Program Management Professional (PgMP)®
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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Agile,
Benefits Realization,
Career Development,
Communications Management,
Cost Management,
Earned Value Management,
Education,
Ethics,
Human Resources Management,
Leadership,
Lessons Learned,
New Practitioners,
Organizational Transformation,
Professional Development,
Program Management,
Project Management,
Protfolio Management,
Risk Management,
Schedule Management,
Scope Management,
Stakeholder Management,
Time Management,
Using PMI Standards
I am glad to announce that I passed the Program Management Professional (PgMP®) Exam on November 29, 2021 with Above Target in all domains and very proud to be join this elite group of professionals.
This credential was on my radar since 2019 but with the pandemic, some priorities changed and I had to postpone it. However, now achieving it marks an important milestone in my professional development journey as I did complete all 8 Main PMI Credentials and 9 Micro-Credentials.
As usual, I am happy to share my lessons learned with the community members hoping that future candidates will find value in them.
STUDY PLAN
PMI Resources: PMI Standard for Program Management - 4th Edition. If you are a PMP and/or PfMP, the Standard will be more than enough provided that you read it several times in details. You will be surprised, but every time you go through the standard, you will discover something new in between the lines.
Exam Content Outline: I can't emphasize the importance of the ECO. You need to deep dive and understand every single task, why and how you do it.
Course: There is no course required as a pre-requisite for the application. However, it does not hurt to take a course if you feel the need to do so but I personally did self-study.
Application: The application was very lengthy and rigorous unlike any other PMI Certifications Applications (Except for PfMP). It took me a while to complete my application (A total of 15 Hours of work). After submitting my application, I got initial approval in 5 days time, I paid the dues ($800) and the application went for Panel Review which took around 3 more weeks before receiving final approval (This was in 2020).
Study Time: It took me a bit more than a month to study. One month might seem light but I used to study 4 hours a day and 6 hours on weekends in addition to that I took a few days off work to study extensively so it was more of a Bootcamp Personal Plan. At a normal pace, I would say 2 - 3 months (2 - 4 Hours / Day) should be reasonable.
Simulation Exams: I purchased a couple of simulation exams available online on Udemy and others for training purposes. They were good in terms of boosting your level of confidence but again, the key is to deeply understand every aspect of the standard.
Colleagues Advice: I connected with a few PgMP's who gave me solid advice and boosted my confidence a lot for which I am very thankful. They are a good example of people who share knowledge without boarders.
EXAM EXPERIENCE
I am going to talk about my personal exam experience (Without going into details or specific questions). In general, I found the exam to be somehow easier than other PMI exams. I might have found it easier given how much experience and credentials I have or maybe not. Either way, below was my experience:
Level of Difficulty: The exam was not very difficult. In general, 75% of the questions were short in nature but I have to say that some were tricky so again, you need to have an absolutely excellent grasp of every word in the standard.
Exam Questions (General): Most of the questions were situational (Short Questions). You need to understand which artifact gets updated in every phases or change, what happens when and by whom, and above all you need to have a deep understanding of all tools, techniques and program activities. It is worth mentioning that you will encounter around 10% questions from outside the standard related to PMP.
Exam Depth: The exam tests your understanding of every single aspect of the standard and the program management in general.
Exam Language: The language of the questions and answers was moderate. You might end up reading some questions twice but for the majority of the questions, it took me 30 seconds on average to read the question and answers and if you have a good grasp of the material, once is enough.
Exam Time: The timing was than enough. I finished the exam well ahead of time including the review of the questions I marked.
Elimination Strategy: Surprisingly, and unlike other PMI exams, I was able to easily eliminate 3 answers for many of the questions.
Exam Experience with Pearson Vue: Unlike my experience during the PfMP exam which was not very pleasant, this time, it went much smoother and I had no issues at all except for some difficulty in exam booking but this is totally understandable given the current pandemic situation.
Good Luck to all future Aspirants !
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Posted on: December 02, 2021 01:38 PM |
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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Michael, thank you. Glad to hear you found some suggestions useful.
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Issa, thank you for your kind comment and I do totally agree with you. Good luck with your PgMP Journey.
HI Rami, I agree with Issa, there is little to help guide the PgMP journey or hear about other's experiences. Thank you for sharing them here!
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Shannon, I am glad to hear that you did find the post and tips valuable. Good luck if you're planning to pursue this credential.
JyothiB B
Proventures Education and Consulting Services Private Limited
Hyderabad, India
A very useful article and source for learning such high-quality information! I appreciate you sharing this useful information.
Thank you for this very helpful blog. I plan to take my PgMP exam soon and this will serve as a good guide.
