PMFORUM Breaking News

"Reinventing Project Management," a book co-authored by Stevens Institute of Technology's Professor Aaron J. Shenhar with Professor Dov Dvir, published recently by Harvard Business School Press, has been named among the "Five Best Business Books of 2007".

The top-five list appeared in December via the online technology newsletter, Shop Talk: Innovation, Marketing and Alliances. The list was compiled and published by John Caddell, the founder and principal of Caddell Insight Group, a consulting firm focused on using business narrative, launching new products and businesses, and negotiating alliances. A recognized expert in telecommunications, outsourcing and enterprise software, he has more than 20 years experience in high-tech product development, operations and marketing.

According to Caddell (pictured), “If you've worked on more than a handful of projects in your business career, you are familiar with failure. Lots of projects simply don’t work right: some are abandoned before they’re complete, others don’t meet expectations, others finish but are so agonizing that they burn out teams and managers both.”

“‘Reinventing Project Management’ dissects the topic in great detail,” he added. “It’s a refreshing look at project management, not least because [the authors] focus less on the discipline of work breakdown structures and task dependencies and more on what different projects try to achieve and how methodologies and management approach must adapt to the needs of the project.”

Other books cited in the list included “The Future of Management,” by Gary Hamel; “Negotiation Genius,” by Deepak Malhotra and Max Bazerman; and “X-Teams,” by Deborah Ancona and Henrik Bresman.

Dr. Aaron J. Shenhar is the institute professor of management and founder of the project management program at Stevens Institute of Technology. He holds degrees in engineering and management from Stanford University and the Technion in Israel. He is a recipient of the Engineering Manager of the Year Award of IEEE, and the PMI Research Achievement Award. Professor Dov Dvir is the head of the Management Department at Ben Gurion University in Israel.

Founded in 1870 and based in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,040 undergraduate and 3,085 graduate students, and a worldwide online enrollment of 2,250, with about 400 full-time faculty. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.