It is a great pleasure to review the third edition of this valuable book, especially after reviewing its first edition in 2012 [1]. Comprehensively designed and restructured, this latest edition offers more knowledge and professional value for the project management (PM) field. It covers basic material for PM students, practitioners, directors, and managers, as well as academics in the field.

The content is aligned with the PMBOK guide (6th ed.) [2] and the related American National Standards Institute/Project Management Institute (ANSI/PMI) standard, 99-001-2017, including chapters dedicated to the agile approach. While similar material is covered, Project management theory and practice is not a tutorial for the PMI certification exams. However, the first part of the book is targeted to a broad audience who may not have a basic understanding of PM theory or the PMBOK guide. The newest edition includes substantial changes while staying close to the PMI model and how to apply it in real projects.

The restructured content helps readers apply, at the enterprise business level, standard PM principles for running project-tailored processes and establishing performance management structures. The content is organized over seven sections and 38 chapters. Each section is conceived as a purpose-specific layer, while the consequent ones expand on the acquired knowledge and discuss more complex layers. The authors include relevant and practical aspects selected from many real-world projects, including discussion questions and problems, trends in specific areas, a final conclusion for each chapter, and further reading and references.

The first section, the largest, consists of eight chapters dedicated to a conceptual overview of the project environment. There are presented concepts aside from the standard model structure to help students understand ten standard knowledge areas (KAs). It starts with an introduction to PM, followed by its evolution model, industry trends, PM concepts, the role of projects in organizations, and project success factors.

Section 2 (seven chapters) deals with foundation processes and describes the main PM KAs for core deliverables. It starts with how to expand the project vision for project initiation and plan development. It then covers those KAs related to the management of scope, schedule, cost, and quality, including a quick-start example based on a project work breakdown structure (WBS) to develop a project schedule and a cost plan.

Section 3 is dedicated to soft skill processes, used as a basis for a full project organization’s human resources interaction. Its 4 chapters describe the processes for resource management, project communications, stakeholder management, and techniques for providing high-performance teams.

As a complement to Section 2, Section 4 (three chapters) deals with the support processes from the other KAs: procurement and risk management, integration, and plan completion. Section 5’s four chapters present advanced planning models, detailing variable time estimate analysis and related problems; models for the adaptive life cycle, including agile; project simulation techniques; and the critical chain model.

Section 6 (six chapters) emphasizes the processes for project execution and control, namely change management. It presents the project and enterprise metrics with key performance indicators (KPIs) for evaluation, followed by earned value management (EVM), tracking progress, and closing process.

The last section’s five chapters cover multiple aspects of the project environmental support: organizational maturity, project portfolio management (PPM), enterprise project management office (EPMO), and project governance. Finally, it analyzes project responsibilities and ethical practices, focusing on the ethical code of the project manager, viewed through PMI’s “code of ethics and professional conduct.”

Three appendices related to financial metrics, websites for project templates, and a project data repository template for the project team and stakeholders complete the book. The text is very clear; appropriate drawings, tables, and figures are combined with useful explanations. This is a great book for PM students and those applying advanced PM techniques.