Downside
The contents of this book are consistently laid out throughout and are well
written in a clear style. This makes the book both easy to read, and also to use
as a quick reference when the need arises in the reality of project life. From
our own experiences on a wide variety of projects, and in a variety of organizations,
we believe that the advice that John Brinkworth provides is both logical and sound.
We just wish that these ideas had been presented to us years ago.
We do have one technical criticism because it is rather obvious. Part I
of the book is titled "The Project Lifecycle"[15]
We do wish people would get used to the idea of calling it a "Lifespan".
That's because the management of a project proceeds through time in one direction
only. You cannot go back in time and do it over. What's done, good or bad, is
done. There's no way of getting away from it.
However, the sequence that John has chosen for listing the progression of his
chapter topics is the Methodology sequence required for building
a particular product. And at first glance, that evidence of methodology looks
very much like that required for managing the product development of information
technology type products.
Then there is one criticism that we have regarding presentation. Many, many
paragraphs are far too long, and are too numerous to flag individually.[16]
That means that in these days where the younger readers are more used to cryptic
notes on a cell phone, the body of a long paragraph can get completely lost, and
the intended thread irretrievably broken. Besides, there is an optimal amount
of white space on a page that will make it interesting and inviting. Proof readers,
please note.
15. Ibid,
p5
16. But for the record we mention the first three, on pages 11-12,
26, and 28.
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