Based on his nine years of experience as a program manager for Internet Explorer, and lead program manager for Windows and MSN, Berkun explains to technical and non-technical readers alike what it takes to get through a large software or web development project. Making Things Happen doesn't cite specific methods, but focuses on philosophy and strategy. Unlike other project management books, Berkun offers personal essays in a comfortable style and easy tone that emulate the relationship of a wise project manager who gives good, entertaining and passionate advice to those who ask.

You can have the best business in the most exciting industry even, but if the execution isn't there, then we don’t make it happen." simple is not the same thing as easy. For example, it's a simple thing to run a marathon. You start running and don't stop until you've reached 26.2 miles. What could be simpler? The fact that it's difficult doesn't negate its simplicity. How broad or narrow is the group’s sense of humor? What topics are forbidden to laugh at or question? How are delicate/difficult/contentious subjects or decisions handled by others? There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love; there’s only scarcity of resolve to make it happen."To influence how things happen, managers need to understand how to use their power. Berkun lists different kinds of power for managers to consider how they are used in their organizations: All leaders have political constraints. Every executive, CEO or president has peers or superiors who limit their ability to make decisions. In general, **the more power someone has, the more complicated are the constraints upon it**. No matter what you do, how hard you work, or who you work with, things will still go wrong… The only way to completely avoid difficult situations is to do nothing of importance. Now is the **time begin the postmortem process**. Give yourself, as well as your team, the benefit of learning from what went well and what didn’t go well. Jane Murphy Thomasis an independent consultant, practitioner, project manager and social anthropologist in projects for UN agencies, NGOs, governments, donor agencies, and consulting firms, specializing in anthropological approaches and community participation in conflict and disaster-prone locations.

While the book is well-written and structured, it feels like a nice long talk with someone who is being completely honest about the way things work. It’s the talk that you have with someone that shapes your whole professional life. The moment when you figure out that you can do a good job, treat people with respect, and not waste too much time and effort on things that won’t work. I’m going to keep the book close to my side and refer to it often.” The more estimates you make, the less precise they are.** However, rough estimates are the only way to create a point of departure for having better ones. The medical environment, especially trauma situations, offers a fascinating comparison for team-based work, high-stress decision making, and project outcomes that affect many people every day.

Disclaimer

What slows progress and wastes the most time on projects is confusion about what the goals are or which things should come before which other things. Many miscommunications and missteps happen because person A assumed one priority (make it faster), and person B assumed another (make it more stable). This is true for programmers, testers, marketers, and entire teams of people. If these conflicts can be avoided, more time can be spent actually progressing toward the project goals. Effective PMs simply consider more alternatives before giving up than other people do. They question the assumptions that were left unchallenged by others, because they came from either a VP people were afraid of or a source of superior expertise that no one felt the need to challenge. The question “How do you know what you know?” is the simplest way to clarify what is assumed and what is real, yet many people are afraid, or forget, to ask it. Being relentless means believing that 99% of the time there is a solution to the problem (including, in some cases, changing the definition of the problem), and that if it can’t be found with the information at hand, then deeper and more probing questions need to be asked, no matter who has to be challenged. The success of the project has to come first.