Are you finally ready to move your business into the 21st Century? The boss-over-the-shoulder style of Management stopped working last century. Agile Project Management: A Quick Start Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Agile Project Management, 3rd edition is your guide to 21st-century project management. Here’s the place to start what Forbes describes as the best-kept secret in management. Author Henry O’Brien provides the history of Agile, explains the differences and demonstrates how to apply Agile in different sectors.

Book Details

This paperback Book is 21 Chapters, 140 pages with a six-page conclusion. Published in September 2015, it’s only available in English. The book is  6 x 0.3 x 9 inches, also available on Kindle. ISBN-10: 1517481856;
ISBN-13: 978-1517481858

Price

The kindle version of the book is $4.99, the paperback is $14.99.

Target Audience

This book is written for experienced project managers. People looking to modernize and create a more flexible management style need to read this book. This book is also helpful for people taking the course or testing for PMI-ACP. If you want to take a new tact on your next project or if you want to change your team’s culture, this is your starting point.

What Customers Are Saying

Eighty-eight percent of customers gave the book a 4 or 5-star review. These reviewers describe the book as a “solid starting point”.  People who read the book describe how following this guide created more enjoyable work culture and helped managers empower employees.

• Nathan G. (Amazon) describes how the explanation is compelling and through.
• David H. (Amazon) believes that this is the best book out there on Agile.

The readers who gave negative reviews focused on the editing. Many negative reviews describe poor word choice, an excessive amount of typos and poor organization. A few anonymous customers on Amazon dismissed the book as little more than Agile ad copy.

Content, Approach, and Style

Content: This is an uncomplicated, step by step guide to Agile implementation. O’Brien explains the history and development of the Agile mindset across the early chapters. He compares Agile to traditional approaches and then illustrates why it is the solution for modern PMs. The last part of the book is focused on implementation, the use in different sectors and the PMI-ACP.

Approach: O’Brien approaches each chapter using rhetorical questions and bullet point list. His approach is informal, addressing the reader personally and sounding like a conversation with a mentor. After asking and answering his questions, he summarizes his points to end the chapters.

Style: O’Brien doesn’t pretend to answer all the reader’s questions. He includes the information important to get you started on using the Agile approach to projects. His conclusion reviews how the practice has deviated from the manifesto and stresses the importance of executives and managers going further.

Why do you need this book?

Agile is a common buzzword, google it and you get thousands of articles. PMs need to stay on top of the latest trends, but it must be a strategic approach. This is the book you need to make a clear-headed assessment of what agile offers and how it can help you produce at the highest level.

The kindle version is $4.99, the paperback is $14.99.

Author

As indicated on the book cover, Henry O’brien is the author for this Agile book. However, no biography information was found on Mr. O’brien to provide in this book review.

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