Thanks Rami. This was a great outline and exactly what I was looking for, much appreciated.
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Thank you, Jyothib, Irshad, and Joseph. I'm glad to hear that you found my post valuable!
Thank you Rami for this review.
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
You’re welcome, Demetrius and thank you
SUKUMARAN SUBARAMANIYAN
Senior Manager| Malaysia Rapid Transit Corporation Sdn Bhd
Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Thank you for the clear and concise explanation. It helped clarify things for me.
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
You’re welcome, Sukumaran!
Thank you Rami for your tips, and let me share my observations.
The Standard for Program Management
In short - it’s not enough to read it (even three times or more) to be prepared for the exam. As a majority of PMI’s standards, it is quite general (but test questions are very specific). And what is even more important - the standard has changed from the fourth to the fifth edition, but questions in the exam have left the same. The newest edition is structured by PgM principles, PgM performance domains, and program activities. But a lion part of the exam content demands from you an exact knowledge of processes. The sequence of actions, inputs and outputs, roles and boundaries of them. To address this mismatch, I decided to review previous versions of the standards, and dive deeper into additional sources of knowledge from PMI.
Additional PMI sources
If you’re a PMI member, the following publications are recommended by me:
* PgMP Examination Content Outline & PgMP Handbook (by default)
* Benefits Realization Management: A Practice Guide (please note that this source contains a different program life cycle model than the one promoted in the fifth edition of the Standard!)
* Governance of Portfolios, Programs, and Projects: A Practice Guide
* The Standard for Risk Management in Portfolios, Programs, and Projects
* Risk Management in Portfolios, Programs, and Projects: A Practice Guide
* PMBoK
* Process Groups: A Practice Guide
* Managing Change in Organizations: A Practice Guide
What was extra from PMI sources (from my point of view)
* The Standard for Earned Value Management (seriously, there are 5 to 6 important formulas, other derivate from them; it’s not a rocket science even if you don’t use them daily; and, seriously, the importance of these formulas is greatly exaggerated in the tests on Coursera)
* Work Breakdown Structures (I’d say, practical examples (see below) were more useful)
* Practice Standard for Scheduling
Easy Reading
Yes, there is something in this category. I recommend “PgMP Exam Guide” from Joseph Phillips. Excellent language, accessible presentation, and the right level of detail to understand some of the nuances specifically from the perspective of the exam. Yes, the book references an outdated edition of the Standard, but that's not a problem considering you'll also be reading the latest Standard edition.
Documentation templates and examples
I've been pestering my AI assistant with requests to find examples of every document mentioned in the Standard and other sources. As always, the Pareto principle applies here. There's one source I recommend as a veritable goldmine for both students and practitioners. It's a resource of The University of Waterloo that contains both documents and useful methodology elements.
https://uwaterloo.ca/vpaf-project-management-office/tools-and-templates/program-deliverables
Mock tests
The more the better. Free, outdated and (especially) paid options on Coursera. Not that you will know exactly what to wait from the real exam. Actually, The content of mock tests is highly dependent on the experience, knowledge, imaginations and preferences of the authors and can give a false impression of the content of the real exam (sorry, I can't say more). Overall, I'd say the questions in the exam are much... smarter. They really dig deep and require a deep understanding of the principles, not just memorization. So why mock tests? Guys, your ability to sit at the computer for four hours without a break, clicking through question after question with the intensity of one question in 1.5 minutes (or better!) requires training. Especially in case English isn’t your mother tongue. Phillips recommends practicing during a designated time during the day when you'll have the real exam (mine was from 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM), and that's very good advice.
Implement the PgMP as a project
I'm not kidding. There's no need to rush. The process took me over a year (Plan A didn't work; I failed the exam on my first try; and I needed more than six months off to prepare and apply to graduate school). How much time do you need? I don't know; everyone has different experience and learning abilities. It took me a solid 10 weeks to prepare for my second attempt. I think that's the minimum. And I'm lucky – I've conducted about fifty trainings since 2008 and know the entire PMBoK inside and out. Plus, as a consultant, I'm well-versed in management and strategy concepts. So see for yourself. In any case, this is a serious undertaking that will require some temporary habit changes (taking public transportation with a book instead of walking or driving to the office; reading a standard instead of fiction at night; and so on). But never at the expense of your wellbeing! Maintain balance and set yourself up for success.
Good luck everyone!
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Thanks for your input, Viktar. What worked for me might not work for everyone, but I found that the guide combined with my expertise in the field and my previous PMP certification more than enough to pass the exam.
The resources you mentioned are definitely valuable, but I personally feel that too many can be overwhelming. In my view, over-preparing isn’t always helpful.
Congratulations Rami and thanks for sharing
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
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