Book Review: Successful Project Management by Bonny Biafore

Project management has been utilised in ample measure not only in modern industry but also by leaders such as Otto Von Bismarck, Napolean Bonaparte, Douglas MacArthur, Duke of Wellington, Dwight Eisenhower,Mahatma Gandhi and Winston Churchill. Project management has been an integral part of planned progress for mankind.

Project management is an integral part of MBA courses and certifications like PMP, Prince2 and Six Sigma. These enable an individual to grow in responsibilities and productivity either as entrepreneur or in roles within an organisation structure.

Project software such as Microsoft Project, Primavera, OpenProj, OpenWorkbench and Clarizen are now an effective tool in the manager’s arsenal. Such software packages are by no means and end in themselves, but skillful handling of such software reduces the complex nature of day-to-day tasks handled by managers to get the outcomes close to planned targets.

Successful Project Management: Applying Best Practices and Real-World Techniques with Microsoft Project  focuses on Microsoft Project 2010 and usage of its features to give successful output according to project plan. Choc-a-block with examples and witty quotes, it makes for a good reading and takes through the features of Microsoft Project without much fuss.

Readers of this book will appreciate the concept of WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) and utilising of other concepts such as team management, performance and filters, communication matrix and reminders, increasing awareness of verbal and non-verbal forms of communication within this project management software.

The book comes across as a decent one with many basic project management scenarios explained. Using sub-projects of a single project plan for case study across the chapters would have been a good way to grasp quickly the project management concepts implemented in Microsoft Project.