I recently read a book by Scott Berkun, a ex-microsoft project manager (Internet Explorer), about the mastering of project management and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with it.
I have always been a bit skeptical about those kind of books, as most of them only contain a list of do’s and don’ts that everybody actually knows. But this one differentiates itself with other books as it mentions a huge pack of exercises and is always explained with examples of his own experiences at Microsoft.
This book covers all the big points on which a project manager should pay extra attention:
- how to write good email
- how your relationship with colleagues should be
- how to divide your time on a project
- how to decide what is the most important thing to do first
- what should be done in times of crisis
- how to negotiate with colleagues, your staff and your bosses
- trust and how to work with it
- how to organize meetings and be sure that you are leading them
Off course, by reading this book, you won’t be the best project manager that ever existed, but I believe that it’s a great asset to your book shelf to use as a reference.
Be sure to try out some of the exercises or to read his experiences, it will help everyone who is in this position, or wants to improve his methodologies.
In your lifetime there are a few books you have to read if you are moving your way up the ladder, and this is definitely one of them if you are trying the step to project manager/team leader.
What I really like about this book is that it can be used as a reference, but it is also just well written, and that is why I practically read it cover to cover. It is just fun to read about his Microsoft problems and how he solved them alone, or in team. The cool thing about Scott is that he is not only a good writer, but also a very good speaker and that he doesn’t take himself too serious.
He worked at Microsoft on IE, and he switched to Firefox himself 
as he said: It’s not because Firefox is completely new technology and groundbreaking or because Internet Explorer sucks, but because it is just a good solid program and is the best out there.
Check out some of his presentations, they are available on YouTube or via his own website (http://www.scottberkun.com/), and as he said in one of his lectures, that he will always answer all of your questions, if you just send them to him, I’ll try to send him a few questions to do a small interview and as soon as I get a response, I’ll post them here.
