 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com | Based on his nine years of experience as a program manager for Microsoft’s biggest projects, Berkun explains to technical and non-technical readers alike what it takes to lead critical projects from start to finish. Here are 16 chapters on the critical and common challenges of leading projects and managing teams, diagrams, photography, and war stories of success and failure. Berkun offers practical tools and methods to make sure your projects succeed. What To Do When Things Go Wrong
From Making Things Happen, Chapter 11
1. Calm down. Nothing makes a situation worse than basing your actions on fear, anger, or frustration. If something bad happens to you, you will have these emotions whether you’re aware of them or not. They will also influence your thinking and behavior whether you’re aware of it or not. (Rule of thumb: the less aware you are of your feelings, the more vulnerable you are to them influencing you.) Don’t flinch or overreact—be patient, keep breathing, and pay attention.
2. Evaluate the problem in relation to the project. Just because someone else thinks the sky has fallen doesn’t mean that it has. Is this really a problem at all? Whose problem is it? How much of the project (or its goals) is at risk or may need to change because of this situation: 5%? 20%? 90%? Put things in perspective. Will anyone die because of this mistake (you’re not a brain surgeon, are you?)? Will any cities be leveled? Plagues delivered on the innocent? Help everyone frame the problem to the right emotional and intellectual scale. Ask tons of questions and get people thinking rather than reacting. Work to eliminate assumptions. Make sure you have a tangible understanding of the problem and its true impact. Then, prioritize: emergency (now!), big concern (today), minor concern (this or next week), bogus (never). Know how long your fuse is to respond and prioritize this new issue against all existing work. If it’s a bogus issue, make sure whoever cried wolf learns some new questions to ask before raising the red flag again.
3. Calm down again. Now that you know something about the problem, you might really get upset (“How could those idiots let happen!?”). Find a way to express emotions safely: scream at the sky, workout at the gym, or talk to a friend. But do express them. Know what works for you, and use it. Then return to the problem. Not only do you need to be calm to make good decisions, but you need your team to be calm. Pay attention to who is upset and help them calm down. Humor, candor, food, and drink are good places to start. Being calm and collected yourself goes a long way toward calming others. And taking responsibility for the situation (see the later section “Take responsibility”), regardless of whose fault it was, accelerates a team’s recovery from a problem.
4. Get the right people in the room Any major problem won’t impact you alone. Identify who else is most responsible, knowledgeable, and useful and get them in together straight away. Pull them out of other meetings and tasks: if it’s urgent, act with urgency, and interrupt anything that stands in your way. Sit them down, close the door, and run through what you learned in step 2. Keep this group small; the more complex the issue, the smaller the group should be. Also, consider that (often) you might not be part of this group: get the people in the room, communicate the problem, and then delegate. Offer your support, but get out of their way (seriously—leave the room if you’re not needed). Clearly identify who is in charge for driving this issue to resolution, whether it’s you or someone else.
5. Explore alternatives. After answering any questions and clarifying the situation, figure out what your options are. Sometimes this might take some research: delegate it out. Make sure it’s flagged as urgent if necessary; don’t ever assume people understand how urgent something is. Be as specific as possible in your expectation for when answers are needed.
6. Make the simplest plan. Weigh the options, pick the best choice, and make a simple plan. The best available choice is the best available choice, no matter how much it sucks (a crisis is not the time for idealism). The more urgent the issue, the simpler your plan. The bigger the hole you’re in, the more direct your path out of it should be. Break the plan into simple steps to make sure no one gets confused. Identify two lists of people: those whose approval you need for the plan, and those who need to be informed of the plan before it is executed. Go to the first group, present the plan, consider their feedback, and get their support. Then communicate that information to the second group.
7. Execute. Make it happen. Ensure whoever is doing the work was involved in the process and has an intimate understanding of why he’s doing it. There is no room for assumption or ambiguity. Have specific checkpoints (hourly, daily, weekly) to make sure the plan has the desired effect and to force you and others in power to consider any additional effort that needs to be spent on this issue. If new problems do arise, start over at step 1.
8. Debrief. After the fire is out, get the right people in the room and generate a list of lessons learned. (This group may be different from the right people in step 4 because you want to include people impacted by, but not involved in, the decision process.) Ask the question: “What can we do next time to avoid this?” The bigger the issue, the more answers you’ll have to this question. Prioritize the list. Consider who should be responsible for making sure each of the first few items happens.
Average Customer Rating:   Great primer for software project management This is one of the most valuable book about project management, I think, especially for primers and mediocre managers who don't have enough train or experience.
As this author have pointed implicitly and explicitly, the most important thing to do in the project management is not amusing with templates, procedures, or other bureaucratic toys, but focusing on the dynamics of its requirements, its designs, and its teams.
Therefore, this book is not much like other primer-books about project management.
This is more like ones about requirements, designs or psychologies.
So, I think this book suited not only for PM, but also programmers, designers, testers, and any other personel participating in a project.
And I think the new title ("Making things happen") meets much better than the old one ("The Art of project management").
Of course, Most of the staffs describing in this book are just about basic knowledges.
And to learn about these staffs more deeply, you must learn from books, Weignberg, Demarco, Humphrey, Beck, Joel, McCarthy... and so on, and I also recomend Goldratt, Wiegers, McConnell, Poppendieck, they doesn't referenced in this book, and also you must learn from LIVE projects of your own.
Schedule-management is not the only responsibility what PM is expected for, PM must get along with its Requirements and designs, Human-factor is the next headache, and Risk-management is coming second, ... and on, and on.
Welcome to the world of the REAL project management, the most complicated version of MINE-SWEEPER. :-)
Anyway, this book is a very good starting point.
This is THE book. If you're gainfully employed in a corporation and have any responsibility for technology or projects, you need to read this. Berkun has literally written the book on how to get things done by focusing on what all the other talking heads have forgotten about: mastering execution fundamentals. Only when we've mastered the fundamentals can we truly pursue excellence and realize our own individual, team, and organizational potential.
I've probably read this book five times, and I've completely raided the bibliography. Berkun's concepts are universally applicable and easy to absorb. As a bonus, he's an entertaining writer.
If everyone in corporate America read this book and abdided by its guidelines, the cubefarms would be a better place. This guy is the real deal.
This is my #1 business bible. There isn't a close second. Indispensable advice for managing projects and people I've been meaning to contribute a review for a while, and was re-inspired when I recently referred to Scott's book. I don't have much to add to the numerous detailed reviews here, aside to say that this is the book we give each project manager at my firm on their first day.
I like the Making Things Happen (previously The Art of Project Management) because it goes beyond pure project management and reaches the heart of what's required to make things happen in a modern organization: the ability to understand and manage people. Scott understands that successful project management is not about managing projects at all - it's not about creating schedules and Gaant charts and budgets (though those things are important) - it's about understanding the people working on your project, their needs and motivations, clearly identifying where they need to go, and getting out of their way. Easier said than done, and Scott provides a good outline for how to do exactly that.
Strongly recommended. Great book for any project manager, especially software This is an outstanding book for anyone who works on a project in the business world. If you work on software products, you'll probably be able to relate better to the anecdotes, but I think just about any discipline can take away the lessons. If you're looking for a book on specific methodology (Agile, whatever) this is NOT it--this is a generalist take. Even though many of the examples come from Microsoft and traditional desktop product life cycle, if you read it with the right attitude, you should be able to apply the strategies to the process of your choice. Insightful Great work. Scott Berkun is a gifted communicator who coherently distills his experience and reflection on managing information system projects. A pleasure to read. |  |
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