BOOK REVIEW
Book Title: Customer-Driven Project Management: Building Quality into Project Processes, 2nd Ed
Author: Bruce T. Barkley and James H. Saylor
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
List Price: $64.00
Format: Hardcover, 607 pages
Publication Date: 2001
ISBN: 9780071369824
Reviewer: Crystal N. Whitesell
Review Date: July 2024
Introduction
In Customer-Driven Project Management: Building Quality into Project Processes, authors Bruce T. Barkley and James H. Saylor create urgency around placing the customer at the center of our projects and businesses in our digital era and offer a complete guide for implementing customer-driven project management.
Overview of Book’s Structure
The early part of the book explains why project managers must place the customer and quality at the nucleus of their projects and businesses. The authors then detail the many components of implementing customer-driven project management, including building quality into project processes, tools and processes to consider using, and how to continue growing as leaders. The book ends with a look at future considerations and an appendix to explore cases in project quality management, the Project Management Institute’s Body of Knowledge, section 8 on project quality management, and ready-to-use individual and team performance assessments.
Highlights
Customer-Driven Project Management: Building Quality into Project Processes makes clear that this is an impactful and beneficial way to implement projects, given the speed with which customers can find competitors who better meet their needs by making them their focus in this interconnected, digital world.
The book shows the clear difference between traditional and customer-driven project management. Another book highlight is the chapter on the eight-step process of the customer-driven project management improvement methodology for total customer satisfaction, which is: 1) define the quality issue, 2) understand and define the process, 3) select improvement opportunities, 4) analyze the improvement opportunities, 5) take action, 6) check results, 7) implement the improvement, and 8) monitor results.
Highlights: What I liked!
I liked that the case studies provided examples for project managers in various industries. One case involved implementing customer-driven project management in my industry while using similar metrics to evaluate progress. The case brought customer-driven project management to life for me.
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How to cite this review: Whitesell, C. (2024). Customer Driven Project Management: Building Quality into Project Processes, book review, PM World Journal, Vol. XIII, Issue IX, September, Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/pmwj145-Sep2024-Whitesell-Customer-driven-Project-Management-book-review.pdf
About the Reviewer
Crystal N. Whitesell
Rockwall, Texas, USA
Crystal Whitesell has over ten years of experience in the education field. She founded an educational technology startup, LUMI Learning, where she led a team to create a web application and over 600 sight word videos starring child actors as the instructors to aid English Learners in gaining background and sight word knowledge. Crystal received her Master’s in Technology, Innovation, and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She enjoys volunteering as the Project Manager for the Association of Business Technology Professionals, indoor and outdoor gardening, reading non-fiction, and having little adventures with her family.
Connect with Crystal at https://www.linkedin.com/in/crystalwhitesell/.
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