I have read this book from cover to cover and found it the best of all the available PgMP and Program Management books. All of us are entitled to our opinions, but I would take those reviews with a grain of salt that blast (trash) this book to advertise the competitor products. Here is my balanced view: you will do yourself a great service if you go through this book very carefully before taking the exam. Of course, you can use other resources and products as well. There are three things that this book does and no other book on this topic does: 1.) It integrates the otherwise scattered information within the scope of the PgMP exam into one place and makes sense of it all (as some other reviewers noticed); 2.) It is organized along the official exam objectives; 3.) The material is presented in such a logical way that while preparing for the exam, you also learn the basics of program management.
That said, I agree with another reviewer that PgMP is a difficult exam. None of the resources is going to substitute for our experience.
I highly recommend this book for the exam and also just for learning the basics of program management.

I took (and passed) the PgMP exam just yesterday (8/26/08). The exam was absolutely NOTHING like this book. The materials covered in this book were weak at best. I took ESI International's online course, used their practice exams, used Aileen Ellis's online test questions and read through the PgMP Standard & Exam Spec. Each of these items were far more useful than this book. My copy has already been put in the garbage... That's where it belongs.

The content of the book are excellent and well elaborated, but unfortunatly I found after taking the real exam that the simulation test questions provided in the book has nothing to do with the real test questions which are based on real scenario questions rather than a straight forward input output questions.

I suggest to all to buy other books in the market.

Good luck.

I've read this book from cover to cover and the PgMP exam? Tough! Been there, done that. My recommendation: this book is a must to prepare for the exam just like the Program Management Standard is. I'm puzzled at a couple of harshly negative reviews about this book: useless, waste of time, dry? These words do not describe this book....I have read other books from Dr. Paul Sanghera as well, and I love his style that puts life into even dead boring topics and make them interesting. Same is true about this book. All concepts are explained well and woven together, and there is a perfect logical flow...it's almost like reading a story... If the inputs and outputs for a process are re-organized to help you make sense, and explained why they are there, I think it's a feature and not a problem...

I do agree however that the questions in the exam are much more difficult than the one in the book, but the book presents the material that you must know before taking the exam...In the exam, of course, your experience will count..no book can substitute for that...This material can be obtained from different references, scattered around...but the book does an excellent job to put all the pieces together and integrate them seamlessly... The author should be congratulated for that...Another great PLUS of this book is that it"s organized along the official exam specifications.
Actually I would recommend this book even if you are not planning to take the exam; it's a great program management book, too.. All program managers should have it on their desk. Program Management Standard will make much more sense after reading this book.

Waste of time and money. Too briefly. A lot of processes names, inputs and outputs don't match The Program Management Standard processes.
This book can't help to pass PgMP exam.

Serge Goncharov, PMP, PgMP

This book is not at all readable; very dry kind of book. But most of all, this book does not help at all in preparing you for the exam. The questions in this book are totally different kind that what you will see in the exam. I took the exam and the questions are largely scenario based. Paul's book will help only about 10% at the most. My recommendation would be to read PMI's standard on Program Management and may be refresh your study from a PMP book like Rita Mulcahy. As such PMI's Program Management Standard book is more readable than Paul's book. Good luck in your preparation.

To me, this book is an order to a perfect chaos of PGMP material. What I mean that the material required for the PgMP exam is scattered in bits and pieces across several references such as Program Management Standard (full), PgMP Exam Specifications (full), PMBOK 3rd Edition (pieces), Maturity models (pieces), and so on. This book integrates all the pieces seamlessly at one place, and by connecting the different concepts to each other creates a beautiful big picture of program management that makes sense. The author adds tons of value to the standard pieces. I commend the author for that. I personally don't care if the questions are easy or difficult (nothing is going to substitute for our experience); but the book presents the material required for the PgMP exam in an excellent way. I have gone through many program management books; none of those even come close to this remarkable book...Books like this one don't come that often...Exam or no Exam this book is a keep; a must have...
Recommended highly.

I don't think this book is quite where it needs to be. Based on my experience, the PgMP exam is much more scenario based and requires a solid, integrated knowledge of program management. The "sample questions" in this book really did nothing to help me and the material itself, for me at least, was not at the level of detail that really enabled me to prepare for the exam. In the end, I relied primarily on the Standard for Program Management (magrinally helpful) and the Managing Successful Programmes standard from the UK OGC (pretty useful) as primary references for topical material and a different study guide for the balance.

