Customer Reviews

PMP in Depth: Project Management Professional Study Guide for PMP and CAPM Exams

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I've just passed the PMP exam (with flying colors) and I want to share my experience regarding the PMP exam study books with my fellow project managers who are planning to prepare for the PMP exam. On one hand I was happy to see so many PMP books available to help me, and on the other hand I was disappointed to see that most of them were outrageously or unreasonably high priced. However, I ended up buying and reading quite a few of them from cover to cover. Here are short reviews for the top four (in my opinion) of them:

1. This book. PMP In Depth by Paul Sanghera, Thomson Course Technology.
I found this book best among all the PMP books. It's a self contained, to the point, and yet very comprehensive: all the topics (within the scope of the exam) are covered with adequate depth. The material is presented in a perfect logical learning sequence, and there is no hopping from topic to topic: perfect flow. Unlike other books, this book presents the material in order of the process groups (initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing), which is consistent with the way the PMP exam objectives (domains) by PMI are organized. And this is the only PMP exam book that explains the exam objectives (covered in each chapter) in the beginning of the chapter. This way you are always sure which exam objective you are working on, and it makes the exam preparation much easier and free of confusion. This is also a good book for the CAPM exam because it's self contained, easy, and interesting read. All concepts are clearly defined and explained, and the definitions are also listed at the end of each chapter for easy reference. There is a complete practice exam at the end of the book with very detailed answers: why a correct answer is correct and an incorrect answer is incorrect. I found that the practice exam combined with the review questions (and their detailed answers) at the end of each chapter makes enough number of questions to prepare me for the actual exam. I found the tone and difficulty level of the questions very compatible with the actual exam.

Unlike most of other PMP books, this book is very reasonably priced. I recommend this book to anyone who is planning to prepare for the PMP exam, CAPM exam, or just want to learn the basics of project management.

2. The PMP Exam Prep by Rita Mulcahy, RMC Publications.
This is not a self contained book. There are lots of references to PMBOK Guide. Lots of empty pages for you to fill. That said, it is a very good book (or should I call it an excellent collection of lecture notes) if you are either taking a course from the author or from an instructor who is using this book as a text book. There are lots of exercises. I feel that the underlying assumption is that the gaps in the book will be filled either by PMBOK Guide or by the instructor in the course. So, Topics are not covered with enough depth. Also there is a poor flow and a lots of hopping from topic to topic. The presentation of the material is organized around knowledge areas, whereas the exam objectives are organized in order of the process groups. That breaks the exam objective coverage into pieces, and may cause confusion. The book is, in my opinion, outrageously high priced.
Overall, I recommend this book if you are taking a course that uses this book as a textbook.

3. The PMP Exam by Andy Crowe; Velociteach.
This is another good book by its own virtue. At first, it appears like self contained, but then you find that there is not enough depth to most of the topics covered in this book. This is easy to read, but you cannot pass the exam just by reading this book. Also, there are quite a few processes for which some input items, output items, or tools and techniques are missing. This could be very serious if you are only using this book. So, if you use this book, do not count on it alone. The presentation of the material is organized around knowledge areas, whereas the exam objectives are organized in order of the process groups. That breaks the exam objective coverage into pieces, and may cause confusion. The book, in my opinion, is unreasonably high priced.
I recommend this book if you are looking for a quick and easy review of topics.

4. PMP Project Management Professional Study Guide by Joseph Philips, McGraw-Hill Osborne. This is another good PMP book. It covers almost all the topics and some topics in quite detail, actually. However, at places, it is not very compatible with the PMBOK Guide. This is not necessarily a bad thing if you are learning about project management in general. But you need to be careful when you are preparing for the PMP exam. So, do not begin with this book. This also organizes the material along the knowledge areas and breaks the exam objectives into pieces.

