Top 14 Best Project Management Books Updated 04 /2024

It's important for project managers to keep up with new trends and techniques in their field so they can stay on top of things at work.

There are a lot of online courses and classes you can take to learn how to do this, too. But project management books are also a good way to keep your skills up to date, as well.

Books are a great way for project managers to learn more about planning, product design, marketing, and growth in order to do better work. The hard part is to figure out which project management books to read to stay up to date on changes and new ideas.

Here we go: We've done all the hard work for you and found eight of the best books written by project managers and inventors.

The ONE Thing

By Gary Keller and Jay Papasan

Because it is a Teamwork favorite, the first project management book on our list is at the top of the list.

If you want to clean up your work life, read The ONE Thing. It teaches you how to get more done, build momentum with your team to reach your goals, and make your workplace less stressful.

Overall, the book's main idea is that project managers and businesses should only work on one thing at a time instead of trying to do too many things at once. To be more productive as a project manager, think about how you can focus on one thing at a time (like scheduling or budgets) and be more efficient at it at the same time.

A good reason to read the book is that it works backwards. What do you want to achieve in the next decade? Next five years? One year? Month? Week?

When you work backwards, it's easier to figure out what you want to achieve in the long run and what you can do today to get there.

Project Management for The Unofficial Project Manager

By Kory Kogon, Suzette Blakemore, and James Wood

If you're just starting out as a Project Manager, this book is for you!

It talks about everything from starting a project to executing, monitoring, and signing off when everything is done. Simple language from project management is mixed with examples from real-life projects so you can see how things will work out when you start working on a project for the first time.

This book is also for people who work on projects together or manage projects on their own. It shows you how to keep everything in order while also working on other things.

There are also a lot of great tips for motivating your team, leading well, and making formulas for planning every project in your sales funnel.

if you haven't planned a project in your life, or if you've been made the "unofficial" organizer and delegater of tasks for your team. You should read this book. The book is a simple, no-nonsense guide that will show you how to run a project while making sure you can still do your other work.

What the Heck is EOS?

By Gino Wickman and Tom Bouwer

Another Teamwork favorite: What's EOS, and why is it so great to use? It is a guide for teams who are having trouble putting EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) into their businesses.

This project management book starts with the basics.

There are many different types of operating systems, but what is the first one?

There are many different types of operating systems, but what is the first one?

What does EOS stand for?

What does EOS stand for?

Why does my company use EOS?

Why does my company use EOS?

A lot of people ask, "What is EOS?" or "How does it work?" or "What's in it for me?"

A lot of people ask, "What is EOS?" or "How does it work?" or "What's in it for me?"

This book is on the list because it doesn't use jargon and talks about what EOS is like in simple terms. Everyone on your team, from your designers to your marketing and content people, can read this guide and get a real sense of how EOS works and what it can do.

At the end of each chapter, there are quick summaries that help people who like to read quickly. It also has progressive chapters that project managers will find useful for motivating and energizing the people on their team.

For example, it gives advice on how to ask employees for feedback so that you can figure out how happy they are, find out what's bothering them, and encourage them to come up with new ideas. The authors say that simple ideas can start conversations and get people to come up with new ideas and change how they work.

When the team's ideas start coming up, project managers can use them to improve workflows and break down internal barriers that might be slowing down work.

if you're a project manager looking for a better way to connect with your team and onboard new hires, you should read this book. People who work for your company should know why you use EOS and how to start conversations about how to make it better. This book shows you how to do that.

The Lazy Project Manager: How to be Twice as Productive and Still Leave the Office Early

By Peter Taylor

We don't want you to be lazy, but what we want you to do is work smarter, not harder.

It's called "The Lazy Project Manager: How to be twice as productive and still leave work on time." A lot of project managers use traditional workflows. Peter Taylor says that project managers should switch to more focused and productive processes early on in the book.

"Lazy" people have an advantage over "workaholics," he says, because they think about work and life in a different way than workaholics do. A project manager should focus on only working on tasks and projects that are important so they can train their brains to work better. This analogy shows that project managers should only work on things that are important.

You can show project managers that they can work less if they follow certain rules. These techniques include the Conscious Competence Model and Moltke's character types.

This book is for project managers who want to improve their skills and spend less time on things that aren't important. The book shows how project managers can be more productive and have a better work-life balance by giving real-life examples of how to do this.

Product-Led Growth: How to Build a Product That Sells Itself

By Wes Bush

The project manager hamster wheel makes you feel like you are running on it.

No? Then Product-Led Growth: How to Build a Product That Sells Itself is the book for you.

As a project manager who moved into the world of Software-as-a-Service, Wes Bush made many mistakes that he took with him. This book was written by Bush, and it includes many of those mistakes (SaaS). To write the book, he came up with the idea after getting up one day and wondering why he had spent $300,000 () on promoting a whitepaper that didn't work out very well.

It talks about everything from project development to customer frameworks, pricing strategies, and product sprints, among other things. It's clear from the title that the book is about products. People who work on projects learn how to build a business around a product and keep customers by giving them a good time.

Are looking for an easy-to-follow book that tells you what you need to do (with real-life examples) to build a product-driven company. You should read it. It has examples that say "do this, don't do that," and there are even scripts that can help you make emails and landing pages to start getting customers.

Doing Agile Right: Transformation Without Chaos

By Darrell Rigby, Sarah Elk, and Steve Berez

You probably already know that agile project management is a very popular method, but have you actually learned how to do it well?

If project managers use Agile correctly, it can be very effective. In their book Doing Agile Right: Transformation Without Chaos, authors Rigby, Elk, and Berez say that Agile is only powerful if project managers use it correctly, which is why they say that it is important to use it correctly. They say it's not easy to do.

There are some common misconceptions about project management that the book tries to clear up.

Agile isn't the best way to work on every project.

Agile isn't the best way to work on every project.

Agile isn't a quick fix for companies that have problems with how they work together.

Agile isn't a quick fix for companies that have problems with how they work together.

It's also important to note that project managers can only truly benefit from agile if they learn some of the basics of the method. A project manager should know how to work with agile. This is what the book makes the case for in this way:

They say that when teams use Agile processes well, they can be creative and productive at the same time.

Is a project manager who hasn't seen the real change that agile can make. Learn where you are going wrong and how not to use agile on projects you don't want to work on. You'll also find out how to master and grow these techniques with your team.

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