Product Description
Management consultants are typically seen as key mediators in the flow of management ideas. And yet little is known about exactly what happens when they work together with clients, behind closed doors in consulting projects. Do they really innovate or simply legitimate existing knowledge? This book presents research from a three year long 'fly-on-the-wall study' of consulting projects and challenges our taken for granted view of consultancy.

It draws on and integrates theories of knowledge and social boundaries to reveal a picture of complex and shifting insider-outsider relationships. Here, the outsider or expert status of consultants in relation to their clients cannot be assumed in their day-to-day project interactions. Different actors, roles, and types of knowledge are involved in an interactive and dynamic process where various boundaries are constructed, reinforced, negotiated and transformed. The chapters selectively explore these dynamics, revealing the importance of boundary complexity, the role of humour and challenge in often tense relationships, and the importance of shared knowledge domains such as sector knowledge.

This in-depth analysis of inter-organizational project teams also covers a wide range of consultancy contexts, drawing on cases studies which include:
* a US-based strategy firm and a multinational client,
* the public and private sectors,
* a sole practitioner consultant,
* IT implementation in financial services.

The book is important for all those with an interest in management consultancy, project working and management knowledge as well as in innovation/change, inter-organizational relations, boundaries and professional services. The authors include some of the leading research experts on management consultancy as well as a former management consultant and current expert in management learning. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A beginner's view of the PMBoK
This book is a useful textbook; it certainly is not light reading and I would not recommend it to anyone wanting a quick overview of Project Management in order to impress their boss.

It does provide a foundation for further study and when read thoroughly and methodically, as a textbook should be, it gives a reasonable understanding of the process of Project Management.

It is not really suitable for anyone who does not have a reasonable grounding in the the principles and practices of general management, particularly people-related issues.

A must for future PMPs...
If you are studying for the PMP exam, this book is a must read.Although some feel that if they have several years of project management experience they shouldn't have to read the book - I disagree.PMI has the goal to provide consistency in project management methodology and terminology.It is very important to read the book and understand PMI's philosophy and terminology for project management.

This book provide a good overview of the PMI project management methodology - for each knowledge area the book provides the various steps along with the inputs, tools and outputs.For people studying for the PMP...this is only one source for studying.The exam requires you to interpret the PMBOK and have a broader knowledge of various PM philosophies.

Still valid even with the 2000 edition available
Why purchase the 1996 edition when the 2000 edition is out?Two reasons: (1) according to the Project Management Institute the PMP examinations conducted in 2001 will use the 1996 edition as one of the principal references, and (2) the 1996 edition is an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) standard, designated as Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge IEEE 1490-1998.

This book is nearly identical to the 2000 edition with the following exceptions:

Chapter 2 (2000 edition) adds a brief piece on the role of project offices.Chapter 3 (2000 edition) appears to have taken a few ideas from the British PM standard, PRINCE 2 (PRojects IN a Controlled Environment) because more attention appears to be given to phases and interactions among phases.The 2000 edition also briefly addresses iterative development. Chapters 4 and 11 (2000 edition) more fully address earned value with a lot more material on this topic. Chapter 6 (2000 edition) briefly covers theory of constraints.

I have compared the 1996 and 2000 editions and cannot find any substantial differences between the two other than what I've cited above.However, since the PMI has stated that the 1996 edition is a resource for the 2001 examinations you need to go over this book carefully if you are a PMP candidate in 2001.

This is really a guide, almost an index.
Project Management is not easy stuff, even though many people think all they need is to get a computer package and start using it in order to be project managers. This book is almost an index of the topics you shouldcover when managing a project, as well as a guide to the Project ManagementInstitute Certification (PMP).

The book does not try to be fun, it isvery technical. If you want to get serious about project management, orshow off somebody who thinks he/she knows it all about project management,this is a good start point. As I said before, this is almost an index:covers a lot of topics, does not get into the details of almost anything. Iwould have liked it to includean example of how to put all the techniquestogether. Nevertheless, I would not say this books is not useful at all, Ithink it is really meant to be exclusively a guide.

