In the updated edition of this critically acclaimed and bestselling book, Microsoft project veteran Scott Berkun offers a collection of essays on field-tested philosophies and strategies for defining, leading, and managing projects. Each essay distills complex concepts and challenges into practical nuggets of useful advice, and the new edition now adds more value for leaders and managers of projects everywhere. Based on his nine years of experience as a program manager for Internet Explorer and lead program manager for Windows and MSN, Berkun explains to technical and non-technical readers alike what it takes to get through a large software or web development project. Making Things Happen doesn't cite specific methods, but focuses on philosophy and strategy. Unlike other project management books, Berkun offers personal essays in a comfortable style and easy tone that emulate the relationship of a wise project manager who gives good, entertaining and passionate advice to those who ask. Topics in this new edition include:How to make things happenMaking good decisionsSpecifications and requirementsIdeas and what to do with themHow not to annoy peopleLeadership and trustThe truth about making datesWhat to do when things go wrong Complete with a new forward from the author and a discussion guide for forming reading groups/teams, Making Things Happen offers in-depth exercises to help you apply lessons from the book to your job. It is inspiring, funny, honest, and compelling, and definitely the one book that you and your team need to have within arm's reach throughout the life of your project. Coming from the rare perspective of someone who fought difficult battles on Microsoft'sbiggest projects and taught project design and management for MSTE, Microsoft's internal best practices group, this is valuable advice indeed. It will serve you well with your current work, and on future projects to come.

Even in a well-managed multi-project environment, it is not unusual to see half of all projects completed either late, over budget or with cuts to original scope. However, the proven approach presented in Advanced Multi-Project Management has enabled large, medium, and even small organizations to consistently complete their projects faster, within original scope and budget, and increase the number of projects executed with the same resources by as much as 70%. The list of companies that have used this methodology for stunning results includes some of the biggest, well-known names in the world—Boeing, Rio Tinto, ABB, and Chrysler. This guide details the six gears that must work in unison to drive speed and predictability within an organization.

Succeed as a project manager, even if you’ve never run a project before! This book is the fastest way to master every project management task, from upfront budgeting and scheduling through execution, managing teams through closing projects, and learning from experience. Updated with more insights from the front lines, including agile approaches, dealing with security and privacy priorities, and leading remote/virtual teams, along with the latest on Microsoft Project and PMI standards and certifications and a special bonus chapter on preparing for the PMP certification. This book will show you exactly how to get the job done, one incredibly clear and easy step at a time. Project management has never, ever been this simple!Who knew how simple project management could be?This is today’s best beginner’s guide to modern project management… simple, practical instructions for succeeding with every task you’ll need to perform! Here’s a small sample of what you’ll learn:• Master the key skills and qualities every project manager needs• Lead projects, don’t just “manage” them• Avoid 15 most common mistakes new project managers make• Learn from troubled, successful, and “recovered” projects• Set the stage for success by effectively defining your project• Build a usable project plan and an accurate work breakdown structure (WBS)• Create budgets and schedules that help you manage risk• Use powerful control and reporting techniques, including earned value management• Smoothly manage project changes, issues, risks, deliverables, and quality• Manage project communications and stakeholder expectations• Organize and lead high-performance project teams• Manage cross-functional, cross-cultural, and virtual projects• Work successfully with vendors and Project Management Offices• Make the most of Microsoft Project and new web-based alternatives• Get started with agile and “critical chain” project management• Gain key insights that will accelerate your learning curve• Know how to respond to real-life situations, not just what they teach you in schoolUpdates for this edition:1. Chapter 19: Update for new developments in last four years2. Chapter 20: Update for new developments in last four years3. Chapter 23: Update to incorporate references to latest editions of Microsoft Project (2013, 2016)4. Chapter 24: Add more sections (what-if scenarios) to address tips and guidance the new developments in last four years5. Chapter 25: Update sections on Agile and Cloud Collaboration tools6. Chapter 25: Update section on certifications to reflect current PMI certification offerings and the pending new 6th edition of the PMBoK (Project Management Book of Knowledge) in Q1 20177. Chapter 25: Add sections for cybersecurity, HIPPA compliance, social media, Internet of Things projects

