Design-Build: Planning Through Development Review

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Design-Build: Planning Through Development ReviewI am a public owner and find this book to be one of the most complete and easy to understand discussions of the design-build process that I have seen. Beard, Loulakis and Wundram are well-known industry experts and all active in the Design-Build Institute of America. They bring their years of practical experience to their writings and have a strong sense of reality. I particularly found the contract and liability chapters written by Loulakis to be very helpful. I also enjoy the other books written by Loulakis, particularly "Design-Build Lessons Learned," (2001 Edition), which has the most up-to-date analysis of design-build caselaw and is a great resource to keep up to date with this subject. I'm anxiously awaiting to see if the authors decide to come out with another book in the near future. Keep up the good work, gentlemen!Design-Build: Planning Through Development Overview

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Offshore Software Development: Making It Work Review

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Offshore Software Development: Making It Work ReviewI bought a copy of this book and distributed it to many inside my firm. The general consensus was it is eminently readable, clear, concise, and helpful, and summarizes the learning of many experienced individuals who have actually lived and breathed Offshore program execution.
I'm honestly not sure if reviewer John H Kaplan actually read this book. For example, there is a great deal of emphasis on "formal communication" (read: methodology), and how important it is to making Offshore work. Awareness and management of risks, including network security and communcation, financial planning, and even internal communications, are identified and discussed in a pragmatic and accessible fashion.
I take strong exception to this kind of emotional lambasting masquerading as objective feedback. This is not the forum to discuss and decide whether Offshore works. Clearly, if Mr. Kaplan is doing Offshore at all, he is doing it unwillingly. But my firm has had great success with Offshore, both financial as well as in quality of delivery, as many have.
Don't let what is clearly an emotional rant against Offshore Outsourcing deter you from reading and learning from this helpful, focused, and relevant book. Personally, I found the book more useful than Freidman's "The Earth is Flat" as it is written by an actual practitioner -- for practioners.Offshore Software Development: Making It Work Overview

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Implementing the Capability Maturity Model Review

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Implementing the Capability Maturity Model ReviewThe author of this excellent book give a realistic roadmap to achieving CMM levels 2 and 3, which are major hurdles in capability maturity, especially level 2 from a culture-shock point of view.
What makes this book realistic is the way you're lead through the important steps, with a complete focus on what it takes instead of theory. The book starts off with an obligatory overview of the CMM, but quickly segues into the steps needed to attain level 2 (repeatable), which are creating the structures, processes, training program and policies. While each of these are important, I especially like the inclusion of policies because they are necessary to codify goals and are frequently overlooked. This section also includes subcontractor management, which is important for aligning those with whom you are using on projects with your own organizational capabilities. This makes sense because if your organization is repeatable and your subcontractor(s) aren't, then you either need to go shopping for more compatible subcontractors, or get dragged back into ad hoc approaches.
The same approach to graduating to level 3 is used, with slight changes. In the section that covers level 3 the first topic is about focusing on organizational process improvement, followed by an in-depth chapter on defining organization processes. These reflect the key changes between level 2's repeatable goals and level 3's focus on defined processes. After these are clearly and completely explained the same formula - structures, processes, training program and policies - is addressed for level 3.
Following the steps to get to levels 2 and 3, the next section is centered on implementation and assessment. This section prepares you for the assessment process itself, and offers excellent advice on how to get through it. Additional information of value is provided in appendices B (Annotated Level 2 Preassessment Questionnaire) and C (Samples of Level 2 Policies), both of which are provided in PDF format from the book's associated web site.
One key question that needs to be answered: Which is better, this book or CMM Implementation Guide: Choreographing Software Process Improvement by Kim Caputo? My opinion is that both books are equally important and both should be read because they cover two different aspects of attaining CMM levels 2 and above. This book concerns itself with the nuts and bolts of processes, where Caputo's book is more focused on organizational change. I recommend both books, and think that they nicely complement each other.Implementing the Capability Maturity Model Overview

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The Program Management Office: Establishing, Managing And Growing the Value of a PMO Review

