Review By: Daniel Luciano
02/01/2010My initial impression of this book when I read the title was that it would help me mix some formal project management methods with agile project management methods. I was wrong, but don't take that as a statement that you shouldn't read this book. The book starts with an excellent chapter that tells seven different stories to which most project managers can relate. The second chapter, which is also excellent, gives great step-by-step advice to new managers of software development teams. I also found the last two chapters of the book to be of similar quality as the first two. The second to last chapter offers an excellent discussion on building, maintaining, and motivating a team of developers. The last chapter is about the workplace with the primary discussion focusing on communication.

Chapters four through six apply concepts, ideas, and principals about project management and how the PMBOK relates to them. Most of the information in these chapters can be found in most other project management books. The major difference with this book is the writing style. This topic can be quite dry, but the author does a good job of making the information easy to digest.

Although the book does relate some agile ideas in the first six chapters of the book, the author does not really start to talk about agile until the seventh chapter. This chapter presents a nice overview on agile principles. The book also has many references to the most recent version of the PMBOK documentation. Each chapter provides a set of references to which the reader can refer to increase his knowledge. In addition, each chapter is scattered with best practices.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in learning about project management. It is also good for those who have only used agile project management techniques and are curious to learn something about more formal project management methodologies. Therefore, the range of those who should read this book begins with the novice and expands to the more experienced. If you are already familiar with PMBOK, then I don’t think this book would interest you, although the first two and the last two chapters might.

As I wrote earlier, I was expecting something different from the book, yet I would suggest you put this book in your library. It would be the first book that I would reference when seeking answers for project management questions.