Book Structure
The book starts out with a brief description of each of the ten steps in the TenStep Project Management Process. In Tom's view, these steps represent a logical sequence of the primary or key activities in managing an IT project.
With this as background, the reader is then treated to fifty vignettes that take place throughout the year of Tom's (the book character) tenure as project management advisor. Each vignette provides a short description of the project manager with the problem so that you feel you get to know the person, followed by a description of what they are doing and the difficulties that they are facing.
These vignettes are very succinct and generally cover two pages at the most. These
pieces are printed in italics to distinguish them from the lessons that follow. The
lessons that follow, printed in regular font, present a specific lesson based on the
vignette and have an explicit lesson title such as "Lesson 2: Make sure you always
have an identified and committed sponsor and client organization".[5]
The fifty "problems" or stories and their corresponding lessons tend to be in somewhat random order, so that four tables of contents are provided. The first table of contents lists the "Contents by Story", and the second lists the "Contents by Lesson". The third lists the "Story and Lesson Chronology", i.e. a chronological listing including the time of year and the character involved, while the fourth table of contents provides a "Cross Reference of Project Management Processes and Lessons".
The book includes a CD on which you can find 25 templates for key project management deliverables such as a Project Definition Document (eight pages), a "Scope Change Log" (two pages), a "Communications Plan" (four pages), or a "Customer Satisfaction Survey" (three pages). These templates are provided in both Microsoft Word and PDF formats.
In support of these, an appendix at the end of the book provides a summary and description of the templates listed according to the steps in the TenStep process. Finally, a short Glossary provides narrative descriptions of key terms used in the text.
5. Ibid, p14
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Introduction
