The Social Project Manager: Balancing Collaboration with Centralised Control in a Project Driven World

The Social Project Manager describes a non-traditional way of organising projects, managing project performance and progress. The aim being to deliver, at the enterprise level, a common goal for the business; one that harnesses the performance advantages of a collaborative community. Social elements help mitigate the constraints associated with the control aspect of project management, which is essential for governance. Team collaboration, problem solving and engagement in projects will never come from technology alone but require careful management. Peter Taylor draws on research from projects and the worlds of social media and communication to paint a vivid and practical guide to the why and how of social project management. There is no simple template for you to follow; instead he provides an explanation of the benefits, the tools and the constraints so that readers can navigate through to an approach that is sensitive to the culture of their organization and the nature of the projects that they run. Alongside the author’s ideas, the text features advice and case examples from many of the leading technology providers. The Social Project Manager is a very-readable and down-to-earth guide from one of the most highly-regarded practitioners and commentators on the world of project management.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 The Past, the Present and the Possible Social Future; Chapter 2 The Challenge of Being a Social Project Manager; Chapter 3 The Practical Social Project Manager; Chapter 4 The Social Project Manager as a Commercial Force; Chapter 5 The Socially Mature Organisation; Chapter 6 Social Project Management Tips;

About the Author :
Peter Taylor is a highly experienced project and programme manager who has focused his energies over the last three years to writing and lecturing; resulting in the hugely successful 'Lazy Project Manager' series of books and over 200 presentations in over 20 countries. Peter is also author of Leading Successful PMOs and the forthcoming Designing Successful PMOs, both published by Gower.

Review :
’A project is, by definition, a social effort. Since the advent of social media, experts have tried to adapt its tenets to project management. Peter Taylor’s The Social Project Manager is the book that project management professionals and social media enthusiasts like myself needed. If you want to harness the communication power of social media to help you deliver results, this is the resource to go to.’ Cesar Abeid, author of Project Management for You and host of the Project Management for the Masses podcast