In our courses we help our students create their professional libraries for the practice of project management.   Below are some of the books we recommend.

Project Management Overview

Cheetah Project Management Michelle LaBrosse, PMP
Markets don't wait.  Technology changes.  Organizations Merge.  Projects that take too long hurt business.  This is a handy how-to guide to put your projects on the fast track.   Learn how to run like a Cheetah and gain a competitive edge -  become a "Cheetah Project Manager."

The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management Eric Verzuh.
This is a useful reference for doing day to day Project Management activities.

Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)--Third Edition Project Management Institute
This is put out by Project Management Institute and is the basis for the Project Management Professional Certification exam.

 Project Management Memory Jogger Paula Martin, Karen Tate
Handy pocket guide with easy to use project initiation, planning, control, execution, and closeout processes.

MS Project 2002

Microsoft Project Version 2002 Step by Step
This is an easy to use guide to learning MS Project 2002. If you set aside four to six hours, you can make it through the majority of the book. The book includes a demo version of MS Project that can be used for 60 days.

Career/Self-Help

Do What You Are by Paul D. Tieger, Barbara-Barron-Tieger
This book helps uses the Meyers-Briggs Personality Type to discover the career that is right for you.

Team Dynamics

The Art of Speedreading People : How to Size People Up and Speak Their Language by Paul Tieger, Barbara Barron-Tieger and Marly A. Swick
This book uses the Meyers-Briggs Personality Type to show the most effective way to communicate with people of various personality types. It's a must read if you want to become an effective project manager.

The Magic of Conflict by Thomas Crum
This book teaches how to apply the principle of Akido in social situations. Gives very useful techniques on communicating through conflict so both parties can use the conflict as a growth and learning experience. One read that will change the way you move through the world.

  The Team Handbook by Peter R. Scholtes, Brian L. Joiner, Barbara J. Streibel
A solid resource for project managers using cross functional teams. Provides information resource for planning and implementing effective meetings, and ensuring excellent team dynamics.

Scope Management

 Customer-Centered Products Creating Successful Products through Smart Requirements Management by Ivy F. Hooks and Kristin A. Farry
This book provides a clear process for how to collect the right requirements from the start of the project and how to manage the ever evolving requirements so the project stays on track.

 Are Your Lights On? How to Figure Out What the Problem REALLY Is by Donald C. Cause and Gerald M. Weinberg.
All projects are ultimately done to solve some problems.  If you don't get the problem correct, you have less of a chance of creating the correct solution.  This book is the precursor to creating good requirements - understanding the problem you need to solve comes first.

 Exploring Requirements Quality Before Design by Donald C. Cause and Gerald M. Weinberg.
This book is a more technical orientation that the Are Your Lights On? by the same authors.  It provides detailed processes on how to effectively develop requirements based on solid problem solving techniques.

Scheduling

 Critical Chain by Eliyahu M. Goldratt.
Critical Path Method is stressed as the key tool to examining and exposing the problems that will be encountered. The book describes the management attitude and method changes that should be adopted to improve the overall effectiveness of a project team, and by extension, the whole organization.

 Analysis Bar Charting by John Mulvaney
This is an easy to read book with a simplified approach to the critical path method, using a precedence network diagramming method.

Communication

  Conversationally Speaking : Tested New Ways to Increase Your Personal and Social Effectiveness by Alan Garner
Even if you're a great conversationalist, this book can make you better. It doesn't just teach you how to talk, the biggest value may be in that it teaches you how to listen so other's will talk - it enables true dialog rather than two people having a monologue.

  Talking the Winner's Way by Leil Lowndes

We liked this book so much we hired Leil to teach our staff how to communicate with our customers.   We are known in the industry for our outstanding customer service - and we want to stay that way as we grow very fast.   So we figured we had better institutionalize the communication techniques that helped us become number one.

Negotiation

  Cheetah Negotiations - How to Get What you Want, FAST - by Michelle LaBrosse, PMP, and Linda Lansky, PMP.

Get what you want, FAST!  Become a Cheetah Negotiator.  Project Managers spend their days in continual negotiations - project team members, project sponsors, project customers, and suppliers.  You will learn how you can get what you not only want, but truly deserve with this step by step method for setting up and conducting successful negotiations focused on mutual gain.

  Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher, William Ury, Bruce Patton
This is one of the text books we recommend in the Cheetah Project Manager Negotiations class.  This book covers negotiations that are in fact much tougher than what most project managers encounter on a day to day basis,  but you will learn the fundamentals of how to create win-win relationships.

  Creating Contagious Commitment: Applying the Tipping Point to Organizational Change by Andrea Shapiro This book shows how to use the innovative concepts of the Tipping Point by Gladwell (also the author of Blink) to inspire change in an organization.   It shows how to apply common levers that motivate humans to adopt new concepts in the application of organizational change initiatives.  Most people who implement project management within an organization face the standard issues of resistance to change.  This book presents a realistic approach for project managers who want to effectively negotiate the land mines that exist when attempting to change operational paradigms.  

Corporate Strategy

  Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors by Michael Porter.

If you are in charge of developing the competitive strategy for your organization, get this book.  If you want to move up the corporate ladder, get this book and determine how you can make your organization more competitive.  Doing great project management only counts when the projects you are working on in some way enable your organization to meet their strategy.   Picking the right projects is as important as doing projects right.  "Right" projects are those that help achieve the competitive strategy.  If you don't know your competitive strategy, you have no idea if you are working on the right projects or not. 

Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore

This book is for anyone trying to grow a new product and company in today's business environment.  It makes you think about how best to strategically position your product to enter the larger main-stream market. 
 

Teaching

 The Accelerated Learning Handbook: A Creative Guide to Designing and Delivering Faster, More Effective Training Programs by Dave Meier
Learning is a personal activity that comes about from a variety of experiences. This book shows how to put together programs so people have experiences that will accelerate their learning.