Teaching "Project Management" in a University, a Book Recomendation

As you know, there is a lot of books outside there. If you are PMI member you can search inside the PMI´s library. But when I have opportunity to do that I used the PMBOK as a basic with a real life example where students applied the PMBOK concepts. I never give the students the PMBOK to read it. Know you have the PMIEF initiative inside the PMI where you can find good materials for this matter.

Miguel,
As the Manager of Academic Programs at PMI, I reached out to the Chair and past Chair of the Global Accreditation Center of Project Management Education Programs (GAC):

• James Szot, Ph.D., P.E., PMP, Director of the Project Management Program, Executive Education at the Naveen Jindal School of Management at The University of Texas at Dallas.

• John Cable, R.A., PMP, Director of the Project Management Center for Excellence at the A. James Clark School of Engineering, Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland

Jim suggests:
“In addition to the PMBOK® Guide and other PMI standards and practice guides, we use the first three texts listed below in our graduate program as the primary project management texts (we purchase student memberships so the students have access to the PMI standards and guides on pmi.org and don’t have to purchase these unless they want a hard copy). I’ve also used the Meredith et al and Nicholas texts as single texts in a standalone project management course for another program with good success.

Larson, E. and Gray, C. (2014). Project Management: The Managerial Process (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. ISBN: 978-0-07-809659-4 (ISBN-13 9781259186400 also okay; this bundles a trial CD w/MS Project). This text contains a good balance of technical project management topics and the socio-cultural aspects of project management. There is a less expensive paperback edition published by McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited that adds an author (Desai. G.) and 14 additional cases specific to India and chapter appendices “integrating the subject topics with the way they have been treated in the latest PMBOK® Guide, 5th Edition.” Some of my students have purchased it from Amazon (ISBN 978-93-392-1203-2) which is fine except the page numbers are different due to the additional content.

Meredith, J. R. et al. (2014). Project Management in Practice (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN-13: 978-1118674666 [international edition is different – don’t buy] This text focuses on the technical aspects of project management with examples using Microsoft Office Excel and Project software for basic project management tasks and Oracle Crystal Ball® software for understanding and managing risk. A student trial license for Crystal Ball is included.

Heldman, K. (2013). PMP® Project management professional exam study guide (7th ed.). Indianapolis: Wiley (Sybex). ISBN: 978-1-118-53182-2. We use this as a self-study supplement for CAPM/PMP exam prep – it is not a college-level text.

Nicholas, J. and Steyn, H. (2012). Project management for engineering, business and technology (4th ed.). New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-08-096704-2

I found Kloppenborg’s 2nd ed. to be fairly well-aligned with the PMBOK® Guide 4th Edition and suitable for an introductory course but haven’t reviewed the third edition to check for alignment with the PMBOK® Guide 5th edition. “

John suggests:
“I use "Project Management in Practice" by Meredith, Mantel, Scott, and Shafer published by Wiley for my intro class + PMBOK® Guide. The Meredith book keys sections of their text to PMBOK® Guide with an icon to highlight topics discussed in PMBOK® Guide. The two books work well together and my students consistently give the tandem high marks.

One of the projects I assign each semester is to compare 5 other standards to PMBOK® Guide and prepare recommendations for possible enhancements to PMBOK® Guide. It is a great exercise that strengthens the students understanding of PMBOK® Guide and introduces them to some of the other products available for reference.”

Miguel,
As the Manager of Academic Programs at PMI, I reached out to the Chair and past Chair of the Global Accreditation Center of Project Management Education Programs (GAC):

• James Szot, Ph.D., P.E., PMP, Director of the Project Management Program, Executive Education at the Naveen Jindal School of Management at The University of Texas at Dallas.

• John Cable, R.A., PMP, Director of the Project Management Center for Excellence at the A. James Clark School of Engineering, Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland

Jim suggests:
“In addition to the PMBOK® Guide and other PMI standards and practice guides, we use the first three texts listed below in our graduate program as the primary project management texts (we purchase student memberships so the students have access to the PMI standards and guides on pmi.org and don’t have to purchase these unless they want a hard copy). I’ve also used the Meredith et al and Nicholas texts as single texts in a standalone project management course for another program with good success.

Larson, E. and Gray, C. (2014). Project Management: The Managerial Process (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. ISBN: 978-0-07-809659-4 (ISBN-13 9781259186400 also okay; this bundles a trial CD w/MS Project). This text contains a good balance of technical project management topics and the socio-cultural aspects of project management. There is a less expensive paperback edition published by McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited that adds an author (Desai. G.) and 14 additional cases specific to India and chapter appendices “integrating the subject topics with the way they have been treated in the latest PMBOK® Guide, 5th Edition.” Some of my students have purchased it from Amazon (ISBN 978-93-392-1203-2) which is fine except the page numbers are different due to the additional content.

Meredith, J. R. et al. (2014). Project Management in Practice (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN-13: 978-1118674666 [international edition is different – don’t buy] This text focuses on the technical aspects of project management with examples using Microsoft Office Excel and Project software for basic project management tasks and Oracle Crystal Ball® software for understanding and managing risk. A student trial license for Crystal Ball is included.

Heldman, K. (2013). PMP® Project management professional exam study guide (7th ed.). Indianapolis: Wiley (Sybex). ISBN: 978-1-118-53182-2. We use this as a self-study supplement for CAPM/PMP exam prep – it is not a college-level text.

Nicholas, J. and Steyn, H. (2012). Project management for engineering, business and technology (4th ed.). New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-08-096704-2

I found Kloppenborg’s 2nd ed. to be fairly well-aligned with the PMBOK® Guide 4th Edition and suitable for an introductory course but haven’t reviewed the third edition to check for alignment with the PMBOK® Guide 5th edition. “

John suggests:
“I use "Project Management in Practice" by Meredith, Mantel, Scott, and Shafer published by Wiley for my intro class + PMBOK® Guide. The Meredith book keys sections of their text to PMBOK® Guide with an icon to highlight topics discussed in PMBOK® Guide. The two books work well together and my students consistently give the tandem high marks.

One of the projects I assign each semester is to compare 5 other standards to PMBOK® Guide and prepare recommendations for possible enhancements to PMBOK® Guide. It is a great exercise that strengthens the students understanding of PMBOK® Guide and introduces them to some of the other products available for reference.”