Information Technology Project Management
By Kathy Schwalbe
The book does not have much to offer for seasoned manager and one who has worked in IT for number of years( ). The book started with introduction to project management talking about four core areas like scope,cost,time and quality management and how the discipline relates to other knowledge management areas. The book is more devoted towards people preparing for PMP and introduced even to PMI and all those knowledge bodies.
The book does offer some training in estimating time,requirements,budgets and resources, identifying and evaluating risks, preparing contigency plans, tracking important milestones through tools.The book covers importance of project integration management, handling remote workers, laying effective communication plans for all important stakeholders.The book covered very basic tools like Gantt charts, control chars,critical path method and PERT.
The book talked about Net present value analysis, Earned value analysis,WBS,ROI and payback analysis. It covered project network diagrams, fishbone diagrams, arrow diagramming method and precedence diagramming method for schedule management.
In quality management of the project, it talked about all those well known methods like Deming,Juran,Ishikawa,crosby and also explained quality awards like Malcom Bridge.
Then in the risk management it talked about techniques and tools for quantifying risks like EMV (expected monitory value), calculating risk factors, PERT estimation and simulations and expert judgment.
The book covered Project procurement management involving solicitation planning,procurement planning,source selection and contract administration. The good part of the book is it covered and stressed the importance of good project closing and the procedures and plans for closing.
The book has good case studies of some defense department projects, RESNet and Northwest Airlines.
