The Art of Project Management

History

Boorstin, Daniel J., The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination (Vintage, 1993) ISBN 0679743758

Boorstin's series of three history books (The Discoverers, The Creators, The Seekers) are worth their weight in gold. The Creators follows the Western history of creative work, from architects, painters, and writers, to engineers. He finds anecdotes and stories that make their pursuits directly relevant and inspirational to anyone trying to do creative work today.

Kidder, Tracy, Soul of a New Machine (Back Bay Books, 2000) ISBN 0316491977

This book captures the spirit of the early computer revolution, when the focus was still on hardware and electrical engineering. The strength of this book is Kidder's ability to capture the compulsive and obsessive drive engineers have to build and create. Despite the fact that the story centers on the Data General machines and minicomputers they were building in the late 1970s, I still find this book best captures the personal and team challenges of working in the tech sector.

Kranz, Gene, Failure Is Not an Option (Berkeley, 2001) ISBN 0425179877

A thrilling account of Kranz's experiences in NASA's flight direction group. It covers the early Mercury missions, all the way through Apollo 13. There are many lessons here for project managers about working under deadlines, making commitments to deliver on what are effectively experiments, and how to lead and manage engineers under pressure.