There are several paths to embark on the career of project management but if you want to be truly successful in the job, you need the right education and experience. No matter if you have just started your job or you are a seasoned project manager with more than a decade in the field behind your back, you still need a fresh and accurate perspective to help you achieve your goals.
The truth is that there is a wealth of resources and tools that can help you with whatever you need. The hard part is to locate and identify the right ones and make use of them in the most appropriate way. Note, that price is not the leading factor here – some quality resources are free to use and yet can help you become a successful project manager.
To save you time, we have selected 7 groups of resources that can be of great use for any project managers. It is up to you to use one or more of them and combine them according to your taste and preferences.
Project management books
Books will always remain a great source of information in any field and project management is not an exception. If you like the traditional approach to learning new things, there are several project management books in PDF that can be of great use no matter if you have a few years of experience under your belt or you are just diving in the field of project management.
Here are a few titles that are worth considering if you want some interesting perspectives and insights about project management:
- Project Management Absolute Beginner’s Guide by Greg Horine is a step-by-step guide for those who consider the job or have just started it. You will learn to recognize the most common mistakes and how to avoid them along with which are the key qualities of a good project manager.
- Project Management for You: How to Turn Your Ideas Into Reality, Deliver On Your Promises, and Get Things Done by Cesar Abeid presents the project management best practices everyone can use. You will get to know basic principles and how they work and apply them directly to your workplace.
- Rescue the Problem Project: A Complete Guide to Identifying, Preventing, and Recovering from Project Failure by Todd C. Williams is a guide that can help you identify a disaster project, correct it or recover from a failure if it has already happened.
- Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management by Scott Berku, a longtime Microsoft project manager, is an interesting book containing a series of essays that explain complex concepts in a real-time setting. The book is quite an effective resource for successful project managers.
- An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything by Chris Hadfield is an interesting view over project management through the eyes of an astronaut. It is interesting to see how his experience can be translated into useful ideas related to successful project management.
Project management guides and eBooks
If you are not into paper books, you can download a project management guide or eBook that can help you polish your project management skills and acquire new ones at a time and place that you find convenient. There is a myriad of practical guides and eBooks on the net, so you may want to select a few from:
- The Ultimate Guide to Project Management by Zapier is a free introduction to product management.
- The Complete Guide to Managing Digital Projects is a free guide for anyone dealing with digital projects.
- 7 Deadly Sins of Project Management is an eBook by Brad Egeland to help you prevent and cope with common mistakes.
- Project Management Lite: Just Enough to Get The Job Done…Nothing More by Juana Clark Craig is a step-by-step guide to the basics of project management.
- Project Management Journal is published by the Project Management Institute, so you can expect a broad spectrum of topics and features related to the profession of a project manager.
- Best Practices of Resource Management by Teamdeck.
Project management online courses
E-learning is one of the best options for acquiring new knowledge and hence online courses are quite popular these days. Being a busy project manager means that you need a flexible approach to acquiring new skills and knowledge whenever you need them. Choosing the right course is essential and you can have a look at:
- Courses offered by the Project Management Institute.
- MIT courses for project management training.
- York University programs.
- Courses by Toronto School of Continuing Studies.
- Coursera Applied Project Management Certificate.
- Lynda.com: Become a Project Manager Path.
- Master of Project Academy.
- Prodevia’s course catalog for more experienced project managers.
Project management blogs
Reading a few articles on project management along with your morning coffee might be just the right way to start your day. You can see the unique perspective of each writer towards common problems and unusual suggestions for their resolution. You can subscribe to those blogs that you find useful and check them regularly for new insights. It is also a good idea to visit the blogs offered by project management software companies as there you will get great reviews of the tools offered and suggestions on how to successfully incorporate them into your work.
A few blogs to check are:
- The Accidental Product Manager.
- A Girl’s Guide To Project Management.
- Mike Cohn’s Blog.
- ProjectManagement.com.
- GanttPRO blog.
Project management podcasts
A project management podcast is a great way to fill in any break you have or to listen to while traveling to work. You can find podcasts dedicated to the role of women in project and task management or such that dwell on questions related to leadership and management as a whole. You can find solutions to common problems and learn from the approach of other project managers. Some good suggestions include:
- PM Happy Hour.
- HBR Ideacast.
- Fix My Project Chaos.
- Manage This.
- Project Management for the Masses.
- ProjectManager.com YouTube Channel, which offers more than 100 videos on a variety of PM principles, processes, and tips, including how to use online Gantt chart solutions.
- The Project Management Debate Podcast.
Online PM communities
Joining an online community of like-minded people is one of the best ways to find inspiration, share ideas and receive answers to your questions. Part of the paradigm of being successful includes sharing your knowledge with others.
You can connect with other project managers via:
- Facebook Product Managers Community.
- LinkedIn Product Management Group.
- Product Management Community on Reddit.
- #PMchat on Twitter.
Glossaries, templates, and checklists
Last but not least, a great resource for project managers can be the various glossaries, templates, and toolkits that you can either access for free or purchase online. They will come handy for both newbies in the field and for those who have several years under the belt.
You can browse the web for some of the free tools below and apply them for a greater success at your job:
- PMI Glossary of Terms.
- Glossary of Project Management.
- Max Wideman’s Project Management Knowledge Base.
- Project Management Templates.
- Construction Project Management Templates & Toolkit.
- ProjectManagement.com Checklists.
- Project Management Templates & Checklists.
There is a great variety of tools that can help a project manager deliver better results and communicating more efficiently with his/her team. Combining even a few of the suggestion above is the right path to achieving success regardless of the industry you are employed in.