FOREWORD; PREFACE; Who should read this book; Assumptions I've made about you in writing this book; How to use this book; How to contact us; Safari® Books Online; Chapter 1: A brief history of project management (and why you should care); 1.1 Using history; 1.2 Web development, kitchens, and emergency rooms; 1.3 The role of project management; 1.4 Program and project management at Microsoft; 1.5 The balancing act of project management; 1.6 Pressure and distraction; 1.7 The right kind of involvement; 1.8 Summary; 1.9 Exercises; PART ONE: PLANS; Chapter 2: The truth about schedules; 2.1 Schedules have three purposes; 2.2 Silver bullets and methodologies; 2.3 What schedules look like; 2.4 Why schedules fail; 2.5 What must happen for schedules to work; 2.6 Summary; 2.7 Exercises; Chapter 3: How to figure out what to do; 3.1 Software planning demystified; 3.2 Approaching plans: the three perspectives; 3.3 The magical interdisciplinary view; 3.4 Asking the right questions; 3.5 Catalog of common bad ways to decide what to do; 3.6 The process of planning; 3.7 Customer research and its abuses; 3.8 Bringing it all together: requirements; 3.9 Summary; 3.10 Exercises; Chapter 4: Writing the good vision; 4.1 The value of writing things down; 4.2 How much vision do you need?; 4.3 The five qualities of good visions; 4.4 The key points to cover; 4.5 On writing well; 4.6 Drafting, reviewing, and revising; 4.7 A catalog of lame vision statements (which should be avoided); 4.8 Examples of visions and goals; 4.9 Visions should be visual; 4.10 The vision sanity check: daily worship; 4.11 Summary; 4.12 Exercises; Chapter 5: Where ideas come from; 5.1 The gap from requirements to solutions; 5.2 There are bad ideas; 5.3 Thinking in and out of boxes is OK; 5.4 Good questions attract good ideas; 5.5 Bad ideas lead to good ideas; 5.6 Perspective and improvisation; 5.7 The customer experience starts the design; 5.8 A design is a series of conversations; 5.9 Summary; 5.10 Exercises; Chapter 6: What to do with ideas once you have them; 6.1 Ideas get out of control; 6.2 Managing ideas demands a steady hand; 6.3 Checkpoints for design phases; 6.4 How to consolidate ideas; 6.5 Prototypes are your friends; 6.6 Questions for iterations; 6.7 The open-issues list; 6.8 Summary; 6.9 Exercises; PART TWO: SKILLS; Chapter 7: Writing good specifications; 7.1 What specifications can and cannot do; 7.2 Deciding what to specify; 7.3 Specifying is not designing; 7.4 Who, when, and how; 7.5 When are specs complete?; 7.6 Reviews and feedback; 7.7 Summary; 7.8 Exercises; Chapter 8: How to make good decisions; 8.1 Sizing up a decision (what's at stake); 8.2 Finding and weighing options; 8.3 Information is a flashlight; 8.4 The courage to decide; 8.5 Paying attention and looking back; 8.6 Summary; 8.7 Exercises; Chapter 9: Communication and relationships; 9.1 Management through conversation; 9.2 A basic model of communication; 9.3 Common communication problems; 9.4 Projects depend on relationships; 9.5 The best work attitude; 9.6 Summary; 9.7 Exercises; Chapter 10: How not to annoy people: process, email, and meetings; 10.1 A summary of why people get annoyed; 10.2 The effects of good process; 10.3 Non-annoying email; 10.4 How to run the non-annoying meeting; 10.5 Summary; 10.6 Exercises; Chapter 11: What to do when things go wrong; 11.1 Apply the rough guide; 11.2 Common situations to expect; 11.3 Take responsibility; 11.4 Damage control; 11.5 Conflict resolution and negotiation; 11.6 Roles and clear authority; 11.7 An emotional toolkit: pressure, feelings about feelings, and the hero complex; 11.8 Summary; 11.9 Exercises; PART THREE: MANAGEMENT; Chapter 12: Why leadership is based on trust; 12.1 Building and losing trust; 12.2 Make trust clear (create green lights); 12.3 The different kinds of power; 12.4 Trusting others; 12.5 Trust is insurance against adversity; 12.6 Models, questions, and conflicts; 12.7 Trust and making mistakes; 12.8 Trust in yourself (self-reliance); 12.9 Summary; 12.10 Exercises; Chapter 13: Making things happen; 13.1 Priorities make things happen; 13.2 Things happen when you say no; 13.3 Keeping it real; 13.4 Know the critical path; 13.5 Be relentless; 13.6 Be savvy; 13.7 Summary; 13.8 Exercises; Chapter 14: Middle-game strategy; 14.1 Flying ahead of the plane; 14.2 Taking safe action; 14.3 The coding pipeline; 14.4 Hitting moving targets; 14.5 Summary; 14.6 Exercises; Chapter 15: End-game strategy; 15.1 Big deadlines are just several small deadlines; 15.2 Elements of measurement; 15.3 Elements of control; 15.4 The end of end-game; 15.5 Party time; 15.6 Summary; 15.7 Exercises; Chapter 16: Power and politics; 16.1 The day I became political; 16.2 The sources of power; 16.3 The misuse of power; 16.4 How to solve political problems; 16.5 Know the playing field; 16.6 Summary; 16.7 Exercises; A guide for discussion groups; Introducing the project management clinic; How to start your own discussion group; Sample discussion topics; ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY; ACKNOWLEDGMENTS; For this revised edition; From the previous edition; PHOTO CREDITS; COLOPHON;