I think part of the issue, in general, is that even if you've been a program manager for some period of time in recent history, it's likely tough to write about the topic--there's a lot to know! This book seems to be more of an academic approach to the concepts moreso than an integrated approach to the practice of program management.

For those who liked the author's PMP book, I think you'll find the style similar.

I don't think this book is quite where it needs to be. Based on my experience, the PgMP exam is much more scenario based and requires a solid, integrated knowledge of program management. The "sample questions" in this book really did nothing to help me and the material itself, for me at least, was not at the level of detail that really enabled me to prepare for the exam. In the end, I relied primarily on the Standard for Program Management and the Managing Successful Programmes standard from the UK OGC as primary references for topical material and a different study guide for the balance.

I think part of the issue, in general, is that unless you've been a program manager for some period of time in recent history, it's tough to write about the topic. To that end, this book seems to be more of an academic approach to some concepts than an integrated approach to the practice of program management.

For those who liked the author's PMP book, I think you'll find the style similar.

I like Paul's style very much, so it's a good book for me. The major problem with this guide is the practice questions. I have not taken the PgMP exam, but I expect it to be even more scenario based than the PMP exam. Paul's practice questions are way too old style, memory regurgitation types. The CD replicates the questions in the book, and the final exams replicate the chapter questions, in the memory regurgitation style.
This is a bad sign I think, because to pass the PMP exam, wannabes need to do a lot of good quality practice questions that are scenario based. I am sure this will be true of the PgMP as well.
The book does include the content needed to pass, and I like his style.
Jim SLoane, PMP, OPM3CAC, CM

I'm a trainer in the fields of project management and program management and have found this book as the best not only for PgMP exam preparation but also for learning the basics of program management.
First, for the PgMP Exam:
The best strength of this book is that it follows and covers the official exam specifications by PMI very closely and thoroughly. Yes, if you have time you can go through different references such as, Program Management Standard (which you should go through any way), and relevant parts of other references such as PMBOK Guide 3rd Edition, OPM3 model doc, and some other references to learn the material covered by the PgMP exam as specified in the exam specifications. You can take the relevant pieces of information from these different resources and references and put them together, but it will take a lot of effort. This book integrates these pieces of information together in a seamless fashion. So, it's a great time saver.
Bottom line: this book gives you the body of knowledge that the exam covers. That siad, no book can be a substitute for your experience. To pass the PgMP exam, you need the body of knowledge presented in this book PLUS your experience.
Second, the program management:
I agree with another reviewer that this is the first real book on program management (other than the program management standard, of course) that clearly distinguishes program management from project management and presents the relationship between them in a clear way. The basic concepts of program management are explained in a very clear way and the author offers comprehensive coverage in a cohesive fashion. I love the author's style of presentation. It makes learning easier and fun.

I'm a trainer in the fields of project management and program management and have found this book as the best not only for PgMP exam preparation but also for learning the basics of program management.
First, for the PgMP Exam:
The best strength of this book is that it follows and covers the official exam specifications by PMI very closely and thoroughly. Yes, if you have time you can go through different references such as, Program Management Standard (which you should go through any way), and relevant parts of other references such as PMBOK Guide 3rd Edition, OPM3 model doc, and some other references to learn the material covered by the PgMP exam as specified in the exam specifications. You can take the relevant pieces of information from these different resources and references and put them together, but it will take a lot of effort. This book integrates these pieces of information together in a seamless fashion. So, it's a great time saver.
Bottom line: this book gives you the body of knowledge that the exam covers. That siad, no book can be a substitute for your experience. To pass the PgMP exam, you need the body of knowledge presented in this book PLUS your experience.
Second, the program management:
I agree with another reviewer that this is the first real book on program management (other than the program management standard, of course) that clearly distinguishes program management from project management and presents the relationship between them in a clear way. The basic concepts of program management are explained in a very clear way and the author offers comprehensive coverage in a cohesive fashion. I love the author's style of presentation. It makes learning easier and fun.

I just took the PgMP exam (and passed) and I can tell you that I think that would have done just as well without ever reading/studying this book (or the PMI "Standard for Program Management", for that matter).

Past the terminology definitions and a few good PM review topics, the book is only marginally useful. The sample exams are like what I remember the PMP exam to be like (in 1999), but completely unlike what I just saw.

