Business projects involving information technology require their own set of required skills. The product is electronic, not physical, but the implementation is very abstract and technical. Planning and monitoring the work itself pose their own set of risks. Further, because everyone uses software, many think that designing software does not require special expertise, so projects become improperly designed from the start. Project management education does not routinely cover this niche of practical problems, but in this book, Marcin Dąbrowski describes his wisdom gained from years of work experience in industry.
Project managers often face a difficult first few years in the field as they learn by trial and error what the classroom could not teach them. To supplement academic training, this book offers insights gained specifically from delivering projects to external clients.
Dąbrowski is keen to ensure that projects are designed right from the start. He spends several chapters criticizing how salespeople can sometimes overpromise and overcommit their project to make a sale. Instead, he advises consulting with subject matter experts before a contract is signed. Good software architecture and design play pivotal, even foundational, roles in his mind to successful project completion. He goes on to discuss other topics, including personnel management, bug fixes, delays, and recapturing momentum after failed projects.
This book has a few weaknesses, however. First, the sentences don’t always follow standard grammar, and adverbs like “firstly” are commonly used instead of the simple “first.” These errors are common enough to distract from the book’s overall message, sadly. Second, as the subtitle alludes to, the book is focused on the specific scenario of delivering work for external clients. While these skills are broadly helpful, internal projects for internal clients are not discussed at all. A more generalized approach of just delivering IT projects to any client would help. This book creates a niche where one is not needed.
This book’s audience consists of IT project managers and those invested in delivering successful products to external clients, whether direct to consumer (“B2C”) or to other businesses (“B2B”). It seeks to communicate non-technical “soft skills” that can make or break a project. Building software is both a science and an art, but applying final polish so that the user can adopt it – the work of project managers – represents its own challenge. Dąbrowski informs us about pragmatics to accomplish this task to build both a business and a successful project.
Managing IT Projects: How to Pragmatically Deliver Projects for External Customers
By Marcin Dąbrowski
Copyright (c) 2023
Apress
ISBN13 9781484292426
Page Count: 211
Genre: Project Management, Software
www.amazon.com