Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management, by Scott Berkun, is easily the most practical book I have ever read about project management. One of the real strengths is the lack of dependency on any particular methodology, and instead a deep treatment on the thought processes and collaboration that leads to project success. This book covers all areas of the project life cycle, and is applicable to any particular approach or processes you may follow.
Berkun has a very easy tone in the book, never stretching for frivolous words or ego-based examples. Reading the book often felt like a successful friend was sharing his hard-won insights and experiences. He finds a way to encourage you while also challenging you to improve.
He develops great explanations of three perspectives on projects: business, technical, and customer. Each of these views can provide valuable questions that should be answered when developing your project plans. Finding the right balance between these sometimes competing needs will strengthen your project team and improve your chances of success.
Throughout the book, he often focuses on questions that need to be considered, and emphasizes the importance of digging beyond the surface answers to gain deeper insights. I especially liked the chapter Where Ideas Come From, where he explores a variety of categories of questions that can be helpful when exploring ideas. His explanation of “focusing questions” was particularly thought provoking for me, and I have tried to ingrain some of those ideas into my own approach to problem solving and teamwork.
Another great chapter is How To Make Good Decisions, where he again explores a great series of questions that will be helpful in evaluating decisions in a variety of contexts. I also appreciated his comments on reviewing decisions after they have been made. This kind of review is easy to skip, with project emphasis tending to be more forward-looking. By taking a little time to reflect in something of a mini post-mortem, later tasks and decisions are likely to be better informed.
This book has provided me a wealth of ideas about how to approach the many aspects of project management. I have a number of small post-it flags stuck on various pages to mark topics and ideas that stood out to me as I read the book. In reality, I could have marked just about every page. Regardless of where I am in a project, Scott Berkun’s work continues to stimulate my thinking.
Although Jack Welch is among the most recognized names in business, he was not really on my radar screen until I started to expand my career into project management. In August of 2010, I had the opportunity to see him interviewed by Bill Hybels at the Global Leadership Summit. In that interview, Jack Welch talked about authenticity, energy, and candor. His genuineness was quite apparent as each of these qualities seemed to be at the core of who he really is. When Bill Hybels said that he re-reads Winning every year, I was convinced to pick it up. Having recently finished reading the book, I can understand why Bill feels this way.
The early chapters set the tone of the book, particularly on the topics of candor, differentiation, and the importance of voice and dignity. He does a great job of clarifying what he means by a lack of candor, and observes that this is something far to common in the business world.
I am talking about how too many people - too often - instinctively don’t express themselves with frankness. They don’t communicate straightforwardly or put forth ideas looking to stimulate real debate. They just don’t open up. Instead, they withhold comments or criticism. They keep their mouths shut in order to make people feel better or to avoid conflict, and they sugarcoat bad news in order to maintain appearances.
As with all topics in the book, he speaks honestly and directly. He does not gloss over challenges, and he consistently provides practical guidance to improve your approach and your results.
With a basis in candor, his outline of differentiation becomes far more understandable and realistic, though still ambitious. He notes that this can be a controversial approach, where:
Companies win when their managers make a clear and meaningful distinction between top- and bottom-performing businesses and people, when they cultivate the strong and cull the weak.
In this chapter, he deals directly with a number of criticisms of the approach, drawing from his experience cultivating this as a key part of the business culture at GE. I found his comment about implementing this across a variety of cultures to be particularly clarifying:
Once we made the case for differentiation and we linked it to a candid performance appraisal system, it worked as well in Japan as it did in Ohio.
Covering a full spectrum of subject areas from leadership & strategy to hiring & firing, from career development to a surprisingly interesting chapter on Six Sigma, this book has earned well-deserved praise from a diverse readership.
A number of great quotes from the book are presented as sidebars in each chapter, making even a few minutes of reading time worthwhile. I also appreciate that each chapter can stand on its own, though the common core themes established in the opening chapters are woven throughout the book.
I know that I will return to this book many times - whether for a quote or chapter or more - to refresh my thinking and to focus on what winning really means.
