Book Review: Lessons in Project Management

Like other project management books, Lessons in Project Management pushes a particular methodology: TenStep Project Management Process. It happens to be a good methodology that recognizes the need to deal with projects of all sizes. For instance, the methodology states that a project definition is always required, but there isn't always a need for a metrics process. Or that it is always important to watch out for scope creep, but not always important to create an exhaustive list of risks.

The book goes about teaching the ideas behind the TenStep process using 50 short stories followed by a quick discussion. The first part of each story describes a project situation. The middle part has the narrator posing questions. The last part presents the “a-ha”. With there being ten steps in the methodology and 50 short stories, it is inevitable that there'd be overlap in the lessons. Not a bad thing overall, but there was the occasional time where I wanted to just get on with the lesson and skip the preamble.

If you're new to project management and want to get an idea of what you'll encounter in the real world, this book is as good a start as any. However, if you've already been down the project management road several times, there isn't anything particularly new to be learned from this book.