The Art of Project Management covers it all--from practical methods for making sure work gets done right and on time, to the mindset that can make you a great leader motivating your team to do their best. Reading this was like reading the blueprint for how the best projects are managed at Microsoft... I wish we always put these lessons into action!" --Joe Belfiore, General Manager, E-home Division, Microsoft Corporation"Berkun has written a fast paced, jargon-free and witty guide to what he wisely refers to as the 'art' of project management. It's a great introduction to the discipline. Seasoned and new managers will benefit from Berkun's perspectives."--Joe Mirza, Director, CNET Networks (Cnet.com)"Most books with the words 'project management' in the title are dry tomes. If that's what you are expecting to hear from Berkun's book, you will be pleasantly surprised. Sure, it's about project management. But it's also about creativity, situational problem-solving, and leadership. If you're a team member, project manager, or even a non-technical stakeholder, Scott offers dozens of practical tools and techniques you can use, and questions you can ask, to ensure your projects succeed."--Bill Bliss, Senior VP of product and customer experience, expedia.comIn The Art of Project Management, you'll learn from a veteran manager of software and web development how to plan, manage, and lead projects. This personal account of hard lessons learned over a decade of work in the industry distills complex concepts and challenges into practical nuggets of useful advice. Inspiring, funny, honest, and compelling, this is the book you and your team need to have within arms reach. It will serve you well with your current work, and on future projects to come.Topics include: How to make things happen Making good decisions Specifications and requirements Ideas and what to do with them How not to annoy people Leadership and trust The truth about making dates What to do when things go wrong

Revised and Updated, Featuring a New Case StudyHow do successful companies create products people can’t put down?Why do some products capture widespread attention while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of sheer habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us?Nir Eyal answers these questions (and many more) by explaining the Hook Model—a four-step process embedded into the products of many successful companies to subtly encourage customer behavior. Through consecutive “hook cycles,” these products reach their ultimate goal of bringing users back again and again without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging.Hooked is based on Eyal’s years of research, consulting, and practical experience. He wrote the book he wished had been available to him as a start-up founder—not abstract theory, but a how-to guide for building better products. Hooked is written for product managers, designers, marketers, start-up founders, and anyone who seeks to understand how products influence our behavior.Eyal provides readers with:• Practical insights to create user habits that stick.• Actionable steps for building products people love.• Fascinating examples from the iPhone to Twitter, Pinterest to the Bible App, and many other habit-forming products.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “This book delivers completely new and refreshing ideas on how to create value in the world.”—Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta“Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how.”—Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and TeslaThe great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we’re too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notice. Information technology has improved rapidly, but there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley. Progress can be achieved in any industry or area of business. It comes from the most important skill that every leader must master: learning to think for yourself.Doing what someone else already knows how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique.Zero to One presents at once an optimistic view of the future of progress in America and a new way of thinking about innovation: it starts by learning to ask the questions that lead you to find value in unexpected places.

There are some topics everyone gets wrong on the PMP® exam. Being able to answer tricky questions can mean the difference between a pass and a fail. Using data from thousands of mock PMP exams and insights from experienced classroom trainers, this book, based on The PrepCast PMP Exam Simulator, will show you the project management concepts that most students struggle to grasp.However, there is a way to prepare confidently for the test, so you can breeze through even the hardest questions, and renowned PMP exam prep expert Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, can show you how.This step-by-step guide to the trickiest concepts on the test teaches: How to answer the different PMP question types How to tackle the 10 most challenging exam topics How to use a proven three-step approach for studying with sample questions How to cope with vague and confusing questions on exam dayUsing 50 PMP exam sample questions, Cornelius explains the most difficult project management concepts you’ll encounter on the test. Learn the ‘why’ behind each question with real stories, examples and detailed explanations. Test yourself as you read along!Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM, is one of the world’s leading experts in PMP exam prep, having helped thousands of students successfully gain their certification through his no-nonsense teaching style. He will guide you through these 50 extra-hard questions and their detailed explanations, so nothing will faze you on test day.Don’t study harder: study smarter!