The images and stories on the news following the terrible tornado outbreak across Alabama and other southern states on April 27 are difficult to really comprehend. I have a personal connection to some wonderful people and communities that were directly impacted by this disaster, and I feel led to share some information and ask that anyone who is able to please prayerfully consider how you can help, even with a modest donation. Thousands of people have been severely impacted, hundreds have been killed, many have lost nearly everything they had, and hundreds more are still missing.
Many of my fondest childhood memories from are from time spent with a great family in the small town of Haclkeburg, Alabama. My family would travel there from Michigan once or twice a year and be welcomed into their home. The friendship, love and laughter are still with me all these years later.
Haclkeburg was virtually destroyed by a strong tornado. Tuscaloosa, where my friend Amy now lives, was hit by an even larger tornado. Entire neighborhoods have been smashed to pieces and left as piles of debris.
The following is from my friend Amy who survived the tornado and has been volunteering in the rescue efforts:
I would encourage you to consider the Red Cross and earmark it for the Alabama tornado relief efforts or possibly the United Way of West Central Alabama. I know they would appreciate anything you can do. I spoke to mom earlier and Hackleburg is destroyed. I haven't been up there yet but understand it's quite difficult to get in at this point. More than anything pray for the people in these affected cities. They need the strength, patience, understanding, and peace to start rebuilding their lives.
The video below shows some of the unbelievable devastation that was left behind in the Haclkeburg area.
The tornado that hit Tuscaloosa was even larger, and the video below shows the actual tornado on the ground, tearing a huge path of destruction through the heart of the city. I know these videos are "impressive" in a storm-chaser sense, but please remember the severe human impact these tornadoes caused.
This post continues a series about books that are classics in software development, and which I have read over the years.
You might question placing this book on a list of software development classics. After all, it isn’t the "Gang of Four" book. Design Patterns Explained delivers on its ambitious subtitle, A New Perspective on Object-Oriented Design. While most text on object-oriented development tell you to focus on the nouns in the problem domain and encourage the use of inheritance, this book successfully shows the limitations and complications this can introduce when applied to more demanding software systems.
Many of the patterns covered are supported by examples from a common software system, a program to extract information from a CAD/CAM for use in another complex software system. The authors do an excellent job of presenting background on these systems without getting lost in the minutia of the systems. I thought the use of a consistent basis for the examples contributed to the cohesiveness of the book, as various design patterns were introduced within this context. While not as detailed as a case study, the examples gave the book a very practical feel.
The authors tackle the development and technical implementation of many of the most significant patterns in object-oriented design. More importantly, they address the broader concerns of how the patterns are arrived at and why they are useful. One of the quotes from this book has stayed with me since I first read it:
The pattern that is "right" for your problem is in the problem, not something to be imposed upon it.
If you are looking to broaden your understanding of object-oriented design and the world of software design patterns, you will learn a lot from this book.
This post continues a series about books that are classics in software development, and which I have read over the years.
Quite simply, Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction should be required reading for anyone who aspires to be a competent software developer. I think what impresses me most about this book is the density of great information in every chapter which Steve McConnell communicates so effectively that it somehow never feels overwhelming. The material transcends any particular programming language or platform, and consistently provides practical advice and techniques to develop robust and reliable software.
McConnell makes it clear that the focus of this book is the construction aspects of software development, and therefore there is almost no coverage of topics like requirements definition or project management. This spotlight on construction still leaves room for a wide range of topics over the course of more than 850 pages.
The most common theme I saw throughout the book was that of quality. This was not presented as dry or boring QA formalities, but rather as the underlying goal of every approach to developing software. From the guidelines for when to break code out into a routine (method, function, whatever your language calls it) to the depth provided in four chapters on the numerous topics related to variables, to coverage of testing, debugging, refactoring and tuning, everything comes back to consistently doing good work.
I enjoy referring back to this book and periodically re-reading a section or two. Regardless of what my current programming involves, the information presented is always applicable.
Berkun has a very easy tone in the book, never stretching for frivolous words or ego-based examples. Reading the book often felt like a successful friend was sharing his hard-won insights and experiences. He finds a way to encourage you while also challenging you to improve.
