Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Note: This applies to the 3rd edition of the PMBOK Guide. The fourth edition appears to have cleaned up quite a few of these discrepancies. This is a poorly written book. Diagrams that were updated or changed for this edition are badly done, to the point of being meaningless. Many processes have wildly different outputs for the same set of inputs. There are some process inputs that are inputs into most every process (e.g. "organizational process assets" a meaningless phrase if ever I heard one). Unfortunately the team in charge of this edition did not see it fit to have the book technically reviewed by the many experts in the field. Beginning project managers will be ill served by trying to read this book and attempting to make sense of its contents. I would strongly recommend both classroom training and mentorship for those wanting to get into the field. Books alone won't cut it. This one certainly won't. I haven't come across one single experienced PM who used this book beyond passing the PMP exam. For a more detailed critique of this book, search the web for Muhamed Abdomerovic's review. Unfortunately URLs cannot be pasted here. Some examples (mine): 1. Diagram 3-4: All those arrows pointing to nowhere in particular 2. Diagram 3-7: What's the difference between the gray boxes and the white boxes? Ditto for 3-8 and 3-9. 3. Figure III-2: Unclear what this diagram attempts to convey 4. Figure 4-2: What is the usefulness of showing a flowchart of integration tasks alone? Clearly on a project, a Project Manager with half a clue would not follow these tasks sequentially to the exclusion of the other knowledge areas! I could find such inconsistencies almost all through the documents (e.g. some process names are verb phrases, others noun phrases). Finding other such gems is left as an exercise to the interested reader. There is a widespread notion that Project Management = PMBOK. Nothing could be farther from the truth. You do not need the PMBOK to be an effective project manager. Conversely, knowing the PMBOK does not a Project Manager make (though the PMP certification would have you believe otherwise).