As a seasoned project management consultant and instructor for the American Management Association, author Jack Ferraro has gained years of experience bridging the gap between project managers and functional managers to help countless teams improve their performance. Now, in this practical guide he shares engaging stories and lessons from his experiences and reveals the project management methodology and processes that will give you the advantage to ensure your projects’ success--and advance organizational goals. Project Management for Non-Project Managers demystifies the jargon and processes of project management, encouraging functional managers to jump into the PM arena and arming them with step-by-step guidelines for mastering the most critical PM skills, including business analysis techniques, work breakdown structures, program sequencing techniques, and risk management methods. Great managers are experts at getting bottom-line results, but often do not understand their role in the success or failure of their organization's projects. As projects become more strategic and collaborative in nature, managers with even basic project-management knowledge are most capable of keeping projects business-focused. By switching gears from passive bystander to active owner of project strategies, you’ll keep your team’s projects on track and, as a result, increase their business value.

Digital transformation is no longer news--it's a necessity.Despite the widespread threat of disruption, many large companies in traditional industries have succeeded at digitizing their businesses in truly transformative ways.The New York Times, formerly a bastion of traditional media, has created a thriving digital product behind a carefully designed paywall. Best Buy has transformed its business in the face of Amazon's threat. John Deere has formed a data-analysis arm to complement its farm-equipment business. And Goldman Sachs and many others are using digital technologies to reimagine their businesses. In Driving Digital Strategy, Harvard Business School professor Sunil Gupta provides an actionable framework for following their lead.For over a decade, Gupta has studied digital transformation at Fortune 500 companies. He knows what works and what doesn't. Merely dabbling in digital or launching a small independent unit, which many companies do, will not bring success. Instead you need to fundamentally change the core of your business and ensure that your digital strategy touches all aspects of your organization: your business model, value chain, customer relationships, and company culture. Gupta covers each aspect in vivid detail while providing navigation tips and best practices along the way.Filled with rich and illuminating case studies of companies at the forefront of digital transformation, Driving Digital Strategy is the comprehensive guide you need to take full advantage of the limitless opportunities the digital age provides.

In The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People, Author Stephen R. Covey Presents A Holistic, Integrated, Principle-centered Approach For Solving Personal And Professional Problems. With Penetrating Insights And Pointed Anecdotes, Covey Reveals A Step-by-step Pathway For Living With Fairness, Integrity, Service, And Human Dignity—principles That Give Us The Security To Adapt To Change And The Wisdom And Power To Take Advantage Of The Opportunities That Change Creates.

THE #1 PROJECT MANAGEMENT CASE STUDIES BOOK NOW FEATURING NEW CASES FROM DISNEY, THE OLYMPICS, AIRBUS, BOEING, AND MORE \nAfter on-the-job experience, case studies are the most important part of every project manager's training. This Fifth Edition of Project Management Case Studies features more than one hundred case studies that detail projects at high-profile companies around the world. These cases offer you a unique opportunity to experience, first-hand, project management in action within a variety of contexts and up against some of the most challenging conditions any project manager will likely face. New to this edition are case studies focusing on agile and scrum methodologies. \n\nContains 100-plus case studies from companies that illustrate both successful and not-so-successful project management Represents an array of industries, including medical and pharmaceutical, aerospace, entertainment, sports, manufacturing, finance, telecommunications, and more Features 18 new case studies, including high-profile cases from Disney, the Olympics, Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and Airbus 380 Follows and supports preparation for the Project Management Professional (PMP)® Certification Exam \nExperienced PMs, project managers in training, and students alike will find this book to be an indispensable resource whether used as a standalone or combined with the bestselling Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling, 12th Edition. \nPMI, CAPM, PMBOK, PMP and Project Management Professional are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

This updated edition shows you how to use the agile project management framework for success!Learn how to apply agile concepts to your projects. This fully updated book covers changes to agile approaches and new information related to the methods of managing an agile project.Agile Project Management For Dummies, 3rd Edition gives product developers and other project leaders the tools they need for a successful project. This book’s principles and techniques will guide you in creating a product roadmap, self-correcting iterations of deployable products, and preparing for a product launch. Agile approaches are critical for achieving fast and flexible product development. It’s also a useful tool for managing a range of business projects.Written by one of the original agile technique thought-leaders, this book guides you and your teams in discovering why agile techniques work and how to create an effective agile environment. Users will gain the knowledge to improve various areas of project management. Define your product’s vision and features Learn the steps for putting agile techniques into action Manage the project’s scope and procurement Plan your team’s sprints and releases Simplify reporting related to the projectAgile Project Management For Dummies can help you to better manage the scope of your project as well as its time demands and costs. You’ll also be prepared to skillfully handle team dynamics, quality challenges, and risks.

