There is no shortage of big, thick books about Project Management, some of which present themselves as "the whole truth" or "best practice". It was therefore particularly refreshing to read Oliver F. Lehmann's "Situational Project Management" and to discover a more mature and eminently readable work.

His basic thesis is similar to "Situational Management" in which the manager chooses a style to suit the situation, rather than just using the same approach with all comers. It stands to reason that a single management style, whether friendly / demanding/ explicit/ empowering etc, cannot suit every situation and that better results are obtained adjusting the management style to the situation.

In the same way, Situational Project Management says that how projects are managed should depend on the situation. One example given is the "Exploratory Project", where many or most details are new and have to be discovered, compared with a "Mark n" project, which essentially upgrades an existing product, delivering a new version of an existing product.

This approach contrasts with the way project standards are often used. The bigger the book, the greater the tendency to treat it as "The Bible" and then to assume that EVERYTHING in it is fixed and MUST be used EVERY time. Although the PMBOK Guide (for example) specifically states that what it describes should be selectively evaluated and applied to any given project, I have often heard trainees say that it does not suit their very particular organisational situation, usually due to a misunderstanding of some detail. Such people do not want to have a perfect reference nearby to trip them up.

A second refreshing feature of Lehmann's book is that it deals with reality. There are several interesting discussions about what happens when time is reserved for a project, which is later syphoned off to another assignment, how the reserve is used up and the project manager then carries the blame for a late delivery. I do not recall such real-life discussions in most of the literature, which sometimes talks about "Best Practice". Even here Lehmann has a warning, pointing out that what worked in one situation should not be held up as "best practice" in another, both because it may not be the best solution in the new situation AND it lures us into giving up the search for improvements.

Finally, it appeals to me that the book goes into the "nitty-gritty", again in contrast with the average book, which covers basic issues in a textbook way.

They say that other people's experience is just as useful basis for learning as one's own, and a lot cheaper, so if you are open to moving on from basic (traditional) project management, and want to benefit from Oliver Lehmann's rich experience, then this books is strongly to be recommended.