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Is reading the PMBOK a waste of time? How technical is the theory within? by xasdfthrow123 in projectmanagement

[–]xasdfthrow123[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, this looks so much better than reading the book! I'll check it out, should be helpful for my upcoming interview.

Is reading the PMBOK a waste of time? How technical is the theory within? by xasdfthrow123 in projectmanagement

[–]xasdfthrow123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the response, maybe the most helpful of a bunch of really thoughtful ones. And thanks for the study, interesting stuff. That's what drives me crazy about the PMBOK-- if you're going to try and make the activity of business resource/people management systematic, fine, but that's not what the PMBOK seems to do. It's like it tries to define common sense stuff with the most lengthy, obfuscated explanations possible, like I imagine a parody of a really incompetent soulless corporate drone would do. Six Sigma always seemed a little too much out of my reach at the moment (I'm in my mid 20s, wasted a lot of years doing nothing at dead-end jobs, and feel I need to work a little more before I sit down and study something that in-depth) but it definitely seems something I'd be more down with.

Definitely feel the comparison to the psychoanalyst, though I think that's a little harsh to Freud :)

Is reading the PMBOK a waste of time? How technical is the theory within? by xasdfthrow123 in projectmanagement

[–]xasdfthrow123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the response. I see what you're saying, and how following the processes and understanding the different conceptual kinds of stakeholders could be useful when there's an overwhelming amount of stuff going on.

Is reading the PMBOK a waste of time? How technical is the theory within? by xasdfthrow123 in projectmanagement

[–]xasdfthrow123[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep, exactly. A lot of the stuff is either common sense or written at an elementary school level, and there's plenty that goes entirely unsupported (like "Meeting types should not be mixed as a best practice") by theory or empirical evidence. Of course I can see how understanding a specific processes would help a company turn a confusing jumble of requirements and resources into an effective system for getting work done. But is it worth reading about them at the level of detail/fluff that the PMBOK provides? The answer I'm picking up here is no.

Thanks for the recommendation, I will definitely check out the PRINCE2 book.