Key Project Management Observations

Jeff Hodgkinson is the Associate VP of Credentials and Certifications  for the Phoenix PMI Chapter, and the manager of the PgMP Credentialed Networking Group.   The group has nearly 1600 members and ten (10) subgroups, with the ‘PgMP Credentialed Only’ subgroup having 340 of the current 500 PgMP’s as members.

He is starting a study group for PgMP applicants – probably an audio bridge for 2 hours every week to answer specific questions on anything that PgMP applicants might ask.  (He did this a year ago for a few people per request of the LinkedIn group and it was very successful.)

The plan is to begin in mid-January.  The study group isn’t intended to be a sole solution, but a supplement to existing studies, and a vehicle to discuss books and study materials. (A lot of question simply come up on successfully completing the application and follow-up processes.)  Contact Jeff directly if you are interested.

As my previous blog mentioned, on Saturday I answered all the sample questions in the Key Consulting binder, my first and only time to look at them.   I didn’t review any material prior to answering the questions, so that my responses would be indicative of what I knew about project management rather than what I just read in a book.   Since the questions were grouped by knowledge areas, the percentage of questions I missed in each category gave a clear indication of where I needed to focus my efforts in the time remaining (about 36 hours) until my exam.  There was cause to be concerned since the test doesn’t include an equal number of questions from each category; some of my weakest, like risk, are more heavily represented on the exam.  And to my chagrin, I didn’t do well with the HR questions, a section deemed to be on the easier side for most people.

Based on my not so great results with the simulated test questions on Saturday, I devised a strategy.

It was too late to change my appointment at the test center.  I’d take the exam and if I failed, I would continue to study for a few more weeks and try again.  This was hardly an ideal scenario, but knowing I had a Plan B for the very real possibility of not passing the first time took a little pressure off.

Recognizing I had a realistic option if I failed the first time allowed me to focus on a strategy for increasing my knowledge in a short time in the hopes of successfully passing on Monday.    College students call this cramming!

Beginning Saturday night, I read the chapters that were giving me trouble in Rita Mulcahy’s book for a second time.  On Sunday I devoted several consecutive hours to reading.   Why had I waited until the last minute to figure out how to calculate early and late starts and finishes on a network diagram?!  Feeling frustrated, I turned to the procurement chapter to read.  Procurement is one of my strong suits, but there were still lots of new terms and concepts I needed to review in order to be prepared.   I can’t sit still for hours at a time so when I needed to get up and walk around, I grabbed a pile of the flashcards I’d made with project management terms, definitions and formulas to go through.  Also, I put everything together I’d be taking to the test center in the morning.

After dinner on Sunday evening there were still a few earned value terms and formulas I hadn’t nailed down — yikes!  Since I’m a morning person, I was feeling tired.  I called it a day after reviewing some areas I’d highlighted in red ink in the book.

I woke up before 4 a.m. on Monday, the BIG day.  There was an hour and a half before I had to get ready to leave for the test center.   I whipped out the flash cards and turned to pages in the Rita Mulcahy book I’d marked with critical content.  By the time I was driving to the test center, I could verbalize every earned value formula.   I checked in at the test center, but before I  put my purse in a locker I sat down and went through all my flashcards one final time.

What were my impressions of the exam?  The questions were generally not as long and complicated as I expected.  A few, just a few, were downright easy to answer.  There were more acronyms used in questions and response choices than I expected, a couple of which I didn’t know.  The questions very much tested both your knowledge and your project management experience (since they so often ask what to do in a particular situation).   It was a hard test for me and I didn’t expect to pass, nor was I convinced I could do that much better if I studied for a few more weeks and took it again.

After finishing, you’re not kept in suspense.  Up pop the results on the computer screen.  I passed!

If you have experience working on larger projects in companies using formal project management, the test shouldn’t be as challenging as it was for me.  If you have more time to study for taking the exam, you’ll probably feel more prepared than I did.  If you’re like me, leading a busy life (with little time to devote to studying) and not having worked in an organization using formal project management (despite having managed many projects), I hope my experience demonstrates that you can successfully pass the PMP exam.