I passed the PMP test today achieving my 11th certification, the most of them are IT related but PMP is a great knowledge asset for any professional, IT or not. Now that I have everything fresh in my mind, I want to share my experience with you: As a general rule for certifications, I always get two books, I fully study one, complete all the questions and then I take all the questions on the second book. In that way, I know the first book gave me all the necessary knowledge. For this journey I got "PMP In Depth: Project Management Professional Study Guide for PMP and CAPM Exams - In Depth" (Paul Sanghera) as my 'primary book' and "PMP Exam Prep, Fifth Edition: Rita's Course in a Book for Passing the PMP Exam" (Rita Mulcahy) as my 'questions book'.

If you don't know it yet, the whole PMP certification is organized around 9 knowledge areas (scope, time, cost, hr, procurement, risk, quality, integration and communication management. Each one has multiple related processes that are applied at different stages of the 5 phases of the project lifecycle (initiation, planning, execution, monitoring/controlling and closing). For example, you plan your costs during the planning phase and you control your costs during the monitoring and controlling phase of the project. Both cost processes belong to the cost management area of knowledge. So Rita's book is organized around this 9 knowledge areas while Paul's book is organize around the 5 phases of a project lifecycle.

I started with Paul's book four months ago (4hs every weekday, 11hs each weekend day). This book is fascinating! (please keep reading), because its organization follows the natural life of projects facilitating the learning process, it clearly shows inputs, processes and outputs for each project task, but it doesn't give you always a clear idea of where you are in reference to the knowledge areas. If the other hand, Rita's book is a complex reference to previous and subsequent page numbers, getting you to jump back and forth to understand how a project actually occurs.

I carefully studied Paul's book, I review every single detail on it, memorized every process (inputs, tools/techniques and outputs) and completed every question as well the 175 questions of his final test. I was confident of my knowledge, so I moved on to complete the questions in Rita's book. Misery! Rita destroyed every single hope I had of passing the test successfully! She made me feel that I have been wasting my time with Paul's book: I failed almost all her questions! It was probably the biggest book-related disappointment in my life, although Paul's book is easy to read, and well organized, it doesn't cover significant areas of the certification that are again and again presented in the test! While going thru Rita's questions I discovered that Paul has missed 2 absolutely essential areas required by the test. Let me tell you which ones: Cost management and communication management. The test has multiple questions related to these areas; if you don't know then you will certainly fail! I can't believe that Paul missed them, I consider that very irresponsible and not fair for students trusting his book.

With this fiasco, I went thru Rita's book and learned the remaining knowledge so my advice to you is: Study from Rita's book! Although it is organized around the 9 knowledge areas and they don't really follow the project lifecycle, but it is the way the test is organized and she covers all the topics of the test. To prove it to you (if you are skeptical and confused with so many light or emotional book reviews) I carefully took notes of the areas that Paul missed (I hope he reads this): Problem solving techniques (expectancy theory, motivation theory, McGregor's XY theory, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Herzberg's theory and motivation agents), communication channels and formulas, PERT and PERT related calculations, cost estimation (can you imagine running a project without cost estimation?), project manager powers (formal, reward, penalty/coercive, expert and referent), outputs of contract administration, administrative close procedure applicability to each project phase. Besides this Paul's questions are extremely easy, the test questions are an extremely hard compared to them, therefore Paul's give you an inaccurate sense of test preparation level. I have also documented multiple important errata in his book and spent significant amounts of time verifying that they are actual errata. For instance: Paul's makes references to the cost baseline countless times in his book, but cost baseline is nowhere to be found (it is not even in the index), work performance is missed as an output of the directing and managing the project execution in the process chart, but is it cited two pages later; the administrative close procedure is an output of the close project process, he points out what the procedure should contain, but it never says when to execute it as he does it with the contract closure procedure.

It is just a very unreliable book for the test. So my advice to you, PMP student is, start with Rita's book and complete every single one of their questions, they look "too demanding, I can't believe the test is that hard" but the test is hard! Then if you have time and can buy Paul's book go directly to his questions and final test. But please, don't do it the other way around.

I started with PMBOK for my PMP preparation, after couple of chapters I realized that I need to look for another book to teach me PMBOK concepts in a simpler way. PMBOK is a reference, it's dry, boring and quite frustrating if you choose it to be your first book to read for PMP certification.

