Project Management: Strategic Design and Implementation

This is a good book for anyone interested in Project Management and Strategic Alignment. It is somewhat dated and simplistic in its approach, but worth a read.

Perhaps the thing I like best about this book is the front cover illustration. It shows a bunch of spinning plates on the top of slender rods. I can't think of anything better to illustrate the problems of project management. There soon become so many plates, so many parts of a big project that you are constantly running from plate to plate, from emergency to emergency. Of course what the book is about is the body of knowledge that has been built up to enable big projects to be managed. The current concepts began with the military organizing itself to handle huge development projects during World War II including code breaking and the Atomic bomb project. This was branched out to other weapons projects and subsequently to managing projects of all types. As the types of projects for which project management techniques have proved useful, so has the body of knowdedge, techniques and procedures for project management. In this, the fifth edition of this classic text virtually every aspect of project management is covered, updated to the latest practices, and covering the use of project management techniques in many different contexts. This is not a 'cram' book to enable the student to pass the certification test, instead this is a book that covers every aspect of project management and fits it in with overall management of the company. Probably the best overall book on project management you will find.