reviews

Excerpts From Selected Reviews

The organization of the material is straightforward and easy to follow. My reading sense is that this reads more like an engineering or technical manual – I believe to hold interest and usefulness. It will allow readers to better understand the relationships between the process groups and the inputs/outputs of the Guide. We tried to address this in the Guide 2000 – with the addition of Figure 3.9 (process groups and knowledge areas) – but did not get to the same level of depth.

I am most interested in the 3rd section of the document on the “iterative logic” – this was one area that as the Leader of the Guide 2000 project I struggled with how to clarify – it is a difficult topic to broach, and especially to represent in two dimensional graphics.

Although not mentioned in the material I would expect the greatest market for this book being those studying for the PMP® exam. As this document really walks through the heart and soul of the Guide – could be very helpful – especially with the inclusion of evaluation questions at the end of the book as referenced in the material. I would think the demand for the book would remain consistent with the level of people taking the PMP® exam (I expect it could track very closely).

I don’t know of any other book that works so closely in parallel with The PMBOK® Guide. I believe that this book meets a unique need.

Anonymous Reviewer #2, John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Understand the PMBOK® Guide

Apply the PMBOK® Guide

Prepare for the PMP® Certification Exam

As most people know, the Project Management Institute ("PMI") has published the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge ("PMBOK® Guide"). This guide is PMI's standard of reference for project management practice and documents the various areas of project management functional knowledge required. However, the descriptive content is structured according to classic systems theory using the basic and simple Input-Process-Output model. This approach involves describing a considerable number of processes that are encountered in the course of managing a project and that tend to be repeated for each knowledge area. It also results in describing an even larger number of inputs and outputs.

Understanding all of this in detail is a considerable challenge for any reader but especially for those studying the PMBOK® Guide with a view to adapting it to a practical project. Of course the Guide is not intended as a project management methodology, but only a statement of the things that a project manager should know about. Nevertheless, many people do try to apply the guide to their projects, in effect, as a methodology.

Now, author Muhamed Abdomerovic has undertaken the tremendous task of analyzing the complete
PMBOK® Guide to trace all those inputs and outputs and present them as logical sets and in
chronological sequences of content. These sets he presents from several different points of view and adds comments, suggestions and advice. As Muhamed explains, in order for a project manager to plan, execute and control any project according to the PMBOK® Guide, it is essential to understand the inherent sequencing of inputs and outputs.

So, as Muhamed says, lack of this information to date represents a knowledge gap between the
theoretical concepts of a document that has experienced a spectacular circulation and the far more modest application of these ideas to practical project management. Muhamed has clearly filled this gap. In the course of his analysis he has also not surprisingly found some disconnects and anomalies that hopefully the Institute will correct in the next update of the PMBOK® Guide. So his book provides some missing links. However, the book is a detailed explanation of the PMBOK® Guide and not a criticism of it.

A CD is also available to supplement the book. It contains fourteen PowerPoint files (with a total of nearly 150 slides) providing the reader with color illustrations of the figures in the book. These could be invaluable for lecturers wishing to illustrate the ideas behind the PMBOK® Guide.

The author is to be congratulated on his diligent study of the PMBOK® Guide and for providing a
comprehensive analysis and description that anyone should be able to follow by applying a little time and effort to its content. This is a technical book that provides clarification and support to the PMBOK® Guide. It should prove invaluable to project management educators professing to understand and teach the PMBOK® Guide, as well as researchers and developers of competency frameworks, and others developing Guide-based project management practices in their companies.

R. Max Wideman
Fellow, PMI

Note: The above text was taken from a comprehensive review, which is available at www.maxwideman.com.

First and foremost this book is excellent, absolutely needed for anyone wanting to use / apply the PMBOK® Guide by PMI into their projects. Mr. Abdomerovic has done a splendid job of understanding the PMBOK® Guide to a level unmatched, and then enhanced on its message and application through this book.

The unique concept of This Book is the interwoven correlation between the PMBOK® Guide and This
book that I found very interesting and logical ... leading the reader through the maze and hopefully better prepared to make informed decisions.

This book is well organized with exellent balance in choice and weighing of the topic. Text continuity is clear, concise and succinct. But I will warn the reader that they will need to have a desire to really understand and comprehend the nine knowledge areas and five process groups in a way they may not have undertaken previously. I had to refresh my knowledge and understanding of the PMBOK® Guide so as to be a more informed reader and assess accordingly.

This book shows the value of the PMBOK® Guide, it's approach and understanding of project
management practices now provides real value to both the PMBOK® Guide and this book.

Charles L. Johnson, MPM, PMP
President, PMI Kentuckiana Chapter

This is a very important and very useful contribution to the project management literature, and I hope that it finds the wide market that it deserves. You have done a monumental job of showing how the 9 PMBOK® knowledge areas and the 39 PMBOK® processes presented in the Guide are inter-related and how these processes should logically be sequenced in relation to a project life cycle model.

The key word that comes to mind when reading this book is "integration." Your book successfully integrates the PMBOK® processes in a very useful manner. Your emphasis on the inputs and outputs to and from each process, and the most logical way to integrate and sequence these inputs and outputs, conveys the most practical, holistic understanding of the Guide that I have ever seen.

It will take the average reader a few hours of fairly intensive effort to fully grasp your complete approach and obtain the full benefits of the excellent insights and understanding that you present. However, these few hours will probably be the most productive time that most PM practitioners will ever spend if they want to gain an integrated, holistic understanding of the contents of the PMI PMBOK®.

Congratulations to you and Iskren for this ground-breaking, extremely useful addition to the discipline, literature and practice of project management.

Russell D. Archibald
Fellow, PMI

The above excerpts are listed in chronological order. Selected text was underlined by the Publisher.

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