The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management: The Comprehensive, Easy-to-Read Handbook for Beginners and Pros

by Eric Verzuh

An updated and revised edition of a bestselling guide to project management
The first edition of The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management sold over 100,000 copies and has been widely adopted in university courses and corporate training programs around the world. The book teaches the basic methods for defining, planning, and tracking a project, as well as techniques for leading and building strong project teams.This new edition includes: Downloadable, customizable project management formsStudy aids for passing the popular Project Management Professional certification examGuidelines for building high-performance project teamsNew examples of project management at work in the 21st centuryEric Verzuh (Seattle, WA) is certified by the Project Management Institute and is President of The Versatile Company, which delivers project management training and consulting services to such companies as Adobe Systems, Inc., GE, Lockheed Martin, Nordstrom, and the United States Postal Service. He is also the author of The Portable MBA in Project Management (0-471-26899-2), from Wiley.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Management, Reference, Productivity, Technical, Professional Development

544 pages, Paperback

First published June 24, 1999

Reviews

[Treela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easier to read than the PMBOK

[Shawn Buckle · Rating 2 out of 5]

You're not going to walk away a PMP-certified project manager after reading this book, but it is the first step. It's aptly named "Fast Forward" as that is what the author does, touching upon most areas of project management from a high-level and providing the general structure, tools and organization of it.

Recommended for those fresh to the discipline, but if you have any past experience, most of it will be well understood.

[Leona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intense, but well worth the investment of time.

[Paul, · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very long and very helpful introduction to the art and science of project management. There are a few things that are poorly explained or overly general, but this book has been a very helpful resource for me.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read with PMBOK. For a class. Was moderately helpful. The combined class, this book, and PMBOK created a lot of critical thinking about project management. Wouldn't use everything here, but picking appropriate things is good.

[Char · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a great overview of PM work. It isn't written in an overly complicated language, and the examples are pretty easy to follow.

[Chouba Nabil · Rating 4 out of 5]

sharing some notes :

Manufacturing is on going operation, become more efficient at a task

Project management is to lead disparate people to do good decisions over and over as they make something new

Discover there direction at every step

Real courage is not going gaist ennui boulet, it’s seeing truth and speaking truth to each others
( issue is it’s not always safe, )

Referent othority recognise others expertise and parsing them, being hamble and leassen to others ( kind of showing respect )
Admitting mistake, transparent, trust worthy

Scum leading is making and going to a gaol that team will self manage it self

Politics is leading behind the seen

Choose to model the culture you want
Commitment of the team rarely raise above commitment of the leader

Bad news can’t be ignored, be transparent this will build respect of team

Study risk % and obstacles 100% will happen

For each objective : what will be measured and how we will do it

PM should identify steak holder role, what is my authority, does this mean I will relefied for others

Sponsor add the PM authority lack, they can offer advise, or define priority, my Ofer power on behalf of PM. Responsable for Success : help PM and team to be successful, they champion the project

Risk
Probability, magnitude ( who are worth checking)
Defition, consconse
Probablty x consecone = impact
Rank them, make strategy to reduce risk,
30 management reserve : the unknown

[Hoang Dang · Rating 4 out of 5]

It applied many knowledge from fundamentals to advances in Project Management. It also applied many valuable PM forms & templates to be great your reference in the future. I recommend you who is reading my comment, should try to enrole to the specialization "Introduction to Project Management Principles and Practices" on https://www.coursera.org/. You will get more useful case studies as well as great links and materials from these courses. Enjoy!

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

More work-related schtuff....

[Cheryl Petersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Clear and understandable text on a very detailed process.

[Salem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than 90% of most project management books I've read.

[Jenn "JR" · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall this was a really well written and useful book. I found the background information to be extremely useful and highlighted a TON. It's a great general reference that provides actual examples of things that you read about in the PMBOK, making it a really great supplemental text for the PMBOK. I'll be keeping this one around for general refresher -- great information on things like decision making style, conflict management, the historical background of the discipline and so on.

[Jeremiah Cunningham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as part of a book study with my work team. It is an approachable read for those wanting to learn more about project management, but I do highly recommend you take it slowly. The content is technical and the vocabulary is very unique to the project management realm. My only complaint with the book was at times it felt very repetitive. Overall, a good choice if you want to improve your project management knowledge.

[Jacqueline Aubin · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s essentially an interpretation of the PMBOK. There are few practical examples or applications. Templates are blank and lack examples for content. I didn’t find it very useful and had to reference several other books.

[muhammedallia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read half of this book twice, a year apart. It's certainly more digestible than other project management books (especially the PMBOK). Seems like a great reference book if you're familiar with the concepts already, but the templates aren't as easily accessible or useful as I'd like.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple and sound Project Management principles, explained

This is a great example of how a large amount of information can be explained and scaled down to maximize the reader’s understanding of the material

[Aileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good reference guide for someone with additional project management resources. There were not a ton of engaging anecdotes or anything that made this particularly interesting to read but the content was valid.

[Todd Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview of project management. I use it in one of the classes I teach.

[Thu An Huynh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The approach is more creative than the PMBOK but it is still a little bit boring for me.

[Huỳnh Mai · Rating 2 out of 5]

Its far from my knowledge! Definitely read again to clearly understand.

[Julio Escoboza · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book provides you with a summarize information about Project Management and what you should know and do when working as a PM.

[Federico Fregosi · Rating 1 out of 5]

boring

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best, most thorough book on PM I’ve read. Also provides templates and PMI exam questions.

[Hope · Rating 2 out of 5]

Does not prepare you enough to get certified. It’s simplistic and just a little too basic to be worthwhile.

[Ron Cruz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible, worthless trash.

[Ahmed Alkatheeri · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful reference for people who lead project delivery, looking for project management knowledge, and prepare for the PMP exam.

It’s a large book contains around 580 pages separated by chapters that follow almost predictive (waterfall) and some mentioned adaptive (Agile) approaches. I would like to see the alignment of the book with the last version of PMBok (7th addition) where adding performance domains and project management standards.

[Bryce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very useful, excellent intro course into project management and a solid prep to become PMP-certified. Like many business books, though, it's pretty dry and not something to be downed in a couple sittings...

[Arden · Rating 2 out of 5]

I took a two-day class on project management this fall. This book was strongly recommended as a textbook to accompany the class. I appreciate being brought up to speed on the process and philosophy of project management, but this book was kind of tedious to read.

[Kanishk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very realistic and hands on advice for program/project managers. If you are looking for some practical tips and tricks instead of theoretical PMBOK stuff, I'm sure this book will help you. There are some templates also available on their website which can provide a good start for new PMs.

[Lamont · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're like me, you learn by experiencing. This book is about the experience in project management which for me was invaluable in my success in passing the PMP. This book gave me real-world examples of other's projects and I was able to compare and contrast those examples to my own experience.