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Five Key Advantages of PMP Certification

September 26, 2011 By 2 Comments

PMP ExamAlthough there is an ongoing debate about whether or not project managers need to be certified, one thing is for certain: today’s job market is more competitive than ever. Increasing your skill set and expanding your knowledge increases your value in any employment setting. PMP certification can help you bolster your project management career by enhancing the experience and knowledge you bring to the table. Here are five key advantages of PMP certification:

1. PMP Certification broadens your knowledge base.

Getting certified will strengthen and add versatility to your skill set. PMP certification programs can help to augment your knowledge in the following areas:

  • Initiating – identifying the project and prioritizing goals; identifying challenges; setting strong managers in place.
  • Planning – scheduling and budgeting; addressing legal issues such as permits; setting up on-going communication.
  • Executing – monitoring progress; managing widespread effective communication across the full spectrum of day to day events.
  • Controlling – reporting on performance, making mid-stream adjustments when necessary; responding to concerns of workers and clients.
  • Closing – bringing the contract terms to a close; handling final details of project acceptance.

2. Certification can boost your networking exposure.

Use your certification to network with other certified professionals. Professional organizations offer conferences and regional opportunities to compare what you’ve learned and explore additional career advancement.

Reaching out to people who are pursuing their PMP certification might provide mentoring opportunities.

3. Certification can lead to new job opportunities.

If a potential client is deciding between two candidates with equal experience, having PMP certification could be the deciding factor.

Project management training shows prospective clients that you are invested in your continuing education and have a full spectrum of knowledge to offer.

International clients are more likely to hire a PMP certified project manager because they know that being certified means that a person is able to meet global requirements.

4. Certification can help build your credibility.

A certified professional has to adhere to specific industry-wide guidelines; holding certification reassures your client’s trust.

Many employers offer tuition assistance programs; inquiring about and partaking in such programs show your employer you are serious about the commitment you have made to their organization.

5. Certified project managers could boost salary potential.

Certification could potentially lead to more high profile and better paying projects; more exposure for you means more opportunities over your professional career.

If you are interested in maintaining the competitive edge in today’s job market, then PMP certification is a great investment to consider. Certification shows that you meet the standard for industry competence. Consider PMP certification to help add to your skill set and increase your chances of project success.

Getting certified should be an important part of your career. Villanova University offers online project management courses which are designed to help professionals take and pass the PMP certification exam.

Today’s post is a guest post from the team at Villanova University.
There are also many tools available and study methods out there to help you with your PMP Exam preparation and your overall project management success.

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How to keep a project simple

November 18, 2010 By 2 Comments

Project management success - how to keep a project simpleSometimes I am asked to act as a Project Management consultant on a project where the customer really needs to have a project manager but isn’t willing to put the money into having someone manage the project properly.  This is a difficult ask – after all, if you want the project to be well managed then you need to invest in the project management!  I have recently been involved in such a project and needed to really look at what value I could add to the project without breaking their budget.   In instances like this you really do need to keep project management simple.

Now I do not advocate cutting corners or reducing your standards lightly, but we all know that sometimes there are situations in which we are placed where our options are limited.  After all, it is the real world and things don’t always flow nicely along according to the PMBOK manual!

Here are a few tips if you find you need to ‘keep it simple’:

Make sure the customer understands that they are not getting a full project management service
It is imperative that customer expectations are managed.  When people want to bargain with you about price and scope, something funny can sometimes happen later in the project – they think that they are still getting the same service for the reduced price!  If things go awry, as the ‘project manager’ they will still want to see you as responsible.  You need to ensure that if you decide to take on a role where your full standard of project management cannot be implemented then the customer knows and understands the risk associated.

Establish what exactly will be able to be delivered for the proposed budget
Be clear about what can and cannot be included in the project management service to be offered.  For example, discuss the number of hours you will be able to invest in the project and what they will get for that.  Discuss the expectations around meetings and reporting requirements as people often forget that these are necessary things that must occur and may leave those out of the budgetting process.

Institute simplified reporting systems
If you don’t have time or budget to implement your full reporting sytems – still institute something.  You know the old saying, if you can’t measure it you can’t manage it!  I implement a simple one page excel spreadsheet progress report.  It contains a few basics, including:

  • Summary Section – project % complete, project date due, expected delivery date
  • Deliverables Summary – list of deliverables, date due, expected date, % complete, status updates/comments
  • Issues/Risks Summary – list of issues/risks, including date identified, person responsible, impact, status, status updates/comments

This is really bare bones stuff, but when you’re keeping it simple – well….

