Reviews for Alpha Project Managers: What the Top 2% Know That Everyone Else Does Not

The average rating for Alpha Project Managers: What the Top 2% Know That Everyone Else Does Not based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-04-10 00:00:00 Carol Riseing This read more like an article than a book (and its font is large with double spaces and small pages to stretch it it to 190 pages). Also, the study itself had some shortcomings. For example, the total sample size is a tad small at 860 which is particularly evident when only 18 are determined to be "alphas". These 18 alphas are then discussed throughout the entire book with comparisons to non-alphas. Also, the definition of "alpha" is pretty arbitrary, based on the composite score of all stakeholders on a survey and some arbitrary cutoff of the top 2% scores. We don't know whether something is significantly different between the top 2% and the top 10%, for example. And since survey respondents provided scores on a range of 1 - 100, there is a lot of room for stakeholders to have different ideas about what an average or above average score is. Also, I noticed a few times that the author made useless conclusions, noting that the alpha project managers received significantly higher scores from stakeholders than non-alphas on several criteria - no surprise there, an alpha is DEFINED as someone in the top 2% of all scores. Still, I found it useful to compare and contrast the perspectives of a variety of stakeholders (including customers, senior management and team members) against those of the project managers. It got me thinking about what misconceptions I may have within my team.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-01-25 00:00:00 Ruthanne Trefelner I respect the integrity of the author in the careful way data was reported and presented. I came away with ideas for how I could do my own work better/differently. The book was very straightforwardly written and think it is a worthwhile read. If you are looking for a scientific study, this is not it, but it is valuable to see how within a non-representative sample the top project managers get their work done (e.g., how much time they spend answering emails, their approach to conflict, the time spent in execution process group vs others). Also eye-opening were some of the discrepancies pointed out between what project managers thought (Alpha or not) and their stakeholders.