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Making Things Happen

Mastering Project Management

By
Scott Berkun
Publisher:
O'Reilly Media
Released:
March 2008
Pages:
416
Press Release

Product Editions

  1. Making Things Happen - March 2008
  2. The Art of Project Management - April 2005
Description
In the updated edition of this critically acclaimed and bestselling book, Microsoft insider Scott Berkun offers a collection of essays on field-tested philosophies and strategies for defining, leading, and managing projects. Based on his nine years of experience as a program manager for Microsoft's biggest projects, Berkun explains to technical and non-technical readers alike what it takes to get through a large software or web development project.

Full Description
Table of Contents

  1. Chapter 1 A brief history of project management (and why you should care)

    1. Using history

    2. Web development, kitchens, and emergency rooms

    3. The role of project management

    4. Program and project management at Microsoft

    5. The balancing act of project management

    6. Pressure and distraction

    7. The right kind of involvement

    8. Summary

    9. Exercises

  2. PART ONE: PLANS

    1. Chapter 2 The truth about schedules

      1. Schedules have three purposes
      2. Silver bullets and methodologies
      3. What schedules look like
      4. Why schedules fail
      5. What must happen for schedules to work
      6. Summary
      7. Exercises

    2. Chapter 3 How to figure out what to do

      1. Software planning demystified
      2. Approaching plans: the three perspectives
      3. The magical interdisciplinary view
      4. Asking the right questions
      5. Catalog of common bad ways to decide what to do
      6. The process of planning
      7. Customer research and its abuses
      8. Bringing it all together: requirements
      9. Summary
      10. Exercises

    3. Chapter 4 Writing the good vision

      1. The value of writing things down
      2. How much vision do you need?
      3. The five qualities of good visions
      4. The key points to cover
      5. On writing well
      6. Drafting, reviewing, and revising
      7. A catalog of lame vision statements (which should be avoided)
      8. Examples of visions and goals
      9. Visions should be visual
      10. The vision sanity check: daily worship
      11. Summary
      12. Exercises

    4. Chapter 5 Where ideas come from

      1. The gap from requirements to solutions
      2. There are bad ideas
      3. Thinking in and out of boxes is OK
      4. Good questions attract good ideas
      5. Bad ideas lead to good ideas
      6. Perspective and improvisation
      7. The customer experience starts the design
      8. A design is a series of conversations
      9. Summary
      10. Exercises

    5. Chapter 6 What to do with ideas once you have them

      1. Ideas get out of control
      2. Managing ideas demands a steady hand
      3. Checkpoints for design phases
      4. How to consolidate ideas
      5. Prototypes are your friends
      6. Questions for iterations
      7. The open-issues list
      8. Summary
      9. Exercises

  3. PART TWO: SKILLS

    1. Chapter 7 Writing good specifications

      1. What specifications can and cannot do
      2. Deciding what to specify
      3. Specifying is not designing
      4. Who, when, and how
      5. When are specs complete?
      6. Reviews and feedback
      7. Summary
      8. Exercises

    2. Chapter 8 How to make good decisions

      1. Sizing up a decision (what's at stake)
      2. Finding and weighing options
      3. Information is a flashlight
      4. The courage to decide
      5. Paying attention and looking back
      6. Summary
      7. Exercises

    3. Chapter 9 Communication and relationships

      1. Management through conversation
      2. A basic model of communication
      3. Common communication problems
      4. Projects depend on relationships
      5. The best work attitude
      6. Summary
      7. Exercises

    4. Chapter 10 How not to annoy people: process, email, and meetings

      1. A summary of why people get annoyed
      2. The effects of good process
      3. Non-annoying email
      4. How to run the non-annoying meeting
      5. Summary
      6. Exercises

    5. Chapter 11 What to do when things go wrong

      1. Apply the rough guide
      2. Common situations to expect
      3. Take responsibility
      4. Damage control
      5. Conflict resolution and negotiation
      6. Roles and clear authority
      7. An emotional toolkit: pressure, feelings about feelings, and the hero complex
      8. Summary
      9. Exercises

  4. PART THREE: MANAGEMENT

    1. Chapter 12 Why leadership is based on trust

      1. Building and losing trust
      2. Make trust clear (create green lights)
      3. The different kinds of power
      4. Trusting others
      5. Trust is insurance against adversity
      6. Models, questions, and conflicts
      7. Trust and making mistakes
      8. Trust in yourself (self-reliance)
      9. Summary
      10. Exercises

    2. Chapter 13 Making things happen

      1. Priorities make things happen
      2. Things happen when you say no
      3. Keeping it real
      4. Know the critical path
      5. Be relentless
      6. Be savvy
      7. Summary
      8. Exercises

    3. Chapter 14 Middle-game strategy

      1. Flying ahead of the plane
      2. Taking safe action
      3. The coding pipeline
      4. Hitting moving targets
      5. Summary
      6. Exercises

    4. Chapter 15 End-game strategy

      1. Big deadlines are just several small deadlines
      2. Elements of measurement
      3. Elements of control
      4. The end of end-game
      5. Party time
      6. Summary
      7. Exercises

    5. Chapter 16 Power and politics

      1. The day I became political
      2. The sources of power
      3. The misuse of power
      4. How to solve political problems
      5. Know the playing field
      6. Summary
      7. Exercises

  1. Appendix A guide for discussion groups

    1. Introducing the project management clinic

    2. How to start your own discussion group

    3. Sample discussion topics

  2. ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

  3. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    1. For this revised edition

    2. From the previous edition

  4. PHOTO CREDITS

  5. COLOPHON

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Product Details
Title:
Making Things Happen
By:
Scott Berkun
Publisher:
O'Reilly Media
Formats:
  • Print
  • Ebook
  • Safari Books Online
Print Release:
March 2008
Ebook Release:
July 2008
Pages:
416
Print ISBN:
978-0-596-51771-7
| ISBN 10:
0-596-51771-8
Ebook ISBN:
978-0-596-52333-6
| ISBN 10:
0-596-52333-5
Customer Reviews
About the Author

  1. Scott Berkun

    Scott Berkun worked on the Internet Explorer team at Microsoft from 1994-1999 and left the company in 2003 with the goal of writing enough books to fill a shelf. The Myths of Innovation is his second book: he wrote the best seller, The Art of Project Management (O'Reilly 2005). He makes a living writing, teaching and speaking. He teaches a graduate course in creative thinking at the University of Washington, runs the sacred places architecture tour at NYC's GEL conference, and writes about innovation, design and management at www.scottberkun.com.

    View Scott Berkun's full profile page.

  • Book cover of Making Things Happen
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