While this book does a reasonable job of explaining the key knowledge areas of the Fundamentals II exam, I found "OCP: Oracle9i DBA Fundamentals II Study Guide" by Doug Stuns and Matthew Weishan to be more complete and in depth. I used that book during my OCP training as a primary reference for Fundamentals II.

I've read through this book, which I got when I purchased the OCP Oracle9i DBA Certification Boxed Set, and found it to be reasonably accurate and adequately written. I would say that both books have unique strengths and weaknesses and choosing one over the other is more a matter of personal preference. The advantage to this one, however, is the value if you get it as part of the boxed set.

Among the strong points of this book are the self tests and practice exam questions. Weaknesses include poor editing, which seems to plague this series, and the inconsistent writing that is at times extremely clear and others quite obtuse.

This book is not only an excellent study guide for both the OCP classes and the exam, but a wonderfully written explanation of the complexities of performance and tuning. Of all of the material I've read on this subject [for training and examination purposes], nothing has made more sense or been more enlightening than this book.

All of the key elements of performance tuning are covered, the illustrations are excellent and aid in understanding, and the drills, self tests and practice questions have been a tremendous help.

This single-topic, 208 page book focuses on preparing you for two aspects of the PMP exam:

(1) the situational questions, of which there can be as many as 150
(2) professional responsibility questions

Both aspects are barriers to passing the exam and this book is probably the most complete and definitive guide you can study to prepare for these exam areas.

I got this book with OCP Oracle9i DBA Certification Boxed Set, so I didn't specifically select it based on skimming at a bookstore. Yes, it has errors. Errors notwithstanding (and there are many), this book has helped me greatly during my OCP training. However, it's important to know what there are errors, and to read the errata, else you will question your own sanity.

To be fair, the book has proven more helpful than not, especially since the OCP course I am taking is fast-paced and the instructor tends to gloss over information that is more important that I realized in class.

Be aware of the fact that this book does have errors, make sure you read the errata and you'll find it quite helpful.

As I write this review I am still in class for Oracle OCP. What makes this book so invaluable is that the class is fast-paced and often zips past important topics. This book has allowed me to dig deeper into topics covered during class and fill in material that the instructor either missed or glossed over.

This book focuses on Oracle networking, backup and recovery and SQL*Loader. It not only gives the essentials in study format, but does an excellent job of explaining each of the topics clearly and succinctly. Although I am using this book to get through the training and to also prepare for my OCP exam, I will also keep it as a reference when I begin putting my certification to use as a new DBA.

I cannot make claims about how the material in this book addresses the actual exam since I haven't taken them, but it has significantly helped me keep up in a fast-paced training course.

This is a reprint of "McGraw-Hill Pocket Guide to Business Finance: 201 Decision-Making Tools for Managers" with a single difference. The now out-or-print book came with a runtime version of MathCAD and formulas for using each of the tools, while this new version does not. Also, don't let the title fool you - this book is as useful to working professionals as it is to students.

The 201 tools contained in this small, highly useful book range from Acid Test (doing a quick ratio of financials) to Z-Scores. Each tool is listed alphabetically, its use explained, and instructions on how to use it is provided. What I particularly liked is the worked examples that accompany each tool.

As an IT consultant who specializes in service delivery this book is not one I would normally include in my professional library. I was introduced to it when a colleague and I were writing a white paper on recovery management. We were searching for a way to link business imperatives to justification for investment in recovery strategies. We found one piece of the puzzle in this book - the Altman Z-Score. This tool predicts whether or not a company is likely to enter into bankruptcy within one or two years. This led to the development of a copyrighted model that addressed survival level objectives, and also became a key part of the Tarrani-Zarate Information Technologies Management Model. All this from a single entry in a small book!

Aside from discovering a relatively obscure, but important, tool I also found other useful tools in this book. Because I am not a business consultant or financial expert the tools were like a cram course in financial management for non-financial people. For example, I was able to apply some of the tools to personal financial matters - the real costs of a loan become quickly apparent when you compute them. I was also able to employ some of the tools to conduct realistic cost/benefit analyses, examine trade-offs supporting approaches to projects, etc. In this respect this small book has significantly improved my professional skills and has inspired me to read other books on financial management.

I strongly recommend this book - collection of tools really - to anyone who deals with finance, anyone who has P&L responsibilities, and business and IT consultants. The latter group will find this book to be invaluable for developing proposals, deliverables and project plans that add value.

A friend who is an experienced PM once remarked that there are three stages to becoming an enlightened project manager: (1) learning the techniques, (2) realizing that it's really about people, and (3) Epiphany - it's about ensuring that someone else gets the blame if things go wrong and 1 & 2 are core skills in achieving this.

Regardless of how true his theory is, this book will certainly get you to the second stage of enlightenment, and also provide you with the knowledge and skills to manage stakeholder expectations, use effective intervention methods when things do get off track, and to maintain high project team morale.

