YOU MUST BE A PROJECT MANAGER

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”

The woman below replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.”

“You must be a project manager,” said the balloonist. “I am,” replied the woman, “How did you know?”

“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip.”

 The woman below responded, “You must be in Senior Management.”

“I am,” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?”

“Well,” said the woman, “you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault.”

PMP EXAM PREPARATION

There are those times in life that getting to our destination just cannot happen fast enough. We’ve all heard the plaintive question (usually asked by children sitting in the back seat of a moving automobile), “are we there yet?”  You may find yourself asking the same question when it comes to being prepared to take the PMP Exam. Are we there yet? 

In my humble opinion, unless you’ve completed 35 hours of instructor led training, read the ALL-IN-ONE CAPM/PMP Project Management Certification Guide written by Joseph Phillips from cover to cover (cross referencing the PMBOK guide) and have successfully completed no less than twenty (20) hours of exam simulation testing (Transcender or other tools), you are probably NOT ready to take the exam. 

When it comes to exam preparation, there are no shortcuts.  This is one of the reasons I don’t refer to the tips I suggest as tricks.  Knowledge is king and it’s your job to thoroughly master the subject. It’s not good enough to ‘know what you don’t know”. You must “know what you know” thoroughly.  You are either ready or you are not. 

If you haven’t adequately prepared (see first paragraph), I advise you not to take the test.  Some things in life should not be rushed.  And there are things in life that cannot be rushed. Project Management Professional certification preparation falls into both categories.  Time must be allowed to internalize the subject matter.  You have to make it your own.

So don’t be too hard on yourself at this point.  Sit back and exhale.  Ah, doesn’t that feel better.  Make a plan and stick to it.  After all, you are the “project manager” of your life. Preparing for the PMP Exam is a project. Use the tools and techniques that you’ve been studying.  Build quality control and quality assurance into your plan. Don’t forget to add reserves for the unknown unknowns.  You know the drill…

"A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result."

THE NAME GAME (or memorizing all 42 processes)

There are many ways to memorize the 42 processes. The way I memorized the 42 processes was by playing a game with my son.  Here's how it works:

1. Write each Process Group and Knowledge Area on an index card so that you have 14 index cards.  You should have them memorized by now.
2. From Page 3 of the New Horizons workbook (the white book used in class). Write all processes that appear in a single cell onto one index card for each cell.  For example, "Develop Project Management Plan" will be on one card.   and "Collect Requirements, DefineScope, and Create WBS" will be on another card, and "Define Activities, Sequence Activities, Estimate Activity Resources, Estimate Activity Durations, Develop Schedule" will all be on another card. 
3. Do this for all cells so that you end up with 26 cards (covering the 42 processes). For now don't worry that you have more than one process on a card.
4. Shuffle the cards...
5. On a table top OR on the floor, practice putting the cards in order to form the chart on page 3.
6. Do this over and over until you can do it quickly. At first you will have to refer back to the book.
7. Practice this several times a day...soon you will know the 42 processes and their order on the chart.

If you play this game with a youngster, I bet they will memorize the processes before you do.

Hint: When you are done, the "Planning Process Group" will have 20 processes in it. One card for each of the nine cells.  The "Monitoring & Controlling Process Group" will have 10 processes in it. One card in eight of the nine available cells. The "Executing Process Group" will have 8 processes in it.  One card in five of the nine available cells. 



Now for the secret...are you ready?  Memorize the chart working from left to right (by knowledge area).  I know, I know...I taught you that the processes flowed from top to bottom and this is true BUT for memorization purposes work from left to right.  Trust me it works.  I didn't mention this in class because I felt it would be too confusing. After 5 days of PMBOK training , I feared that your heads would explode from information overload. 



Some may argue that it's not important to memorize these processes.  I totally disagree.  Remember the goal is to pass the test and knowing the processes in order will help significantly. 

"Know what you know"

JEOPARDY ANYONE?

