Taking the Plunge

I am probably misquoting the following, and I don’t know the author’s name, but one of the most relevant expressions in my life right now is, “You make time for the things that are important to you.”  And I should add to that quote the following, “…but you can’t do everything.”

Using my life as an example; my family is important, work is important, religious/spiritual activities are important, social activities are important, and professional activities (such as preparing for the PMP exam) are important.  Can I do all of these?  Yes, a little at a time, and some will demand more time than others.  I also have to watch how much time I commit to each of them (i.e. work/life balance is important).  Another “for example” is preparing for the PMP exam – an appropriate topic for my blog, don’t you think?

For example, I am currently pursuing self-study with a variety of resources, and group study with several people at work who are also working toward achieving the credential.  The problem is that every week there only seems to be two of us who are available for the scheduled meeting (this week is my turn to be absent because of an ad hoc staff meeting for several teams in my department).  One would be incorrect in assuming that meeting to study together is not important – there are just other important things that also need done, and you can’t do everything. 

My local PMI chapter has a PMP prep class starting soon.  It is a 12 week class that meets once a week.  Each meeting is 3 hours long, and the price is very reasonable, especially compared to the courses offered by private companies.  I would love to attend the class, for several reasons, but because of all of the other important things going on in my life I don’t have 3 hours on the night in question to commit to taking the class.

Another factor that is challenging my schedule is that I have to start paying student loans back soon, and I need to start looking for ways to either supplement or increase my income.  However, preparing for the PMP exam is still important to me.  Even more so if I end up looking for a new job.  I may not take the prep class, but I can still self-study and try and meet with my study group.  I am going to encourage those who are able to meet this week to still do so, if we can’t meet another day or time.  I need to keep the commitment going.

I have to admit – I have spent more time updating my resume than studying the past couple of weeks.  It has been several years since I needed a resume, and I was hoping to not need one until AFTER passing the exam.  Not having the PMP credential will make it harder to compete in the current job market, but I think my degrees (MBA; BSIT in Project Management) and experience will help.  Who knows, sometime in the next few weeks you may see a posting about the difficulties of studying for the PMP exam while starting a new job.  I’d like to avoid that, and I don’t want to abandon my study group, either.  Even if I did change jobs, I might not have to abandon my group.  You make time for the things that are important to you, right? 

But you can’t do everything.

The database is done (done enough) now I am working on the hard part – tracking down the dates and hours for the many projects that I did not do a very good job of recording over the past 5+ years.

Many thanks to fellow Gantthead Robert Sprick for his review and feedback of the database!  He provided that “second set of eyes” that always comes in helpful, and had some good ideas for future versions of the database.  I kept it simple so that I could spend more time studying and less time designing and developing a database. 

I wasn’t able to start the study group going this past week – everyone had too much on their schedule.  I did manage to block off an hour a week, for the next 13 weeks, for the group, however.  Everyone has their book now, and I sent out reading assignments for the first week.  We are starting with Framework.  The next week will be the Process Groups, and the following 9 weeks will be the Knowledge Areas (1 a week?).  I am hoping to rotate the person who leads the weekly discussions.

My target date for taking the exam is November 26th.  I have asked the rest of the study group to identify their target dates, as well, so that we can support each other in achieving this goal.  I now need to work backward and identify constraints for tasks I need to accomplish to be able to take the exam by Nov 26th.  For example, what is the latest I can expect to be able to submit my application and have it approved in time?  This also sets a constraint for when I have to be done with finding all of the dates and hours for my past projects. 

Personal goal to accomplish before my next posting:  Identify tasks and a timeline for completing and submitting the application for the exam.

I believe that things have now become simple for the group – study, meet, discuss questions, participate in practice exercises, complete practice exams for the chapters we are studying… Once I set my own tasks and timeline for completing and submitting the application, I will work with my group to do the same for themselves.

One of the vendors of the study materials that I purchased provides instructions for filling out the application – this was helpful in working on the database.  Upon going to the PMI application site, I found that I was able to enter my education and save it there for use when filling out the application.  This also simplified the database design.  I bring this up in case anyone reading my blog wants a copy of the database.  It is only for tracking experience, not education.

I need to revisit some statements made in Week 5, because of the group study schedule.  I will be using the video training on a weekly basis, covering the same topic as the weekly reading.  I will watch the whole thing again prior to taking the exam.  I may also work on the flash cards next week, in preparation for the 2nd group study session where we will be covering the Process Groups.  Since they cross reference both the Process Groups and Knowledge Areas, I may just work on them one topic per week, instead.

If nothing else, preparing for the PMP exam is reinforcing the concept of progressive elaboration.  Even after taking the exam, I doubt I will know everything about preparing for it.  I just hope this blog will help others who are preparing for the exam.

Until next time…

It would seem that there are two kinds of distractions that I find it difficult to avoid: the fun kind, completely unrelated to the task at hand, and the serious kind that aids me in my long term goals, but takes away from the time that I need to accomplish my short-term goals.

Obviously, I bring this up for a reason.

