PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)®
From the The Big Time Blog
by Rami Kaibni
Managing any project successfully is all about Team Work combined with years of Accrued Expertise. It is an asset to have an educational background that compliments your field of expertise but "education" without "experience" is like an "arrow" without a "bow." You can never make a perfect shot with a temporary arrow unless you have a permanent bow called: "Life's Experience." Remember, you can never teach experience but you can always teach from experience.
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I am glad to announce that I passed the PMI-ACP Exam with Above Target rating. It was an interesting journey and very different than any of the other certifications. I thought to share my journey so that future aspirants can benefit from it.
Study Plan
- ACP Exam Prep Book by Mike Griffiths: Excellent reference that will help you fully understand every single detail related to the exam and agile projects. I consider this like the PMBOK, a great reference for Agile so I am positive I will always refer to it in the future.
- Agile Practice Guide by PMI: Not very detailed but contains some good information about process tailoring, pain points and their trouble shooting, flow based vs. iteration based agile.
- Exam Content Outline: Very Important to go through it in details as it might help you get some clues in the exam.
Personally, I believe Mike's book is a must to pass the exam. Read Mike's book twice, the agile guide as well and highlight the most important items in addition to the exam outline.
- Simulation Exams: Solved simulation exams (Whizlab, PM Prepcast & RMC Fast Track). They were all helpful but the exam is way different so do not rely on those simulation exams. They might help you though with eliminating some wrong answers.
Exam Experience
I am going to talk about my personal exam experience (Without going into details or specific questions):
- The level of difficulty could be easily comparable with PMP, if not more difficult. Although the exam was very tough but PMI did a great job putting this pool of questions together.
- You do not need to memorize anything at all. All the exam was scenario based questions some of which are short, others were very lengthy (At least 40%). Forget about memorizing - Some might find it hard to believe but it is the truth.
- The exam tests your understanding of agile very deeply beyond any text book. You need to ensure you fully understand agile and have an agile mindset.
- The language of the questions and answers is not easy at all. You might end up reading the question and answers 3 times.
- It is the first time I almost run out of time. I finished the last question 10 minutes before the end of the 3 hours and then went and reviewed some of the questions I marked but could not go through all of them again. Watch your time - Some would think that 3 Hours for 120 Questions is a lot but trust me, it is not.
- You will find it easy to eliminate two answers but very difficult to chose between the remaining two. You need to deeply think and adopt the agile mindset to properly get to a conclusion in terms of which choice is the best.
Good Luck to all future Aspirants !
Posted on: July 10, 2018 02:10 AM |
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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
John - Thank you, appreciate it :-)
Well done Rami... we will have a chat soon about it
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Kevin - Thanks and sure, anytime mate !
Congrats Rami. I am preparing to take the exam by the end of next month. Great piece of advice.
Congrats Rami. I am preparing to take the exam by the end of next month. Great piece of advice.
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Andrew - Good Luck. It is indeed a great credential.
Rami, congratulation - what's next?
See one of the reason Kiron visit this website to see which certificate you have achieved ;-)
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Riyadh - Thank you. For this year just the PSK I and one more certification related to development if I had the time.
Kiron should visit LinkedIn instesd for this purpose :-)
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Riyadh - I cleared the PSK I today.
Congratulations Rami so happy for you so you're now Kanban Guru
I wish the certificate where you get a ring on your finger
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Riyadh - Thank you for your kind wishes.
Gregory Murphy
Principal, IT Consultant| Wildewood Consulting LLC
Canton, Ma, United States
Congratulations on passing the PMI-ACP exam with flying colors. Like you, I passed with Above Target scores in all categories so I feel I am qualified to compare and contrast my experience and share where I agree and disagree with your article.
First off, I 100% agree with your exam experience. It read like you were exactly describing my experience, every aspect, including the time to complete it compared with other tests I have taken, the lack of need to memorize, the need for the agile mindset, and the ability to eliminate some responses quickly but struggling between two most of the time. Everything was my exact experience and you summarized it exceptionally well.
From a study plan perspective, though, I must disagree. You state Mike Griffith's book is a must. I achieved the same result and never opened his book. Several others from my prep class spoke very highly about it and I am sure it would have helped, but I am proof it is not a must. In reality, the requirement to pass depends on the individual. I appreciate you trying to lay out the road map for people to follow to ensure they will pass but I suspect people will have to determine the best path for them.
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Gregory, first of all, congrats on passing the exam.
As for your comment on Mike’s book, I mentioned I “beleive it is a must” and I do. I looked at many references and I found this book to be the best from my point of view so I am sharing my exam journey based on my personal experience and my advise to others is based on that.
This is not a road map for anyone to follow - This is me sharing my own point of view. Everyone is free to choose their own study plan. What worked for me, might not work for you but it might work for others so constructive disagreement is good and different point of view does not mean any party is wrong. For example, Sante Vergini wrote in his exam experience that he did not read the Agile Guide and yet he passed as well with all above target. On the other hand, I found that the Guide helped me answer many questions.
Wish you more success.
I agree with Rami, I believe Mike's book was a must for me also, and indeed I didn't read a single word of the Agile Practice Guide. At least we all passed, so the way we did it isn't as important as the fact we did it.
Gregory Murphy
Principal, IT Consultant| Wildewood Consulting LLC
Canton, Ma, United States
Rami, thank you for clarifying. I wish you success, as well.
Sante, as you demonstrate, there are multiple paths to passing. I agree that passing, no matter the park, is the point.
Boon Siang Tay
Project Manager | PMP, PMI-ACP, PRINCE2 Agile, Project+, CSM, CSPO, PSM, PSPO| ST Engineering Urban Solutions
Singapore, Singapore
Hi Rami,
for the PSK I, did you already have prior training in Kanban Method or you followed the recommended resources and articles at Scrum.org?
Congratulations Rami! Thank you for your insights.
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