Some readers might wish to bypass this book's introduction, or might think that this book 
is yet another story-tome about project management (PM) theory and principles. These 
readers would be wrong.

This book is one of those rare texts that introduce the reader to a topic in an easy-to-
digest and immediately-applicable manner. The book describes 50 essential PM lessons, 
starting with the TenStep PM Process, a new powerful theoretical foundation that 
includes just ten PM steps. The TenStep process is focused on two main principles: 
“a scalable methodology and ... one aligned to represent a progression of PM 
competences.”

These ten PM process steps, according to the two authors, Tom and Jeff Mochal, 
“represent the continuous need for more and more PM discipline and control as a 
project gets more and more large.” The first two steps are to be used for definition 
and planning, respectively: define the work, and build the workplan. The next eight steps 
are for managing and controlling the work: manage the workplan, manage issues, manage 
scope, manage communication, manage risk, manage documents, manage quality, and 
manage metrics.

Usually, project managers neglect the last two steps, but these two become very 
important when it is necessary to conduct all aspects of a very large project in parallel. 
So, the TenStep PM process is designed by the authors to be a very flexible and scalable 
methodology, to enable readers to manage a working duty or task process as a project, 
while supplying the necessary information to help them to ultimately become successful 
project managers.

The PM methodology is presented in a step-by-step approach. A specific step is tailored 
for each case in the 50 lessons, in such a way that the reader can see, for each of the 
lessons, how it is possible to directly apply one of the 10 steps to the particular case.

The book is itself very attractive; each of the 50 lessons is presented with an i
ntroduction, and with virtual players for each specific PM story. The lessons are 
scheduled over 12 months in a (virtual) company environment, with employees who have 
different names and responsibilities, commitments to different tasks, and different ways 
of accomplishing them.

The authors discuss the pros and cons of their techniques, including why the PM steps 
may or may not succeed, as well as specific issues like understanding the critical path of a 
project, managing risks before problems might occur, quality management on processes 
(not people), defining the overall project approach and the scheduled workplan 
management, collecting metrics and scaling the PM to determine the level of quality, 
communication plans and reporting procedures based on written status reports, document 
and deliverable quality and timeliness to match client expectations, using the WBS 
method to identify the work tasks required for a project, and team member's 
responsibilities for each activity in the scheduled workplan. All these issues are 
addressed in the context of a project roll-out, and with the in-depth professional 
knowledge of the authors.

In addition to the 50 lessons, the book includes a CD that contains 25 PM templates, in 
both MS Word and Adobe formats, supporting the TenStep methodology. These 
templates are described in the appendix. The book is also supplemented by a Web site, 
which offers even more information, as well as more PM templates for use with the 
TenStep method. A glossary that includes 23 basic terms in the PM methodology, and a very 
nice graphical presentation of each lesson text, make the book very valuable and 
attractive. 

This book offers a practical knowledge base for both beginning and advanced project 
managers, and for both very large and small projects.