The Challenge:Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning.But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?The Study:For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great?The Standards:Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck.The Comparisons:The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good?Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't.The Findings:The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include: Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness. The Hedgehog Concept: (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence. A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology. The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap.“Some of the key concepts discerned in the study,” comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people.”Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings?

Debunking misconceptions surrounding successful project managers, this source builds upon a landmark survey of more than 800 project managers from around the world to highlight the traits that make them stand out in the minds of their teams, senior managers, customers, and stakeholders. Through in-depth interviews and discussions, the common attributes of these elite project managers—from character and beliefs to organizational approaches—are uncovered and help to explain their achievements. Painstakingly researched, this guide offers key insights by providing multiple perspectives on the character makeup of the world’s most successful project managers.

Now updated for the 2021 PMP ExamWhat will you learn from this book?Head First PMP teaches you the latest principles and certification objectives in The PMBOK® Guide in a unique and inspiring way. This updated fourth edition takes you beyond specific questions and answers with a unique visual format that helps you grasp the big picture of project management. By putting PMP concepts into context, you'll be able to understand, remember, and apply them--not just on the exam, but on the job. No wonder so many people have used Head First PMP as their sole source for passing the PMP exam.This book will help you: Learn PMP's underlying concepts to help you understand the PMBOK principles and pass the certification exam with flying colors Get 100% coverage of the latest principles and certification objectives in The PMBOK® Guide, Sixth Edition Make use of a thorough and effective preparation guide with hundreds of practice questions and exam strategies Explore the material through puzzles, games, problems, and exercises that make learning easy and entertainingWhy does this book look so different?Based on the latest research in cognitive science and learning theory, Head First PMP uses a visually rich format to engage your mind, rather than a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep. Why waste your time struggling with new concepts? This multi-sensory learning experience is designed for the way your brain really works.

Learn to plan and execute projects in any organization with this practical and insightful resourceThe comprehensively updated and revised edition of Strategic Project Management Made Simple cements this series’ status as the leading resource for anyone looking for step-by-step guidance on project design and action initiatives.Written by celebrated management consultant Terry Schmidt, this book fully covers the necessity of systems thinking and the logical framework approach to solve today’s challenging problems. Strategic Project Management Made Simple also includes: An expanded section on turning ideas, problems, and opportunities into projects A newly created chapter on managing your “inner game” to achieve project excellence Fresh case studies that cover how to pivot your business to meet changing needs A new approach, Iterating to Excellence, to create your Minimum Viable Project and produce solutions smoother and fasterStrategic Project Management Made Simple, Revised and Updated is an indispensable volume for leaders and workers seeking to transform their approach to planning, driving, and executing projects in their organizations.

"Finally, digital teams have a reference book that covers everything they need to know about project management, from scoping and budgeting to managing teams and clients." —Karen McGrane, author, Going Responsive Project management—it’s not just about following a template or using a tool, but rather developing personal skills and intuition to find a method that works for everyone. Whether you’re a designer or a manager, Project Management for Humans will help you estimate and plan tasks, scout and address issues before they become problems, and communicate with and hold people accountable.

Book by Tom DeMarco

How to make better decisions and achieve your goalsWhat shapes a person's career and life, and defines them as a leader? Their decisions. We all want to be more productive and deliver our best results. But doing this effectively―and consistently over time―is a significant challenge. Managing it all is hard, and leading in today's hyper-paced world is even harder.The good news is that leadership expert Steve McClatchy makes it easier. In Decide, McClatchy―who works with Fortune 1000 people every day to help them achieve outstanding levels of performance―shows you how to cut through the complexities and excuses to start realizing real gains simply by changing one thing: the way you make decisions. With McClatchy's help, you can quickly begin to: Use the time you have each day to move your business and your life forward Make decisions that yield better results Waste less time, reduce stress and regain balanceAgain and again, McClatchy has helped people learn for themselves how great decision-making habits yield a lifetime of accomplishments. Follow McClatchy's no-nonsense and practical approach, and you'll soon manage―and even lead―at your highest level of personal performance.