Like the otherreviewer, I read this book for a Project Management Course.

If you wantto learn how to manage people on projects, and you think they should lovetheir jobs, you should get "Peopleware", by Tom de Marco andTimothy Lister.

For a quick, basic introduction, I think"Fundamentals of Project Management", by Lewis, is almost a"Quick Guide", but you can give this one to busy people, since itis very thin and fun.

For a book that covers human and technicalabilities on project management, try "A Survival Guide for ProjectManagers", by James Taylor.

very dry and academic
I got this book for a course I took on Project Management. It definitely covers all of the technical aspects of project management, although in a very dry and uninteresting manner.

There is no coverage for specifictypes of projects, only the principles of project management that covermost projects most of the time and the PMI says as much in the book.

Thebook also doesn't cover anything about handling difficult people ormanageing different personality types on a project, that's too much of asoft area for this book.

I would recomment this only as a text book for acourse on PM. In that roll, it fits very nicely and makes sure that nothinggets missed, while the teacher can fill in the softer material that isabsolutely necessary.

If you're looking for a book that will tell youinteresting anecdotes and statistics on projects done well versus thosedone poorly and general pertinent guidlines for people on asoftware/construction/human resources project, this isn't what you want. ... Read more

Product Description

This book readdresses fundamental issues in knowledge management, leading to a new area of study: knowledge processes. McInerney’s and Day’s superb authors from various disciplines offer new and exciting views on knowledge acquisition, generation, sharing and management in a post-industrial environment. Their contributions discuss problems of knowledge acquisition, handling, and learning from a variety of perspectives.

Product Description
Published in association with the MGMA and written for physician leaders and senior healthcare managers as well as those involved in smaller practices, Physician Practice Management: Essential Operational and Financial Knowledge provides a comprehensive overview of the breadth of knowledge required to effectively manage a medical group practice today. Distinguished experts cover a range of topics while taking into special consideration the need for a broader and more detailed knowledge base amongst physicians, practice managers and healthcare managers. Topics covered in this must-have resource include: physician leadership, judgment in management decisions, bioterrorism preparedness, financial management, health care information technology, regulatory issues, compliance programs, legal implications of business arrangements, medical malpractice, facility design, and capital financing for physician group practices. ... Read more

Product Description
While the current Web provides access to an enormous amount of information, it is currently only human-readable. In response to this problem, the Semantic Web allows for explicit representation of the Semantics of data so that it is machine interpretable.

Semantic Web for Knowledge and Data Management: Technologies and Practices provides a single record of technologies and practices of the Semantic approach to the management, organization, interpretation, retrieval, and use of Web-based data. This groundbreaking collection offers state-of-the-art information to academics, researchers, and industry practitioners involved in the study, use, design, and development of advanced and emerging Semantic Web technologies. ... Read more

Product Description
The first edition of this book is regarded as a classic in its field. Now, in an expanded and updated version of The Art of Service's book, the authors once again present a step-by-step guide to Incident Management.

Incident Management is an IT Service Management (ITSM) process area. The first goal of the incident management process is to restore a normal service operation as quickly as possible and to minimize the impact on business operations, thus ensuring that the best possible levels of service quality and availability are maintained. 'Normal service operation' is defined here as service operation within Service Level Agreement (SLA). It is one process area within the broader ITIL environment.

This book covers every detail, including some missed in other books. This thorough book provides a clear roadmap to designing, implementing and operating incident management. The author leaves no key process out and completely covers everything from initial concept to measuring support effectiveness and process improvement.

The book starts with an initial strategy that is focused on planning incident management services that are completely aligned to requirements and are based on a mission statement. This business-oriented approach is refreshing and will keep IT grounded in the real reasons for incident management. More importantly is the process for careful selection of services to provide. An overly ambitious set of service goals will kill incident management implementation early in its life by offering too much before there is a stable incident management process in place. This book is realistic and lays the foundation for a success implementation.

