Books

Much of the unwanted drama we face as project managers comes from people not understanding their roles and responsibilities. When people don’t know what is expected of them, they rarely perform well. It’s our job to make sure that doesn’t happen. But first, we must understand our role — and why we really want it.

When it comes to leading or working as part of a project team, collaboration (or the lack of it) will often determine the success (or failure) of the endeavor, regardless of planning. A new book gathers 42 rules for collaborating more effectively, covering people, processes and technology.

Putting out fires is an all-too-common job requirement for many project managers. If you are struggling with resolving conflicts on your team, here are some tips for turning those emotionally charged disputes into productive conversations.

When faced with a disaster, project managers must become recovery managers. Here, a turnaround specialist shares seven tips for turning around troubled projects, starting with realizing there is a problem and concluding with ways to prevent future disasters.

While requirements discovery and analysis is a critical best practice for application development, requirements and Agile methods have rarely meshed. In a new book, Dean Leffingwell shows how to leverage the benefits of Agile without sacrificing the value of effective requirements.

Challenges are different than targets. They pull from the future rather than a forecast of the future. There is no question that goals influence behavior; it’s just that they are a blunt instrument. So be careful what you ask for; you will probably get it.

Is there a “secret sauce” or shortcut that will help you pass the PMP Exam? Not really. However, there are seven essential resources, concepts and best practices that will make your PMP Exam preparation go smoother.

Based on extensive analysis of three competing earned value management methods, a new book summarizes the merits of each. Here, an EVM practitioner reviews “Measuring Time, Improving Project Performance Using Earned Value Management.”

A new book provides practical guidance on improving the performance of business analysts by focusing on which measurements actually matter, and how to use the resulting data, instead of opinions, to identify problems and opportunities on the way to achieving performance gains.

Project managers face resistance on a daily basis. Change management guru Rick Maurer spoke with ProjectsAtWork about how resistance leads to the high failure rate of major change initiatives, and what can be done to overcome the all-too-familiar struggle to move forward.