Overall, I was disappointed with this book. I found it to be little more than a rehash of the PMI's PMBOK. It would have had more use and utility if it offered a different approach to the material in a way that would make the reader better understand the PMBOK and what PMI was looking for on the PMP exam. I passed the exam, but I think it was due to other materials I was fortunate enough to find.

I was pleased with the quality of this book. I passed the PMP exam on my first testing, using only this book to supplement my own professional experience. The book was straightforward on the topics, and highlighted special items needed for the exam. The review questions at the end of each chapter were very helpful. Although they now have changed the exam, this was a very good book and should be considered for the next edition to match the new PMP exam.

This book was helpful for studying for the PMP exam. It helped me get a much better handle on the material than the PMBOK. But it was not as good as the Tony Johnson Crosswind book. Heldman's work is useful for a secondary resource but lacks the comprehensiveness and organizational functionality of Johnson's book.

I have to give a top rating to this study guide because of how Ms. Heldman presented the material. By following the processes as opposed to the knowledge areas, she really pulled the entire PMBOK guide together.

Her book made it easy to skip a lot of deep memorization of the individual inputs, tools and ouputs and just simply understand what the processes were for.

Along with Andy Crowe's book and the PMBOK, this book rounded out my PMP self-study journey and I'm glad I bought it.

Read this book early on in your PMP preparation process to lay a strong foundation in understanding the process groups. Although it may not be as exam oriented as the Mulcahy book, I found this to be a much better book for a few of reasons:

1. Follows process groups rather than knowledge areas. If you have any real experience managing projects this is much more intuitive to follow and more closely mirrors real-life. By following the process groups as the book is laid out rather than focusing on the knowledge areas as many other books/courses/aids do you begin to get a much better idea of how the PMI processes inputs/tools&techniques/outputs all fit together.

2. Much easier to read. The Mulcahy book (and many other PMP prep books) focuses on memorization and understanding of individual processes which I don't think is required for the exam. What is required is a thorough understanding of why the processes are sequenced in the manner PMBOK lays them out, which begins to make much more sense after you've read through this.

3. The questions and the sample exam are comparable in difficulty to what you'll find on the PMP exam.

I also recommend the Mulcahy book in preparing for the exam, but I wouldn't have been able to get through it without having read this first.