Book Review: Developing teams through project based learning

Book Review: Developing teams through project based learning

Jean Atkinson, Gower Publications, Aldershot, 2001, 152 Pages, 8 Chapters + Appendices, ISBN-10: 05660 83671, ISBN-13: 978 05660 83679

 

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I find the dynamics of project teams fascinating. To work with a project team that communicates and treats each other with respect, yet challenges each other is great! This book isn’t really about building and developing a winning project team. It is about developing people through projects. However I see it as a two way street and the chapters in this book are just as valuable in engendering project team wellbeing and effectiveness as they are for developing individuals. Learning, dealing with and overcoming difficult situations, is for me, life affirming. My experience over many years and projects is that very few businesses ‘back-fill’ the project team members jobs to allow them to concentrate on the project. Therefore most project team members have two jobs their ‘day job’ and their ‘project job’. The book covers recognising and dealing with stress. Having two jobs or even looking back at the day job is a recipe for stress and anxiety. The book looks at both soft and hard skills which project team members will need to acquire to become effective project team players. The book is short so it doesn’t have in depth coverage of topics. Nevertheless for a project manager there is enough information, supported by templates to stimulate thoughts and actions. I really like the book’s brevity and bitesize approach to project team dynamics. Well worth a read.

 

Happy implementing!

Book Review: Project Management for Data Conversions and Data Migrations

 

Book Review: Project Management for Data Conversions and Data Migrations

A data conversion methodology and to converting data for mission critical applications

Charles R Scott, Author House, Bloomington Indiana, 2004, 99 Pages, 18 Chapters + Appendices, ISBN10: 14184 51265, ISBN13: 878 14184 52162

 

Available from:

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This book provides a great route map and checklist for data migration. I regularly use it as a reference when planning new projects to ensure I haven’t missed anything. The chapters are broken down into work packages familiar to us project managers. To me it is designed as a reference source rather than a book you would pick up and read. Don’t be lulled by the regular and consistent structure of each work package in the book, some are more difficult and contain more risk than others. I always start the data migration work-stream within a few days of project inception. Experience, over many years, has taught me that it is always a long lead time work package. The migrated data needs to be ready for transactional testing when user acceptance is taking place. Another cautionary note is on the subject of data cleansing, the book has a chapter on the topic. On the page it appears simple but experience has imparted a wariness of this work package, nevertheless the book covers the data cleansing bases. The book falls short in one area, not content, but print quality the diagrams are not prominently printed with insufficient font and line weight or thickness to be clear. Also the diagrams would be better printed in landscape rather than portrait format. In the appendices the author offers some useful data migration project management templates and a skeleton work breakdown structure. A useful addition to the project manager’s reference bookshelf.

Happy implementing!