Week 4 – Disaster Recovery

 

My vacation did not quite go the way I expected, go figure.  In some ways it was better than planned, but I blew all of my individual study goals. 

It started when I forgot to remind my children, for the fourth time, to leave my laptop bag alone.  I can hear you groaning, already.  You guessed it, one of my daughters dropped my laptop while we were visiting my wife’s sister, before we even arrived at the lake. 

Once we got there I started it up.  It seemed fine, except that the wireless was not working.  I made some changes and got the light to turn on, but it still would not find the wireless access point.  REBOOT.  Oops.  It got half-way through startup and then froze.  After doing the same thing the next three times, and unsuccessfully checking the disk through the BIOS, I gave up. 

Fortunately for me, this vacation was also a family reunion and my brother the computer expert was there.  Since it was still a vacation, it took a few days to recover the hard disk (HD) and the bad sectors, then clone it to a new drive.  And then the training software would not work because it was in a new memory space as a result of the HD being cloned.  I uninstalled the software, only to find that Windows no longer recognized data or music CDs.  It let me watch movies (DVDs), but not install software.  Needless to say, I was back from vacation before my laptop was fully functional.  But my wife and kids did not mind. 

The negative side to this is that I did not get the studying done I wanted to, I did not finish the database for documenting my experience and education, and I have not graded the practice exam, yet. 

The positive side is that I was able to spend more time playing at the lake – swimming, boating, sea doos, playing games with the kids, playing Canasta and Scattergories with the adults, and reading a book that was a lot less dry than the PMBOK. 

I think the positives far outweigh the negatives.

My individual goals remain the same for the next week.

For my group, we reviewed the books and I called for a vote.  Four of the remaining seven of us voted.  One person opted out due to a major project going on at work, so we are now down to six.  There are two other members I am concerned about, but for different reasons.  One is working on her Masters degree and is an officer in our company-sponsored Toastmasters club (that I am also a member of).  I can appreciate the demands on her time, having graduated just a few months ago.  The other is lacking project management education, and possibly the amount of experience he would need since the does not have his Bachelors degree, yet.  He is definitely a sharp guy, but with the possibility that the test will change next year, after the new release of the PMBOK, he may not be qualified to take the exam before it changes, which means some of the information in the book we buy may not be valid.  I still want him to be part of our study group, but I may recommend that he consider the CAPM if he is not quite qualified for the PMP.

My group goal for this week is to order the book [I’d name the book, but 1) I have not taken the exam, yet, to say if it was good or not, and 2) it is not free – I don’t want to endorse something that is not free and have someone complaining that they spent money on something I recommended that was not worth it, especially when I have not used it, yet], get the group to commit to an initial study schedule (with the understanding that we will adjust it as needed to meet the group’s need), and provide some coaching/mentoring to the young man mentioned previously, regarding his direction in preparing for the exam and which exam to take.

This brings me to one final thought before I close.  My blog is really about preparing for the exam, and is not about learning about project management.  Andy Jordan wrote a good article about this, titled, “PMP: Pass vs. Learn.”  I don’t want my blog to be misconstrued as a means to learn more about project management.  I am not sure how much I have to teach on that subject, but I do hope that my blog will help people who have PM experience that are considering how to prepare for the exam.

Good Luck!