If you truly know something, you should be able to express it in your own words. Putting the language of PMBOK into simple English will help you to quickly get a grasp of many of the more challenging concepts.  I find using the format of the game show Jeopardy works for me.  In other words, instead of expressing the definition as a statement I express it as a question.  Here are a few examples dealing with one of your favorite subjects, Earned Value Management.

Estimate at Completion (EAC) At the current rate, what is the estimated cost of the project at completion? (formula: BAC / CPI = EAC)

Estimate to Complete (ETC) If the project performance continues at this rate, what is the amount of money estimated to complete the project? (formula: EAC – AC = ETC)

Variance at Completion (VAC) What is the amount of money the project varies over or under budget at completion? (formula: BAC – EAC = VAC)

I find that this technique is especially effective when it comes to understanding EVM and other formulae. Give it a try and tell me what you think. 

Remember, "know what you know"…

IF YOU LIKED THAT...

My last post explained how to determine communication channels. Well if you liked that, you are going to love this. It's like having an "ace up your sleeve". You may recall that the problem I presented was:

You have 5 members on a project team. One more member is added to the team. How many additional communication channels are added to the project? Be careful, the key word is additional.

You can use the formula I shared with you yesterday to solve this problem but here's a faster way to solve it. Whenever a new member is added to the project team the number of additional communication channels is equal to the number of existing team members. That's it. 

In this example, there are 5 existing team members so when you add a new member, additional channels will be 5. Isn't that wonderful, no math was required. Trust me it works.  Try a few using the formula [N*(N-1)]/2 and compare answers.  This can be a time saver when taking the exam. 

Let's go one step further. If the question states that two new members are added merely add the new team members one at a time and using the same technique as above.

Here’s how it works:

1.)    If project has 5 members, and you add one more, the number of additional communication channels is 5.

2.)    Now the number of team members becomes 6.

3.)    If you add an additional team member, the communication channels becomes 6.

4.)    Therefore, if two new members are added, the number of channels increases by 11 (5 + 6 = 11). 

How about that? Why even a fifth grader can do this...

WHAT WE'VE GOT HERE...

"What we've got here is failure to communicate." That famous quote from the movie Cool Hand Luke haunts me whenever I teach a class.  There's always something that you wish you had included or taught differently.  Well communication channels (how fitting) is a subject that I did not cover to my satisfaction.  You will find excellent treatment of it in the John Phillips book titled "ALL-IN-ONE, CAPM/PMP Project Management Certification Exam Guide" Chapter 10.  and on the video that comes with the book (Chapter Ten Video - Communications Management).

Test Question Example:

You have 5 members on a project team. One more member is added to the team. How many additional communication channels are added to the project?

a. 1
b. 3
c. 5
d. 7

You can solve this question by calculating the difference in the number of communication channels "before" and "after" adding the new member, using the formula [N*(N-1)]/2.

Communication Channels "before" = [5*(5-1)]/2 = 10
Communication Channels "after" = [6*(6-1)]/2 = 15
Increase in communication channels = 15 - 10 = 5

GOING TO DISNEY WORLD?

Okay PMP Certification Candidate, you've just completed your 35 hours of required training. What are you going to do? Please don't respond, "I'm going to Disney World". Hopefully you've followed my advice and have written a schedule that allows for 1 - 2 hours of dedicated time daily for you to begin reading the "ALL-IN-ONE CAPM/PMP Project Management Certification Exam Guide by Joseph Phillips from cover to cover. A sample study strategy is provided on pages 12 and 13. Adapt it for your purposes.

The main thing is not to lose momentum. Remember you will not "find" the time to study. If your life is like mine, you will have to "make" time to study. Life will always provide a multitude of valid reasons for you to put studying off for another day. Don't fall into this trap. It's up to you make it happen. So instead of making excuses, make studying a habit.
Getting certified as a professional project manager can be life changing in ways you may not be aware of right now. It's sets you apart from those unwilling to make the sacrifice of their time to study. Those three letters, PMP, behind your name speaks volumes about your character and determination. So if you haven't done so already, get busy and prepare a written strategy with schedule and follow it. Remember you aren't just preparing to take the certification exam, you are preparing to pass it...and you will pass the exam if you follow my advise.