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The Program Management Office: Establishing, Managing And Growing the Value of a PMO ReviewThis book has been pretty valuable to me on my latest project. I'm a PMP who has done a lot of project management, but I've this was the first time I had to setup a PMO from scratch. With that task in mind, I started scraping together all of the PMO resources I could find. I located this book on Amazon and, after reading a few reviews, purchased it along with a few others.
First, the information in the book is well organized and the chapters are clear and concise. The first half of the book describes the process and requirements of setting up a PMO while the second half discusses PMO operations and on-going challenges after it is up and running. It didn't take long for me to rip the information from the first few chapters and develop a clear step-by-step plan for my project.
Normally, I find these textbooks complete snooze-fests but this one wasn't too bad. Either Craig Letavec did a great job in writing the book or my fear of tanking the project overcame my textbook-induced narcolepsy. Either way, I got what I needed from the material. Recommended.The Program Management Office: Establishing, Managing And Growing the Value of a PMO Overview

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The Project Resource Manual: CSI Manual of Practice Review

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The Project Resource Manual: CSI Manual of Practice ReviewFirst off, I'm an architect, so my review is written from that perspective.
This is a great companion to the AIA Handbook. If the AIA Handbook is about running a firm, the CSI PRM is about running a project. An oversimplification, yes, but both books are so dense and full of critical information, no 100 word review could do either justice.
The CD includes many useful references including an overview of MasterFormat and a list of divisions / sections, but does not include the entire MasterFormat "product" (the full MF product includes 95-04 conversion tools and additional documentation).
My only complaint is that the text is so dense it takes a lot of time and energy to absorb all of the information within. :) It's as if they took a 1000 page tome and compressed it into 300 pages. (The product description says 1200 pages, but it's only an inch thick, so I'm guessing 300 pp.)
A must-have for architects who strive to deliver projects in a more expert and professional manner, and wish to more effectively interface with contractors during the construction phase. If you're a pure "designer" or only involved with the front end of projects this will probably stay on the shelf, but if you're responsible for the rest of the process (DD through construction and occupancy) this book is essential.
I can't believe I made it through 6 years of architectural education without being required to own this book.The Project Resource Manual: CSI Manual of Practice Overview

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Global Project Management: Communication, Collaboration and Management Across Borders Review

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Global Project Management: Communication, Collaboration and Management Across Borders ReviewIn a global world, software development projects concern more and more people working in various locations or coming from different organizations and culture. Managing these projects requires thinking beyond the traditional project management techniques to integrate these additional global dimensions and deal with the new issues that they create. This book helps project managers to think about this situation by proposing a detailed framework dealing with the team, communication, organization, tools and techniques dimensions of global projects. Every chapter has a good balance between conceptual material and real life examples. Many checklists and models are proposed to help assessing the global aspects of specific situations. The author invites also the reader to think how the current topic is handled in his organization. Finally, the book provides many pointers to additional literature that could help a reader to get more knowledge on a particular topic.Global Project Management: Communication, Collaboration and Management Across Borders Overview

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The Product Manager's Desk Reference Review

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The Product Manager's Desk Reference ReviewThe Product Manager's Desk Reference is a comprehensive reference for the product management process, useful for anyone who works in product management and product marketing.

The PMDR's The Product Master Plan is the 'plan of record', considered an anchor, an archive, and a point of reference for people who may come and go. The chapters on Leadership, Cross-Functional Teams, and Decision-Making are well-presented. Haines offers valuable guidance about finance for product managers who have no formal training in this discipline.

The second module, Making the Market Your Primary Focus, includes discussion of Industry & Competitive Analysis, Segmentation, Forecasting, and Strategic Planning, with clear explanation and practical tools such as The Customer Visit Plan Template in the segmentation chapter.

The third module's sections on The Start of the Product's Journey and the New Product Development Process are practical. The Business Case chapter and the Marketing Plan for the Product are well-organized and applicable.

The fourth module, Continuing the Product Journey: Post-Launch Product Management, considers what happens after the product is in the market. Haines offers auditing techniques after the launch, as well as a logical way to 'run the business of the product'. These tools enable re-strategizing, re-planning, and overall financial and market optimization. The chapter on Life Cycle Product Portfolio Management considers products as investments, and efficient ways to evaluate how products contribute to the business, across individual life cycles. Haines also offers practical guidance for product discontinuation.

The end of each chapter includes a section called Raise Your Product Management Experience Quotient, offering helpful tips and tools for product mangers. The book is easy-to-read, accessible, and well-organized. This is a worthwhile reference for anyone in product management or product marketing.
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