In my experience, most questions were comprised of a lengthy scenario description and "what is the best/first thing to do" type multiple choice. There were very few "such and such a process belongs to which of the following knowledge areas" type questions.

I'm sorry, but it looks like you need to get thru that exam largely on management (and/or common) sense and experience. This review book (or any of my studying) really didn't help much.

I used this book to prepare for the PgMP (which I passed at first try). I also used Dr. Sanghera's PMP prep book to prepare for the PMP test. His PgMP book is clearly not up to the PMP book level in presentation accuracy, conciseness and attention to details. The version that I bought comes with the CD companion that includes a test simulation engine (later about that). Overall a bit too much of a cookie-cutter approach without much new original thinking especially in the practice questions.

The book:
1. Why should it take a book longer than the PMP book to present a much smaller (yet quite similar) body of knowledge? If you compare the PgMP standard and the PMP standard you immediately see what I am talking about.

2. Some sections were taken verbatim from the PMP book by doing a global find-replace of Project with Program. So is Program Mgmt the same of Project Mgmt with a different name?

3. Dr. Sanghera re-arranged the Program lifecycle material in a way that made me losing the thread of the cycle. It was easier learning it in the PMI standard!

4. The best benefit of its PMP book was to approach the PMP standard on a process angle since PMI presents it on a knowledge area angle. His PgMP book follows the same process group approach (like the new PgMP standard) adding Tools and tecniques (missing in the PgMP standard) but never presenting even appendix charts with processes by knowledge area.

5. The chapters' practice questions are ridiculously easy and totally based on PgMP notions rather than case studies.(note the case studies in the chapters look way too simple and first-year-college)

The Sybex Test engine:
1. Not at par with Rita's PMP test engine by far (I used it for the PMP test). But you get what you pay for.

2. It offers 2 Bonus Tests of approx 85-87 questions (the exams asks 170) then it combines them in a "Bonus Final Full Test". Same questions. What's the point?

3. Some answers are wrong (I checked them in the book and PgMP standard) and it appears that some of the sames answers were changed (correctly) in the "combined" Final Full test....so much for quality control. At least one question was repeated 2 times (back to back) in a Bonus test.

4. One more time: the practice questions are too easy with basically no (or very limited) case studies and continuous pounding on processes' Inputs/Outputs and Tools (the latter not even in the PgMP standard). Some questions were plain silly (everybody knows that the Prog. Mgmr. 's spouse is not a key program stakeholder...come on!)

Conclusions:

In all fairness the PgMP standard does look and feel very close to the PMP with some tricky differences that it is easy to overlook. Not a good reason to made a semi-identical copy of the PMP book with a different cover. I do like Mr. Sanghera's style and I really liked his PMP book and I had great expectations about this book. This PgMP book did not live up to them. It needs some serious thinking and work to be put into it.

The practice questions will not prepare you to pass the PgMP exam especially if you do not have a (recent) PMP certification.

The PgMP test is a very different animal than the book's questions - much harder than this book and much less based on dry and academic notions of inputs/outputs/tools. It is mostly case study based (long) with a much more real life flavor.

While repetitive at times, Dr. Sanghera does an excellent job of preparing the reader for the PgMP (although I still have to take the test I've found it very useful. Similar to Rita Mulcahy's preparation tools for the PMP).

Highly recommended if you are pursuing the PgMP certification.

I find this book as the first real book on program management. I have read several books on program management that actually cover project management under the cover of program management. This book clearly distinguishes program management from project management and also clearly establishes the relationship between them. Then it covers all the program management topics with appropriate depth within the scope set by the PgMP Exam Specifications by PMI. It's written in the standard Sanghera Style (yes, I have read other books by this author), which I love. All concepts clearly defined from scratch, and their connection with each other clearly established. There is a perfect logical flow among the chapters and among the sections within each chapter. This makes the book easy to understand and also enjoyable to read.
Each chapter starts with listing and explaining the PgMP Exam objectives covered in the chapter. Although the book has a very strong focus on the exam and follows the PgMP exam specifications thoroughly, it's not an exam cram. The preseantation style makes it an excellent referecne (text) book for program management as well. I'm planning to use it for my program management course.
Highly recommended for the PgMP exam and also if you just want to learn basics of program management.

I have been evaluating this text for a PgMP Exam Prep class and find it to be very well organized and aligned with the PgMP Exam Standards.

I like the addition of flash cards and exam questions. It also provides several business overviews of why Program Management is important.