I just quit my job at the Consortium and I start a new job Monday as a project manager. Coincidentally I had just bought "The Art of Project Management" by Scott Berkun based on a review by the SD newsletter, SD People and Projects. I'm almost half way and I disappointed so far. Mr. Berkun seems to have some good ideas, but I don't think he is truly aware of what I would call current best ideas in project management (namely TOC and Agile). He has mentioned Agile a few times, but he seems not to truly get it. Of course I may be judging him early, I still have 270 pages to go.
I think software has unique qualities that other mediums (i.e. concrete & steel) do not. The major difference is flexibility to change it's behavior in short order. Therefore software project management needs to take that uniqueness into account. Secondly, lean thinking has shown us that rapid time to market with best in class quality is achievable by rethinking the nature of production. I think lean thinking and agile can make this happen for software, we are just waiting for the Toyota of the software industry to show us how.
