I have found the best book that I have ever read about software project management. The book that every PM that is certified in one way should have read. Without it the certification means nothing ¦

I am talking about AntiPatterns in Project Management.

This book describes AntiPatterns that occur in project management. An AntiPattern is a way to describe situations in software projects that have a negative impact on the overall project performance. Situations that are wrong. The book describes ways to detect them, and how to solve them.

For everyone that has done several projects it is a fest of recognition. The authors use a very humorous approach to describe some of the saddest episodes in a project life. But I was rolling over the floor laughing while reading this 400+ pages book.

The AntiPattern template that is used to describe the 18 PM [TAG-Tec]AntiPatterns[/TAG-Tec], consist of every possible aspect one needs to identify and resolve a problem. Like causes, backgrounds, symptoms and solutions.

The appeal for me personally is that the book takes the human aspect as one of the main causes of the problems¦ For those who have read my site, you know that is exactly my point of view.

Their list of root causes (general causes) for an AntiPattern says enough:

Haste, which causes compromises in software quality
Avarice, which causes greedy decision making and unnecessary complexity
Pride, the not-invented-here syndrome
Ignorance, the intellectual sloth resulting in failure to seek understanding
Apathy, not caring about solving software development problems
Narrow-mindedness, refusal to practice software solutions that are known to be effective
Sloth, lazy decision making by seeking the easy answer
Responsibility, the universal cause

Also their list of primal forces that are ignored, misused or overused (Unbalanced Forces) is a treat:

Management of Functionality, meeting the requirements
Management of Performance, meeting the required speed and scale of operation
Management of Complexity, defining abstractions
Management of Change, controlling the evolution of software
Management of IT Resources, resource estimating, planning and control
Management of Technology Transfer, controlling technology change
Risk, the universal force

Although the content of this book is gold, it might be difficult to use this book at first as a reference when you encounter problems in your project. If you read the 400 pages you will have a fest of recognition, but not everyone has the time to plow through the entire book.

In the back there is a table of all the AntiPatterns listed, with a description of the faulty situation, and a refactored (good) situation. So this might be handy.

What I personally like is that every AntiPattern has an anecdotal description: short sentences that people might say in your project, that give a clue about your situation. The sentences used are of course a little over the top, you while reading, you will immediately recognize them. So I would rather have seen that they included the anecdotes to the overview in the back.