It Sounded Good When We Started : A Project Manager's Guide to Working with Peop

A common-sense guide to real-world project management

Common sense isn't always commonly practiced. Anyone who's ever worked on a project in a technical setting knows this. Indeed, much of working with others consists of solving unexpected problems and learning from mistakes along the way.

It Sounded Good When We Started: A Project Manager's Guide to Working with People on Projects provides essential reading for project managers trying to understand the trials and triumphs that can arise in any project setting. The authors, both respected project managers with sixty years of experience between them, describe their own mistakes as well as the many valuable lessons they drew from them. Instead of trying to formulate these in abstract theory, Phillips and O’Bryan tell the stories surrounding a particular project, providing a more memorable, real-world, and practical set of examples.

Written in a distinctly nontechnical style, this is a general troubleshooting guide for people who work on projects together. As such, its content proves useful in many different settings and applies to many different kinds of endeavors. Most of the stories are about problems—since it's the problems we often remember more than the successes—and what was learned from them. After describing a given problem, the authors analyze the issues that led to it and work towards various ways they've discovered to create a better project environment, one where problems get solved easier and happen less frequently.

It Sounded Good When We Started offers a highly readable go-to for engineers, scientists, computer professionals, and anyone working on specialized, collaborative projects.

Table of Contents：

Preface.

PART 1.

1. It Sounded Good When We Started.

2. A Place Where Everyone Knows Your Name: The Project Room.

PART 2.

3. A Charlatan in Expert s Clothing: Writing a Lie The Proposal.

4. Leaving the Station Before Everyone Is on Board: Staffing-Up.

5. After The Party Is Over: Letting Everyone Do Their Own Thing.

PART 3.

6. Months Have 30 Days in Them, Except Those That Don t: Planning.

7. Be Careful What You Ask For, You Just Might Get It: The Requirements.

8. If I Could Just Find a Question for this Answer: Designing Before the Fact.

9. A Miracle Occurs Here: Schedule Tracking.

10. Getting Mugged by the Facts: Risk Mitigation Strategies.

PART 4.

11. A Charlatan in Sheep s Clothing: The Right Project Manager.

12. But You Didn t Ask Communicating with the Customer.

13. A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned: Maximum Reward versus Minimum Regret.

14. Punish the Innocent By-Standers: Award Fee, Bonuses and Other Rewards and Punishments.

PART 5.

15. Digging Yourself Into A Hole: Put Down The Shovel and Seek Outside Help.

16. Fear of Stepping on Superman s Cape: Not Holding Meaningful Internal Reviews.

17. Not Providing Adult Supervision: Do the Junior Team Members Really Need Mentoring?

PART 6.

18. Being Too Big For Your Britches: So Much Confidence With So Little Talent (Experience).

19. Appointed Experts: Who Brings What To The Table.

PART 7.

20. The Shallow End of the Gene Pool: Small Project and Large Corporations.

21. Telling Your Customer What You Think He Wants to Hear and Believing It: Outsourcing.

22. Going Where Angels Fear to Tread: There Is No Right Way to Do The Wrong Thing.

PART 8.

23. Not Knowing What You Know: Are You Really Getting The Desired Results?

24. Don t Forget to Breathe: What People Often Do Wrong When Behind Schedule.

25. We re Almost Out of the Woods: You Aren t Finished Until You Are Finished.

Index.

一本實用的現實專案管理指南

常識並不總是被普遍實踐。任何在技術環境中參與專案的人都知道這一點。事實上，與他人合作的大部分時間都是解決意外問題並從錯誤中學習。

《It Sounded Good When We Started: A Project Manager's Guide to Working with People on Projects》是一本對於專案經理來說必讀的書籍，旨在理解在任何專案環境中可能出現的挑戰和成功。作者是兩位擁有共60年經驗的專案經理，他們描述了自己的錯誤以及從中獲得的許多寶貴經驗教訓。菲利普斯和奧布萊恩並沒有嘗試以抽象理論的方式來表達這些教訓，而是講述了圍繞特定專案的故事，提供了更具有記憶性、現實世界和實用的例子。

這本書以非技術風格撰寫，是一本針對共同參與專案的人的綜合疑難排解指南。因此，它的內容在許多不同的環境中都很有用，適用於許多不同類型的努力。大部分故事都是關於問題的，因為我們通常記得的是問題而不是成功，以及從中學到的東西。在描述了特定問題之後，作者分析了導致問題的問題，並努力找到各種方法來創建更好的專案環境，一個能夠更輕鬆解決問題並減少問題發生頻率的環境。

《It Sounded Good When We Started》是工程師、科學家、電腦專業人員以及任何從事專業合作專案的人的必讀書籍。

目錄：

前言

第一部分

1. It Sounded Good When We Started

2. A Place Where Everyone Knows Your Name: The Project Room

第二部分

3. A Charlatan in Expert s Clothing: Writing a Lie The Proposal

4. Leaving the Station Before Everyone Is on Board: Staffing-Up

5. After The Party Is Over: Letting Everyone Do Their Own Thing

第三部分

6. Months Have 30 Days in Them, Except Those That Don t: Planning

7. Be Careful What You Ask For, You Just Might Get It: The Requirements

8. If I Could Just Find a Question for this Answer: Designing Before the Fact

9. A Miracle Occurs Here: Schedule Tracking

10. Getting Mugged by the Facts: Risk Mitigation Strategies

第四部分

11. A Charlatan in Sheep s Clothing: The Right Project Manager

12. But You Didn t Ask Communicating with the Customer

13. A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned: Maximum Reward versus Minimum Regret

14. Punish the Innocent By-Standers: Award Fee, Bonuses and Other Rewards and Punishments

第五部分

15. Digging Yourself Into A Hole: Put Down The Shovel and Seek Outside Help

16. Fear of Stepping on Superman s Cape: Not Holding Meaningful Internal Reviews

17. Not Providing Adult Supervision: Do the Junior Team Members Really Need Mentoring?

第六部分

18. Being Too Big For Your Britches: So Much Confidence With So Little Talent (Experience)

19. Appointed Experts: Who Brings What To The Table

第七部分

20. The Shallow End of the Gene Pool: Small Project and Large Corporations

21. Telling Your Customer What You Think He Wants to Hear and Believing It: Outsourcing

22. Going Where Angels Fear to Tread: There Is No Right Way to Do The Wrong Thing

第八部分

23. Not Knowing What You Know: Are You Really Getting The Desired Results?

24. Don t Forget to Breathe: What People Often Do Wrong When Behind Schedule

25. We re Almost Out of the Woods: You Aren t Finished Until You Are Finished

索引