PMP: Project Management Professional Study Guide, Deluxe Edition [Hardcover]

Kim Heldman (Author), Patti M. Jansen (Author), Claudia M. Baca (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0782136028 | ISBN-13: 978-0782136029 | Publication Date: November 7, 2005 | Edition: Deluxe Edition

INCLUDES OVER 50 HANDS-ON EXERCISES IN BONUS WORKBOOK SECTION

Whether you're a current project manager seeking to validate the skills and knowledge acquired through years of practical experience or a new-comer to the PM field looking to strengthen your resume, the PMP certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI) provides you with the means to do so.

This new edition of the best-selling PMP: Project Management Professional Study Guide covers the updates to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) and the 2005 PMP exam. The authors present the material in a clear and accessible manner, taking you through the process groups in their logical order so you understand the parts and the whole equally well.

This Deluxe Edition includes a bonus Workbook section that includes over 50 exercises to further assist with your studies. And the accompanying CD contains additional review tools designed to reinforce understanding of critical subject areas.

KEY TOPICS INCLUDE:
* Initiating the Project. Conducting project selection methods; defining scope; documenting project risks, assumptions, and constraints; identifying and performing stake-holder analysis; developing a project charter; obtaining project charter approval.
* Planning the Project. Defining and recording requirements, constraints, and assumptions; identifying the project team and defining roles and responsibilities; creating the WBS; developing a change management plan; identifying risks and defining risk strategies; obtaining plan approval; conducting a kick-off meeting.
* Executing the Project. Executing tasks defined in the project plan; ensuring common understanding and set expectations; implementing the procurement of project resources; managing resource allocation; implementing a quality management plan; implementing approved changes; implementing approved actions and workarounds; improving team performance.
* Monitoring and Controlling the Project. Measuring project performance; verifying and managing changes to the project; ensuring project deliverables conform to quality standards; monitoring all risks.
* Closing the Project. Obtaining final acceptance for the project; obtaining financial, legal, and administrative closure; releasing project resources; identifying, documenting and communicating lessons learned; creating and distributing final project report; archiving and retaining project records; measuring customer satisfaction.
* Professional and Social Responsibility. Ensuring individual integrity; contributing to the project management knowledge base; enhancing personal professional competence; promoting interaction among stakeholders.

FEATURED ON THE CD

SYBEX TEST ENGINE
Test your knowledge with advanced testing software. Includes chapter review questions and six PMP and two CAPM bonus exams!

ELECTRONICFLASHCARDS
Reinforce your understanding with hundreds of flashcards that can run off your PC, Pocket PC, or Palm handheld.

Also on the CD, you'll find the entire book in searchable and printable PDF.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

INCLUDES OVER 50 HANDS-ON EXERCISES IN BONUS WORKBOOK SECTION

Whether you're a current project manager seeking to validate the skills and knowledge acquired through years of practical experience or a new-comer to the PM field looking to strengthen your resume, the PMP certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI) provides you with the means to do so.

This new edition of the best-selling PMP: Project Management Professional Study Guide covers the updates to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) and the 2005 PMP exam. The authors present the material in a clear and accessible manner, taking you through the process groups in their logical order so you understand the parts and the whole equally well.

This Deluxe Edition includes a bonus Workbook section that includes over 50 exercises to further assist with your studies. And the accompanying CD contains additional review tools designed to reinforce understanding of critical subject areas.

KEY TOPICS INCLUDE:

• Initiating the Project. Conducting project selection methods; defining scope; documenting project risks, assumptions, and constraints; identifying and performing stake-holder analysis; developing a project charter; obtaining project charter approval.
• Planning the Project. Defining and recording requirements, constraints, and assumptions; identifying the project team and defining roles and responsibilities; creating the WBS; developing a change management plan; identifying risks and defining risk strategies; obtaining plan approval; conducting a kick-off meeting.
• Executing the Project. Executing tasks defined in the project plan; ensuring common understanding and set expectations; implementing the procurement of project resources; managing resource allocation; implementing a quality management plan; implementing approved changes; implementing approved actions and workarounds; improving team performance.
• Monitoring and Controlling the Project. Measuring project performance; verifying and managing changes to the project; ensuring project deliverables conform to quality standards; monitoring all risks.
• Closing the Project. Obtaining final acceptance for the project; obtaining financial, legal, and administrative closure; releasing project resources; identifying, documenting and communicating lessons learned; creating and distributing final project report; archiving and retaining project records; measuring customer satisfaction.
• Professional and Social Responsibility. Ensuring individual integrity; contributing to the project management knowledge base; enhancing personal professional competence; promoting interaction among stakeholders.

FEATURED ON THE CD

SYBEX TEST ENGINE
Test your knowledge with advanced testing software. Includes chapter review questions and six PMP and two CAPM bonus exams!

ELECTRONICFLASHCARDS
Reinforce your understanding with hundreds of flashcards that can run off your PC, Pocket PC, or Palm handheld.

