The Little Black Book of Project Management

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The Little Black Book of Project Management is a great compliment to the Practical Project Management book by Michael Dobson. While the Practical Project Management book provides the concepts behind project management, the Little Black Book is more of the "how to" manual for conducting project management.

It provides sage advice defining the project, selecting the project team, establishing the budget, etc. It approaches each subject from a variety of angles. The book highlights very well the fact that the project manager has little authority, but great responsibility and how to handle the responsibility in many situations: projects confined to one department and projects whose bounderies cut across many departments and business units.

The book is written by Michael Thomsett. He writing style is crisp and clear. He tackles many of the more complex subjects and methodically explains the concepts so that the reader can understand. Since many of the concepts are difficult to understand, the reader will need to take the time to thoroughly read what is written and spend time thinking to understand fully what is being stated. This statement is not a criticism of the writing, but atests to the complexity of the issue at hand. Face it, some subjects are simply complex and no matter how well the writer explains it, it still takes time to understand it fully.

As I stated before, this book and the book by Dobson are two excellent companion reference materials. I would highly recommend both books gracing your shelf after you read them. Then, periodically, pull them down and re-read them. Both will advance your career in project management.