Principles of Project Management
Free!
With Membership
$14.99
Suggested price

Principles of Project Management

The Building Blocks of Agility

About the Book

Project managers are searching for transferable and practical insights in a world of increasingly meaningless labels. Adam Russell takes a "principles first" approach to project management to sidestep memes, hype, and marketing. "Principles of Project Management" is an essential guide for project managers navigating the complexities of software development and systems integration projects. Drawing from decades of hands-on experience, Adam Russell distils his knowledge and experience of projects into easily digestible, actionable nuggets of wisdom.

These principles are the building blocks of agility because they enable project managers to flexibly 'think their way around a project' to meet real project needs without being trapped by the constraints of a packaged methodology or normative lifecycle model. This collection offers universal rules, heuristics, and opinions applicable to every project lifecycle model. These principles offer invaluable guidance you can adapt and apply to your projects.

Whether you're a seasoned veteran or an aspiring project manager, "Principles of Project Management" is an indispensable resource that will empower you to tackle projects confidently, informed by the wisdom of a true industry expert.

This book is a selection of the work previously published in the "Adam on: Projects" series, plus new content found only in this book.

  • Share this book

  • Categories

    • Project Management
    • Leadership
    • Agile
    • Management
    • Teamwork
    • Scrum
    • Agile
    • Leadership
    • Quality Management
    • Organizational Psychology
    • Life Coaching
    • Innovation Management
    • Strategy
    • Lean
    • Product Management
  • Feedback

    Email the Author(s)

About the Author

Adam Russell
Adam Russell

Adam writes about project management on his blog “Adam On Projects” and in his books and other content at Leanpub.com. He is also an expert in applying ChatGPT to project environments and has written several books on ChatGPT.

Adam coaches and mentors other project managers, and consults on various projects around the world.

Adam Russell has successfully delivered software development, software package, and systems integration projects for nearly 40 years, using both Agile and traditional approaches.

Adam started as a software developer, and then moved into pre-sales technical support when the IBM PC launched. He launched his project management career after he helped to close a significant government deal. The head of projects said: “You helped sell it. Now, you can deliver it”.

Since then, Adam has worked for companies ranging from 1-person startups to global tier-1 vendors and customer organisations in roles ranging from hands-on project manager through to General Manager of Systems Integration.

In those roles, Adam has been responsible for delivering hundreds of projects, ranging in budget from $5k up to over $100m. Adam also volunteers his time and skills with non-profit organisations.

Table of Contents

    • Getting Engaged with this Book and its Author
    • Notes about this version
    • How to Read This Book
    • Introduction
    • The Principles
      • # 0. What is a project management principle?
      • # 1. The source of project success.
      • # 7. Be the right kind of project manager.
      • # 63. Realisation of a Shared Vision
      • # 5. The power of the dog.
      • # 74. Creativity is not about thinking outside the box.
      • # 8. Practice Minimal Responsible Intervention.
      • # 96. The methodology paradox.
      • # 113. What is your approach to documentation?
      • # 121. Everything in the agile mindset derives from four first principles.
      • # 21. Everything in every project evolves!
      • # 47. How do teams self-organise?
      • # 31. Non-functional requirements are a secret weapon.
      • # 114. Dematerialisation is eating your project!
      • # 22. Is there purpose in your iteration?
      • # 26. Just because you want to do agile doesn’t mean you can.
      • # 28. The saddest oxymoron of the 21st century.
      • # 2. Successful projects? We’ve got both kinds!
      • # 44. Planning is linear, but execution is non-linear.
      • # 27. The triple helix of Agile evolution.
      • # 108. Just because agile welcomes change.
      • # 35. Where did you borrow your TechDebt?
      • # 69. Keep working the edge!
      • # 73. Last Responsible moment.
      • # 100. The secret to managing vendor negotiations.
      • # 76. Get your money fights in early.
      • # 79. Never interact without an artifact!
      • # 10. Shut the fuck up and listen!
      • # 101. Do you think your vendor's interests and yours are aligned?
      • # 118. There are only two reasons people follow a rule.
      • # 78. Project knowledge—we’ve got both kinds!
      • # 23. Abundance is the soul of your project.
      • # 86. Projects do not “deliver value”.
      • # 94. The scarcest project resource.
      • # 116. What's wrong with having Deadlines?
      • # 80. There are no bad documents.
      • # 81. There are only two kinds of project documents.
      • # 14. Proceed until apprehended!
      • # 98. A methodology is one big lump!
      • # 115. When you’re approaching a deadline.
      • # 119. Perfection in projects
      • # 15. First Action! Then see what happens.
      • # 3. Why do projects fail?
      • # 20. Always be looking for the $1.95 solution.
      • # 24. A project is a bridge.
      • # 120. Things a PM Should Never Do.
      • # 17. There are two contrary forces in the world!
      • # 40. Assumptions have Boxian qualities.
      • # 57. It’s great to be the first penguin off the ice!
      • # 58. Everyone is fine with your risk management plan.
      • # 64. Sequential is not a dirty word!
      • # 71. Fred Brooks was 100% correct in 1975—now, I’m not sure.
      • # 88. The evils of premature optimisation impact projects too.
      • # 111. You fell in love with the project, didn’t you?
      • # 112. A nasty little aphorism that misleads.
      • # 33. Why did you buy that software package?
    • More from Adam Russell
    • About the Author
      • Career Summary
    • Copyright

The Leanpub 60 Day 100% Happiness Guarantee

Within 60 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.

Now, this is technically risky for us, since you'll have the book or course files either way. But we're so confident in our products and services, and in our authors and readers, that we're happy to offer a full money back guarantee for everything we sell.

You can only find out how good something is by trying it, and because of our 100% money back guarantee there's literally no risk to do so!

So, there's no reason not to click the Add to Cart button, is there?

See full terms...

Earn $8 on a $10 Purchase, and $16 on a $20 Purchase

We pay 80% royalties on purchases of $7.99 or more, and 80% royalties minus a 50 cent flat fee on purchases between $0.99 and $7.98. You earn $8 on a $10 sale, and $16 on a $20 sale. So, if we sell 5000 non-refunded copies of your book for $20, you'll earn $80,000.

(Yes, some authors have already earned much more than that on Leanpub.)

In fact, authors have earnedover $14 millionwriting, publishing and selling on Leanpub.

Learn more about writing on Leanpub

Free Updates. DRM Free.

If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).

Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers) and EPUB (for phones, tablets and Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.

Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.

Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them

Write and Publish on Leanpub

You can use Leanpub to easily write, publish and sell in-progress and completed ebooks and online courses!

Leanpub is a powerful platform for serious authors, combining a simple, elegant writing and publishing workflow with a store focused on selling in-progress ebooks.

Leanpub is a magical typewriter for authors: just write in plain text, and to publish your ebook, just click a button. (Or, if you are producing your ebook your own way, you can even upload your own PDF and/or EPUB files and then publish with one click!) It really is that easy.

Learn more about writing on Leanpub