aspect of project management focusing on time recording, meetings, filing, document control and purchasing. I liked his take and advice on meetings, having chaired many over the last couple of decades I can see how this will help the novice conduct time efficient and productive meetings that do not go off track.

Chapter 5 delves deeply into the core of project management starting of with asking the question of what is meant by planning and why plan then covering planning tools, work breakdown structure the use of the gantt and timeline charts, He then looks at network PERT diagrams and finishes with ideas on how to plan and speed up the project.

More to come!!!
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