BOOK REVIEW:

Book Title:  Project Management for Small Business: A Streamlined Approach from Planning to Completion
Author:  Joseph Phillips
Publisher:  AMACOM
List Price:   $21.95 USD
Format:  soft cover; 304 pages
Publication Date:   November 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8144-1767-6
Reviewer:      Hussein Mzee
Review Date:  January 2011

Introduction to the Book

Most PM practitioners agree that small business owners have a project management problem. A majority of small business owners don’t use project management methodologies or tools. Rather, in a surprising number of small offices & businesses, there’s a myriad configuration of spreadsheets, post-It notes and other simpler project plans to keep businesses moving along.

What Joseph Phillips provides in ‘Project Management for Small Business: A Streamlined Approach from Planning to Completion’ is a simple practical guide that small businesses can use to learn industry standard techniques and methods and apply them in way that will best suit their specific needs. For those small business owners that think that project management is only for the techno-giants or corporate biggies, this book totally dispels that myth and goes a step further. It demonstrates project management to be a powerful tool for a business of any kind and any size. After all, efficiency and effectiveness is hardly concerned with the size or type of the business.

Overview of Book’s Structure

This 304 page book is divided into 10 easily-replicable chapters that correspond well to any small project evolution. Each chapter, approximately 30 pages long, contains at least five sections that provide a deeper-dive into the content area analyzed.

The first introductory chapter provides a good overview and definition of the project management discipline and successfully explains why project management is indispensable to profitable small business growth. The chapter effectively links sound project management to higher profitability.

Chapters 2 to 10 guide the reader through the different stages of the project management lifecycle from initiation to the closing of the project. The key project management areas: planning, managing project costs & risk, scheduling, and communicating with stakeholders are exhaustively discussed with appropriate supporting figures and examples.

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About the Reviewer: Hussein Mzee   Hussein Mzee holds an MBA from the Project Management Executive MBA program at the University of Texas at Dallas. He has wide global experience with major IT and telecommunication companies and is currently a member of the Services team at Dell, Inc. based in Plano, Texas, USA.