Is the PMP exam worth while

I am a member of a few groups on the social media site, Linkedin.com.  Recently, a member of the group called "Project Manager Community" asked the following question : "Does having a PMP state you're a better PM compared to one that doesn't have this certification?".

So far, there are more than 110 comments and they are still continuing to be added. 

My answer was to comment that it is not just the qualification, but that it must be combined with experience to make a good PM.  The depth of knowledge that the PMP exam makes each candidate understand is far superior than any other PM exam that I have seen, or indeed taken.  Each candidate must know the PMBoK inside out and understand the complexities and dependencies of project management.

Supplier Contracts

One of the many pre-project, or early tasks for a project manager is to arrange the supplier contracts.  In the last two client assignments, I have had to find and secure contracts with a multitude of vendors for various provisions.  Some vendors have been used for consulting, others have supplied software and a few have supplied hardware.  Often, a client will have a preferred supplier list that you have to work with.  Sometimes the supplier list is constrictive and cannot deliver the required service or product, so you have to take a recommendation to the project steering committee to gain permission to pursue a new supplier.  This can cause delays, as the on-boarding process can take considerable time and effort, especially in larger companies and corporations.

My PDU Plan

To maintain my PMP qualifications, I need to ensure that I continue to maintain consistent learning with regard to Project Management.  I like the idea that people cannot pass the PMI exams and then forget about keeping up to date with learning and modern practices.

Why education is important

As a consultant, I do not have an official career path, nor an HR department to provide a yearly development plan.  I have to make my own development plan and think about where my career will take me in the future.  To obtain a career path, it is down to me, what I do and how I do it. 

As a consultant, any time and money spent on education and qualifications, comes out of my time and my money, sometimes at the additional "cost" of not being able to work for a client, earning my daily rate.  The qualifications are quite expensive, often in excess of £1000.  In addition, I do not get given any paid time by my clients to study, as I would if I was employed.

Introduction to Change

Part of the overall project governance is the Change Control.  This can refer to changes in the scope of the project, the budget, the Schedule, the services provided or the products the project produces.  Change control needs to be in place to ensure that the project is delivered on time, to budget and delivers the required product.  Change control ensure that any change introduced to the project is defined.

Risk Management Plan

The Risk Management Plan is one document of many that combine to make the Project Management Plan, in my view.  The Project Management Plan is a set of documents that tell you how the project will be managed in terms of scope, cost, quality, change, resource, risks and much more.

The Risk Management Plan defines how risks will be controlled within the project.  It begins with the identification and then defines the action plan to deal with each type of risk.  The Risk Management Plan does not identify individual risks, but is a structure for dealing with risks.

Weekly Reports

Part of being a good Project Manager is being a good communicator.  A good communicator can convey information both orally and in writing.  One of the key communications is a weekly status report.  This report can become an historic archive of the way that the project is progressing and can allow all stakeholders to see where you are against your schedule and budget and see what the major risks and issues are.

I have a template that I use each week, so that the stake holders can see the progress easily.  This report is produced on Friday afternoon and distributed to the required stakeholders.  I then place this report into a folder within my project site on SharePoint so that anyone can see the report.  The target of this report is to be a single printed page, as any more may take too long for a senior stakeholder to read.  I try to make the report graphical, so at a glance you can see which areas require attention.

Scope

This first item on the Project Manager's agenda when commencing a project is usually to define the scope.  In many corporations either a Project Charter or a PID is created and approved before the project is authorised.  This single document contains the scope of the project and the business justification.  Importantly, this document authorises the project to go ahead and confirms the name of the Project Manager.

The scope document is often referred to throughout the life cycle of the project and is used by all stakeholders to confirm the direction of the project.  Where the Initiation document provides an outline of the scope, a further breakdown and detail must be confirmed.

My current project is having difficulty defining the scope.  Some of this is due to budget reasons and some of it is down to communication issues.  My current client is a Japanese bank.  The communication issue is not just the language, but the culture.  I have previously written an article relating to the culture of a Japanese corporation.

Does a PM need to understand the technical level of the project subject?

This was always a question playing on my mind throughout the time I spent as a consultant.  My specialist subject was Lotus Notes/Domino and I was at the top of my tree.  Throughout my career, there was not a problem that I could not solve with assurance and conviction.  People often tested me, but I would often indicate a possibility of three solutions to the problems they faced.  At the technical level, there was not anything I did not know.

Project Governance

Project governance is the framework which ensures that the project has been correctly conceived and is being executed in accordance with best project management practice and within the wider framework of the internal strategies and processes for each organisation.

Project Governance provides a centralised strategy for project control and reporting, including a set of rules of engagement and guidelines with project teams including external parties.

Risk Management Exam - Crib Sheet and Formula

To help me to study for the Risk Management Exam, I studied two books, which included the Risk Management section of the PMBoK guide and a study guide for the PMI-Risk Management Professional certification.  While reading each of these books, I took notes, ready for me to have a single source to revise (or prompt) my study from.

I Passed my PMI Risk Management Exam

Just a quick note to tell the world that I successfully passed my Risk Management Exam today.  I will say that it was fairly difficult, but not as difficult as the Project Management Professional Exam that I took (and passed) in September last year.

The exam consisted of 170 questions, all related to Risk.  There was a fair amount of HR and Communication questions in the exam, but the majority was around the 6 Risk Processes and the emphasis seemed to relate to the Risk Response Planning Process.

I studied hard, but not hard enough, for my strict self-imposed standards.  I will give you a break down of my study plan and the resources that I used in a new post over the weekend, but for now, I just wanted to let the world know I PASSED !!

I am not overly happy at the moment, I am still waiting for it to sink in.  I feel drained and am looking forward to going for lunch with my wife.

More soon...

