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Title: Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling by Harold Kerzner ISBN: 0-471-22577-0 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 31 January, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $80.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.32 (28 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Comprehensive. One stop for Project Management knowledge.
Comment: Several people I have talked to seem to have mixed feelings about this book. Most never get past the first few pages in the book and many are afraid not to have this book prominently displayed on their desks. The latter is to avoid someone mistaking them for a junior project manager.
The best way to review this monumental book on project management is to list the most common arguments for and against the book.
The book presents comprehensive knowledge of project management that you can substitute only by purchasing several books on the subject by other authors. Dr. Harold Kerzner is also one of the most respected experts on Project Management. Dr. Kerzner now has several companion books to supplement this main text book. One area that the book was considered lacking in the past was with regards to case studies. You can now buy his latest book that is dedicated to covering just case studies. The writing style is extremely easy to read and follow. Once you read his explanation on any topic, you will find that it is hard to disagree with him because his explanations are very compelling.
The reasons many people have disliked the book - the book is too boring to read, it is too long a book, it is a compilation of bullet lists, there are not enough case studies (or problems/exercises), etc. I can't say anything about the first complaint because it is actually true but if you are in the middle of a project and have a burning question, I can promise you that is isn't so boring to pull up the relevant section in the book and find a reasonable explanation to your question. The book is very long because it is an exhaustive treatment of the Project Management field. There is no reason to read it in one sitting. Regarding being a compilation of bullet lists, it does seem that way. But when you have been in project management for a while and have an appreciation for the difficulty of the field, the lists don't get in the way. The author has enough explanations surrounding the bullet lists that I never found them annoying. To address the complaints regarding case studies, problems/exercises, there is now a book dedicated to case studies and I believe there have always been workbooks that he authored which contained more problems/exercises.
A good approach to follow regarding the usage of this book is to buy it early on in your career but stop after reading just the first few chapters. As you are gaining experience and have been exposed to a majority of the project management field, it is time to refer to this book more often. I have followed the book through several editions over the years and looked up various topics as questions popped up in my mind while going through a project. I am yet to finish the whole book (this is my 7th year reading the various editions of his book) after all these years but I didn't expect to. It is a great reference book and I have been using it as one.
There are better books to read on project management if you looking for a quick overview. 'The Little Black Book of Project Management' by Michael Thomsett comes to mind along with 'Project Management - Planning and Control' by Rory Burke. If you are looking for help with the PMP preparation, I highly recommend 'PMP Exam Prep' by Rita Mulcahy. Read my review on her book for more detailed information on taking the exam.
IIL offers several Project Management classes that are taught by excellent instructors if you like what you read in this book and are looking for more of the same. A copy is given out as part of the class materials (for some of their classes). I hope you benefit from reading this book as much as I did and thanks for your patience. This is indeed a difficult book to review.
Rating: 1
Summary: This book is not a how to.
Comment: I had to use this book for a project management class. I can safely say that everyone taking the course dislikes this book. I could see this being used as a reference later on after one has a good foundation built in project management but as for someone looking to break in to the subject, without someone who is experienced in PMP standing over you explaining the confusing charts and graphs, this book would bore someone to the point that the rewards of project management aren't worth the torture of having to read this book.
Rating: 2
Summary: Not engaging, too repetitive, and ineffectual bulleted lists
Comment: I am a 2nd-year MBA student taking a course in Project Management, and this is the required text for the course. The professor insists that this is the preferred text for PM courses at other universities, but everyone in the class (the professor included) is thoroughly unimpressed by this book.
The first half of the book focuses largely on soft skills, and is mainly a rehash of the topics covered in a basic organizational behavior class, or even a psychology or sociology class. The material covered is very dry and very repetitive, and is almost entirely solid text, with few diagrams to illustrate the points of the discussion. The author also makes excessive use of verbose bulleted lists. Normally, I appreciate bulleted lists as an easy to read, concise way of conveying information, but this author often composes each bullet point as its own paragraph. Such an approach defeats the purpose of using bullets in the first place.
The second half of the text does improve somewhat over the first half. It begins an explanation of the more tangible aspects of project management, including the creation of work breakdown structures, scheduling projects, making budget projections, and applying techniques to keep a project on track. However, the style of writing is still quite thick, and makes for a slow read.
As of now, I have limited exposure to project management, and I have read no other books to which I can compare this one. However, I would be surprised if there isn't a better book on the market. Kerzner's book will eventually give you the information you're seeking, but you'll have to work hard to get there, and you'll need to wade through a lot of excess to get to the real meat of the topic.
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Title: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) -- 2000 Edition by Project Management Institute ISBN: 1880410230 Publisher: Project Management Institute Pub. Date: January, 2001 List Price(USD): $35.95 |
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Title: Project Management Workbook to Accompany Project Management, : A System Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling by Harold Kerzner ISBN: 0471225797 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 24 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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Title: PMP Exam Prep (4th Edition) by Rita Mulcahy ISBN: 0971164738 Publisher: RMC Publishing, Inc. Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $89.00 |
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Title: Project Management Case Studies by Harold Kerzner ISBN: 0471225789 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 31 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
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Title: Earned Value Project Management, Second Edition by Quentin W. Fleming, Joel M. Koppelman ISBN: 1880410273 Publisher: Project Management Institute Pub. Date: June, 2000 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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