I’m being sent on the week long APMP course next month.

Does anyone know of a good book that’s not a dry text book I can read in advance? I’m a disorganised bugger with little/no project engineering experience!

a good book that’s not a dry text book

you’ll be lucky

when I did APMP a few years ago the expectation was that you already had some PM experience so you were getting the skills and theoretical background to explain and improve what you do already. Not sure how it’ll work if you have little experience. Good luck though, a week full time is hard work, especially if you end up trying to do half your real job at the same time.

Prince2 for Dummies?

(that’s the title …not an insult btw!)

Isn’t prince2 terminology different to everyone else’s? (this is just hearsay, i’ve not done it myself)

Project management for dummies seems to exist. Not read it but that series is usually quite intelligible.

Prince 2 is the place to start IMO; will give you basic grounding in principles etc.

I’ve got the books somewhere which if I can find it, will happily post.

Prince 2 is the place to start IMO; will give you basic grounding in principles etc.

Christ NO!

The lad needs to understands some principles before being bamboozled with death by paperwork.

Something like this will give you a basic understanding of what project management can be about.

Project Management for STWers

Of course, PMing comes in many flavours, so don’t get hung up too much one particular methodology unless you are being paid to use it.

Christ NO!

The lad needs to understands some principles before being bamboozled with death by paperwork

+1

Prince and APMP have quite a different emphasis, albeit essentially abut the same thing

Try here http://www.businessballs.com/project.htm

Good on basics and whole new world of acronyms

what ‘type’ of project management? What will you be delivering using your pm skills? Software?

Rather than read some dull PM by numbers books which some numpties thinks qualify them to be a (bad) pm how about so real thought provokers –

The Principles of Product Development Flow

Lean-SoftwareDevelopment

or even…
Succeeding with Agile Development

An old favourite, I don’t know if there’s a recent edition.
Project Management Demystified by Geoff Reiss.
Even an ancient copy would be good for the basics

A guy at work had a good book, he swore by it. Now what was the title… Ah! Got it!

“My project goes live tomorrow, I’m off on my holidays”

Christ NO!

The lad needs to understands some principles before being bamboozled with death by paperwork

-1 😉

This is the one I have somewhere; it’s all subjective I suppose as what would be suitable reading, but I can’t see what’s wrong with skimming through it for someone that has little/no experience.

Plus it was free!

Projects are oil & gas and petrochemical plant engineering and construction. My previous experience is all in the design of them. TBH I’ve no idea why I’ve been sent on the course, PM is usually seen as the route into senior management in our company and I’ve always vocally said I want to avoid that and stay in the technical group! Treating it as a way to see how the other half work but think I should get upto speed with at least the basics beforehand if I’ve any chance of passing!

I’ll expect sequential /process orientated / construction based type stuff like Prince will be more relevant for you. Afraid they aren’t very interesting!

TBH I’ve no idea why I’ve been sent on the course, PM is usually seen as the route into senior management in our company and I’ve always vocally said I want to avoid that and stay in the technical group!

Presumably even the technical group need senior managers – stop being such a fanny and embrace the opportunity 😉

**CLAXON**

most boring thread of the week alert

**CLAXON**

*coughs*

brakes – Member
Two options:
1 – ride road bike 7 miles home in the rain with a tyre with a 1cm gash in the sidewall patched up with Evans’ appalling adhesive patches and about 50psi in so it doesn’t burst (30-40 mins)
2 – get the horrible horrible trains then the bus home (1 hour) and leave the bike at work knowing that I’ll have to pick it up at some point over the weekend

You decide.

POSTED 3 MONTHS AGO # REPORT-POST

8)

Agreed. Apologies for contributing.

geoffj

Presumably even the technical group need senior managers – stop being such a fanny and embrace the opportunity

The oddest bit is the way the career-plan-route-map-thingy is drawn up, you essentially have to sit in limbo in the execution group for ten years before you can move, whereas the project and management groups branch off after about five.

Basically it might be a good opportunity to jump ship for a few years rather than sit and wait for the chance of promotion.

One of the guys I work with is in the oil industry. Seems quite outdated in the way the hierarchy works seems pay is based on time served rather than ability, at least thats how he describes it.

Always useful to get some training lots of people don’t get any these days

For a light read, try The Mythical Man Month

It’s about ancient software development but contains lots of good stories. And as the title suggests will cure you of trying to fix slippage by throwing resource at a problem.

There’s a good article here that explains the difference between PRINCE2 and APM.