I've been managing projects for a number of years now, so I know how the process works in the real-world in comparison to theory. I read this book looking for flaws since I have seen so much out there that sounds great but adds more overhead and little or no value to a typical project.

This book has a couple of things that truly impressed me:

1. The book is full of checklist and Forms. These are a great quick-start mechanism to get any planner what they need to take charge and move forward more quickly. In my opionion, these are must-haves for a book like this. Here are some that I particularly liked:
   1. How the project should be planned
   2. Tracking tasks
   3. Features and functionality
2. It is chock full of tips. Lots of simple reminders. Some are labeled as tips which are scattered throughout the book on full page listings and on the outside edges. A few that I particularly like were:
   1. Track your time. I've seen this mistake time and time again. Just because a developer is a full time employee doesn't mean that he can work on a project and perform other day-to-day duties. Tracking the project helps keep the Project Manager informed of the effort going into the project and helps identify issues if a lot of time is being spent on the project and milestones are still at risk for being missed. I review my team's hours on a weekly basis and make sure they applied the estimated amount of time to a project while reviewing current phase health and overall project health.
   2. Another point I liked had to do with documenting the "Invisible Content" such at Title and Alt tags and, Description and Keyword meta tags. If not properly documented, these could easily be missed and cause site rework. This falls directly in line with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which I was happy to see them mention, since a great site in of no use if nobody can find you.

They Phase Model that they used was:

• Define the Project
• Develop Site Structure
• Design Visual Interface
• Build and Integrate
• Launch and Beyond

Although this includes everything that the model I use does, I prefer for the model to be more granuarly defined. I prefer to see testing as a defined phase, even though it was included in the Build and Integrate phase. This is of course, my opinion, so I did not hold this against the author's in any way in my rating.

With that said, this book contained some really good and unexpected information such as:

• The Client Survey as a Screening Tool. This is spot on... The "Red Flag Client" is the kind of client to runaway from. Even if you're just starting out and you want to get your name out there and some experience under your belt. The Red Flag Client is not the way.
• Lots of "Best Practice" information is also included: Naming Conventions, SEO info (what engines like and don't)...
• Analyzing Your Competition: It's not really part of planning a project, but is definitely a big part of giving you and your customer a competitive edge. Knowing your customer and a few of their top competitors can provide a lot of insight into their industry and help gain an understanding of your customer's expectations. This is great for customer relations. The more you know about them and their business, the more comfortable they will be with you handling their current and future projects.

All, in all, this was a good book and contains a lot of very useful information. It's a must-have for anyone starting out with project management and a nice library addition for a seasoned professional.