Book Review: A Real World Project Manager's Guide to the Successful Project

Brad Egeland recently completed his 15th Project Management eBook titled “A Real World Project Manager's Guide to the Successful Project.” Other than maybe switching some words around in the title and shortening it, Mr. Egeland seems to have hit it spot on. The book is written in his normal casual style of experience, opinion and best practices... from a real world, logical and practical point of view.

Always trying to give advice to those experienced, new and aspiring project managers looking for hitting the pavement advice, this book continues to follow that same theme. I'm not going to give away much about the contents of the book, but I will list the chapters which should give you some insight into what information is being shared in this publication...

Chapters:

Introduction
From the Beginning
Document Processes and Requirements
Execute the Project
Review with the Client and Gain Final Approval
Communication is Everything
Are Lessons Learned Important?
How to Run the Perfect Project Meeting
Risks are Real... Plan for Them

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Mr. Egeland makes no apologies for professing that communication is Job One for the project manager and adhering to solid communication processes is a common theme of this book. He feels that it is critical to success and experience proves that. He helps the reader understand what that means in different areas of the project engagement. That alone is worth the price of admission.

There have been a few testimonials / reader comments that Mr. Egeland has received including these...

"Best direction I've received in 2018 - a must read for logical PM steps to successful delivery"

"Great takeaways - highly recommend"

"Must reading for all PMOs, Brad's info is spot-on"

"5 stars! Thanks for sharing your straightforward project management knowledge and style... keep up the great work!"

“just like your articles, always something great to take away. Thanks for the advice... well worth the money. Keep writing!!”

Pros:

• This is not PMI legalize type of reading – reads more like stories and opinion pieces, which for this writer/reviewer is a good thing. Judging by the thousands of reads that Mr. Egeland's articles get every month it must be a fairly widely held opinion.
• In my opinion and from my experience, there is nothing here giving you anything but sound advice for project success.
• Price – at $4.99 it's priced well. If you get one piece of helpful information out of this book – and you will – then it was money well spent.

Cons:

• Though it is laid out nicely and well put together, I wish it was longer. I've spoken to Brad and he has assured me that is next self-published, for sale eBook will be considerably longer and he already has a title for it which you can find on the books page of his site. You'll also find links to download other free eBooks he has written as well. He also shares plans and templates on his templates and downloads page.

Conclusion

Download the book – it's not $24.99, it's only $4.99 and well worth it. Then set it aside and re-read it every time you start a new project until you have it committed to memory. You'll use the advice and sequence in this book more than you realize. And if you're directing a PMO, get a copy for all of your staff... it won't break your PM budget.

Pages: 35
Price: $4.99
Available from Mr. Egeland through Square here. Following purchase you will receive the eBook within 24 hours via email, though he tries to fill all orders within the hour.