Based on the reviews I considered two Books PMP in Depth by Paul Sanghera and The PMP Exam: How to Pass On Your First Try by Andy Crowe. I choose PMP in Depth mainly because it is a self-contained book with topics organized in the order of Process Groups. I am glad I did, I passed PMP at my First attempt. This book helped me to understand the concepts, Rita's book and CD helped with Knowledge gaps and questions.

Positives

1. Self Contained
2. Topics are organized in the order of Process groups (same order in which projects are done) with adequate depth
3. Nice Flow, Easy and Interesting read
4. Exam Objectives in the beginning of the chapter
5. Summary, Key Terms and Things to Remember at the end of the chapter
6. It is not only PMP certification book but also a great Project Management Book
7. ITTO's are explained well with their importance for each process
8. Index, Book Quality and Writing Style

Negatives

1. There are only few questions and the questions are very easy comparing to the actual exam.

Couple of weeks before the exam I took the Full length exam at the end of the book and I scored 94% in my first attempt. Next week I took the full length test in Rita's Fast Track CD and I passed with only 76%.

Apart from one negative mentioned above this is a great book, read this book before you read PMBOK/Rita, Especially if you are doing Self-Study.

I've just passed the PMP exam after preparing for it largely from this book. I agree with another reviewer that quality of the questions in the book's Final Exam is very close to that of the real exam. Other things that I particularly like about this book are:
* Unlike all other PMP books, It explains the exam objectives covered in the chapter in the beginning of each chapter.
* The material is organized along the exam domains and along the line of how the projects are run in real life. So, you can learn by association with your experience.
* All the topics are covered in adequate detail within the scope of the exam. The author even warns you at several places when the further details of a topic are out of the scope. I find it helpful because this way I know that there is more to it; and I can go and get the information from other sources if I want to dig deeper.
* The book is self-contained and all the concepts are clearly defined right in there.
* Very easy and interesting read.

I recommend this book, highly.

Although I have read quite a few PMP books, I was able to pass the PMP exam (the latest version) by just preparing from this book. Of course, like everyone else, I had studied PMBOK Guide too. But this book cleared many concepts that I was previously confused about. I was able to read this book without the help of any other reference because it is a self contained book and is very simple to understand. I have read a criticism that this book does not cover some topics in enough depth, for example, quality management. I found that every topic in the PMP exam is adequately covered in this book. However, unlike other PMP books, the coverage is organized along the process groups which is consistent with the way exam objectives are organized. I consider this a PLUS for this book. However, if you are not careful you may wrongfully conclude that a knowledge area is not adequately covered. For example, take quality management. All the three processes of quality management are fully covered in this book but not in one chapter. The quality planning process is covered in the chapter on planning, the quality assurance process is covered in the chapter on executing the project, and the quality control process is covered in the chapter on monitoring and controlling. So, make no mistake, all topics covered by the exam are adequately covered in this book, and even in more depth than in any other PMP book. Furthermore, this is the only PMP book that explains the exam objectives at the beginning of each chapter, so you know what exam objective you are working on. Some other books seem to blindly cover the knowledge areas without caring about the exam objectives.

I cannot recommend this book enough.

I have struggled with several books. Could not have passed the PMP exam without this book. Simple, easy, comprehensive, and yet to the point. I must say I learned a lot from this book while preparing for the exam. I found the quality of the exam questions in the book very close to the real exam. I can always ask for more; but we project managers care about the thing called scope...I like it that this book is very true to its scope: the PMP exam, and in my opinion the overall coverage is very good. After reading seevral books, and their reviews (including reviews on this page, here is how I look at the three top PMP books from the following points:

1. Exam coverage. The PMBOK Guide is organized around knowledge areas and the PMP exam domains are organized according to the process groups. This book presents the material along the exam domains (process groups). This is why it's able to list and explain the exam objectives in the beginning of each chapter. The other two books (Rita's and Andy's) can't do that because they are organized along the knowledge areas and therefore the exam objectives are broken into million pieces over all the chapters...Tell me about experimentation...This is the only book that covers the exam in a systematic way...if there is any experimentation...that lies with the other two.

