Corporate project managers and their superiors will find basic and advanced strategies in this debut book.
The insights of a seasoned professional in any field can be valuable, but in the world of project management, they can be of vital importance. This is because these managers have the awesome responsibility for implementing some of the most mission-critical projects in their companies. With over three decades of experience, Marks focuses her attention solely on this key position in her lucid book, with an emphasis on the creation of a Program Management Office, an addition most appropriate in larger organizations. Early on, she writes that her intent is to share many ideas, but she recognizes they can’t all be implemented at once: “Look for the quick wins, recognize that change happens slowly in some companies, and take the time to plan and pilot all implementation activities and measure the outcomes of the early initiatives that you select.” In 14 succinct chapters the author covers a variety of subjects, including project variables, prioritization, metrics, and outsourcing. Along the way she discusses handy tools to facilitate more effective management. Perhaps most useful, however, is the author’s ability to address decidedly human issues that, if not overlooked in day-to-day project management, may be neglected in favor of the urgency of deadlines. Several chapters, such as “Project Managers— People First,” “Relationships/Stakeholders,” “Mentoring,” and “Networking & Self-Development,” concentrate on personnel management and interrelationships. Marks uses relevant examples of actions she took to improve efficiency and morale by reducing the number of job descriptions and training modules in one organization. She also offers a helpful suggested personal interaction plan between a manager and subordinates that includes a well-thought-out series of meetings, focus groups, and training sessions as well as the implementation of a “PMO Buddy System.” The chapter “Best Practices” should be especially valuable to project leaders; here, the author outlines via bulleted items those concepts that proved most successful to her in training, communications, governance and prioritization, teamwork, and self-management.
Concise, authoritative, and well-targeted to the project management audience.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-692-93907-9
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Peak Method Consulting
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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Noted jazz and pop record producer Thiele offers a chatty autobiography. Aided by record-business colleague Golden, Thiele traces his career from his start as a ``pubescent, novice jazz record producer'' in the 1940s through the '50s, when he headed Coral, Dot, and Roulette Records, and the '60s, when he worked for ABC and ran the famous Impulse! jazz label. At Coral, Thiele championed the work of ``hillbilly'' singer Buddy Holly, although the only sessions he produced with Holly were marred by saccharine strings. The producer specialized in more mainstream popsters like the irrepressibly perky Teresa Brewer (who later became his fourth wife) and the bubble-machine muzak-meister Lawrence Welk. At Dot, Thiele was instrumental in recording Jack Kerouac's famous beat- generation ramblings to jazz accompaniment (recordings that Dot's president found ``pornographic''), while also overseeing a steady stream of pop hits. He then moved to the Mafia-controlled Roulette label, where he observed the ``silk-suited, pinky-ringed'' entourage who frequented the label's offices. Incredibly, however, Thiele remembers the famously hard-nosed Morris Levy, who ran the label and was eventually convicted of extortion, as ``one of the kindest, most warm-hearted, and classiest music men I have ever known.'' At ABC/Impulse!, Thiele oversaw the classic recordings of John Coltrane, although he is the first to admit that Coltrane essentially produced his own sessions. Like many producers of the day, Thiele participated in the ownership of publishing rights to some of the songs he recorded; he makes no apology for this practice, which he calls ``entirely appropriate and without any ethical conflicts.'' A pleasant, if not exactly riveting, memoir that will be of most interest to those with a thirst for cocktail-hour stories of the record biz. (25 halftones, not seen)
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-19-508629-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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