Engineering Project Management Books

If there’s one thing that is lacking in engineering college education, it’s project management.  Most college provide an overview as part of a general engineering course, and the good ones even provide a full course.  We come out of university as technical experts, but most of an engineer’s time is spent on project management.  Therefore, I think that every engineer should spend time reading project management books, and in that spirit, here is a small list of the options out there:

	Engineering Project Management by Nigel J. Smith This is a great starter book which focuses on project management in an engineering context.  It provides a clear description of the aims of project management, based on best practice, and discusses the theory and practice in relation to multi-disciplinary engineering projects, both large and small.  It provides a comprehensive overview of project scheduling techniques, earned value, supply chain management, public-private partnerships, quality management, and the numerous other issues that go along with engineering project management.  An overview of the Prince2 method of project management is included.  It is written by the professor of Construction Project Management at Leeds University. Overall, this is a great book for engineers interested in project management.
	Project Management by Harold Kerzner This book is considered the bible of project management and, although not engineering-specific, provides a comprehensive technical base from which the engineer can practice project management.  The book uses the methodology of the Project Management Institute’s Project Management Body of Knowledge.  Concepts include organizational structures, management functions, conflicts, variables for success, risk management, planning, network scheduling techniques, and cost control. Dr. Harold Kerzner is the Senior Executive Director with the International Institute for Learning.
	Project Management for Engineering Design by Charles Lessard, Joseph Lessard This book is an introduction to project management and focuses on the design side of the engineering profession.  It follows the methodology of the Project Management Body of Knowledge.  Each knowledge area is devoted its own chapter and the fundamental principles of the that knowledge area to engineering design are explained.  Additional emphasis is placed on earned value analysis, managing team conflict and making technical decisions, all topics that engineering design contains much of. Overall, this is an older book (2007) but provides a slightly more practical, less academic look at engineering project management.  It is highly recommended for those involved in engineering design.
	Industrial Megaprojects by Edward Merrow This book is intended for engineering, construction, and manufacturing professionals and is an ideal book for project managers for larger projects.  Although you don’t need to be a project manager on a “megaproject” per se to get full use out of this book, the author has extensive statistics about how large projects are run and what the cause and effect factors are.  Even better, many real life case studies are documented throughout the book and the lessons learned are given extensive analysis.  The book follows the methodology of the Project Management Body of Knowledge. Overall, I highly recommend this book because it is so highly focused on the practical rather than theoretical, and the extensive study of large projects can be applied to small ones as well.  A must have for an engineer’s bookshelf.