Head First PMP: A Brain-Friendly Guide to Passing the Project Management Professional Exam 1st Edition

I have tried, desperately, to get through Rita Mulcahy's book - it came highly recommended but I found it SO dry and boring, that I ended up taking a nap within 20 minutes of opening it each time. Too boring, too detailed in some aspects but offers no explanation in others - basically it says "cram this chart in this way because I said so". I found it very confusing for a beginner. So I downloaded PMBOK, which I actually thought was better, but as an official guide, it can feel like a list of definitions.So I tried Head First PMP and I LOVE IT - it is visual, feels like 3rd grade textbook, and it does the job of getting you to UNDERSTAND the process, so then sticking the name to it is easy. It's more of a workbook, which keeps you engaged, and the exercises are fun! Keep in mind that if you get the Kindle edition, it's a bit more difficult to complete the exercises (without rewriting them). I hooked up my laptop to a projector and did the exercises on a whiteboard which worked beautifully.So not only am I finally getting the concepts, I was engaged for a few hours today (normally I have an attention span of a 3-year old), and I got through 1/3 of the book! I haven't cleared the exam yet, but I finally feel confident that I CAN. I highly recommend this book!

First I'll say I really like this book. I've been putting off this exam for a couple years now and this has motivated me to finally get going and get 'er done. The book is not at all dry and the presentation is lively and engaging. One work of caution though. You MUST go to the O'Reilly website and print the errata document. I sailed through until I hit the critical path calculations (float, lead, lag, etc.) in the time management section. Then all the numbers went haywire and it took quite awhile before I figured out that the book was wrong, not I. So print the 2 pages of corrections that range throughout the book and keep it handy. Also, for the critical path section, you need to also print the corrections to the corrections. They didn't catch all the errors in the first errata. It's a little frustrating to have so many issues in this otherwise good book but I suppose this mirrors project work in some ways. We do the best we can with the given constraints.

I am a great fan of head first series. Keeping that in mind i am trying to write this review so that it is NOT biased ..Being a huge fan of the head first series books, i had bought this one and a few others together from Amazon some time back last year ..I remember then when i thought about checking this book out, i read through a few chapters which i liked .. but the urgency of taking the exam was not there. So the book was kept aside. Work pressure and current projects got priority.When the time came that i applied with PMI for the exam, like many others i bought the Rita book as well and started my study with Rita and PMBOK.To be honest, I found Rita very boring and the tone of the text not appealing. Its contents (tips and coverage) was adequate nonetheless. PMBOK was still better but getting it all laid out in my brain for the exam was taking its time.It was then that i turned to HEAD FIRST PMP, and i found a new friend.And there i was covering one chapter after another cruising through and then consolidating with PMBOK. I was going past the Knowledge areas one after another, nicely doing scope, time and then cost and then human resource and then comm. Risk and Quality were a breeze and so was Code of ethics. Finally the procurement.Studying for the exam was a lot of fun suddenly.I will admit here that Rita's fast track questions were also great in helping me through.The manner in which the concepts are illustrated for the exam in this Head First book would without any doubt make me rate this book a 5 star.I loved this book start to end. Great book for the exam which i cleared successfully.

I passed my PMP exam recently. In spite of my years of experience, I found that the exam needs a truckload of preparation! I started with PMBOK Guide, Rita Mulcahy, some others, and settled on HFP. The HFP is not the first book you should read, and certainly should not be the only book you read. Unlike the somewhat snide (and ineffective) Mulcahy book, this book would give you tons of useful mnemonics to remember stuff by. After reading this book, I was having a much easier time answering questions in other books, such as Mulcahy's.The PMP examination is not for the faint of heart. At the minimum, you should know the PMBOK Guide by rote (esp. the I-TT-O, Glossary, and the formulae). You need to supplement that knowledge using other books. These are the list of books I found useful (in no particular order):0. PMBOK Guide1. HF PMP2. Mulcahy3. Kim Heldman4. Andy CroweUnfortunately, HF PMP does leave out many vital topics. This will hurt you in the exam, if you have not covered it elsewhere (e.g. Calculating CPPC and FPIP using numbers, GERT, etc., amongst many other examples). But for the topics covered, you will have a strong help from this book in retaining that information!I would strongly encourage the authors to:1. Consider revising the book and adding the missing topics - priceless addition, given that the authors do a wonderful job of any topic they cover in the book.2. Add a GLOSSARY OF TERMS that may be referenced in the PMP Exam, even though these may not be covered in detail in the book (cite a ref.).It will be worth the price you'd pay for such a book!

Others wrote about how this book was great. It's a lot like a kindergarten book. If you can get past that, then this book might be OK. I couldn't, so I deleted it in a day or so. Warning for Kindle - you can't complete any of the exercises in the book because you need to write on the pages which you can't do on the kindle version. Avoid this on Kindle and avoid it if you want something that aims a little higher than your 5 year old.