Now the hard work begins

As mentioned in a post yesterday, I had applied to the PMI to be accepted to take the Risk Management Professional certification.  Today I received confirmation that my application has been accepted and that I can now embark on the long journey of preparing for the exam.

I have read a few blog posts about the exam and it seems that I "should" be in a good position to take the exam, as I have only recently obtained the Project Management Professional qualification.  People have been saying that all the hard work in preparing for the PMP certification should put me in a good position to take the Risk Management exam.

Next Exam - Here we go again

If you having been reading this blog, you will know I am keen on the PMP principle of Continuous Learning.  I like to take an exam or two every year and have done this since my university days.  I am currently working on the Project Management theme, after many years as a software developer and passing many of the Lotus and IBM Certified Developer Certifications.  I achieved the Prince2 Foundation and Practitioner Certifications in 2011 and then completed the PMI Project Management Professional exam in 2012.  In addition, I passed the ITIL Foundation exam towards the end of 2011, but I have chosen not to pursue this stream of qualification any further as I just wanted an understanding of the methodology.

I have been trying to decide on the exam choice for 2013.  Being a Project Manager, I like to have things organised and planned, both at work and at home.  I like to learn and therefore I have been trying to decide what I will achieve next.

What do the PMO do?

The Project Management Office is an organizational structure that standardizes the project–related governance processes and facilitates the sharing of resources, methodology's, tools and techniques.  The idea is that the PMO support the Project Managers and Programme Managers and are an integral stakeholder and decision maker for the organisation's projects.

The primary function of the PMO is to support the projects in a number of ways, include Resourcing, Defining the Project Management Methodology, Monitoring Project Progress, Ensuring Project Compliance and help with Communication across Projects.  This is not a definitive list, but these are the highlights, as stated within the PMBoK guide.

I have worked in several companies with a PMO, but the most visible has been at my current client.  We currently have a PMO team with experienced personnel, who are able to guide and support the many Project Managers.  When I first started at this client, I was unsure of the support that they would offer and did not fully understand the vital role that the PMO can play.

When I started work for the client, I helped the PMO to redefine the Project methodology.  The methodology in place here is based on the Prince2 methods and practises, but has been modified to suit our environment.  The projects follow a strict process and the PMO are here to help the Project Managers follow the methodology and deliver our projects.  As the project methodology is based on Prince2, each project can tailor the process to suit the project requirements.

One of the key roles that is performed within the PMO is to determine the project and programme priorities.  They have full visibility of all of the projects and understand the business strategy and goals.  It is the role of the PMO to ensure that we deliver the right projects at the right time to ensure that the business strategy goals are reached.  The PMO will track the projects, track the budgets and track the risks to ensure that the projects are successfully delivered, ensuring the business benefits are realised.

The PMO will ensure the projects are resourced, from a Project Management point of view, to ensure the correct skills are in place to deliver a successful project with an appropriate Project Manager.

PMO usually report on all of the projects to the organisation's Senior Management.  They will take each project and be able to give an overall picture of all related and unrelated projects.  They will highlight the key successes and failures and issue reports to indicate who many projects are being worked on, delivered and if any have been stopped.  An important function of the PMO is to understand the business benefit of all of the projects and understand when to close projects early, if there is little business benefit or they do not align to the overall business strategy.

The PMO has much to offer a corporation and should be aligning the projects with the strategic direction of the business.  In addition, the PMO should improve the communication to the stakeholders and should improve the quality of all project deliverables.

What is in a Project Management Plan

A Project Management Plan (PMP) is an ever evolving document throughout life cycle of the project.  It lays the foundations of the project purpose, scope, structure and actions to complete the required product.  The PMP will start as a shell, containing high level information, but will be completed in more detail as the project progresses.  The estimates, risks, strategies and plans contained in the PMP will become more specific as the information becomes available to the Project Manager.

The PMBoK guide defines the PMP as " the process of documenting the actions necessary to define, prepare, integrate and coordinate all subsidiary plans.  The Project Management Plan defines how the project is executed, monitored and controlled, and closed".

3 years continual learning

Now that I am a PMP, I will continue to develop as a Project Manager and gain more knowledge, understanding and most importantly, experience. To maintain my PMP status, I must complete 60 PDUs (Professional Development Units) over the course of three years. There are two main categories of PDU, which are for Continued Education and Giving Back to the Profession.

What does PMP mean to me

Passing the PMP exam was a huge relief.  It was a difficult exam in terms of the amount of information you have to process within each question.  The PMBoK is fairly straight forward and even with the limited Project Management experience I have, I was able to apply each Input, Tool, Technique and Output to something that I had seen, or produced in the recent past.

Many people in the UK seem to take the Prince2 Certification, however, not many people have taken both the Prince2 and PMP.  When mentioning that I had passed the PMP exam to other Project Managers in the office, they seem to be quite impressed.  A Senior Project Manager colleague of mine in the US said "Wow! You passed THE BIG ONE!", when she heard that I had passed the exam.

The PMP Exam

Let me start by saying this exam is tough, but it is not impossible and once you ensure you understand the concepts, it is fairly intense, but it is straight forward to gain a pass mark.

I would recommend that you have at least two or three years Project Management experience before attempting to take this exam.  You need to have completed a few projects before you attempt to even read the PMBoK guide, otherwise you may find it very confusing.  Some people advise that you start with other books before attempting to read and fully understand the PMBoK Guide, but I did it the hard way.  I had a few years of experience as a Project Manager and had obtained my Prince2 Practitioner Certification, so I already knew a considerable amount of Project Management Theory.

PMBoK in a nutshell

This article will describe the basic concepts of the PMBoK and explain the purpose.  Processes overlap and can be repeated.  The initiating process, for example, will be repeated at the start of each project phase.  The processes are repeated in the various phases of a project, with the exception of Project Closure.