books:

	Reinventing Project Management: The Diamond Approach to Successful Growth & Innovation Dov Dvir, Aaron J. Shenhar Harvard Business School Press, 2007 - 276 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Based on an unprecedented study of more than 600 projects in a variety of businesses and organizations across the globe, Reinventing Project Management provides a new and highly adaptive model for planning and managing projects to achieve superior business results.

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A very useful model for seeing the gaps and risks in a project.

The authors explain that the usual linear description of project management is not only out of step with modern projects, it also doesn't provide any insight of the risks involved in the project. The Diamond model presented in this book uses a four axis graph that captures the level of Novelty, Technology, Complexity and Pace required by the project. Diamond comes from the shape of the graph if each of these four factors is in the middle. However they almost never are all middling. You are supposed to graph both the project requirements and your team's present capabilities. The gap between the two indicates the risk. It also gives management a target for closing the gap in order to maximize the opportunity for project success.

Novelty measures how much about the project is new and how new it is to your team. Technology captures how edgy the technology is. Complexity measures the simplicity of the deliverable (say, a ball bearing) or how complex it is (a regional communications grid). Pace captures the time urgency of the project (time isn't really a factor to it was needed yesterday).

I think this is a useful tool and the graph can be a great way to get a quick picture of the project. It can also be a useful management tool and a means for discussion with the project team. Oh, and if the project goes on for an extended time, the diamond's shape will change. So, it should be redrawn with some regularity to keep everyone one the same graph and to be sure that the team membership is appropriate to the latest shape.

Quite interesting for project management types.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

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An excellent view at the need for flexibility in project management

Shenhar and Dvir do an excellent job of analyzing four factors that can affect a project (Novelty, Technology, Complexity, and Pace). Each of these factors can have 3 or 4 values. The combination of these values determine the nature of a project and what type of project management style would be most useful to manage it.

Using various real case studies (e.g., the Denver airport, Katrina, etc.) the authors analyze failures and successes and how their model would have guided the project manager to use a different management approach.

The last chapter, 11 - Reinventing Project Management for Your Organization, brings home some of these concepts. In particular, some of us will like their main lessons, such as "Project management is not about deliverig a project on time, on budget, and within requirements. Instead, project management is about serving a customer need and creating business results to support the company's short- and long-term objectives." And "Project management is not a linear, predictable process."

I highly recommend this book if you want to know why they traditional PM approaches seem to fail regularly.

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Blanco-Review-06-08

Excellente Book. For every body ineterested in this subject or related with project management should read it. I really recommend it.


A guide to managing your projects

Most projects fail because conventional project management concepts cannot adapt to today's dynamic business environment. This book, which is based on many case studies, provides a new and highly adaptive model for planning and managing projects. Aaron J. Shenhar and Dov Dvir explain how to use their "Diamond Framework" to understand the nature of your projects, and diagnose the gaps between your current capabilities and what you need to do to make your projects succeed. Their flexible model provides valuable information for evaluating and managing projects for the maximum competitive advantage. We recommend this book to managers who want to strengthen their ability to take charge of projects in a more systematic and compelling way.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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