Also on the CD, you'll find the entire book in searchable and printable PDF.

About the Author

Kim Heldman, PMP, has over 15 years experience in IT project management. She is the Chief Information Officer for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources and is a member of the Denver chapter of PMI.

Claudia Baca, PMP, is an independent project management consultant and trainer who provides project management.

Patti Jansen, PMP, is a project management consultant and trainer in the telecommunications industry. She also teaches at Colorado State.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 816 pages
• Publisher: Sybex; Deluxe Edition edition (November 7, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0782136028
• ISBN-13: 978-0782136029
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.8 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #915,752 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Can use as a companion to the PMBOK Guide for the PMP., April 6, 2003

By 

Harinath Thummalapalli (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: PMP: Project Management Professional Study Guide (Hardcover)

The PMBOK Guide (by PMI) is essential in preparing for the PMP, but follows the 9 Knowledge Areas approach. The approach necessary to pass the test is the 5 Process Groups (plus Professional Responsibility) approach. This Study Guide takes the 5 Process Groups approach and hence clears the confusion one may experience in reading the PMBOK Guide. They also go into more depth than the PMBOK Guide as can be seen by the fact that the book has more than twice as many pages.

This Study Guide also has a CD-ROM with hundreds of practice questions (you can take 2 practice exams). The entire book is on the CD-ROM too. I have not tried their electronic flashcards for PCs and Palm Handhelds.

Considering everything that the book offers, it is a great buy at [this price]. Other CD-ROM software programs that offer practice tests are over $300. The only other book that will prove very useful on top of this book is Rita Mulcahy's 'PMP Exam Prep'. It is a bit more expensive but is of much higher quality in preparing for the PMP exam. This Study Guide is wonderful as a secondary preparation material to Rita's book. Read my reviews of her book to get more info on preparing for the PMP. I always use multiple study guides to get multiple perspectives when preparing for an exam. So, if you can afford it, I would recommend both books for your PMP preparation. But if you want to invest in only one study guide, I would say get Rita's PMP Exam Prep.

Good luck on the PMP!

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good book but not great, May 22, 2002

By 

Mark A. Parrish (Oakdale, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: PMP: Project Management Professional Study Guide (Hardcover)

This is a good resource for studying for the PMP. I have taken a few courses to prepare for the PMP as well as read PMBOK and Rita Mulchahey's book (her's is the best one available)./ The reason why I picked this book is that it is written in stages of the lifecycle: planning, executing, closure, etc.. while the PMBOK is based on function: HR, Quality etc...

This book is another way to reinforce that you can apply the knowledge in the lifecycle and not just memorize PMBOK. The palm flashcards are cool and help a lot as well as the computer test. The test is the most important since that is what you will go through on the PMP. Also the practice tests give you the answer and the rationale for the answer, a great help.

The only reason it is not five stars is that the book says on the back cover that there is a complete project plan enclosed and it is not there, the publisher said that it was an error. Also the flashcards do not tell you what questions you missed.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I passed my exam with this book., November 20, 2003

By 

Karthikeyan Kumaraguru "kumarakn" (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: PMP: Project Management Professional Study Guide (Hardcover)

I used Kim Heldman's book, the Yahoo group and PMBOK as my prep material. This book is not perfect, but it is more than enough to pass the exam. The author covers about 90% of PMBOK and covers other material (that are not in the PMBOK, but we are tested for) as well. For example, Pert/CPM calculations, Code of Conduct Scenarios, Motivation theories etc..

I studied this book, then the PMBOK once, this book again, PMBOK again. I took some free tests on the Internet, took the tests in this book and in the actual PMP exam. I averaged about 83% in those preparation tests and I got 164/200 (82%) in the actual PMP exam. I spent about 130-140 hours on the subject in total.

The test questions in this book after every chapter and at the end of the book (and cd), are really good. The test exam(s) in the cd almost resembled the real exam. I wished there were more questions in the cd, like 200 questions per test or so. (There are 50 questions per exam now). This is particularly true because PMP exam is a 4 hour long 200 question exam. By about the 160th question, even simple sentences like 'Assume you are a project manager' became a little difficult for me to grasp. I guess I lacked the mental stamina to take the gruelling 4 hour one in one shot. May be this book could have prepared me for that.

Otherwise, this book is great. There were areas this book that went above and beyond the PMBOK. And test questions from these areas were a little difficult for me during practice. And none of the free tests online had any questions on these subjects. To my surprise, I found PMP exam questions from these areas as well.

I originally bought this book over Rita's book because the other one was about 200 dollars. I thought if I am persistent enough to finish this book, I will buy Rita's. However, when I finished this one, I realized that this book covered most of the subject. In essence, this book delivers it's promise. (I have heard from everybody that Rita's book is also 5 star material and is excellent)

Finally, even if the certification is not immediately useful in your career, the PM knowledge you gain through preparing for this exam will be useful. So, if you are thinking of taking the exam, I would like to say, go for it! I wish you all aspiring PMPs good luck.

Karthik