Book review: Dictionary of Project Management Terms

Amazingly, this dictionary retails at nearly £90.  It is about 500 pages, and each page is packed with project management definitions, but even so.  ESI can’t have been selling very many, which is maybe why they decided to put it online.

You do have to register to access the online version, which is free.  But I doubt you get the pleasure of browsing the dictionary and happening across definitions of ‘Close, but No Cigar’* and ‘Management by Crisis’** nestled amongst the 3,400 project management and business analysis terms.

It is the most comprehensive dictionary of project management terms I have seen, and LeRoy Ward has done a good job in this 3rd edition of pulling together general management terminology as well.  I looked up ‘peopleware’ after a colleague and I had a debate about what it actually means, and it wasn’t there.  ‘Software’ and ‘groupware’ are both there but not ‘hardware’.  One of the advantages of having an online version is that it can be updated more easily when new terms are made up and our profession seems to make things up on a regular basis.

The dictionary is a useful desk reference: it’s small enough to carry around if you are studying or reading project management texts for the first time, but if you are using it truly for definitions and not for browsing, the online version will be more up to date and it’s free.  Use that – don’t spend £90 on a paperback.

*To fall short of a successful outcome, getting nothing for the effort
** Management style that focuses on solving critical or urgent problems when and if they occur but doesn’t do anything to prevent or minimise them before they occur.

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