What We Liked
While all forty-two processes of the Guide have been analyzed and presented in Abdomerovic's book, his book does not slavishly describe all the relationships of every single one of them. That would lead to a substantially larger volume and make for tiring reading. Rather, Abdomerovic focuses on the Guide's major processes and provides sufficient explanation for the reader to acquire the necessary understanding to follow the entire PMBOK® Guide. His explanations include examples of common tools and techniques, graphical depictions populated with data and short case study examples.
By making a thorough analysis of the whole of the PMBOK® Guide and tracking the explicit output/input relationships, together with some evident implicit process and process group relationships, Abdomerovic reveals the Guide's overall logical project management sequence. This sequence is hidden from the eyes of the average PMBOK® Guide reader. But by documenting this inherent logic, Abdomerovic uncovers a 36-step "Critical Output" workflow sequence that puts the Guide's forty-two main processes into their proper perspective and into the context of the well-recognized life span methodology of a real project.
As a result of this in-depth analysis, it is not surprising that Abdomerovic has also uncovered a number of issues and/or apparent anomalies. These are described in frequent sets of "Additional Notes" that include the author's interpretation, resolution or recommendations. Of course, it is to be hoped that future editions of the PMBOK® Guide will clarify the issues raised. To follow along with the contents of this book, you must obviously have a copy of the PMBOK® Guide at hand.
The purpose of identifying the project management body of knowledge is to enlighten project practitioners as to what is involved in managing a project and therefore to improve their chances of conducting a successful project. The purpose of PMBOK® Guide is to describe this content in terms of a system, and the purpose of Abdomerovic's book is to shed light on how that PMBOK system functions. Therefore, Abdomerovic's book is an instructive read and an important reference for all those academics, trainers and practitioners who must necessarily have a solid understanding of the Project Management Institute's A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) - Fourth Edition.
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