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.

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.

MoSCoW

This is a short article to explain the fundamentals of the MoSCoW concepts.  I have been using RAD (Rapid Application Development) for many years, while being a Lotus Notes developer.  

Rapid Application Development does not mean lazy programming or rushed projects, but is a methodology that allows the Project Manager to cut out the "fluff" in projects and applications and to develop the right product, suited to the environment it is designed to work in. 

The 80/20 Pareto Rule means that a few (20 percent) are vital and many(80 percent) are trivial.  The concept of MoSCoW, it to concentrate on the vital deliverables and save the trivial to the end, or cut them all together.

Must haves - The "M" of MoSCoW, is for the priorities, the tasks that must be delivered, otherwise the project will fail.  For example, if building a house, these would be the walls and roof.

Should haves - The "S" of MoSCoW, is for the secondary priorities, the tasks that need to make the product complete and without them, the product will be functional, but not as functional as it should be.  For example, if building a house, these would be the plumbing, insulation, electrics, windows, flooring, fixtures and fittings.

Could haves - The "C" of MoSCoW, is for the additional tasks that would produce the best product possible.  For example, if building a house, this could mean the addition of a swimming pool.

Won't haves - The "W" of MoSCoW, is for the tasks that will not be completed.  If the project had all the time and money in the world, these tasks may eventually be completed, but they are superfluous to the final Product and therefore will not be delivered.  For example, if building a house, this would be the Helicopter pad.

As I said, this is a very short article, but a useful one, I hope.

Project Time

Time is part of the Project Management Golden Triangle.  I have blogged about the Golden Triangle before, but the concept is that you have Time, Scope and Quality, as three sides to a triangle and they all impact each other.  If you extend one side of the triangle, one or both of the other two sides will be impacted.

Time is an important aspect of Project Management.  People who understand scheduling will understand how simple and how complicated time planning can be.  On larger projects, the project plan will be controlling many different work streams in parallel and the Project Manager needs to understand the impact of time on each of the work streams and resources. 

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.

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.

Risk Management Exam - Formula

In the exam there was not too much requirement for learning the formula, however it is useful to know the following formula to ensure that you have them on hand for the exam.

With the PMP exam, I practiced making a brain dump several times, so that the first thing I did when I sat down to take the exam was to brain dump my formula on to a sheet of paper.  This way, I could quickly reference the formula with ease.  I followed the same pattern for the Risk Management Exam.

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.

Risk Management Exam Prep - The beginning

Last week, I successfully passed my PMP Risk Management Professional Exam.  I started studying back in November, by reading the PMBoK Guide chapter on Risk Management and then read a few blog articles on the experience people had and the lessons learned from taking the exam.

Over the Christmas period, I had a break from study to enjoy the time with my family, so my mini-plan failed to go according to plan.  At the beginning of January, I started to plan for the exam, which included understanding the exam structure and discovering the cheaper options for exam preparation material. 

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...

New contract extension

As a contractor I usually start the negotiations for my contract, 4 weeks prior to the end of a contract.  Very few potential clients would even entertain my CV if I was not immediately available.  This is the game of being a contractor.

My contract finishes in two days time. 

I am pleased to say that my contract has finally been extended, with just hours remaining.  I know I am working for a large client, with many contractors and I report into a very busy Project Management Office, but this is cutting it fine.

Being Lazy

I am a fairly lazy Project Manager - and yes, I read the blog and have read the book. I have been this way since the early days as a developer and it was encouraged by my mentor. A good example of this laziness is that I used to write code that enabled the user to configure systems rather than them coming back to me for changing settings and configuring keywords.

This laziness has followed throughout my career and is now working for me in the world of Project Management, for example, I use the tools available to me to automate as much as possible. At my current client site, I have a standard corporate weekly project report to complete each week which contains many figures taken from various systems. In each system I have written a mini-report to provide me with a set of figures ready for me to plug-in to the weekly report. In turn, all of these figures are then calculated automatically, giving totals and graphs, without me having to re-input figures in various worksheets. The weekly report used to take about an hour to write, now it takes 15 minutes. This is what I mean by lazy.

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".

The PM Golden Triangle

To all Project Manager, the Triple Constraint, or as I say - the Golden Triangle, is a key component to almost every meeting they attend.  People will push the boundaries at every opportunity they can take.  As the Project Manager it is vital to accept this and push back to the offender and explain the impact of the change to the project. 

The golden triangle covers the Time, Cost and Scope of the project , which all lead to the quality delivery of a project.  If you change one, you will affect the other two in one way or another. For example, if my technical analyst on the project changes the server architecture from Physical to Virtual, this could effect both the Price and the Time for installation.  If this component is on my critical path, then it could effect the time to completion, in either a positive or negative way.  The Price may increase or decrease and will impact the project budget in a positive or negative way.

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.