2. Completeness. In my opinion no book is COMPLETE! Rita's book does not even claim to be complete..it refer's to PMBOK Guide quite often for explanations etc. Andy's book is not complete because it does not cover much depth...Simple, yes, but not much depth...not much explanation of concepts either...This book (PMP in Depth) is very sincere in sticking to the exam objectives, and overall exam coverage in this book is very good, and very comprehensive...I passed the exam largely preparing from this book, so can't complain...
That said, regardless which book you use to prepare for the exam, there will always be some questions in the exam for which the book did not prepare you; that's the nature of the exam.

3. Explanation. This book explains concepts and terms very well. For example, when it comes to input/output of processes, other books mostly re-hash the list from PMBOK Guide. This book (Sanghera's)goes a step further to explain why an input to a process is there...that way it helps stick...otherwise too many processes and too many inputs and outputs and everything gets mixed up...But this book helps the input/output for a process stick in your head by explaining why it's there...Other topic coverage I loved is earned value technique and decision tree analysis...well explained and illustrated with simple examples...

Overall, I recommend this book highly. Regardless, which book you use, you have to go through PMBOK Guide...and the PMBOK Guide makes much more sense to me after going through this book...
Now, this baby has a permanent place in my book shelf: Only second to the PMBOK Guide.

I passed my PMP exam with flying colors after using only three resources: PMBOK Guide, this book (PMP in Depth), and the PMP Exam Quicklet (an eBook by the same author, Dr. Sanghera) that I downloaded from booksOnBoard, which has three practice exams and some very useful tips. I read this book before reading the PMBOK Guide, which made it a lot easier for me to understand the PMBOK Guide. I quickly went through this book again after reading the PMBOK Guide; and I was ready for the exam.
I liked the fact that the exam objectives covered in each chapter are clearly listed and explained in the beginning of the chapter. That helped me to keep track where I was in my exam preparation. I guess the review questions at the end of each chapter are more to ensure that you understood the material in the chapter. The questions in the practice exam at the end of the book are more realistic from the exam¡¦s perspective. I found the questions in the PMP Exam Quicklet even more useful¡Kvery very useful.
That said, this book is also very useful for just learning the basics of project management. I¡¦ve had a great deal of real project management experience, but I did not know much about the project management theory º. So, I was looking for a self contained book that I could use to quickly learn the basic concepts and that would also prepare me for the PMP exam. A friend of mine pointed me to this book; I¡¦m glad he did. The book defines and explains all the basic concepts, and I liked the organization and presentation of the material; it enabled me to connect what I read to my real world experience.

Bottom Line:
A must have book for the PMP exam preparation and for learning the basics of project management.

I have just passed the PMP exam and I'm very excited about it, as you can imagine. I would like to share my experience about this book so that other people (the potential PMPs) can benefit from it. The first stage of my PMP preparation before reading this book, was a stage of confusion and frustration when I was going through PMBOK Guide and a couple of other PMP books (the best sellers). PMBOK Guide has to be read because it's the standard, although it's not a pleasant read. But you can easily avoid being tortured by other books. I realized this after I read Dr. Sanghera's PMP In Depth. This is a very self-contained book: all you need to pass the PMP exam.

First, the material is organized in the order of the process groups (initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing) which is also the order in which the PMP exam objectives (domains) are organized. This is also more consistent with the way projects are actually executed. This is a big deal because it helps avoid the confusion about exam domains and also help to connect the material in the book to your real life experience. Other PMP exam books organize the material in order of the knowledge areas and therefore mess up the exam objectives. When I was going through those other books, I was always confused about which exam objective was being covered. In this book (PMP In Depth), the exam objectives covered in each chapter are listed and explained in the beginning of the chapter. So, I was sure which exam objectives (domain) I was preparing for in a given chapter.