For the former type of distraction, my brother and I left our kids with our wives and went with our dad to see Hellboy II.  I am not going to give it rave reviews, but it was a good distraction. 

Actually, I would encourage anyone preparing for the PMP, or any other serious endeavor, to try and schedule in some down-time just for the sake of maintaining your sanity.  Don’t go overboard, and cut back as you draw closer to crunch-time, but take the time to think about other things on occasion.  It can help you to gain perspective on issues you are dealing with.

The latter type of distraction came as a result of grading my practice exam and the video training I have been reviewing.  It was a passing score, but I am not going to fool myself into thinking I am ready for the exam today.  In reviewing my results, I identified several areas where I need to concentrate my studies.  These are:

• Inputs, outputs, tools & techniques
• Earned Value (formulas)
• Conflict, Risk, and Procurement Management

This is not to say I scored perfectly on other areas of the exam, but if my baseline is any indication of future performance, giving these areas additional attention as I study, and adjusting my areas of focus as I complete additional practice exams, will improve my chances of doing well on the exam.

Back to my distraction…

With my “weaknesses” in mind, I was reviewing the video training, and one of the recommendations it made was to make flash cards with the Process Groups on the front (I’m also including the Knowledge Areas), and the inputs, outputs, tools & techniques on the back.  I got about halfway through when I realized that I completely blew my personal goals for the week, which puts me in a situation that requires that I reevaluate my goals.

I just received the book that my study group selected.  I have not heard back from the rest of the group regarding whether or not they received theirs, yet.  I have proposed that we meet in two weeks (to allow everyone else to get their book), taking the time between now and our meeting to read the first two chapters of the book (introduction and Framework), complete the activities, and read the associated chapters in the PMBOK.

Now that the study group is going, my girls’ soccer team is starting up, and my wife is getting busy with her scrapbook store and school, I need to reduce my efforts toward my personal goals.  Completing the video training and the database are both good goals to keep, and completing the flash cards will also be helpful, but I can’t do all of them while doing everything else – it’s time to prioritize, or I won’t get anything done.

Considering that I am still of the opinion that the most challenging part of the exam will be completing the paperwork (because I spent 5 years NOT documenting my experience in the format that I will use when submitting my application), I will focus on the database for the next two weeks.  Following that, I will work on getting my project experience entered into the database.  I think I will finish the video training after that, and then do the flash cards.  I am not ready to start using the flash cards, yet, anyway, and I want to complete the video training several times before taking the exam to help keep the information fresh in my mind.

Based on the target dates for my individual and group study goals, my next posting will be in two weeks.  Happy studying!

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!

I started this week by printing off the PMP handbook and making photocopies of the Education and Experience forms.  Then I actually thought about what I was trying to accomplish.  I think it will be important to keep both hard and soft copy of my documentation, but I realized that I don't want to start by hand-writing a summary of all of my deliverables for all of the projects I have been involved in, and then re-typing it. 

My first thought was "spreadsheet" so I pulled out an old spreadsheet that a friend used who had already passed the PMP.  Upon closer inspection, I noticed that it was based on the old application and was primarily focused on dates and hours – helpful, but not what I need.  I'm not bad with spreadsheets, so I decided to make my own.  When I got to the point where I was going to create columns for verifying hours and summarizing deliverables, I realized that a spreadsheet was not going to work unless I set up more monitors to accommodate how wide the spreadsheet was going to get.  More monitors sounds great!  But not practical.

The programmer in me thought it would be a good idea to create a VB front end with a MySQL back end, but the programmer in me is a little too enthusiastic, sometimes.  I want to have time to study and take the exam this year, and there are 7 other people I am supposed to be working with.  I decided to settle for an Access database.  Maybe I'll let my inner programmer loose AFTER I pass the exam.

So far, I have completed the tables and queries, and I am in the process of designing the forms I will use.  I am taking a vacation with the family next week, so I will use my free time for self-study and to finish the database.  I'm not sure if I will have time for data entry, though.  I have to spend "some" time with my wife and children while on our vacation.

I've set up the next group meeting for a week and a half from today, after I return.  I checked with my study partners to make sure I was not going to slow for them, but they are all pretty busy too, so nobody is complaining.  Some of the group members are even concerned that they are too busy to participate.  I have asked them to wait to make a decision until after we decide on what to study, in addition to the PMBOK, and set a study schedule. 

In an email, today, I presented three options for books to study in conjunction with the PMBOK, and asked for any other recommendations for consideration.  I would list the books, but I don’t want to sound like I am endorsing any specific products.

My primary, personal goals between now and the next meeting are to 1) complete the database to share with my study group, 2) go through the video and audio training that I have purchased at least once, and 3) complete an initial practice exam to establish a baseline.

My primary group goals are to reach consensus on which book to study, in conjunction with the PMBOK, and to set a study schedule.  I'll give you the details in my next posting.

I won’t be posting next week, due to my vacation, but I have about two weeks worth of work to do, anyway, so it works out.  See you in week 4.