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Synopsis
Written in the form of a novel, this book covers the basics of project management in a memorable manner. Middle manager Will Campbell is suddenly thrust into managing a high profile project. With no project management experience and only the guidance of an eccentric mentor, Will learns the hard way. Against the backdrop of this personal drama, a simple, rational approach to project management unfolds.

Making It Happen: A Non-Technical Guide to Project Management provides a fresh and clear approach to project management. Written in the form of a novel, it covers the basics of project management in a friendly, interesting, and memorable way. Will Campbell, a reasonably competent middle manager, is suddenly thrust into managing a high-profile project that could make or break his career. With no project management experience, and armed only with the guidance of his eccentric mentor, Martha, Will learns the hard way. As Will navigates the rough seas of company politics, treacherous competition, and a project swirling out of control, he narrowly evades many pitfalls, and masters some indispensable project management tools along the way.

The publisher, John Wiley & Sons
A godsend for every harried manager who needs to learn the ins and outs of project management...yesterday! Written in a compelling narrative form, Making It Happen follows the trials and tribulations of a middle manager who has had a career-threatening project thrust upon him, as he learns the ropes of PM, the hard way.

The author, Mackenzie Kyle mkyle@direct.ca , March 23, 1999 A Brief Description of the Origins of the Book
Writing and publishing fiction has long been an objective of mine. And for quite some time I've been successful with the writing part. Getting published has been an entirely different matter. Like most writers, I have a day job, and for several years mine required me to think hard about how people handle these complicated things called projects. In company after company, my colleagues and I would see project managers facing very similar difficulties. The solutions that we could provide had consistently similar elements, and while the concept that there are some fundamental principles that apply to projects of all types is certainly not new, this is not an easy message to get across to people mired in the detail of one particular project. Consulting is one way to do it. Training is another, and I've done a lot of both over the last ten years.

Eventually, slow thinker that I am, it occurred to me to write a story about a project manager, cleverly disguising a work of fiction as one that might have some practical value in the working world. This would satisfy both my need to express some project management concepts in a different form, and my ongoing desire to entertain. I planned to create a protagonist whose cynical viewpoint would challenge this approach to project management at every turn, and lead him through a believable process of discovery, one that mirrored my own, and that of others applying these principles.

The end result was much longer and much more like an actual novel than what was finally printed. The fiction writer in me couldn't resist creating details and characters that added nothing to the practical value of the ideas, but seemed quite entertaining (at least to me). Fortunately, the publisher was keener to balance the two. I hope the final result is both entertaining and easy to read, and that is provides you with some practical ideas about how to get through your next project.

Reviews
The publisher, Dorset House Publishing, www.dorsethouse.com, dhpubco@aol.com, October 3, 1997
A Provocative Management Novel by "Peopleware" Co-Author ". . . insightful business principles for team-based project management . . ." -- John Sculley From prolific and influential consultant and author Tom DeMarco comes a project management novel that vividly illustrates the principles -- and the outright absurdities -- that affect the productivity of a software development team. With his trademark wit set free in the novel format, DeMarco centers the plot around the development of six software products. Mr. Tompkins, a manager downsized from a giant telecommunications company, divides the huge staff of developers at his disposal into eighteen teams -- three for each of the products. The teams are of different sizes and use different methods, and they compete against each other . . . and against an impossible deadline. With these teams, and with the help of numerous consultants who come to his aid, Mr. Tompkins tests the project management principles he has gathered over a lifetime. Key chapters end with journal entries that form the core of the eye-opening approaches to management illustrated in this entertaining novel. Read an interview with Tom DeMarco at http://www.dorsethouse.com/news/inttdm.html.