A project management novel · The companion site
Deliver
or Die.
Eight stories, eight areas of Project Management. Here is what lies behind the stories: the principles, the tools and the mistakes not to repeat.
The manifesto
Ten things the book stands for.
Each point leads to the principles and the stories where it takes shape.
- The PM solves problems. Not an air traffic controller: a fixer of messes.
- Questions matter. Not the answers you already have.
- It is a creative craft. A thousand solutions to urgent problems, every day.
- It serves other people’s creativity. Limits give time its value.
- Leading is serving. One step ahead on problems, one step back at the applause.
- People come first. Without a healthy environment there is no project.
- Nobody makes it alone. Different skills, alliances, conflicts handled well.
- Plan, then adapt. One problem at a time, calmly.
- No method is dogma. Take from each what the project needs.
- The consequences are ours. Ethics and self-awareness are part of the job.
The eight cases
Each story is an area of the craft.
For each one: what went wrong, what it teaches, the right questions to ask.
It’s not about having the answers, it’s about knowing how to ask the right questions.
Marie Frayer, in The Negative Feedback Trap · p. 66
The PM is a Solver Asking the right questions A creative craft Limits as allies Leadership as service Portrait of a good PM A healthy environment No project is a solo act Conflict and feedback The client as an ally Brief and project economics Risks and plan B Plan, then adapt No method is dogma Communicate and document Ethics and consequences Calm and resilience Growing through crises
The toolkit
Tools for Monday morning.
The bestiary
Mistakes have names. And headstones.
The book’s villains, one per mistake. Recognising them is half the work.
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The toxic genius
Evan Stone: Imposes the idea, blames the team, sees the PM as useless and the client as lucky to have him.
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The polite executioner
Rolf, the PM Butcher: Sabotages quietly, collects weaknesses and uses feedback as a weapon. Unable to work in a team.
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The bottleneck
Sondra, “Our Lady of Accounts”: Every email to the client must go through her. “An unbearable bottleneck. And a pointless one.”
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The factions
The four cousins: Three parallel projects, no shared vision, no estimates. They sabotage themselves.
The glossary
Solvers, Momentum X, Gantt’s Prism, Kaboom.
The book’s words, explained.
Quotations from the novel are translated from the Italian edition. Page numbers refer to the Italian edition.