The section on the actual design of the incident management structure provides insights and information that can be applied to a large number of solutions. Since incident managements will be organized in accordance with requirements and unique mission statements, this section of the book is like a catalog of patterns. It has excellent tips on how to best structure incident management to meet requirements and mission. The information on accurately estimating staffing requirements is consistent with industry best practices and something that, believe it or not, is often overlooked when incident managements are established.

This book gets into the meat by thoroughly covering the processes that are essential to running incident management. There are many topics that stand out as both unique [to books of this genre] and reflect best practices by the best-run incident management initiatives. Examples are change control, disaster recovery and vendor management. These topics show that the author not only considers business alignment, but also cross-functional alignment within IT.

Professional resources and underlying technology are provided in detail.

This book contains an in-depth coverage of operational requirements for the incident management once it has been implemented. It hits all of the critical success factors, such as performance metrics, service level agreements, communications and internal evaluations. It even has a chapter on marketing, which is something that is important but not often done be most incident management initiatives. This proactive approach to keeping users (your customers) informed of new services, accomplishments and tips is excellent and will go a long way towards attaining high customer satisfaction scores - not to mention proving the value of the incident management to IT and business management.

You will find this book to be one of the best for planning and implementing world-class incident management.

Considering the increasing number of IT Professionals and their Organizations who want to be actively involved in IT Service Management, this book should do at least as well as the first edition, which is a bestseller. ... Read more

Product Description
As baby boomers approach retirement age and the work patterns of younger workers constantly change, many organizations worldwide are experiencing a far-reaching knowledge bleed.  Therefore, it is imperative that organizations find ways to best leverage and retain that vital knowledge before workers leave the organization and attrition occurs.

Answers the Call of Businesses Worldwide

In light of global workforce changes, many organizations’ are faced with a dilemma – how to maintain the right set of people at the right time in order to meet the company’s long-term goals and vision.  Knowledge Retention: Strategies and Solutions supplies the answer in the form of strategic human capital management. Written by one of the most sought after knowledge management experts, this easy-to-read, concise guide helps companies adopt proven retention strategies and techniques to capture and share knowledge which is otherwise at risk of being lost in transition. The text also discusses key case studies by leading organizations applying knowledge retention strategies.

Build Institutional Memory and Social Networks

Addresses These Important Questions:

Since you never know when someone will retire or move on, the book emphasizes the importance of minimizing business disruption and accelerating competency development.  Operating around four key framework pillars – competency, performance, knowledge, and change management – this text demonstrates why a knowledge-retention strategy should be woven into an organization’s fabric from day one.  ... Read more

Product Description
Understand and apply new concepts regarding Work Breakdown Structures

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) has emerged as a foundational concept and tool in Project Management. It is an enabler that ensures clear definition and communication of project scope while performing a critical role as a monitoring and controlling tool. Created by the three experts who led the development of PMI's Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures, Second Edition, this much-needed text expands on what the standard covers and describes how to go about successfully implementing the WBS within the project life cycle, from initiation and planning through project closeout.

Filling the gap in the literature on the WBS, Work Breakdown Structures: The Foundation for Project Management Excellence gives the reader an understanding of:

• The background and key concepts of the WBS

• WBS core characteristics, decomposition, representations, and tools

• Project initiation and the WBS, including contracts, agreements, and Statements of Work (SOW)

• Deliverable-based and activity-based management

• Using the WBS as a basis for procurement and financial planning

• Quality, risk, resource, and communication planning with the WBS

• The WBS in the executing, monitoring, and controlling phases

• New concepts regarding the representation of project and program scope

• Verifying project closeout with the WBS

Using a real-life project as an example throughout the book, the authors show how the WBS first serves to document and collect information during the initiating and planning phases of a project. Then, during the executing phase, the authors demonstrate how the WBS transitions to an active role of project decision-support, serving as a reference and a source for control and measurement. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Open up the process
Work Breakdown Structures: The Foundation for Project Management ExcellenceHaving worked in project management for 30+ years - I know it is necessary to have a birds view, whether it is a product or service, of the tasks at hand and to ensure that, a Work Breakdown Structure is vital...

