Although you won't generally find me talking about IT project management, it is a topic that overlaps with software architecture in a number of areas. For example, it's fairly typical to see software teams where a software architect and project manager are jointly responsible for the successful delivery of a software system. Here, the software architect is usually responsible for the technical risks and the project manager picks up all of the "other stuff" (e.g. risks associated with timescales, budget, scope, etc). Project management is an interesting area, particularly when you start throwing agile approaches into the mix. In the same way that I've discovered a lot of uncertainty about the software architecture role, my wife has discovered the same of project management during her career. And this has inspired her to write a book. To quote from start of it:
My background is in software development and, having made the decision to become more involved with managing projects, I noticed that most websites, articles and books discuss project management from a very generic perspective. There seem to be very few books that take a more holistic view of IT project management including what skills you need, problems you may come up against due to technology and general tips on project management principles. After all, technology projects have their own unique activities and challenges.
Now working within a project management office, I provide guidance and support services for project managers who work within a complex and changing IT environment. In undertaking this role, I found that the advice, support and document reviews I undertook started to show some common trends. These include a lack of understanding of how to define and present IT projects to the business and common mistakes made in day-to-day project management.
This trend led to me sounding like a “broken record”, repeating the same advice over and over again to different project managers. That started me thinking about writing a short book that is clear, concise and quick to read, covering the skills, principles, tools and activities that will help you to successfully manage an IT project in the real world.
The book is currently titled "Are you an IT project manager?" and is a work in progress, being published incrementally on Leanpub. I may be biased, but I'm looking forward to it evolving over the coming weeks, particularly as I've heard some of the stories that are yet to be written about.