There is no discussion of strategies for schedules e.g. should you consider effort-controlled tasks, if you don't what's the best way to update your schedule, if you do what's the best way to update your schedule??? There is little discussion of "task types" and the pivotal role they play, how those choices impact updating the schedule, resource leveling, and incongruous operations that the tool will allow you to perform without protest. Perhaps because the producer of the software wrote the book there is absolutely no mention of the tool's shortcomings and how they can be avoided.

After reading this book the reader will be able to create a schedule, but will probably become bogged down in difficulty if they try to manage a project by maintaining that schedule.

I used the book as part of my study for the Microsoft Office Specialist exam. I found that I needed to do a lot of supplemental study in order to pass the test.

Work through the exercises, though. It's a "hands-on" kind of book!

It contains a well written Appendix entitled "A Short Course in Project Management", and various "Project Management Focus" paragraphs throughout the book, but it is not really intended to teach you project management. For that, I suggest you read a project management text without a software focus, such as Project Management for Dummies by Stan Portny.

Just as you would not expect a book on Microsoft Word to teach you how to write using good grammar, you should not expect this book on Microsoft Project to also teach you all you need to know about project management.

I use this book to teach various Project 2002 courses, and I find it works well. However, a prerequiste for my classes is a project management theory class that uses only pen and paper. I have found this to be a powerful combination.