The one primer you need to launch, lead, and sponsor successful projects.We're now living in the project economy. The number of projects initiated in all sectors has skyrocketed, and project management skills have become essential for every leader and manager. Still, project failure rates remain extremely high. Why? Leaders oversee too many projects and have too little visibility into them. Project managers struggle to translate their hands-on, technical knowledge up to senior management. The result? Worthy projects are starved of time and resources and fail to deliver benefits, while too much investment goes into the wrong projects. To compete in the project economy, you need to close this gap. The HBR Project Management Handbook shows you how.In this comprehensive guide, project management expert Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez presents a new and simple framework that will increase any project's likelihood of success. Packed with case studies from many industries worldwide, it will teach you how to manage your organization's projects, strategic programs, and agile initiatives more effectively and push the best ones ahead to completion. Timeless yet forward-looking, this book will help you win in the project-driven world.In the HBR Project Management Handbook you'll find: Everything you need to know about project management in practical, nontechnical language A definitive taxonomy of project types, from product launches to digital transformations to megaprojects A road map for becoming an effective project leader and executive sponsor A new, simple, and universal project framework, the Project Canvas, that breaks down any project into essential building blocks that can be easily understood by all project stakeholders Original concepts and exclusive case studies from public- and private-sector organizations worldwideYou'll learn: A common language for project managers and executives to run successful projects across your organization When to use agile, traditional, or hybrid methods in your projects The twelve principles of successful projects, including purpose, agility, and a focus on outcomes Techniques for selecting and advancing the best projects and managing a strategic and balanced project portfolio How today's projects will help address some of the most pressing global trends, including automation, sustainability, diversity, and crisis management Why project management needed to be reinvented and what the future holdsHBR Handbooks provide ambitious professionals with the frameworks, advice, and tools they need to excel in their careers. With step-by-step guidance, time-honed best practices, and real-life stories, each comprehensive volume helps you to stand out from the pack—whatever your role.

Peter Taylor reveals how adopting a more focused approach to life, projects and work can make you twice as productive. The lazy project manager illustrates how anyone can apply the simple techniques of lazy project management in their own activities in order to work more effectively and consequently improve work-life balance. This 'productive laziness' approach builds on the Pareto principle that states that for many phenomena, 80 per cent of consequences stem from 20 per cent of the causes. To put it simply, only 20 per cent of the things people do during their working days really matter. Inside this insightful and informative book you'll * The intelligence of laziness - why smart, lazy people have the edge over others; * Why the Jungle Book's 'Bare Necessities' should be the productive lazy theme tune; * How to get the maximum output for a minimised input; * Quick tips to productive lazy heaven. Everyone wants to achieve more without chaining themselves to their desk. By concentrating your project management and learning to exercise effort where it really matters, you can learn to work smarter. Welcome to the home of 'productive laziness'.

More than 100,000 entrepreneurs rely on this book for detailed, step-by-step instructions on building successful, scalable, profitable startups. The National Science Foundation pays hundreds of startup teams each year to follow the process outlined in the book, and it's taught at Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia and more than 100 other leading universities worldwide. Why?The Startup Owner's Manual guides you, step-by-step, as you put the Customer Development process to work. This method was created by renowned Silicon Valley startup expert Steve Blank, acknowledged catalyst of the "Lean Startup" movement, and tested and refined by him for more than a decade.This 608-page how-to guide includes over 100 charts, graphs, and diagrams, plus 77 valuable checklists that guide you as you drive your company toward profitability. It will help you:· Avoid the 9 deadly sins that destroy startups' chances for success· Use the Customer Development method to bring your business idea to life· Incorporate the Business Model Canvas as the organizing principle for startup hypotheses· Identify your customers and determine how to "get, keep and grow" customers profitably· Compute how you'll drive your startup to repeatable, scalable profits.

