Project Management Institute

Books from the Project Management Institute (PMI) provide standards for the entire industry of project management and program management. ANSI, an American body supervising industry-wide standards, has approved this text as true wherever program management is practiced. Therefore, studying this book can provide a lot of value for your current position as well as any jobs you might attain throughout your career.

This book's tone is not incredibly engaging like a popular book's tone is. It show more reads like what it purports to be: A book of standards. Nonetheless, it provides a lot to meditate upon. Reading other literature about program management is important, but reading this book can make sure you haven't missed any holes.

In particular, it doesn't focus on one topic but instead on the entire life-cycle of a program. A program contains a series of projects and even other programs that synergize each other to attain a larger organizational goal. Identifying and building those synergies are central job requirements of a program manager. Seeing the big picture, such as this book conveys, will allow a program manager to successfully do the little things of their job well.

Again, don't expect to be entertained by this book, but do expect to identify a few smaller items that you need to work on, whether it be closing out a program or dealing with governance. Reading standards like these can bring one's work from the merely good level to the excellent level. This book doesn't shortcut around the need for other personal study about program management, but its rigor does provide necessary polish for details that popular books might miss. show less

If you're looking to pass the PMP exam this book is a must read. Understanding all the processes and concepts in this book is critical. The writing is overly complicated and not geared to someone new to the profession. For folks new to project management I think you'd be better off reading "project management for the real world" type books instead while you gain some experience before attempting the PMBOK.

This book is required reading for the project management course I am currently taking, and while it is by no means entertaining (and probably not meant to be!), I did find it very useful.

The writing style is very dry and matter-of-fact, so I'd recommend it more as a reference book than a real textbook. It gives a complete overview of all the PMI processes with lots of detail on Inputs, Tools & Techniques, and Outputs for each process. Like one of my professors said: "If you have a question show more as to where you are in the pprocess, use PAGE 61 for an overview." She is right! It's easy to get lost in the details, so page 61 comes in extremely handy. They should make it into a poster and sell it with the book!

Also, if you do not have project management experience, this is not the book to use for understanding the theory behind it or how to do it in practice. It's good for background and as a refresher more than anything else. Am, of course. required reading for anyone attempting the CAPM or PMP exam!

Now I can look forward to working my way through the 6th edition which is going to be published around September, I think. show less

I use this as a reference when writing proposals. It is definitely not something you want to read--but for this type of stuff, the writing is clear and not unnecessarily complicated. Some complain about the print on gray pages with watermarks being hard to read, but I don't have any problems with it. The various diagrams are printed in boxes with a white background.