Executive management loves this sort of report as it is simple and quick to read and hopefully it is quick and easy for you to prepare and ensures that you are keeping up to date of where things are at.

Maintain regular contact with the project and institute actions quickly
Projects like this, where you are being asked to reduce your normal standard of management really are at risk.  It is easy to lose touch or fail to keep up with what is happening in the project when you’ve been asked to do the ‘bare minimum’ – but it is imperative that you maintain a regular point and time of contact with the project to keep on top of it.  It is also imperative that you act when required – quickly.  Get on top of issues fast.

Document and communicate well with the key stakeholders
Even though your project documentation will be less than usual, do maintain it.  As previously stated, projects like this are often at risk of going awry and if they do, you want everyone to know at what point that occured and why.  I guess this is called ‘covering your own backside’.

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PMBOK Explained – Session 2: Projects, Lifecycles and Organizations

October 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

PMBOK ExplainedIn session 2 of our PMBOK series we look at the project lifecycle and organization.

This series is helpful for those wanting to get a high level overview of the Project Management Body of Knowledge before undertaking further study or PMP exam preparation.

By the way, you can read more about PMP exam preparation, specifically, PM Prepcast by reading our PM Prepcast review.

You can watch the video and download the slides below!

Download the slides from this presentation: Project Management Success – PMBOK Explained – Session 2 Project Lifecycle and Organization (507k PDF)

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Passing the PMP exam – top five tips for PMP exam preparation

October 28, 2010 By 2 Comments

Passing the PMP exam is a goal that many have in attaining professional project management qualifications and there are some great tips and tools that can help. Over the coming weeks I’ll be aiming to do a some full reviews of the pmp exam courses and guides that are available to assist you in passing the pmp exam and pmp exam certification. This post is to help you with some more general tips on how to pass the pmp exam and to introduce you to some of the pmp study guides and resources available to you.

So, let’s begin with the top five tips for passing the PMP exam:

1. The PMBOK guide is always right.
Many people coming to the PMP exam certification have years of experience in project management. Real life projects, with real life issues and have learned practical application of project management knowledge and experience. This is a great thing – but don’t let that get in the way of the objective of the PMP exam certification – which is to test your knowledge related to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, which of course is outlined in the PMBOK guide!  Sometimes you may see an answer that you believe is right based on your experience and that answer may contrast with an answer that is correct from the perspective of the PMBOK guide.  When it comes to the PMP exam certification, the PMBOK guide is always right.

2. Choose the best correct option – not the first correct option
When taking the PMP exam certification you will be under time pressure to answer the questions. There really is a lot to get through in a short time. One of the most important things that you need to remember when taking the PMP exam – in fact when taking any exam – is to read the question. I know that sounds simple but really read the question and understand what is being asked for – is it the best answer, the incorrect option, the most suitable option. Sometimes there will be more than one correct answer and it becomes a judgement call on what is the most appropriate answer.  Of course your answer must come via the filter of the what is best based on the teachings of the PMBOK guide.

3. Focus your study
You will definately need to study for your PMP exam, but study the right things in the right way is much more important than simply quantity of study. There are many people, when looking at passing the PMP exam who simply read the PMBOK guide over and over and over. Many people have spent long, hard hours memorizing the PMBOK guide. Although this can and does work, it is certainly not the most efficient way to go about study for the pmp exam. Focusing your study on what is relevant and then focusing on practising with the same format of questions you will be expecting is a far more efficient way to study and pass the PMP exam.

4. Use practice questions
Related to the item above which talks about focusing your study – both in terms of content and format – is the tip to use practice questions. As many as you can get! The actual exam itself has a myriad of available questions, so you can’t expect to have seen all possible questions during your study but it is the exercise of reading and answering the same formats of questions and getting used to the pace of answering, reading the question, evaluating the options.

