Taking the Plunge

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.

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.