Peter Taylor (19) (1957–)

Peter Taylor, author of e.g. The Lazy Project Manager, The Lazy Project Manager and the Project From Hell, and The Project Manager Who Smiled. summarizes the history of project management in four phases, the organic development of project management through experience, on through the second 'tools and processes' phase, and the third and most recent 'attitude and behaviours' phase, before finally arriving at the current 'complexity and criticality' phase. Wherease you could become an 'accidental project manager' in the 70's, nowadays you're at least an intentional project management professional. And that's the point, where the author unfolds the field of Real Project Management. Project managers have always been driven by their desires to imagine, plan and execute the marvels of humankind with greater efficiency, shorter timelines and lower costs. This value serves as a common ground to gather project managers from multiple generations, both young and seasoned, from all over the world to conceive a broad vision for the future. Drawing on a global survey of project management practitioners and academics and complimentary research results from 2013, the 2012 version of the Standish CHAOS Report, and cases from speaking engagements, LinkedIN discussions and voluntary contributors, the well-known iron triangle is extended to include e.g. complexity, strategic direction, added value for the business, sustainability.
Taylor highlights the importance of project sponsorship, communication, connection with the company's strategy and project portfolio, PMO, project preparation, culture and team building in a distributed setting, as well as lessons learned from the past projects. What is your legacy as project manager? Is there such thing as 'sexy project management' and how could project management associations and educational institutions increase the profession's attractiveness. A much deserved warning: project management is an experience thing. You can't learn it in a 3-years university course. Practice, curate and grow professionally.… (meer)

There are many different ways in which humor can help you and your project team at work. Peter Taylor gathered lots of humor, jokes about project managers, projects, failures and successes. He drew largely from fellow project managers who provided lots of stories. There are many serious books about project management, methods and approaches. Numerous studies about large project failures, until The Project Manager Who Smiled. Without fun at work, motivation to even get to work might be less and less each day. Theme songs, typical project manager characters, team building ideas and practical jokes to function as ice-breaker, tension and stress relief, and morale booster. When you're happy, you are more productive, more creative, more open, more likeable and a better leader.… (meer)

I saw what you did there. By appealing to our natural slothfulness, Peter Taylor suckers us into a book that makes you think it will teach you how to effectively manage projects while indulging in the fat, dumb and stupid lifestyle. But in fact, Taylor tells us, not without considerable humor, how we can be more effective, astute project mangers. Any program that includes a segment where one "works his ass off" is probably not for the lazy; although Taylor does a great job advising when we should be doing the heavy lifting and when we should delegate to others.

Anyone familiar with Project Management terminology (PMI, etc.), will be familiar with the stages of a project that Taylor covers throughout this book. He is writing this for those familiar with such terms -- this book is not a primer for project management wannabes. In the end, he does a rather humerus job consolidating the bulk of the text to s short summary for the truly lazy. Essentially, it comes down to: work your ass off at the beginning of the project, getting your ducks all in a row; then coast through the project execution phase, doing as little hands-on work as possible. Then get busy again at the end, wrapping it up and completing the lessons-learned portion.

Most project management texts are light on the actual management aspect; and therefore a lot of project managers tend to be work-a-holics (whether they want to or not). Peter Taylor reminds us it is okay to let others do the bulk of the work, and is often necessary to the success of the project to encourage this. His advise is more general management than project management, but it is a good combination and anyone following his suggestions might find they are a better all-around manager, and a pretty good project manager as well.… (meer)

The Lazy project manager is a guidebook for project managers looking for a way to make the best use of valuable project time. The overarching theme is that a lot of effort should be put in up front, followed by a period of somewhat 'lazy' time in the middle when execution is occurring and then a big push at the end to deliver the final product.

The book is filled with helpful tips for success and the author utilizes humor and wit throughout to keep the reader engaged. Considering the short length of this book, I would recommend it for those project managers looking to make the best use of their time.… (meer)