A Practical Guide to Using the WBS
This is a readable book about a difficult subject, the creation and, especially, the use of a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), for planning and managing a project. It is written for professional project managers but is approachable by any non-professional with a personal or work-related project. The authors are among the world's experts on the WBS since they led the Project Management Institute (PMI) team that developed the official Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures - Second Edition. The book serves as a user's manual that shows how the official Standard can be applied in every day practice. The key word for this book is practicality.

The WBS is the basis for all project management tools and procedures. Accordingly the book provides insights into the whole range of project management practice. It initially provides an overview of what a WBS is, how to recognize whether a specific WBS is appropriate for any given project, and how to create a WBS using ground-up planning, templates, or standards. It then provides in-depth explanations of the practical use of the WBS in the major project management knowledge areas of scope, time, cost, quality, communication and risk management.

I particularly like chapters 3 and 4 on initiating a project by using the WBS to define the project scope.This discussion really brings together the integrated use of all of the scope tools, e.g., Project Charter, Scope Statement, Statements of Work (SOW), WBS Dictionary, Scope Baseline, Acceptance Criteria) in a way that, I suspect, practitioners rarely appreciate.A side effect of this discussion is to clarify how each of the other deliverables is used and individually adds value to the project management process.

The authors introduce a valuable new concept, the "Scope Relationship Diagram" which is both a way for thinking about dependencies in the WBS as well as a very useful technique for communicating dependencies across WBS hierarchy levels in an intuitive visual way.It should be especially useful in the context of horizon planning where future tasks are not yet defined in the same detail as early tasks.Very nice!

The informal writing style makes the subject matter much more understandable than does the more formal and proscriptive style that is usually used to describe the WBS. The authors often use the form of a dialog with the reader: "This is Eric speaking...This is Rob...". This style defuses some of the authoritarian atmosphere surrounding WBS discussions and makes it a more appealing tool.The concepts presented in each chapter are illustrated by repeated use of a house metaphor as a practical example of applying the concepts presented to the planning and execution of a hypothetical new home construction project. Each chapter provides references and review questions with answers and the appendix provides examples of key deliverables.

I strongly recommend the book.

(Full disclosure: This reviewer worked with the book's authors during the development of the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures - Second Edition but was not involved in writing this book.)

WBS - Key to Success
WBS - Key to success

Most experienced project manager's practitioners know the WBS importance.This is the result of a good planning.This book teaches to the reader how to construct a high-quality WBS.Authors include their own experience during several years working in Project Management.The book is aligned to PMBOK -Project Management Body of Knowledge Third Edition.

There are several examples (whit all the information) of WBS developed by: Process Group, Knowledge Area, and an interesting Knowledge Area Lite.Certainly, I enjoy reading; also, I learn many new elements than have improved my understanding.

German Bernate
... Read more

Product Description
As one of the titles in APQC's Passport to Success Series, this book will illuminate your path to knowledge management success, the same one taken by some of the world's leading companies. It follows APQC's Road Map to Knowledge Management Results: Stages of Implementation, a model developed by APQC after studying best-practice organizations in detail over a period of years. For those anxious to navigate toward true knowledge management results using the APQC Road Map, this book will serve as the perfect companion. ... Read more

Product Description
An organization's most valuable asset is itsknowledge. But knowledge doesn't happen in a vacuum. Knowledge is allabout relationships and trust-people's willingness to share what theyknow for the greater good within an organizational culture thatencourages a free-flowing exchange of ideas and information.