Scale Your Project Management Efforts to Maximize Success! One size does not fit all in project management. Selecting an approach that is appropriate for the size and complexity of a project is essential to achieving success. Over-managing a small project can bog it down in bureaucracy, while a laid-back approach can lead to disaster on a complex project. Pragmatic Project Management: Five Scalable Steps to Success will help you select the methodologies and tools that will enable you to expend minimum effort to achieve maximum gain on your project. This clearly written guide lays the groundwork with a chapter on project sizing and management scaling and follows with chapters on each of the five essential elements of pragmatic project management: • The project charter • The project team • The project plan • Project issue management • Project status tracking and reporting Practical tips and a checklist are included at the end of each chapter. Use the checklists as you plan and execute your project to keep it on track and to scale.

The book Lifehack calls "The Bible of business and personal productivity.""A completely revised and updated edition of the blockbuster bestseller from 'the personal productivity guru'"—Fast CompanySince it was first published almost fifteen years ago, David Allen’s Getting Things Done has become one of the most influential business books of its era, and the ultimate book on personal organization. “GTD” is now shorthand for an entire way of approaching professional and personal tasks, and has spawned an entire culture of websites, organizational tools, seminars, and offshoots.Allen has rewritten the book from start to finish, tweaking his classic text with important perspectives on the new workplace, and adding material that will make the book fresh and relevant for years to come. This new edition of Getting Things Done will be welcomed not only by its hundreds of thousands of existing fans but also by a whole new generation eager to adopt its proven principles.

Are you frustrated or disenchanted by the results of your Agile approach?Does Agile sound like a good idea, but you're not sure how to explain it beyond roles, practices, and meetings?Is your team going through the motions, but it's still business as usual?The missing piece is the Agile mind-set — the thinking that makes Agile processes work.This book is your compass for the Agile journey. Without prescribing any process, practice, or tool, it will show you how practitioners approach: Deciding what to work on Planning and doing the work Engaging people and performing as teams Working better Pragmatic and dogma-free, this book will help you understand what it means to be Agile and how to bring others along."Gil Broza is a kindred spirit to the pioneers of the Agile movement. He reminds us of the core values, principles, and behaviors of this enduring effort to bring joy and delight to producing software. To those new to the pursuit, he brings a lantern for the journey." -- Rich Sheridan, CEO, Menlo InnovationsWith forewords by Agile pioneer Jim Highsmith and mindset expert Linda Rising.

"Superbosses is the rare business book that is chock full of new, useful, and often unexpected ideas. After you read Finkelstein's well-crafted gem, you will never go about leading, evaluating, and developing talent in quite the same way.”—Robert Sutton, author of Scaling Up Excellence and The No Asshole Rule“Maybe you’re a decent boss. But are you a superboss? That’s the question you’ll be asking yourself after reading Sydney Finkelstein’s fascinating book. By revealing the secrets of superbosses from finance to fashion and from cooking to comic books, Finkelstein offers a smart, actionable playbook for anyone trying to become a better leader.”—Daniel H. Pink, author of To Sell Is Human and DriveA fascinating exploration of the world’s most effective bosses—and how they motivate, inspire, and enable others to advance their companies and shape entire industries, by the author of How Smart Executives Fail. A must-read for anyone interested in leadership and building an enduring pipeline of talent.What do football coach Bill Walsh, restauranteur Alice Waters, television executive Lorne Michaels, technology CEO Larry Ellison, and fashion pioneer Ralph Lauren have in common? On the surface, not much, other than consistent success in their fields. But below the surface, they share a common approach to finding, nurturing, leading, and even letting go of great people. The way they deal with talent makes them not merely success stories, not merely organization builders, but what Sydney Finkelstein calls superbosses.After ten years of research and more than two hundred interviews, Finkelstein—an acclaimed professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, speaker, and executive coach and consultant—discovered that superbosses exist in nearly every industry. If you study the top fifty leaders in any field, as many as one-third will have once worked for a superboss.While superbosses differ in their personal styles, they all focus on identifying promising newcomers, inspiring their best work, and launching them into highly successful careers—while also expanding their own networks and building stronger companies. Among the practices that distinguish superbosses:They Create Master-Apprentice Relationships.Superbosses customize their coaching to what each protégé really needs, and also are constant founts of practical wisdom. Advertising legend Jay Chiat not only worked closely with each of his employees but would sometimes extend their discussions into the night.They Rely on the Cohort Effect.Superbosses strongly encourage collegiality even as they simultaneously drive internal competition. At Lorne Michaels’s Saturday Night Live, writers and performers are judged by how much of their material actually gets on the air, but they can’t get anything on the air without the support of their coworkers.They Say Good-Bye on Good Terms.Nobody likes it when great employees quit, but superbosses don’t respond with anger or resentment. They know that former direct reports can become highly valuable members of their network, especially as they rise to major new roles elsewhere. Julian Robertson, the billionaire hedge fund manager, continued to work with and invest in his former employees who started their own funds.By sharing the fascinating stories of superbosses and their protégés, Finkelstein explores a phenomenon that never had a name before. And he shows how each of us can emulate the best tactics of superbosses to create our own powerful networks of extraordinary talent.

Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business.The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute.Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.

A business novel focusing on project management. The novel aims to provoke readers to examine and reassess their business practices and transform the thinking and actions of managers.

From a co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios—the Academy Award–winning studio behind Coco, Inside Out, and Toy Story—comes an incisive book about creativity in business and leadership for readers of Daniel Pink, Tom Peters, and Chip and Dan Heath.NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Huffington Post • Financial Times • Success • Inc. • Library JournalCreativity, Inc. is a manual for anyone who strives for originality and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation—into the meetings, postmortems, and “Braintrust” sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made. It is, at heart, a book about creativity—but it is also, as Pixar co-founder and president Ed Catmull writes, “an expression of the ideas that I believe make the best in us possible.”For nearly twenty years, Pixar has dominated the world of animation, producing such beloved films as the Toy Story trilogy, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up, WALL-E, and Inside Out, which have gone on to set box-office records and garner thirty Academy Awards. The joyousness of the storytelling, the inventive plots, the emotional authenticity: In some ways, Pixar movies are an object lesson in what creativity really is. Here, in this book, Catmull reveals the ideals and techniques that have made Pixar so widely admired—and so profitable.As a young man, Ed Catmull had a dream: to make the first computer-animated movie. He nurtured that dream as a Ph.D. student at the University of Utah, where many computer science pioneers got their start, and then forged a partnership with George Lucas that led, indirectly, to his co-founding Pixar in 1986. Nine years later, Toy Story was released, changing animation forever. The essential ingredient in that movie’s success—and in the thirteen movies that followed—was the unique environment that Catmull and his colleagues built at Pixar, based on leadership and management philosophies that protect the creative process and defy convention, such as:• Give a good idea to a mediocre team, and they will screw it up. But give a mediocre idea to a great team, and they will either fix it or come up with something better.• If you don’t strive to uncover what is unseen and understand its nature, you will be ill prepared to lead.• It’s not the manager’s job to prevent risks. It’s the manager’s job to make it safe for others to take them.• The cost of preventing errors is often far greater than the cost of fixing them.• A company’s communication structure should not mirror its organizational structure. Everybody should be able to talk to anybody.

Project management is changing. Rather than focusing solely on one large project, the majority of project managers are now expected to juggle multiple projects, which brings a different set of challenges.Between a greater number of project sponsors, resource conflicts and constant pressure from deadlines, it can be difficult to avoid burnout. Managing Multiple Projects blends formal project management techniques with time management and productivity tools in a step-by-step approach to consolidating your workload. From combining schedules to prioritising work and engaging stakeholders, this book clearly explains how to adapt your behaviour and techniques to successfully work on several projects at once.This practical guide provides answers to commonly asked questions (such as how to reduce the number of meetings and how to manage a To Do list) and includes case studies from real project managers. Checklists for common tasks and adaptable templates of trackers and reports are combined with easily actioned exercises to improve processes. Managing Multiple Projects gives practitioners the tools they need to improve the chances of project success and maintain a work-life balance. Online resources include downloadable templates of productivity checklists and status reports.