Project Management Best Practices: Achieving Global Excellence (Kerzner, H. 2006)

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Some of the key takeaways are that project management best practices can be applied across different industries and that measuring ROI of project management is important.

Some examples of excellent organizations mentioned are Johnson Controls, Motorola, Infosys, Hewlett-Packard, Sherwin-Williams.

Some of the fundamental project management issues covered include various methodologies, integrated processes like TQM and concurrent engineering, culture, and management support.

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Project Management Best Practices: Achieving Global Excellence (Kerzner, H.;


2006)

Article  in  IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management · June 2007


DOI: 10.1109/TEM.2007.893984 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. 54, NO. 2, MAY 2007 391

Book Reviews
Kerzner’s Project Management Logic Puzzles—H. Kerzner (Wiley, pressive body of work will be intrigued by this offering, as will those
2006). Reviewed by J. K. Pinto looking for new approaches to teaching project management concepts.
Finally, fans of logic puzzles in general will enjoy this collection of
The ability to manage projects effectively has always involved more
challenges and who knows? They might pick up some valuable project
than careful planning, knowledge, intuition, or even luck. Embedded
management tips along the way.
in our myriad and seemingly daily decisions on resource allocation,
network development, duration or cost estimation, activity crashing,
Project Management Best Practices: Achieving Global
and project control is the strong need to apply a process of logical rea-
Excellence—H. Kerzner (Wiley, 2006). Reviewed by J. K. Pinto
soning. Why do we make one choice among many? What are the con-
comitant tradeoffs, costs, and benefits? How do laws of cause and effect One of the most common refrains heard by project management
apply? In short, logical analysis and careful reasoning form a critical teachers, trainers and consultants from their classes is, “How do other
backdrop to every significant decision we make in the course of man- companies manage to do this?” Experience shows us that there is an
aging a project. insatiable search for some general standards of excellence against
Kerzner’s Project Management Logic Puzzles is an intriguing new which firms can compare their practices, gain important tips for im-
addition to the project management catalog. This is not an academic provement, and continuously measure themselves. These are some of
work; in fact, it defies easy classifications. Dr. Kerzner has created 100 the reasons why noted project management expert Harold Kerzner’s
logic puzzles, each set within some aspect or challenge that project book, Project Management Best Practices, is such a welcome ad-
managers might routinely face (e.g., capacity planning, team meet- dition to the literature. In Best Practices, Kerzner offers a gold-
ings, assigning resources, etc.). For those who are fans of logic puz- mine of information, all gleaned from the behavior of some of the
zles in general, Kerzner’s book offers a welcome set of challenges. For most project-savvy organizations in the world. His list is a veritable
project managers who have never attempted to solve such puzzles, the who’s-who of excellent organizations, including Johnson Controls,
settings, taken directly from real project management issues, is sure to Motorola, Infosys, Hewlett-Packard, Sherwin-Williams, . . . the list
be appealing. goes on and on.
Logic problems represent a form of reasoning that requires deductive What is particularly attractive about the companies Kerzner has used
analysis be applied in order to solve a problem with the aid of a set for his examples is that they include firms across the industrial spec-
of clues. So, for example, one of the puzzles in this book asks you to trum, from service organizations to heavy manufacturing, from IT to
identify the names, titles, and years of experience of each member of a pharmaceuticals. In short, the lessons Kerzner draws in this book are
project team from a set of five clues as to their identities. Clues such as so compelling precisely because his examples are so broad-based. In
“The person with 14 years of experience is standing in position 3 in the making his case for excellent practices, it is noteworthy that Kerzner
figure” are provided and give the reader the basis for making a series of lays to rest the canard that each organization’s problems are unique,
deductions in order to solve the overall problem. The full set of puzzles that excellent practices do not “travel well,” and that each industry must
in this book offer a similar pattern; that is, there is a method to solving discover anew the behaviors that lead to superior project management
logic puzzles and each of these puzzles conform in general nature to performance. Certainly there are some project management activities
this pattern. However, the appeal lies with the problems themselves, set that will be uniquely or highly crafted depending upon industry type
as they are within the model of common project management activities (IT vs. construction, for example); however, Kerzner demonstrates con-
and challenges. vincingly that at the core, the pursuit of excellence in project manage-
Project Management Logic Puzzles represents a bit of an indulgence ment follows some common behaviors.
from Dr. Kerzner. He notes in the preface that he has been “addicted” Best Practices is organized into 13 chapters, covering a wide variety
to logic puzzles for well over 20 years and has been collecting, devel- of fundamental project management issues and activities, including
oping, and refining his own set of logic puzzles for project management various methodologies, integrated processes like TQM and concurrent
training. In fact, Kerzner states that he has been using these puzzles in engineering, culture, and management support. Each of these chap-
his courses and has found that “they can be used as a teaching tool as ters is filled with specific company examples; that is, we don’t learn
well.” The above statement left me with the question: all well and good, about corporate culture in a general sense, we learn about how Mo-
but how? It is unfortunate that neither the preface nor a forward fully torola, EDS, or Convergent Computing manages their corporate cul-
introduces the author’s intent, i.e., Kerzner’s motivation for creating ture, always with an eye toward improving project management per-
this work, how it can best be used, what messages he hoped to impart formance. Of particular interest to me were two of the chapters that
through it, or how other project management instructors can use the Kerzner included at the end of the book, dealing with some of the
book for their own courses. The value inherent in a book of this type timeliest and most important issues confronting project management
could have been clearly elaborated in a preface, along with an explana- today; namely methods for measuring return on investment for project
tion of why logic puzzles are particularly useful to project managers. management training and the relationship between project management
Its absence is the only real “negative” I could find with the book. and Six Sigma. With the profound increase in project-based work in
Ultimately, a book on logic puzzles for project management will find organizations, a growing body of research has begun to investigate the
a number of devotees. Many who are familiar with Dr. Kerzner’s im- financial return on investment in project management training. Kerzner

The reviewer is with the Sam and Irene Black School of Business, Pennsyl- The reviewer is with the Sam and Irene Black School of Business, Pennsyl-
vania State University, Station Rd., Erie, PA 16563 USA (e-mail: jkp4@psu. vania State University, Station Rd., Erie, PA 16563 USA (e-mail: jkp4@psu.
edu). edu).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEM.2007.893983 Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEM.2007.893984

0018-9391/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE


392 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT, VOL. 54, NO. 2, MAY 2007

tackles this issue head-on, offering some important methods for demon- Harold Kerzner has hit a genuine home run with Project Manage-
strating the “real” value-added that many of us have always assumed ment Best Practices. It is highly readable, informative, and most impor-
project management offered but were unable to accurately measure. tantly, filled with vignettes and detailed examples of how some of the
It is equally interesting to see Kerzner’s take on the linkage between best project management practitioners make it work successfully. Con-
project management and another recent management tsunami, the rise sultants and trainers looking to answer their classes’ “How do the ex-
of Six Sigma training. Rather than adopting the common “either-or” cellent project management organizations do it?” questions need look
perspective, Best Practices shows how these two important processes no further than this work.
can work in tandem for enhanced corporate success.

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