5. Use a targetted study tool
There are several organizations who have spent a lot of time and effort to provide a study tool that focuses on the very things that you need to focus on – so why not make use of those tools? There are many study guides you can purchase and even courses that you can attend and I do hope to bring you several of these on this website soon to help you learn about what is out there. There are two, however, that I have used and will present here:


PM PrepCast
This is a video tutorial study series that focuses on what you need to know and how best to learn it. For me the best part of PM PrepCast is that it is delivered in video format that is suitable for all sorts of devices, which means I can study in the car, on my iPhone when I’m sitting at an airport or in a waiting room or in bed! This is the big clincher for PM PrepCast as it means you can ‘catch’ bits and pieces of study whenever you can. I also find the presenter of PM PrepCast , Cornelius Fitchner, quite easy to listen to, which is nice! Over 11,500 have used PM Prepcast and it has significantly decreased their study time and increased not only their understanding of PMBOK but meant that more people have been more prepared to pass the exam first time! It is relatively inexpensive, well presented and they offer a 90 day guarateee which means that you can be assured of being satisfied or get your money back. Click the image below to learn more about PM PrepCast.

PMP Exam Secrets Study Guide

PMP Exam Secrets Study Guide

This is a book that offers to teach you the PMP test, not the PMP material. Sounds like a funny claim but the developers of the PMP Exam Secrets Study Guide proport that it’s not necessarily good enough to teach the MATERIAL, you must teach the TEST and know how to apply the knowledge of the material. The guide is concise and concentrates on what you need to know, avoiding mistakes and recognizing give-away questions. The PMP Exam Secrets Study Guide gives an EXACT STUDY PLAN for the PMP test that the developers say will give you the best results in the least time. It’s a plain language guide and they offer you email support, which is pretty good if you need some questions answered. You can read even more about the PMP Exam Secrets Study Guide at their site, but the basis of it is that it’s a relatively short, concise and easy to read guide that will give you some great strategies that are not just about the material itself but about taking the actual test and that sort of information is invaluable. It’s pretty cheap too! Click on the image above or the following link to learn more about the PMP Exam Secrets Study Guide.

So, they are my five top tips for PMP exam preparation. Hopefully these tips and possibly the resources discussed may be useful for you.

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PMBOK Explained! Session 1 – What’s it all about then, anyway?

October 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

PMBOK ExplainedHere’s the first part of our new 12 part series called ‘PMBOK Explained’ – it’s a high level overview of PMBOK aiming to give you enough information to increase your knowledge and help you determine if PMBOK is something you may find useful and wish to pursue with further study.

You can view the video here and download the slides down below.

Download the slides from this presentation:  Project Management Success – PMBOK Explained – Session 1 Intro (464k PDF)

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How to pass PMP first go!

October 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

passing PMP examOk, now everyone huddle in close, come on, lean in so I can whisper the secret of PMP exam success and tell you how to pass the PMP exam.

You ready for it……

PRACTICE!

Huh? You’re disappointed?  Well don’t worry, I’ve got more, come on, huddle in again.

Here it comes…..

STUDY!

Err…yup!  That’s all I got.

What’s that?  You were waiting for a big secret?  The magic bullet?  Right, well, sorry about that then!  You see, there really is only one way to pass the exam and that is to know your stuff and there’s only one way to know your stuff – ok, I’ve named two – so there’s only two ways to know your stuff, our old friends practice and study!

But you know what that secret is, that magic bullet, it’s how you study.   Some people spend hours wading over the PMBOK manual but really, that’s not it.  You really need to understand practical application and know your stuff well and if you are yawning over a dry text book, well it sure is hard to stay motivated!  Some people get focused on knowing every single detail and focus in on the stuff that isn’t as important – but how do you know the difference between the ‘really must know the detail’ stuff from the ‘I can just gloss over this bit’ stuff?

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind…ah, sorry, got a bit carried away there!   The answer is really in getting yourself a killer PMP exam preparation guide.  Now there are heaps of books you read and some of these are great, in fact, I’ll be doing a book review series soon where I’ll cover some of those, but in all honesty and I’m sure you’ve looked at my site and know, I have to recommend PM Prepcast because I honestly just think, it is the best value, best format, best presented PMP exam course that you’ll find.  And if you’re anything like me and just lost the time and inclination for studying textbook (you know, full time job, kids, busy, busy) then you can watch these videos on the iPhone out and about, listen to the audios whilst running/walking or in the car on the way to work.  I just love it.  Full stop!!

You can see my full review of PM Prepcast here.

passing PMP exam

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PMBOK Explained! – Coming Soon

October 21, 2010 By 2 Comments

Over the coming weeks here at Project Management Success we’re going to be running a series called ‘PMBOK Explained’.
This will be an introduction to PMBOK for the uninitiated! A high level overview of what PMBOK is all about.

