Unlock Strategic Project Management Insights

This book is hard to read. I skipped over several pages. It seems the author does have good information to provide about how to use the Logic Model for project management. But as the reader there is too much emphasis dedicated to author’s resume and not enough on how to apply the project management skills.

Terry highlights the foundation of objective and purpose. He shares detailed life and work experiences that are helpful in all project management industries. The framework described in this book have been valuable and I have applied them in my career in manufacturing. 100% must read! Very engaging and insightful!

I found this book very interesting. It covers an area in project management that often lacks proper attention irl: why are we doing projects and how we understand when we done. A suggested framework is very simple and stimulates to see blind spots in project environment.

I recommend this book to project managers new or seasoned. The logical framework is a great way to think for projects but also most if not all problem solving tasks. I also loved all of the questions to ask for each step and function of the process.

Once you've read Terry Schmidt's book (surprisingly, published nearly nine years ago) you'll undoubtedly sense the influence of Stephen G. Haines's [Strategic] Systems Thinking concepts. The book, which is more about Strategy Management than about Project Management, is valuable for at least three essential reasons:

(a) It underlines the importance of causality (if-then) for Strategic Planning and the significance of Why-What-How logic chain clarity
(b) It highlights the role of Assumptions, at any level of the strategic model, starting from [1-why] Success Aspirations (Top Goals) and Strategic Choices, to [2-what] Strategic Objectives and their underlying Strategic Gaps, to [3-how] Strategic Initiatives portfolio
(c) It promotes the simple Logic Framework (LogFrame) that should generally guide any Strategic Planning model design. Especially the fourth column (Assumptions) is usually the most overlooked component in many strategic plans

I was looking for a project management methodology that would be easy and accessible for all members of our organization. Strategic Project Management Made Simple is exactly what we were looking for. The approach is clear and simple with tools that are powerful to help you plan well from the beginning regardless of your project management experience. I wish I had come across Terry Schmidt and this process sooner and it would have saved us countless hours trying to implement far more complicated and quite frankly less effective project mangement processes.

We are using this resource to build our project management office (PMO) and lay a solid foundation we can build from into the future. I can't recommend this resource more highly for anyone interested in building sound, strategic projects individually or for their organizations.