Copyright
Preface
Who should read this book
Assumptions I've made about you in writing this book
How to use this book
Chapter One. A brief history of project management (and why you should care)
Section 1.1. Using history
Section 1.2. Web development, kitchens, and emergency rooms
Section 1.3. The role of project management
Section 1.4. Program and project management at Microsoft
Section 1.5. The balancing act of project management
Section 1.6. Pressure and distraction
Section 1.7. The right kind of involvement
Section 1.8. Summary
Part I: Plans
Chapter Two. The truth about schedules
Section 2.1. Schedules have three purposes
Section 2.2. Silver bullets and methodologies
Section 2.3. What schedules look like
Section 2.4. Why schedules fail
Section 2.5. What must happen for schedules to work
Section 2.6. Summary
Chapter Three. How to figure out what to do
Section 3.1. Software planning demystified
Section 3.2. Approaching plans: the three perspectives
Section 3.3. The magical interdisciplinary view
Section 3.4. Asking the right questions
Section 3.5. Catalog of common bad ways to decide what to do
Section 3.6. The process of planning
Section 3.7. Customer research and its abuses
Section 3.8. Bringing it all together: requirements
Chapter Four. Writing the good vision
Section 4.1. The value of writing things down
Section 4.2. How much vision do you need?
Section 4.3. The five qualities of good visions
Section 4.4. The key points to cover
Section 4.5. On writing well
Section 4.6. Drafting, reviewing, and revising
Section 4.7. A catalog of lame vision statements (which should be avoided)
Section 4.8. Examples of visions and goals
Section 4.9. Visions should be visual
Section 4.10. The vision sanity check: daily worship
Section 4.11. Summary
Chapter Five. Where ideas come from
Section 5.1. The gap from requirements to solutions
Section 5.2. There are bad ideas
Section 5.3. Thinking in and out of boxes is OK
Section 5.4. Good questions attract good ideas
Section 5.5. Bad ideas lead to good ideas
Section 5.6. Perspective and improvisation
Section 5.7. The customer experience starts the design
Section 5.8. A design is a series of conversations
Section 5.9. Summary
Chapter Six. What to do with ideas once you have them
Section 6.1. Ideas get out of control
Section 6.2. Managing ideas demands a steady hand
Section 6.3. Checkpoints for design phases
Section 6.4. How to consolidate ideas
Section 6.5. Prototypes are your friends
Section 6.6. Questions for iterations
Section 6.7. The open-issues list
Section 6.8. Summary
Part II: Skills
Chapter Seven. Writing good specifications
Section 7.1. What specifications can and cannot do
Section 7.2. Deciding what to specify
Section 7.3. Specifying is not designing
Section 7.4. Who, when, and how
Section 7.5. When are specs complete?
Section 7.6. Reviews and feedback
Section 7.7. Summary
Chapter Eight. How to make good decisions
Section 8.1. Sizing up a decision (what's at stake)
Section 8.2. Finding and weighing options
Section 8.3. Information is a flashlight
Section 8.4. The courage to decide
Section 8.5. Paying attention and looking back
Section 8.6. Summary
Chapter Nine. Communication and relationships
Section 9.1. Management through conversation
Section 9.2. A basic model of communication
Section 9.3. Common communication problems
Section 9.4. Projects depend on relationships
Section 9.5. The best work attitude
Section 9.6. Summary
Chapter Ten. How not to annoy people: process, email, and meetings
Section 10.1. A summary of why people get annoyed
Section 10.2. The effects of good process
Section 10.3. Non-annoying email
Section 10.4. How to run the non-annoying meeting
Section 10.5. Summary
Chapter Eleven. What to do when things go wrong
Section 11.1. Apply the rough guide
Section 11.2. Common situations to expect
Section 11.3. Take responsibility
Section 11.4. Damage control
Section 11.5. Conflict resolution and negotiation
Section 11.6. Roles and clear authority
Section 11.7. An emotional toolkit: pressure, feelings about feelings, and the hero complex
Section 11.8. Summary
Part III: Management
Chapter Twelve. Why leadership is based on trust
Section 12.1. Building and losing trust
Section 12.2. Make trust clear (create green lights)
Section 12.3. The different kinds of power
Section 12.4. Trusting others
Section 12.5. Trust is insurance against adversity
Section 12.6. Models, questions, and conflicts
Section 12.7. Trust and making mistakes
Section 12.8. Trust in yourself (self-reliance)
Section 12.9. Summary
Chapter Thirteen. How to make things happen
Section 13.1. Priorities make things happen
Section 13.2. Things happen when you say no
Section 13.3. Keeping it real
Section 13.4. Know the critical path
Section 13.5. Be relentless
Section 13.6. Be savvy
Section 13.7. Summary
Chapter Fourteen. Middle-game strategy
Section 14.1. Flying ahead of the plane
Section 14.2. Taking safe action
Section 14.3. The coding pipeline
Section 14.4. Hitting moving targets
Section 14.5. Summary
Chapter Fifteen. End-game strategy
Section 15.1. Big deadlines are just several small deadlines
Section 15.2. Elements of measurement
Section 15.3. Elements of control
Section 15.4. The end of end-game
Section 15.5. Party time
Section 15.6. Summary
Chapter Sixteen. Power and politics
Section 16.1. The day I became political
Section 16.2. The sources of power
Section 16.3. The misuse of power
Section 16.4. How to solve political problems
Section 16.5. Know the playing field
Section 16.6. Summary