The nine chapters in this 305 page book systematically cover all aspects of the people part of the equation. It starts with an accurate description of key management skills and duties required of a PM. It then addresses the basics of organizational planning, which focuses on roles and responsibilities. From personal experience I can attest that establishing roles and responsibilities is essential to project success.

Chapter 3, Human Resource Theory and Charts, sets the tone for the chapters on Staff Acquisition and Kickoff, and Team Development, both of which provide refined techniques for managing people and teams.

I particularly liked the chapters on resolving conflict (something that PMs deal with daily) and managing change, which is a constant. Since I work with multi-cultural teams that are international (mainly in India and the Middle East) I also liked the chapter titled Worldwide Teams and Cultural Issues.

The chapter on project closeout and evaluation is a good reminder that there is a shutdown phase to projects, and this chapter provides guidance for how to perform this step in a structured manner.

Although this is a book on the PMI approach to project management, the material is also applicable to any project management methodology, including the UK standard (PRINCE2) and CompTIA's IT Project +.

The four chapters in this short, focused book introduce work breakdown structures, define them from a conceptual point of view, explain why they are the foundation of project planning, and show how to create one. These chapters comprise a scant 18 pages, but are thorough enough to accomplish the objective of explaining the Project Management Institute's practice standards for WBS.

The real value of the book is contained in appendices E through O, in which a WBS for common industry project types are given as examples. These 44 pages are the real reason to buy the book because they show real examples of the conceptual and brief "how to" approach compressed into the first 18 pages. The project types in these appendices are:
E - Oil, Gas, and Petrochemical (OGP)
F - Environmental Management
G - Process Improvement
H - Pharmaceutical
I - Process Plant Construction
J - Service Industry Outsourcing
K - Web Design
L - Telecom
M - Refinery Turnaround
N - Government Design-Bid-Build
O - Software Implementation

Appendices A-D are filler that descripe the PMI standards process and associated information, and can be safely skipped unless you are interested in those topics.

Overall this is a much needed book because WBS are still skipped during the project planning phase in too many projects. This is unfortunate because the first thing that a professional does when called in to rescue a project is to examine the WBS, and if there isn't one, the first step towards rescuing a project is to develop one. By following this book, especially if any of the example WBS is similar to your project, will go a long way towards ensuring its success.

There are two things about this book that make it the best book on software testing that's currently available: (1) it gives you a complete, proven process and the details and documents needed to implement and use the process, and (2) it is a page turner. Yes, a page turner, and the reason I make this claim is that on nearly every page is a text box that gives anecdotes, opinions and stories from real life. That, plus the conversational writing style that the authors effectively use makes what could be a dry topic lively and fun to read.

Good writing alone does not make a technical book 'the best currently available' without other distinguishing features. Here's what sets this book apart from all others:

* The core processes and details are based on IEEE standards, but they don't adhere to them. Instead the authors have taken the 15 years of experience from teaching a course that evolved into this book and have used what works, modified what doesn't work so well, and have incorporated field experience from their own testing background as well as suggestions and recommendations from their students. The net result is a standards-based and systematic approach that is tempered with practical experience.

* All of the software testing artifacts and deliverables are provided in both template and worked example form. This alone will give test engineers and their organizations a standard, proven format for these critical documents.

* Testing is not treated as a standalone process. The authors show how testing is connected to requirements, business imperatives, and project management. This is a realistic view of the real world.

There is much more to this book than the highlights I cited, but the previous reviewer covered them well. I cannot think of a single client for whom I've consulted and advised who would not benefit from adopting this book as their test process manual. I cannot think of a single topic of any importance that is not covered in the book, and believe that this book will become the standard reference for test process management for years to come.

Skillfully blends the people and process aspects of project management into a systematic approach. This is important because emphasis on people to the exclusion of metrics is a sure way to have high morale while losing control of the project. Conversely, emphasis on process and metrics to the exclusion of people will result in alienated people who will express their low morale in the form of missed goals and in many cases fabricating metrics.

This book provides the necessary ingredients for managing the people and the processes, and gives excellent techniques for setting and managing to scope, and focusing on the end goal of the project - to deliver a system - by using task/deliverable combinations. These are mature practices and, despite the growing number of certified project managers (PMP, PRINCE2 Practitioner, etc.), are still missing from most projects.

I agree with a previous reviewer that by not using earned value project management techniques (which are now a part of the PMI PMBOK) the author has left a large gap with respect to controlling projects. It's up to the reader to recognize this and either obtain information about earned value from the PMBOK 2000 or from a book such as "Earned Value Project Management" by Quentin W. Fleming and Joel M. Koppelman.

Despite the gap this is an excellent book that accurately portrays the challenges of managing an IT project and gives you the tools, techniques and advice necessary to successfully deliver a system.