Delivering on Your e-Promise: Managing e-Business Projects

Rating:
Summary: On the contrary ...
Review: Designed as a textbook for college-level courses, this book exposes students (and working practitioners) to what it realistically takes to manage an e-business project. Given the deplorable failure rate of such projects (and IT projects in general) the information and approach provided in this book, if followed, will go a long way towards reversing that trend.

What I especially like is the seamless blend of business and technical issues, and the way the author presents the realities of managing e-business projects. In particular, the first five chapters (nearly half of the book) cover the pitfalls to avoid, gives insights into critical success factors, and uncovers the technical and business aspects of e-business project management. The final six chapters tie together this material with case studies and other material that reinforce the first half.

Specific project management techniques are not covered in detail - if that is the type of book you're seeking I recommend "Managing e-business Projects: 99 Key Success Factors" by Stoehr (ISBN 3540421653). That book goes into project planning, estimating and control techniques as they specifically relate to e-business projects and complements this book nicely.

If you are a working professional and want insights into the pitfalls of e-business projects this book is an excellent resource. If you are teaching a course you'll prepare your students for the realities of e-business projects and make them more valuable to the workforce they will be joining if you include this book as a text. Either way it is, in my opinion, a book that delivers valuable knowledge and insights.

Rating:
Summary: On the contrary ...
Review: Designed as a textbook for college-level courses, this book exposes students (and working practitioners) to what it realistically takes to manage an e-business project. Given the deplorable failure rate of such projects (and IT projects in general) the information and approach provided in this book, if followed, will go a long way towards reversing that trend.

What I especially like is the seamless blend of business and technical issues, and the way the author presents the realities of managing e-business projects. In particular, the first five chapters (nearly half of the book) cover the pitfalls to avoid, gives insights into critical success factors, and uncovers the technical and business aspects of e-business project management. The final six chapters tie together this material with case studies and other material that reinforce the first half.

Specific project management techniques are not covered in detail - if that is the type of book you're seeking I recommend "Managing e-business Projects: 99 Key Success Factors" by Stoehr (ISBN 3540421653). That book goes into project planning, estimating and control techniques as they specifically relate to e-business projects and complements this book nicely.

If you are a working professional and want insights into the pitfalls of e-business projects this book is an excellent resource. If you are teaching a course you'll prepare your students for the realities of e-business projects and make them more valuable to the workforce they will be joining if you include this book as a text. Either way it is, in my opinion, a book that delivers valuable knowledge and insights.

Rating:
Summary: On spot advice from experts
Review: My advice is to read this book cover to cover before starting your next e-business project because you'll learn about the many ways for that project to fail if you don't take the risks and pitfalls into account.

In spite of the title the book is all about project risk management, and it delivers a wealth of information in a highly readable fashion. Every project manager will benefit from the advice in this book, as will business users and technical team members. It's also easy to read and is beautifully illustrated with graphs and charts that give meaning to points that they author makes.

While some may criticize this book using unsupported opinion remember that those who can do and those who can't teach. Buy this book and learn from it.

Rating:
Summary: Recipe for Success
Review: This is one of the most impressive, information filled books I've ever read. It manages to distill all of the important issues and factors for e-business project success into less than 250 pages.

While it looks like common sense advice, everything in this book is anything but common sense because I recognized one pitfall after another as the author described them, and know from experience that most are underestimated during project planning, but inevitably come back to haunt you later in the project. If you pay close attention to Chapters 4 (Main causes of e-project failure), 6 (Integration issues) and 10 (Avoid pitfalls in your e-business) in particular you'll save yourself a lot of grief.

Managing e-business projects cannot be done from an ivory tower. Get this book and benefit from the author's obvious experience. A perfect companion to this book is Managing E-Business Projects by Wes Balakian, Keith Young and Rajesh Veerapaneni because it goes into the nuts and bolts of project management using PMI's PMBOK as a framework.

Rating:
Summary: Recipe for Success
Review: This is one of the most impressive, information filled books I've ever read. It manages to distill all of the important issues and factors for e-business project success into less than 250 pages.

While it looks like common sense advice, everything in this book is anything but common sense because I recognized one pitfall after another as the author described them, and know from experience that most are underestimated during project planning, but inevitably come back to haunt you later in the project. If you pay close attention to Chapters 4 (Main causes of e-project failure), 6 (Integration issues) and 10 (Avoid pitfalls in your e-business) in particular you'll save yourself a lot of grief.

Managing e-business projects cannot be done from an ivory tower. Get this book and benefit from the author's obvious experience. A perfect companion to this book is Managing E-Business Projects by Wes Balakian, Keith Young and Rajesh Veerapaneni because it goes into the nuts and bolts of project management using PMI's PMBOK as a framework.

Rating:
Summary: So Useless, It's Sad...
Review: Why can't someone write a practical book on e-commerce?
This book is so puerile, I can't believe the Financial Times had anything to do with it. The contents will numb your mind as it's all common sense you already know. Take for example the "six critical factors for success" cited in the book.

1) "Why e-business?" Duh... common sense, nobody would have bought this book if they hadn't already asked themselves this question. Answer is self-evident.
2) "Need good staff" Duh... no kidding...
3) "Time" Duh, no kidding... everything in life takes time...
4) "Need correct IT components" Duh, no kidding...
5) "Need money" Duh, no kidding...
6) "Legal approval" Duh, no kidding...

The whole book is like the above, it's all stuff that makes you smack your head and say, "No kidding, Sherlock!"
It is filled with charts, graphs and diagrams to point out the painfully obvious or the superfluous. Even the utterly clueless would learn practically nothing from this book.

Luckily, I teach an e-commerce course so I received this book for free as a promotion. Woe and sympathy to the person who pays any money for this useless tome!

Before I taught e-commerce, I was the project manager of an e-commerce site in NYC for three years. I currently consult, and I'd be laughed at if I suggested anyone read this book for guidance. It would be akin to assigning adults a book on how to tie shoelaces. Yes, it's really that insultingly insipid.