Now to get started – PMBOK is a Project Management methodology. The acronym stands for the Project Management Body of Knowledge. Developed by the Project Management Institute (world’s largest recognized Project Management professional organization) it has really become the gold standard for Project Management guidelines, rules and characteristics for project management.

The PMBOK Explained! series will not make you a project managment expert but it’ll give you an idea of what it’s all about – enough of an idea to see if following up with PMBOK and possibly gaining certification as a Project Management Professional (PMP) is something that you’d like to follow up with. And of course if you do choose to go down the PMP exam route then we do have resources we can recommend to you for preparing for your PMP exam, including PM PrepCast (awesome video and audio package with practice questions and online forum) and load of different study guides, flash cards and all sorts!

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Project Management Success – PM PrepCast Review

September 12, 2010 By 1 Comment

I’d been looking around the internet for a while trying to come up with a way to study and prepare for my PMP when I first came across PM PrepCast.

PM PrepCast is a video based prep program for studying for your PMP and is probably the best priced and most efficient way I have seen to prepare and pass your PMP.  I am extremely busy and can never seem to get a good ‘chunk’ of uninterrupted study time.  I don’t want to be wading through massive books, I just want someone to tell me what I need to know and be done with it!  So a video based prep program is perfect for me!  I also like to catch a video here and there, in bed, at the airport, waiting at the doctor surgery, wherever – and that’s the best thing about this program is that you can synchronize with your favorite player (the iPhone for me) and have the freedom of being ready to study wherever you are, for a few minutes here and there.  You can also download it and play it on your PC if you wish.

  • No need to wade through heaps of books
  • Focused and efficient video presentations that tell you what you need to know in a way that is easy to remember
  • Portable – you can synch it to your favorite player and go anywhere
  • It is simple and efficient with 38 hours of video and you’re ready for the exam.
  • It is amazingly good value at less than $100!

If you are the sort of person who prefers a text book then it may not be for you – but if you want fast, efficient, thorough and inexpensive – then PM PrepCast is for you!

Check out their website where they tell you everything that is included in the program and all the great features and benefits.

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Project Management Certification – PMP

September 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Having Project Management Certification provides benefits to both you and your employer.

Whether you are an experienced Project Manager or just starting out, going through the certification process provides you with great learning opportunity.  Having the actual certification also gives you a level of professional recognition and credibility and means that you are more likely to be able to command a higher salary.

PMP stands for Project Management Professional. PMP certification is offered by PMI (Project Management Institute) and being a certified PMP demonstrates that you meet a certain level of proficiency in project management and leadership skills.   PMP is widely recognized by major companies and government agencies worldwide as the standard qualification for the role of project managers with the other well recognized qualification being Prince2 Practitioner (though this is more popular in the UK and Australia).  These days, many companies require their project managers to hold certification in Project Management and PMP is the most recognized choice.

I recommend that you think about obtaining certification, this is one of the best project management tips I can offer!  It really does lift your knowledge as well as your marketability and improves your level of project management success.  Check out this post for information on preparing for the PMP exam.

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Managing Issues for Project Management Success

April 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Issue Management starts when you are planning the project and lasts throughout the entire project lifecycle.

Even before a project starts there can be issues already in play.  You’ll need to identify issues in the planning stage and document them in an issues log.  Issues Logs can be as simple as a text document with a table in it or a simple spreadsheet or can utilize specific software systems designed for logging issues.  Issues log should be regularly monitored and updated throughout a project as part of your general project reporting and as issues come up.

The content of your issues log may vary, but generally there are some basic fields that most issues logs will contain.  These include:  Issue Reference, Name, Description, Severity, Impact.  Then issue updates may include fields such as a date, description, status and actions.  It really is imperative to keep a good issues log.  Just the act of having to update a log keeps you on top of where things are at and pushing along the actions required.  The other good aspect of having well documented issues is that when things hit the fan, and they sometimes do, then you have a detailed, documented trail of the actions you have been taking to rectify or resolve issues.

There are some issues that require documentation beyond the basic Issues Log.  This is where an issue requires further analysis and consideration of impact of possible actions – often where escalation is required.  Where this is the case I use an ‘Issue Report’ or ‘Issue Description’ which is a concise report that descibes the issue background, impact (time, cost, quality) and potential actions with their time, cost and quality impacts.

Keeping on top of issues that arise is imperative for project managment success.  It can stop little issues from becoming ‘showstoppers’, it keeps your project moving on the right path and it fosters confidence in you as a manager – from your stakeholders and your team.

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