The above statement left me with the question: all well and good, but how? It is unfortunate that neither the preface nor a forward fully introduces the author's ...
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. 54, NO. 2, MAY 2007
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Book Reviews Kerzner’s Project Management Logic Puzzles—H. Kerzner (Wiley, 2006). Reviewed by J. K. Pinto
pressive body of work will be intrigued by this offering, as will those looking for new approaches to teaching project management concepts. Finally, fans of logic puzzles in general will enjoy this collection of challenges and who knows? They might pick up some valuable project management tips along the way.
The ability to manage projects effectively has always involved more than careful planning, knowledge, intuition, or even luck. Embedded in our myriad and seemingly daily decisions on resource allocation, network development, duration or cost estimation, activity crashing, and project control is the strong need to apply a process of logical reasoning. Why do we make one choice among many? What are the concomitant tradeoffs, costs, and benefits? How do laws of cause and effect apply? In short, logical analysis and careful reasoning form a critical backdrop to every significant decision we make in the course of managing a project. Kerzner’s Project Management Logic Puzzles is an intriguing new addition to the project management catalog. This is not an academic work; in fact, it defies easy classifications. Dr. Kerzner has created 100 logic puzzles, each set within some aspect or challenge that project managers might routinely face (e.g., capacity planning, team meetings, assigning resources, etc.). For those who are fans of logic puzzles in general, Kerzner’s book offers a welcome set of challenges. For project managers who have never attempted to solve such puzzles, the settings, taken directly from real project management issues, is sure to be appealing. Logic problems represent a form of reasoning that requires deductive analysis be applied in order to solve a problem with the aid of a set of clues. So, for example, one of the puzzles in this book asks you to identify the names, titles, and years of experience of each member of a project team from a set of five clues as to their identities. Clues such as “The person with 14 years of experience is standing in position 3 in the figure” are provided and give the reader the basis for making a series of deductions in order to solve the overall problem. The full set of puzzles in this book offer a similar pattern; that is, there is a method to solving logic puzzles and each of these puzzles conform in general nature to this pattern. However, the appeal lies with the problems themselves, set as they are within the model of common project management activities and challenges. Project Management Logic Puzzles represents a bit of an indulgence from Dr. Kerzner. He notes in the preface that he has been “addicted” to logic puzzles for well over 20 years and has been collecting, developing, and refining his own set of logic puzzles for project management training. In fact, Kerzner states that he has been using these puzzles in his courses and has found that “they can be used as a teaching tool as well.” The above statement left me with the question: all well and good, but how? It is unfortunate that neither the preface nor a forward fully introduces the author’s intent, i.e., Kerzner’s motivation for creating this work, how it can best be used, what messages he hoped to impart through it, or how other project management instructors can use the book for their own courses. The value inherent in a book of this type could have been clearly elaborated in a preface, along with an explanation of why logic puzzles are particularly useful to project managers. Its absence is the only real “negative” I could find with the book. Ultimately, a book on logic puzzles for project management will find a number of devotees. Many who are familiar with Dr. Kerzner’s im-
One of the most common refrains heard by project management teachers, trainers and consultants from their classes is, “How do other companies manage to do this?” Experience shows us that there is an insatiable search for some general standards of excellence against which firms can compare their practices, gain important tips for improvement, and continuously measure themselves. These are some of the reasons why noted project management expert Harold Kerzner’s book, Project Management Best Practices, is such a welcome addition to the literature. In Best Practices, Kerzner offers a goldmine of information, all gleaned from the behavior of some of the most project-savvy organizations in the world. His list is a veritable who’s-who of excellent organizations, including Johnson Controls, Motorola, Infosys, Hewlett-Packard, Sherwin-Williams, . . . the list goes on and on. What is particularly attractive about the companies Kerzner has used for his examples is that they include firms across the industrial spectrum, from service organizations to heavy manufacturing, from IT to pharmaceuticals. In short, the lessons Kerzner draws in this book are so compelling precisely because his examples are so broad-based. In making his case for excellent practices, it is noteworthy that Kerzner lays to rest the canard that each organization’s problems are unique, that excellent practices do not “travel well,” and that each industry must discover anew the behaviors that lead to superior project management performance. Certainly there are some project management activities that will be uniquely or highly crafted depending upon industry type (IT vs. construction, for example); however, Kerzner demonstrates convincingly that at the core, the pursuit of excellence in project management follows some common behaviors. Best Practices is organized into 13 chapters, covering a wide variety of fundamental project management issues and activities, including various methodologies, integrated processes like TQM and concurrent engineering, culture, and management support. Each of these chapters is filled with specific company examples; that is, we don’t learn about corporate culture in a general sense, we learn about how Motorola, EDS, or Convergent Computing manages their corporate culture, always with an eye toward improving project management performance. Of particular interest to me were two of the chapters that Kerzner included at the end of the book, dealing with some of the timeliest and most important issues confronting project management today; namely methods for measuring return on investment for project management training and the relationship between project management and Six Sigma. With the profound increase in project-based work in organizations, a growing body of research has begun to investigate the financial return on investment in project management training. Kerzner
The reviewer is with the Sam and Irene Black School of Business, Pennsylvania State University, Station Rd., Erie, PA 16563 USA (e-mail: jkp4@psu. edu). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEM.2007.893983
The reviewer is with the Sam and Irene Black School of Business, Pennsylvania State University, Station Rd., Erie, PA 16563 USA (e-mail: jkp4@psu. edu). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEM.2007.893984
Project Management Best Practices: Achieving Global Excellence—H. Kerzner (Wiley, 2006). Reviewed by J. K. Pinto
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. 54, NO. 2, MAY 2007
tackles this issue head-on, offering some important methods for demonstrating the “real” value-added that many of us have always assumed project management offered but were unable to accurately measure. It is equally interesting to see Kerzner’s take on the linkage between project management and another recent management tsunami, the rise of Six Sigma training. Rather than adopting the common “either-or” perspective, Best Practices shows how these two important processes can work in tandem for enhanced corporate success.
Harold Kerzner has hit a genuine home run with Project Management Best Practices. It is highly readable, informative, and most importantly, filled with vignettes and detailed examples of how some of the best project management practitioners make it work successfully. Consultants and trainers looking to answer their classes’ “How do the excellent project management organizations do it?” questions need look no further than this work.