Yesterday I went through the sample exam questions in the binder from the prep course I took almost 2 months ago.  I feel good about the questions I could answer with confidence, while other choices were guesses — highlighting my knowledge gaps and/or my inability to correctly choose between what seemed to me to be tricky options.

Today I’ve singled out chapters to read for a second time in Rita Mulcahy’s PMP exam prep book, pages with vital information with which to become familiar and a few more formulas I haven’t committed to memory yet.

With that, let me get back to studying……

My PMP certification test is a week from tomorrow.  Since taking my PMP exam preparation course in August, I’ve focused my studying on reviewing the binder of course materials and diligently reading a few chapters in Rita Mulcahy’s exam preparation book each weekend.

The binder and book have multiple pages flagged and numerous items underlined in red ink — wherever I wanted to note areas I had trouble understanding or need more of my attention to be able to remember them for the test.  It was very helpful to answer the sample exam questions included in the Key Consulting binder and the Rita Mulcahy book to recognize what I know reasonably well and what I don’t.  Of course, my knowledge strengths and weaknesses are based on how project management has been conducted where I’ve worked and what the focus has been.  Based on my job experience, for example, I found studying about planning, procurement, human resources and communication to be relatively easy.  I’ll concentrate on the aspects of  time, cost,  quality and risk when I study this final week since they’re the most challenging for me .  Since I like using flashcards as a tool for learning, this afternoon I’m going to make some related to terms and processes I still need to know better.

This has been a busy week at work and home,  so I got less studying done than planned.  Fortunately, I should be able to devote several hours to reading the Rita Mulcahy book tomorrow and I’m taking next Friday off work to review and cram as I come up to the last week before my test.

I enjoyed going through the Key Consulting binder chapter about procurement as I quickly gobbled down my lunch in the office on Wednesday and Friday.  It’s an area in which I’ve had a lot of experience, including my current responsibility for bidding out, selecting and contracting with my organization’s vendors.  Although procurement is one of my better skills, I realize my knowledge has been shaped by the kinds of purchasing I’ve done.  The information in the binder made me realize there are lots of other techniques and options available to project managers, depending on their industry and what services or goods they’re purchasing.

As I reflect on what I’ve learned through the Key Consulting course I took in August and reading Rita Mulcahy’s preparation book since then, I’m definitely going to be a better project manager going forward.  I have many more tools to utilize and a greater appreciation for the value of implementing all the project management processes.

Study, study, study — that’s how I’m spending my limited free time these days as I draw closer to my PMP exam date.   During the week I can devote three to four lunch periods to reading at work.  On the weekends I can afford to read for a few hours each day, taking short breaks in between chapters for chores like loading the washing machine or making dinner.

Now that I’ve taken my PMP preparation course and delved into the resource materials, I’ve discovered how to focus my studying and which areas of project management will be the most challenging for me.

I’m no longer reading through the PMBOK Guide because it’s rather boring and the same material is covered through a more engaging  summary format in the Key Consulting binder and the Rita Mulcahy exam preparation book.  Instead, I’m using the PMBOK Guide as a reference.  The binder and PMBOK Guide are at my work office since I can browse through the binder outline format quickly in the short amount of time I have for studying at lunch.  When I need to look up something for clarification in the PMBOK Guide, it’s right there.  My goal is to finish reading all the sections in the binder this coming week, before going back to concentrate on the areas I need to understand better.

The Rita Mulcahy book is enjoyable to read but fairly intense.  Therefore, I need the longer periods of study time I have available on weekends to work my way through each chapter.   It’s going slower than I expected, so I won’t be able to finish reading the book by next weekend as I’d originally planned.

Based on my project management experience and study, many of the sample exam questions in the Key Consulting binder and Rita Mulcahy book I can answer correctly.   The questions I answer incorrectly have helped me identify my weakest areas of knowledge.   The three project management components I’ll need to spend the most time reviewing, learning and memorizing for the test in the time remaining will be 1) recognizing and understanding the PMBOK project management processes and steps along with their sequence, 2) terms and definitions that are new to me,  and 3) formulas.

