BOOK REVIEW
Book Title: Earned Benefit Program Management: Aligning, Realizing, and Sustaining Strategy
Author: Crispin (“Kik”) Piney, PfMP, PgMP
Publisher: CRC Press
List Price: $120.88
Format: hardcover, 394 pages
Publication Date: 2018
ISBN: 978-1032476599
Reviewer: Stephen Fierbaugh
Review Date: February 2023
Introduction
Crispin Piney has been involved in PMI, the PMBOK, and project management for a long time. He speaks from a position of deep authority and experience. Earned Benefit Program Management is an expansion of PMBOK style project management to encompass portfolio management of multiple projects in a thoughtful and rational methodology. It is a magnum opus for Program Management.
The general theme of Earned Benefit Program Management is that for a given business goal or objective, all projects which contribute to it should be tracked in a rational manner. Their relative profit & cost to the overarching goal should both be valued based upon how much benefit each project contributes to the goal.
Overview of Book’s Structure
Earned Benefit Program Management extends PMBOK for multiple projects. After a brief introduction and review, the heart of the book is a series of chapters which develop a concrete methodology for calculating cost and benefit for an entire program and for the individual projects which make it up. This is the key innovation and contribution of the book.
The remainder of the book’s chapters apply this model to various aspects of project management and roughly parallel the PMBOK knowledge areas. Each chapter examines how to manage a KA for the entire program based upon the individual projects. There are chapters for scheduling, risk management, capacity planning, procurement, implementation tracking, progress tracking, stakeholder management, and communications.
Highlights
Earned Benefit Program Management contains a large amount of math. Do not be intimidated by this. Almost all of it can be summarized as “All arrows have to sum to 100% in both directions.” If you can handle basic fractions or percents, you can handle all the math in this book. It is also suitable for spreadsheets or specialized software, and Piney devotes an entire appendix to automating it.
The book contains a large number of diagrams and charts. They are not there just for filler; the diagrams are referred to frequently in the accompanying text and are core to the methodology. It is a small tragedy that these are printed only in black and white. The lack of color renders many of them functionally incomprehensible.
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How to cite this work: Fierbaugh, S. (2023). Earned Benefit Program Management, book review, PM World Journal, Vol. XII, Issue III, March. Available online at https://pmworldjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/pmwj127-Mar2023-Fierbaugh-Earned-Benefit-Program-Management-book-review.pdf
About the Reviewer
Stephen Fierbaugh
Dallas, TX, USA
Stephen Fierbaugh, PMP, has a MA degree in Intercultural Studies and extensive experience leading international projects. Previously, Stephen has written in PM World Journal about how to apply Earned Value Management to nonprofit international projects. He can be contacted at stephen@fierbaugh.org or on Mastodon: @sfierbaugh@home.social
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