Managing projects for some people may not be easy. Therefore, adding insight and improving project management skills by reading various quality project management books can be the right choice.

To increase your skill in managing a project, having high flying hours is one of the first ways. In the second way, it could be through a quality project management book. Apart from learning the strengths and weaknesses of your project management through past experiences, learning from the experience of the world’s professional project managers through their books is also not wrong to try.

To become a project professional, you need to know how to work with the many moving elements of a project, how to organize a team, to how projects can be completed on time and on budget. Not only that, project management also involves psychology, business, and even “tactical games”. So, Tomps has compiled 7 recommendations for the best project management books that can help you manage projects better while enhancing your career in the future.

9 Best Project Management Books To Boost Your Skill!

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK® Guide (Sixth Edition)

Talking about project management is certainly not complete without this one book. Yes, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK® Guide (Sixth Edition) is basic reading for project practitioners that want to know the ins and outs of project management. PMBOK has even become standard reading for those who are preparing to take project management certification. Not only for those that want to take a certification, PMBOK is also made for everyone involved in project management practice. Whether it’s academic students, educators, and working professionals who want to gain deeper insight into how to manage a project well. 

In this sixth edition, PMBOK also discusses its approach to the Agile environment in the chapter “Approaches for Agile, Iterative and Adaptive”. This 756-page book also features a dozen visualizations of diagrams, graphs, and other illustrations to make it easier for you to understand.

2. Project Management Absolute Beginner’s Guide

The next recommended project management book is the “Project Management Absolute Beginner’s Guide”. The author himself, Gregory Horine, is an IT Project Management professional with more than two decades of experience. For a project management book, Horine managed to make this book a solid, detailed, well-structured, yet easy to understand reading with the many examples that he wrote.

The style of this book makes this complex area of ​​project management understandable to even the layman. Even so, this book can still offer considerable insight for professional project managers. Horine also discusses various misconceptions in project management and what factors can have an impact on a project’s success. This book can also be applied to various organizations or projects, making it a good project management manual for everyone.

3. The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management

According to Oreilly, Eric Verzuh’s “The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management” is one of the best-selling project management books ever published. Eric Verzuh himself is president of the project management consulting and training company, Versatile Company in Seattle, United States. He and his team have spent more than twenty years improving project quality for a wide variety of organizations, including giants such as Adobe Systems, Inc., The Boeing Company, GE Capital, Lockheed Martin Corporation, and Nordstrom.

The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management is a comprehensive guide to real-world relevant project management methods, tools, and techniques. This book is packaged in a practical, easy-to-understand, but information-rich way that can provide answers to your confusion when faced with projects. The discussion in this book covers all the basics in defining, planning, monitoring project progress, and building stronger project teams. The new edition of this book even includes a new chapter on Agile project management, Project Management Professional (PMP) exam preparation tips, and many more.

4. Guide to Project Management: Getting it right and achieving lasting benefit

The next project management book was written by an experienced project manager who has successfully managed large projects such as Pfizer and British Airways, Paul Roberts. In this book entitled “Guide to Project Management: Getting it right and achieving lasting benefits”, Roberts emphasizes describing project management from a different perspective.

Consisting of 12 chapters and 368 pages, this book emphasizes the importance of getting the priorities and commitments of all members of the organization, including stakeholders, to make a project a success. Roberts also outlines four essential steps

5. Brilliant Project Management: What the best project managers know, do, and say

Written by Stephen Barker and Rob Cole, this book adequately describes the experience of both of them who have been active for 35 years in the project management industry. This 200-page book is divided into ten chapters. Starting from an introduction, then discussions about project planning, risk management, resource management, leadership, to facilitation skills. It also discusses the best ways to learn from mistakes during project management and explores additional resources that project workers can take advantage of.

Fun fact, this book is packaged in simple conversational language. In the discussion, there is an injection of humorous illustrations to emphasize the points that he made. Each chapter begins with a famous quote. The paragraphs are divided by headings and subheadings. This book also summarizes each important discussion in point-by-point form so that it is easy to remember and understand. Not stopping there, this book includes how to make the project run according to schedule and budget, success aspect, and how to achieve the project goals.

6. Project Management Lite: Just Enough to Get the Job Done…Nothing More

This 138-page book is recommended for beginners in project management, new project managers, or those who are new to project management and don’t know how to get started. Concerns about project management books with heavy and difficult-to-understand language will disappear here.

This book by Juana Clark Craig is a step-by-step guide packaged in simple terminology. “Project Management Lite: Just Enough to Get the Job Done…Nothing More” also has worksheets and notes lists for easy project management that you can follow. Craig draws on the more than twenty-five years of project management experience he gained while working for the Fortune 500 to provide a minimalistic and uncomplicated approach to managing projects through this book.

7. Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management

According to Amazon, “Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management” is another best-selling critical project management book. Written by Microsoft project veteran, Scott Berkun, this book offers a collection of essays on field-tested philosophies and strategies for defining, leading, and managing projects. Each essay in this book distills complex concepts and challenges in the realm of project management into pieces of advice that open our minds.

Uniquely, “Making Things Happen” does not cite a description of the method, but focuses on the subjective philosophy and strategy which is Berkun’s experience of managing projects for decades. Unlike other project management books, Berkun writes his personal essays in a comfortable and warm writing style. Reading this book will remind you of a wise project manager who is giving good, entertaining, and passionate advice to those who ask questions about the world of project management.

Those are 7 recommended project management books that can add insight and improve your skills in managing projects. Of the 7 titles above, which book caught your attention the most?