Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 (7th edition)
The official manual. Dry in places, but it is the reference for the PRINCE2 exams and for settling arguments about tolerances and stage boundaries.
Reading and training
Books and courses I recommend
The books on my own shelf and the qualifications I'd point a new project manager towards.
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Books
Recommended books
Managing Successful Programmes (MSP 5th edition)
The programme management framework I use most. Read the chapters on benefits and the target operating model even if you never sit the exam.
How Big Things Get Done
Why large projects overrun, drawn from a database of thousands of them. The case for planning slowly and delivering fast is one every programme board should hear.
The Phoenix Project
A novel about an IT programme in crisis. It explains flow, work in progress and change control better than most textbooks, and it is a quick read.
Leading Change
The eight-step model still holds up. Useful when a technically sound system is meeting resistance on the wards or in the back office.
Making Things Happen
Practical, honest writing about the day-to-day craft of project management: plans, decisions, meetings and keeping people on side.
The Digital Doctor
A clinician's view of what goes wrong when health IT ignores how care is delivered. Essential context for anyone implementing clinical systems.
Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time
A readable introduction to agile delivery for people who have grown up on waterfall plans, from one of the creators of Scrum.
Training
Recommended qualifications
PeopleCert (accredited training organisations)
PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner
The most widely requested project management qualification in UK public sector job adverts.
PeopleCert (accredited training organisations)
MSP Foundation and Practitioner
The step up from projects to programmes: benefits management, blueprints and tranches.
Association for Project Management
APM Project Management Qualification (PMQ)
A broad, method-neutral qualification that is well regarded across the NHS and wider public sector.
Scrum.org
Professional Scrum Master I
A solid grounding in agile delivery for programmes that mix supplier releases with iterative local configuration.