Book Review

Project Management 2.0

Reviewed by Candice Smits, MS Computer Science

	Authors	Harold Kerzner, MS, PhD, MBA
	Publication	Wiley; soft cover, 316 pages; ISBN 978-1-118-99125-1; Copyright 2015; List price: $75.00
	Purpose	Provides guidance on today’s changing project management mechanics, especially metrics and key performance indicators.
	Audience	This book is essential reading for all project managers.
	Availability	This book or e-book is available on Amazon or directly from Wiley Publications.

Have you recently checked your project dashboard on your mobile to understand the latest status of your project? Today’s project manager is connected and is using the latest technology in a collaborative way to make decisions and provide direction.

If you are interested in learning about the latest project management tools and techniques being used in the industry, then this book is a must read. This book caught my interest since I was looking for a way to gain insight into the newest tools and techniques being used by other successful projects.

This book has an excellent table of contents detailing the twelve chapters. Early chapters provide a summary of Project Management 2.0, emphasize the increasing importance of project managers working on complex projects, and describe the evolution of project management. Two chapters are dedicated to explaining the value of metrics, key performance indicators, and dashboards. Latter chapters thoroughly explain the need and role of project governance, the role of the project manager during the strategic planning phase of the project, and how to use specific project data to solve problems and make decisions.

The author provides very insightful guidance for project management. According to Dr. Kerzner, some of the key techniques for project success include:

• Project management needs to be involved in the planning phase of projects, contributing to the overall strategic plan. Managers and staff must be involved in the planning phase so a realistic plan can be established.
• Project management needs to communicate with the sponsorship and the entire governance committee including customers and stakeholders. The project manager needs to be successful in communicating effectively with all the people on the project.
• The definition of project success must be tied to creating business value.
• Dashboards are the future and they will replace written reports. Significantly more metrics will be used to manage the success of a project. The dashboard will be updated realtime and will be available on social media and mobile devices so stakeholders and executives can make informed decisions.
• The customer will select the metrics on which to define the success of the project and the dashboard will be customized appropriately.
• As more teams are distributed around the world, the dashboard will be a key communication tool in the virtual world.

The author, Dr. Harold Kerzner, is the Senior Executive Director for Project Management at the International Institute of Learning, Inc., a global learning solutions company offering training and consulting services. He is a recognized expert on project and program management.

I think this book would be informative for all project managers and most would learn something new that could be applied to their project. This book is very well written with many comparison charts, colorful graphs, and concise lists and tables of summary information. The detailed table of contents and index make it a very good reference book.

About the Reviewer

Candice Smits, MS Computer Science, is a new member of PMI Portland Chapter. She has more than 15 years of experience in the software development industry and is currently exploring ways to relaunch her career.