PMP Project Management Professional Exam Certification Kit,   ISBN:9780470479605

Customer Rating: 

I'm not usually fond of Exam Prep books as they typically only "Teach the Exam" which in my mind is one step away from just memorizing answers and not really learning the How, why and what. However I was more than pleasantly surprised to find that these books actually gave you the answer in context to How and What with a little Why sprinkled in. A much richer book than most Certification Guides on the Market the PMP: Project Management Professional Exam Study Guide, Includes Audio CD is heavy on the situation and context for each knowledge area. This is followed up by the PMP: Project Management Professional Exam Review Guide that gives you a great summary of each element and how to apply in the real world. The Project Manager Street Smarts: A Real World Guide to PMP Skills book that completes this trio, I was half expecting to be the clunker of the collection. Again much to my surprise it well exceeded my expectations. Street Smart is not just an endless list of tips without context as may other books that label themselves street smart turnout to be. The book is rich with job aids, templates and guides that make actually doing the job of project management easier.

If you think a PM's role is just filling in task names and durations into Microsoft Project, tracking and printing schedules. This series is not for you. If you focus on the other 80% that truly influences a project to be successful, these are the books. While I may never take the PMI Exams, I feel confident that I could pass them after reading these and more importantly can apply the knowledge PMI is fostering in real world applications.

I think the only thing that would make it better would have been the inclusion of an updated version of PMP: Project Management Professional Workbook. However, then I'd have titled the kit a Project Managers Resource Kit.