Bare Bones Project Management: Follow this Project Manager on the Path to Certification, Part 10

Donna Boyette - May 6, 2002

Can I vent? Can we talk? I don't want to study for the PMP exam, and I don't want to manage any more projects. Like a former co-worker said, I just want to do the work. Do any of you ever feel that way?

 

As I continue studying for the PMP exam (and have finally started filling out the application, which is simpler than I imagined), I am struggling a little, along with many of you who have written about your journey on the certification path. Managing projects is hard, and studying for the exam is hard. I want life to be simple. I just want to know and use a few basic principles.

 

Using humor to help me cope again, I came across this funny item, which includes permission to reprint it, "Top Ten Reasons NOT to Use Project Management." No. 2 is appropriate to our subject: "I know there is a well-developed project management body of knowledge, but I can't find it under this mess on my desk." No. 10 shows that this humorous list is actually an endorsement of PM techniques: "Our customers really love us, so they don't care if our products are late and don't work." (Copyright 1996, Jim Chapman. Reprinted by permission.)

 

Doing a search on simple things (instead of studying, and instead of writing this article), I found TheSimpleLife.com, and the first thing that appears is a photograph of people. You can't have a site about simplicity and include people. People are not simple. And there have been people on all of my projects. Maybe that's why Project Management can't be simple.

 

I did a search on the CD-ROM version of the PMBOK Guide (which I was happy to receive with my PMI membership kit), and found these entries:

• 4.1.2--Explains that project planning methods may be simple or complex, formal or informal.
• 6.1.2--Describes a simple network logic diagram, which was given four additional names in the training I received (it is a Pert Analysis, or Activity on Node, and it uses the Precedence Diagramming Method, and can also be called Activity Sequencing).
• 8.1.3--Tells us that checklists (an output of quality planning) may be simple or complex.
• 9.1.1--Indicates that organizational interfaces on our project can me highly complex or very simple, and encompass formal reporting relationships among organizational units, or simply notification to an end user.
• 10.1.1--Says that "communication technology" can be as simple as a piece of paper with words on it.
• 11.2--Hints that even responding to an identified risk can be simple.
• 11.3--Says that contracts for source selection can be, "...simple or complex, usually (but not always) reflecting the simplicity or complexity of the product."

 

All in all, I found the word "simple" 11 times. I have decided to take the simple version of the PMP exam, with questions on only these eleven items. It's new. It's the "PMPsimple," and you have to include the "simple" in your title. I would be Donna Boyette, PMPsimple, and everyone would know I opted for the short-form version of the exam.

 

Maybe if we all get together, we can persuade PMI to go in that simplified direction. Let's get a few million signatures together and start a Simplify Project Management movement. Then we can storm corporate management offices around the world and tell them to play along or we're leaving. Simplify or perish!

 

Actually, I was pleased to see a simpler designation at PMI's site. The CAPM designation (Certified Associate in Project Management) is available for employees who have worked on project teams and "demonstrated fundamental project management knowledge and experience by supporting projects using project management tools, techniques, and methodologies."

 

While this does not mean the project processes are simplified, it is good to see that there is a smaller step on the path to PMP certification, and it should eventually simplify the hiring process, when we can be assured that a CAPM is familiar with the PM processes.

 

My local PMI chapter has a meeting this month, and the subject, "Managing the Largest Network Cabling Project in the Carolinas," makes it clear why there are so many well-thought-out processes in managing projects. Coming from the telecommunications world, I know how complex this work can be, and where would we all be without the common ense tools of project management?

 

New PMPs
If you go to PMI's home page and select "Certification" at the top of the page, you will see the previous month's PMP's on the navigation bar. Selecting "April PMPs" produced 15 pages of names, and I counted more than 50 names on a page. That is a lot of newly certified professionals who understand the value of certification (and I know many of you reading this are among them).

 

While we probably could simplify our projects (and I encourage you to do so), the bottom line is, project management processes do simplify things. Once again, a fellow PM encouraged me, and I would like to close this article by sharing her brief story:

 

"I took the PMP exam on March 1, 2002...I did a Project Management course in 1989 and have practiced project management since then. Three weeks prior to sitting the exam, I joined PMI, applied to write the exam and developed a project plan for studying. It meant spending at least two hours daily on top of my hectic personal and business life...I sat down for the exam; decided to walk out after fifteen minutes when I realized that I did not have a clue what any of the questions meant. Perseverance and a high tolerance for torture made me sit there for three-and-one-half hours. Happy to say, my experience paid off. I not only passed, but did fairly well. Was it worth it? The personal satisfaction was well worth it."

 

Donna Boyette is a freelance writer and Project Manager in North Carolina.

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