PMO Loves Books

We’re always reading and we love that you share your recommendations with us too:

 

I’m currently reading Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book “Antifragile” – lots of interesting things in there about managing risks, even the black swans, and building antifragile systems that can survive such risks

Patterns of Strategy from Patrick Hoverstadt and Lucy Loh – they were previous guests with us too!

It’s an older book but I loved Marcus Buckingham’s “First Break All the Rules”

We did a session on the PMO Service Catalogue – a good one for the bookshelf as a reference.

We like Black Box Thinking from Matthew Syed – puts a different spin on lessons learnt

And talking about lessons learnt – Learning Lessons from Projects from a PMO Flashmobber, Ken Burrell

My most recent purchases were ‘Value Stream Mapping – how to visualize work and align leadership for organizational transformation’ – Karen Martin

Getting to Yes – recommended after we were talking about negotiating on a #PMOwfh session

Dealing with people you can’t stand – Rick Brinkman & Rick Kirschner – another recommendation from a session about conflict management

Beyond Budgeting – recommended based on a discussion about the annual budgeting process and projects

Advising Upwards – pricey book but a good one for PMOs working with executives

Gower Handbook of People in Project Management – Dennis Lock & Lindsay Scott – a big book of every people and behavioural aspect you can think of

360-Degree Leader – John C Maxwell – got a shout-out on a #PMOwfh session

Superforecasting by Gardner and Tetlock. The superforecasters outperformed specialist intelligence analysts – a recommendation from Lucy Loh, one of our guest speakers

Managing Knowledge in Project Environments – from PMO Flashmob’s Eileen Roden

When we discovered that not many of us knows anything about megaprojects – The Oxford Handbook of Megaproject Management – this was recommended

The PMO Principles – a small book that has formed the basis of a few sessions here at PMO Flashmob – co-written with PMO Flashmob’s Eileen Roden

Project Psychology – Sharon De Mascia joined us for a #PMOwfh – love this book – there should be a course for PM practitioners that focuses on approaches, models and tools.

We did a whole #PMOwfh based around this book – The First  90 Days – first 90 days in a new job

We also did a full #PMOwfh session on this book too – Team Topologies – adaptive model for organizational design and team interaction based on four fundamental team types and three team interaction patterns

A timeless classic – many of the PMO Flashmobbers have read this book from Steven Covey – Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway – a book but also perhaps not a bad way to live your life, occasionally!

Really useful book – Agile Retrospectives – if you’re running them plus excellent ideas for facilitating sessions. We used some of the examples in a PMO Flashmob event.

Link: How Decision Intelligence Connects Data, Actions, and Outcomes for a Better World – The subtitle of this book I think says it all. Being data-driven has become a huge thing in recent times – but unless that data leads to decisions, actions and outcomes then the question has to be asked as to why the effort is being expended. This book will help you to have those conversations.

Marcus Buckingham’s name came up by one of the PMO Managers on a #PMOwfh session – StandOut 2.0 – to help manage your PMO team better

The Goal is written as a business novel that introduces and explains the Theory of Constraints. It is a mind changing book that opened my eyes to a new way of business thinking and problem solving. There is a follow up book called Critical Chain that takes the Theory of Constraints and apply it directly to Project Management. Both are highly recommended.

The PMO Lifecycle from Bill Dow – Bill came over to the UK a couple of years back to do a session for us

Taming Change with Portfolio Management – PMO Flashmob friend Terry Doerscher’s excellent book – he also ran a workshop for us on it too!

Measure What Matters – John Doerr – has been recommended a few times when talking about PMO measures

Ideas Generator – used on a number of different posts here at PMO Flashmob – a good book for ideas in improving your PMO

Project to Product: How Value Stream Networks Will Transform IT and Business: How to Survive and Thrive in the Age of Digital Disruption with the Flow Framework – Mik Kersten – the recommended book for understanding more about DevOps.

The DevOps Handbook – recommended during the DevOps session we did from a PMO Flashmobber

The Phoenix Project – A Novel about IT, Devops, and Helping Your Business Win

The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Digital Disruption, Redshirts, and Overthrowing the Ancient Powerful Order: A Novel about Developers, Digital Disruption, and Thriving in the Age of Data

Books for newbies – got new members of the team who need fundamentals of project management? Starting Out in Project Management – Portfolio and Programme Management Demystified – Project Management (Essential Managers)

The book that probably most PMO practitioners have on their shelves – the P3O manual. Stands for Portfolios, Programmes and Project Offices.

A great book for any PMO practitioner who is creating community of practice events or forum gatherings – The Art of the Gathering is great for alternative ideas.

Want to tell us what you love?