Let's Get Started
From the Taking the Plunge Blog
by Aaron Porter
In case you actually read this description, the beginning of the blog is about preparing for the PMP exam. It then evolved into maintaining my credential. While maintaining relevant credentials is important, it doesn't make a good long-term topic. Watch for experiments, some serious topics as I try out new things and "take the plunge", and maybe a little bit of fun.
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Starting points are sometimes awkward for me - I'm not always sure if I am starting the right way or going in the right direction. The important thing to keep in mind when preparing for the PMP exam is that just getting started is a step in the right direction.
The first thing I like to do when starting anything new is to assess my situation. Okay, preparing for the PMP exam is not exactly new for me, but I am finally "formally" preparing. It has been my intent to take the PMP exam for several years; it is what influenced me to finally go back to school to get my Bachelor's degree, and to get it in IT Project Management. As a result, I have more than enough education contact hours in addition to my degree.
It makes sense to me to treat preparing for the exam like it is a project. I am not going to write a business case or a scope statement, but there are some milestones that I need to achieve before applying to take the exam, which will require planning and not an insignificant amount of work. These are:
* Documenting my education (pretty straightforward)
* Documenting my experience (a little more challenging).
* Studying
Documenting my education will be easy, now. I just need to decide which courses to include on the application. The difficult part was when I was trying to figure out how to count my contact hours. The classes for my BSIT were online; no actual "contact" hours in a classroom with a teacher or other students. I did some searching on PMI's website, and found my school listed in the Registered Education Provider (REP) Program. I was able to find the Project Management classes I had taken, but they only listed PDUs, not contact hours. After several rounds of email with PMI, they finally understood that I was asking how to convert PDUs into contact hours and was told that it is a 1:1 ratio. A class worth 24 PDUs is worth 24 contact hours.
I got lucky - my school was listed. If you need contact hours AND a Bachelor's degree, I would recommend finding a school that is already on the REP list and making sure that your degree program will allow you to take classes that are recognized by PMI.
Documenting my experience is the part I am dreading. I still have the records for almost all of my projects over the past 5 years, but I did not think to keep a log that would allow me to track the information that PMI requires on the application. I think that preparing this information will be almost as time consuming as studying for the exam.
When it comes to studying, I am "well-armed." I have audio. I have video. I have books (not just the PMBOK). I have flash cards. I have practice exams (in books, PDF, online, and CBT). Now all I need is the dedication and commitment to start studying.
To help me study, I have initiated a study group at work. I have been able to find 7 other people who have also been putting off taking the exam, and a few PMPs willing to mentor us. We have met once to review our options for studying, and I need to set up a second meeting so that we can make some decisions and set a study schedule.
These are the main topics that I will be blogging about - preparing to apply for the exam and studying, both on my own and as part of a group. Hopefully my experience will help others as they prepare and try to figure out where and how to start.
Posted on: June 28, 2008 02:54 PM |
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Comments (2)
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Naomi Caietti
Senior Project Manager | ePMO | Higher Education | Healthcare & IT| Linkedin.com/In/NaomiCaietti
Aaron:
This is wonderful information you have shared with ganttheadians on not only the process, procedures provided by PMI but the mental aspect of starting down the path to study for your PMP. You have provided us the mental aspects of preparation which many of PMP''ers have all certainly gone through. I can truly relate to your experience having planned several years ago in a very similar way.
I really like the fact that you have shared four primary things that I believe will make you successful in your goal to study and pass the PMP exam:
* 1. You have done your homework to pull down the PMI PMP Handbook which provides you with the category requirement and education required to apply for the PMP. Many candidates don''t realize how important it is track their experience and the timeframes they must capture their experience under. Also, the contact hours are important so as you have mentioned, you had to track down the information to report your educational contact hours.
* 2. You have treated this process like a "Project". You have made the "mental leap" and have made a plan and formed a support team.
* 3. Also, you have put together the tools you need to study and recruited support resources and have launched the plan. Truly, this is where I see many candidates fail is in the planning for the time and effort outside of work and away from family and friends.
* 4. You have found mentors to help you stay committed to your plan, help you to use the tools you need at your disposal, and share their experience and insights to achieving this most sought after certification.
A few tips I would also consider:
* You may already know this but seriously consider the information you are gathering for your application and project management experience. Get your functional manager, project team lead or sponsor to sign and validate your project experience you have documented. Approximately, 5% of candidates get audited by PMI and you will need to produce this documentation and provide the validation from those listed above that you have perfomed these project activities for the organization. Keep printed and electronic copies of this information in a safe place.
* Consider in your study groups to have each member lead a support session with a topic you all agree on. The topics begin to click and resonate once you have digged deeper to present it to others.
* Make the study session fun. Sure, you are all there to learn and study, but many times in our study groups, we were already tired from working all day so we always shared the days events, focused on studying the topic and planned for the next meeting.
* Recognize in your group that some of your members may be more ambitious to achieve this goal than others. This is okay, just achieve some synergy within the group so everyone wins in the process.
* Don't give up, be realistic about your goals and let others know about your goals to support you.
Vaughn Smith
Project Manager
Courtenay, British Columbia, Canada
At the risk of commenting to a really old post, I'll offer some notes:
I was audited when I submitted my project management experience. This turned out to be a paper
struggle but was not difficult. The main problem I had was that many of my previous PM assignments
involved companies that were no longer in business. To document years of experience, someone who
knew my role, (supervisor, etc), had to vouch for me. It took a lot of time to get in touch with people
in my past and the clock was ticking. There was barely 2 weeks to get it all done. The worst was that
the people would have to send their report back in a sealed envelope by US Post. I shortened the
process as much as possible by emailing the required form, having my contact print and fill it out then
seal it and send back to me in an outer envelope. Luckily the audit was approved very quickly after I
submitted my documentation to PMI.
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