Workplace learning and performance professionals stand poised to helpcreate knowledge-friendly workplaces, where a mindset of continuouslearning stimulates employee performance and replaces the old paradigmof training. Large and small companies worldwide are creating theposition of chief knowledge officer or chief learning officer todesign, develop, and coordinate new knowledge management andorganizational learning initiatives. Read the 17 cases to get thereal-life lessons learned from pioneer organizations and individualswho have already put knowledge management into practice to staycompetitively vibrant. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Realities of KM In Action
This book bridges the `knowing and doing' gap of Knowledge Management(KM) with clarity, realism, and practical detail. The editor has done her research and documented the best practices of Knowledge Management.Shehas captured the stories and used words of the actual people engaged in thejourney of this growing profession and emerging body of knowledge describedin 17 cases. Now we have names of people and organizations that serve asbenchmarks and sources of lessons learned. After all, isn't that whatKnowledge Management it's about, learning from experience and sharing whatwe know across boundaries. The book walks its talk. The roles,responsibilities, and activities of those responsible for KM, ChiefKnowledge Officers and/or Chief Learning Officers, are delineated andcompared using all of the illustrative cases. This alone is worth the priceof the book. Up until now no single book has described the realities ofKnowledge Management with so many living examples. Each of them arecontemporary, vivid, and representative of diverse industries. The factsand data presented in most of the cases clarify the bottom lineconsequences of knowledge management. This is a valuable resource book forexecutives, performance consultants, human resource staff, trainers,university faculty, and students of all ages. When someone refers toKnowledge Management as only an abstract concept that is too theoreticaland too illusive to practice, give them this book. One of the criticisms ofLearning Organization literature is there are no books like this. Thelayout of this book enables the reader to pick the cases which are ofinterest without having to read it from cover to cover. It is easy to pickup and read in short segments of twenty minutes or so and not losecontinuity. I took the book with me on a trip and skipped around accordingto what interested me most. If you or people in your organization believecontinuous learning, intellectual capital, and organizational knowledge iswhat distinguishes one organization from another in terms of stayingcompetitively viable this book is a five star must read.

In Action: Leading Knowledge Management and Learning
Lord Bacon, perhaps borrowing from the Book of Proverbs, long ago reminded us that "Knowledge is power." Given today's sophisticated technology and the highly trained minds driving it, knowledge, as a fundamental preceptand as a tool of business, has seen little over the course of historyrivaling its present day importance and prevalence. Those of us in businessare challenged daily to best utilize the knowledge brought to ourrespective workplaces by our employees, our clients, and ourselves. Withthe incredible, even overwhelming, amount of information available from amyriad of resources-both technical and human-the task of harnessing facts,ideas, and beliefs into a usable and manageable instrument of economic,social, and cultural betterment can be daunting. Until editor Dede Bonnergathered together some of the best minds in the still evolving area ofknowledge management, business and its leadership had little in the way offormal and practical examples from which to draw and learn. The impressiveand useful result is her recent book, In Action: Leading KnowledgeManagement and Learning. In it, Dr. Bonner presents a variety of workplacelearning and performance professionals, who bring their own insights andexperience to the complicated and oftentimes taxing realm of knowledge andhow to best maximize its potential without succumbing to its pitfalls.Using actual examples from both the private and public sectors,contributors to this informative treatise offer the reader practical andtested methodologies focusing on the timely topic of knowledge and itsimmense influence on modern life and a modern workforce. Dr. Bonner's bookhelps fill a void created by the new and expanding realm of knowledgemanagement. As such, it is good and necessary reading for businessprofessionals at all levels.

Practical cases about CLO's, CKO's-told as personal stories
This book is useful to anyone working with CKO's or CLO's as well as people aspiring to these positions. It is well written and provides the reader with explicit examples of how individual and organizationaldifferences have led to mutiple effective ways of addressing knowledgemanagement and learning.

The book emphasizes the human performanceaspects of knowledge management but is effective in integrating strategy,structure and technology as well. Each case presents the direct experienceand actions of the CLO or CKO clearly from a personal perspective.

Iparticularly liked the case selection across industries and the inclusionof early adopters and leaders, less well known companies, firms andgovernment agencies.

Kudo's to the authors and editors. ... Read more