Second, although this book is 100% compatible with the PMBOK Guide, Third Edition, it never refers back to the PMBOK Guide. All the terms are defined, all the concepts are clearly explained, and all the topics are adequately covered in a perfect logical sequence. No hopping from topic to topic. This makes this book a very self-contained book. You can take this book on your trip, for example, and can read it cover to cover, without feeling the need of checking something in another book. Furthermore, the author goes out of his way to make sure you don't miss any key term or concept. First, the key terms (and concepts) are explained where they appear in the chapter, and then their definitions are listed at the end of the chapter. The definitions of all the key terms in the whole book are also listed in the Glossary. The Tips and Notes throughout the chapters were also extremely useful.

Third, this book is a very easy and interesting read. There is no jargon without explanation. The presentation in a logical sequence makes the connection between topics and concepts crystal clear. The presentation style is almost like a story telling style, it kept me curious and never bored me when I was going through the book. Now that I have passed the exam (thanks to this book), I look at it as a reference book: it has explained to me clearly many concepts and connections between concepts that I was previously confused about.

Just before the exam, I once again went through the Exam's Eye View section at the end of each chapter which summarizes the important points in the chapter from the exam's perspective. Also I went through the answers to all the review questions in each chapter and answers to all the Final Exam questions at the end of the book. These answers are explained in detail, so it helped re-enforce important concepts.

I'm very pleased with my score on the exam and I highly recommend this book to anyone who is preparing or planning to prepare for the PMP exam.

I have all the three best selling PMP exam books, and I've found that this is the BEST. I agree with almost all the positive comments about this book by other reviewers and I will not repeat them. However, I must say this is the only PMP exam book (that I know of) that explains those exam objectives in the beginning of each chapter which are covered in the chapter. In the following, I share my experience with this book in the areas which have not been talked about much in other reviews:
A. It covers topics to more depth than other books. For example, it even tells you why an input to a process is there rather than simply listing it.
B. The presentation is more cohesive than other books. It's like telling a story.
C. It's easier to understand and is self-contained.
D. It's not only the best PMP book, it's also a very good project management book in general.
E. The book covers the topics very adequately within the scope of the PMP exam and have enough questions with detailed answers. The quality of the questions in the practice exam is very compatible with the actual exam.
F. This book is more professionally produced and published than other best sellers that I have.
G. It has a more useful index than other books.
H. It has a more professional binding and has not collapsed, unlike the other two books that I had.

If you want to buy only one book to pass the PMP exam and also to learn the basics of project management, this is your book.

Having just passed the PMP exam today, I feel that I need to provide some feedback on Mr. Sanghera's book, which I used as the primary source of my study material.

I must agree with all the previous reviews on how well organized and easy to understand this book is. I have a certificate in project management from a PMI certified university, and this book far exceeds any material that were presented in my introductory course into project management. The materials presented are easy to comprehend and well explained without being overly tedious in detail.

I must disagree with a previous reviewer who says that the terms used are incompatible with the PMBOK. I have actually found it to the contrary, because I had a printed copy of an older PMBOK (2000) and a CD copy of PMBOK 3rd edition. The terms used here are incompatible with the older PMBOK but completely compatible with the PMBOK 3rd edition.

Having said all that, I must also include the negatives. This book is by all mean not exhausive in helping you prepare every facets of the exam. For instance on my exam, there were quite a few questions on Communication Management and this book does not explicitly explain that knowledge area (it's implicit all over the book). Unfortunately I only noticed this the night before the exam when I compared it to the PMBOK. Also the PMP exam is not just testing one's knowledge of the PMBOK, therefore a book that basically only covers materials in the PMBOK would not prepare you for everything. There were questions on my exam that came from other disciplines that a project manager must be familiar with, such as Organizational Behavior, as well as more in depth questions on knowledge areas that neither this book nor the PMBOK elaborates on.

Another comment I have is that, like the other reviewers, I also find the review and the practice exam questions really easy in comparison to the actual exam. But that is probably expected since the exam is also to test one's real life project management skills.

Overall I think this is a great primer for your study, and most likely if you study mainly from it you would pass the exam. However you might be a little disappointed with your final score as I am.