Rating: 
Summary: Comprehensive. One stop for Project Management knowledge.
Review: 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: 
Summary: No glossary. No bold text for new terms.
Review: The editors' laziness undermines the value of this 1100-page book, which includes hundreds of project management terms. This book has no glossary, and new terms are not emphasized with bold text. I cannot recall ever seeing a textbook edited like this, and do not know why John Wiley & Sons, Inc would torment users of this book by neglecting these conventions. If the publisher corrects this egregious oversight, I would give the new edition 4 or 5 stars. The content if good if you dedicate the time to read. If you need to build your PM vocabulary or brush up on some concepts, go somewhere else.
Rating:
Summary: No glossary. No bold text for new terms.
Review: The editors' laziness undermines the value of this 1100-page book, which includes hundreds of project management terms. This book has no glossary, and new terms are not emphasized with bold text. I cannot recall ever seeing a textbook edited like this, and do not know why John Wiley & Sons, Inc would torment users of this book by neglecting these conventions. If the publisher corrects this egregious oversight, I would give the new edition 4 or 5 stars. The content if good if you dedicate the time to read. If you need to build your PM vocabulary or brush up on some concepts, go somewhere else.
Rating: 
Summary: good collection of other research but Kerzner's illogical
Review: This book is a good collection of other people's research in various fields like HR, RISK, etc. However, Kerzner's own definition of things is sometimes illogical and inconsistent. Take for instance the "project charter" which is widely known as the formal initiation document for a project. Kerzner says the charter has time and cost, resource assignment and other information which logically doesn't even get created until much later in the process! Many, many examples of other illogical statements throughout the book which make it very tough to digest! Good book as a general all round reference... just don't take it as the bible of project management. Many PM's ignore about 70% of what he suggests.
Rating:
Summary: A monolithic reference
Review: This Book is just a monolithic reference that I used for a class. Don't try and learn from it. The PMP exam is not as hard as you think; yes it is high pressure, time wise. It has primarily 2 types of questions. 1 is memory recall. 2. Is testing your experience, that is to say how do you respond to a given situation, what is your rational or judgment? And every question is tied directly or indirectly to the PMBOOK. Read it Twice. I used The PMBOOK with a book written in narrative style chapter for chapter against the PMBOOK. It's called "Information Technology Project Management" by Kathy Schwalbe. It has some simple IT examples that most business people can understand after all Project Management is irrelevant to industry. And The Project Manager (person) is not. Also Parts of the book "Project Management: The Managerial Process" by Clifford F. Gray. For Scope, Time, Cost, and Risk. The cheapest and "good" situational questioner (with explanations and references to the PMBOOK) and memory jogger (two products) come from ESI international, do a search on the web for company info; the author is J. Leroy Ward. These two books again are mapped directly to the PMBOOK. Use your experience, Intuition and smarts to answer the questions. Memories all economic formulas. Sleep tight and then go do the exam
Rating: 
Summary: Don't recommend it
Review: This book is too comprehensive, its topics includes areas that don't belong to project management and this makes the book confusing and diluted. I bought it for a class and the professor had to use other references so the book were not really useful.
Rating:
Summary: redundant, non-explicit, and boring
Review: This book makes a great door stop (at 1203 pages long) but is of little use for anything else. Aside from being extremely redundant and non-explicit in the case studies given, it is very boring (and hard to follow due to this). The book consists of pages and pages of bulleted lists that serve little purpose as well as very bad charts and diagrams. I believe the class consensus for this book was to choose another one for the next global project management course offered. If you can avoid buying it you're better off.
Rating:
Summary: Quantity but unfortunately no quality.
Review: This book may have been great 10 years ago but not now. It is very cumbersome to read due to its illogical presentation. It keeps on repeating over and over that the project manager should be able to wheel and deal with the line manager and basically depend on the line manager for work that needs to tbe done. If the project manager does not have the authority to obtain resources from a line manager, then the project manager would be stupid to accept the position in the first place. I was disappointed with the book as a whole and the first thing that came to mind after I finished reading it, was to ask for most of my money back. ....
Rating:
Summary: NOT PMP SELF-STUDY! No Answers - Very Poor Editing
Review: This book may have great information for project managers, but not for PMP certification candidates. The style is extremely dry, abstruse, and boring, making it difficult to plow through. IT IS NO GOOD FOR PMP SELF-STUDY BECAUSE THERE ARE NO ANSWERS TO TESTS AND CASE STUDIES. Ditto for the workbook. Kerzner appears to be a self-important, stuffy academician who managed to turn his lecture notes into a money tree. Typos and unintelligible "sentences" abound. NOT worth $75. Spend your money elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: A thorough presentation of project management
Review: This is a very detailed text book that provides lists lists and more lists to back up the examples. However, this is in the sixth edition, and some of the economic comentary seems like it is from the ancient past. Many of the academic resources and quoted texts are from the 1960's and 1970's. Those principles are sound, but perhaps there are other comments that are more modern? Also, there are no women project managers, and the artwork can be corny, out of place. My vote is to not publish a seventh edition, but to start from scratch with a new book, new sources, fresh perspective. Until that happens, this book is fine.
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