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Product Description
As a program manager, you are first and foremost a leader--one who must create, manage, and continually improve a culture that ensures the success of your project managers. Establishing and maintaining processes that greatly reduce the chances of project failure is paramount to achieving the competitive edge your company seeks.
The Handbook of Program Management gives program managers at all levels the techniques to put such processes in place as well as consistently integrate new technology and new people into these processes, thus producing superior products and services. Dr. James Brown, an internationally recognized authority in program and project management, explains how to strike a crucial balance between operations and project implementations-the precise point where you must nurture repeatable success.
Outlining the differences between the roles of program and project managers, Dr. Brown provides proven principles for establishing a successful program management culture that is supported by enthusiastic personnel and stakeholders. He shows you how to develop the attributes of an effective program manager, from having a vision and strategy for long-term improvement to assessing people and building relationships to analyzing a myriad of means for accomplishing program objectives. You'll see how to
- Readily adapt to changing business conditions and turn chaos into clarity
- Mentor and coach project managers in terms of stakeholder management
- Make strategic program process decisions that positively impact your culture
- Build strong teams on multiple levels
- Plan an effective program execution
- Manage risk in an environment of uncertainty
You'll also learn the keys to proper portfolio management and how to capitalize on positive program outcomes. Nowhere else will you find such comprehensive, authoritative information on meeting the new standards of program management--Dr. Brown's The Handbook of Project Management is the definitive resource.
About the Author
James T. Brown, PhD, PE, PMP, is the President and CEO of SEBA® Solutions, Inc. Personnel from companies such as American Express, Siemens, IBM, PepsiCo, and FedEx have attended Dr. Brown’s training classes. Dr. Brown has 16 years of experience with NASA, including hands-on experience as a project manager and an executive-level leader. He has received numerous awards for his project management contributions, including the NASA Public Service Medal and Engineer of the Year from the Cape Canaveral Technical Society.
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The chapter on attributes of an effective Program Manager was really helpful to me as I was in the process of assigning one of my staff as a Program Manager. When I read the simple to understand attributes it really helped me to focus in on who on my staff could do the role. Additionally, it was an excellent guide for my selected Program Manager to use to understand what my expectations of him was.
The chapter that covered stakeholder management was another excellent chapter that I have sense asked all of my Program AND Project managers to read. I did this because it's an excellent chapter on helping the Program and Project Managers to understand what stakeholders REALLY expect of them. Additionally he goes over the types of stakeholders that you can run into and simple yet effective methods to work effective with them. For example he talks about the meddling stakeholder which all Program and Project managers run into. Here he guides you though why they might be meddling, such as they recently got burned by a prior project or there is a distrust with the organization. In these situations he recommends on involving them through many tasks and details. They want to meddle great jump in the mud, roll up your sleeves and help, otherwise step back and let those truly involved in the project get the work done while properly informing all stakeholders.
Over all this book is a really good and easy read.
I expect to be referencing for many years to come!
Dr. Brown clearly knows what he is talking about. His time at NASA seems to have been a large influence on his perspective of programs. There is probably no better place to learn and experience a program management culture. Dr. Brown seeds the book with "scenarios" from his extensive experience to tie a real life event to the topic under discussion.
A couple of things I really liked about the book:
* Dr. Brown is very well-read, and not just on program management topics. He sites authors such as Dale Carnage and Robert Cialdini. He understands the broad set of skills that are needed by a program manager, and he also consistently returns to the importance of people. He has a lot of charts and "tips", but the management of the people is always in the forefront.
* The book is very well laid out - 10 chapters covering the fundamentals. Each chapter contains advice, tips, and useful tools. Dr. Brown does not stress the tools, rather he uses them as examples or methods of achieving the goals. In the risk chapter he has an example of a 5x5 risk matrix, but goes on to say that a 3x3 or 4x4 will work just as well. He stresses that important point is to perform the risk analysis and management, not get caught up in the details of the tools.
* There are several quotes that really hit home. Early in the book he talks about program management being the place where "operations and project management collide." EXACTLY - we've all faced the challenge of trying to explain that a program is not a project to the project managers, and trying to convince operations that it's not a department.
* Another favorite that I will freely steal is "kill what's ugly while it's young" - AMEN!!! This brings to mind the practice of Spartans to take their "ugly" children out into the wilderness - well maybe not exactly the same thing, but I've seen a few ugly projects that never should have been allowed to grow.
So - great book - it is on my shelf, now dog eared and full of highlights. It will make me a better program manager, and I know it will help anyone else who reads it.
For me, the ordering of topics is very logical and the writing is very clear. Where examples are necessary, examples are provided. Where topics are a bit more obscure, Mr. Brown takes the time to provide explanations to help you understand. I really can't find any major faults with this book.
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