I appreciate the support I’m receiving from friends who have confidence in my ability to pass the upcoming PMP certification exam.    This morning I ran into one who has been a longtime manager at IBM.  I can recall telling her at a holiday party last year that I might like to get my PMP sometime, but I wasn’t sure I was up for the studying that would be  required on top of my hectic schedule.  She regretted never having sought it for herself, as being a PMP might have opened up even more career opportunities within her company.  When I told her today that I was only four weeks away from taking the test, she wished me well and acted like it would be no trouble at all to pass.  Easy for her to say!  An engineer and math whiz, she could probably ace it easily.

I, on the other hand, am no engineer or math whiz.  Nor have I had the exposure to project management in a large corporation or a company that used formal practice management practices.  So I’m taking my studying seriously, fitting it in here and there when I have some extra time to spare, hoping it will be adequate to prepare myself for the exam.  I guess  my friends could be right and that I will, indeed, pass the first time.  If I fail, however, I suspect I will just keep studying and aim to pass on the second try.

You can do it, my friends say.  Let’s see if they’re right!

This weekend I planned out my study schedule, considering there are five weeks until I take my PMP certification exam.  For three weeks I’ll concentrate on reading the materials and books I received through the preparation course.  The last two weeks I’ll focus on the areas that are less clear to me as I study, practice formula calculations and answer the sample exam questions in both the Key Consulting binder  and Rita Mulcahy’s exam preparation book.

During my lunch breaks at work, I’m thumbing through the PMI PMBOK Guide.   It can be a bit dry and boring to read, despite having important content.  I wish I’d brought it home on the weekend, since the binder (including a compilation of the PowerPoint slides used to present the material in the class I took) has pages that reference the PMBOK Guide.   The Key Consulting binder includes an outline format, that is a relatively fast way to skim through chunks of exam preparation.

Rita Mulcahy’s book, as to be expected, is intense but consumer friendly.  It takes a good amount of time to really concentrate on all the information provided in each chapter.   On the other hand, it’s enjoyable to read and every chapter is broken down into components that help me learn.   Based on this weekend’s experience, I can’t expect to read and retain the information in more than one chapter in Rita Mulcahy’s book per day.  It will be important to carve out more time than just Saturdays and Sundays to study the chapters in her book.

My brain needed a day of rest after taking Key Consulting’s PMP Certification Prep Course Monday through Friday last week in preparation for the PMP certification exam.  Comprehensive and intense, the class covered all the major aspects of project management.   We received and worked from the PMBOK guide, an exam preparation book and a large binder of materials.  With the exception of breaks and lunch, trainer Kevin Archbold focused the nine hour days on learning the components of project management and how they relate.  Our evening homework included answering practice exam questions relating to the topics we’d covered in the classroom that day.   I feel very well prepared now about what to study in preparation for taking the PMP exam.  The course was my first formal training, so I not only greatly expanded my knowledge but also came away with a much better appreciation of project management’s value based on the real life examples shared by the class.

My goal today is to finish my online PMP credential application.  I started it several weeks ago, because PMI conveniently allows you to save your work and take up where you left off the next time you log in.  Since detailed information is required to document your project management experience and education, the application isn’t something you can fill out quickly.  I need to document taking the training I received last week, so I couldn’t submit the application any earlier.  With the preparation course and application submission behind me, next I’ll chart a course of action for studying.

After many years of working on projects and good intentions to pursue my PMP certification, I’ve decided to get serious and just go for it.  I’m taking a preparation course this coming week from Key Consulting, to satisfy the 35 hours of project management education I need to verify in my PMP application.  Equally important, the class will help me fill gaps in my project management knowledge as I study hard the next couple of months for the PMP exam.  It won’t be easy fitting this all in with a fulltime job and lots of home responsibilities.  If I can hone my skills and earn my PMP, however, this will be well worth the effort.  I’m really looking forward to the recognition and potential career advancement that come with certification.