The Big Time

Have you heard of Wicked Problem Solving (WPS) ? This is a new course offering by PMI and I have to say, it is one of the best courses I’ve taken. 

Upon completion of the course, you will receive a Practitioner Badge and 18 PDU’s. 

What does this course come with  ?

This course will deep dive into the three most important skills of today as per the World Economic Forum:
 

• Complex Problem Solving 
• Collaboration
• Creativity 

WPS is a confluence of Agile, Lean, Design Thinking and other modern ways of working with the goal of helping you improve how you work with your team by focusing on:
 

• Asking the Right Questions
• Making Ideas Visible
• Engaging with Forward Actions
   

While it is a self-paced course, you will also be using Miro, the digital white-boarding Tool. 

The course is outstanding, very well-structured, and while there is no live interaction, the way the course was designed makes it semi-interactive and you also get to learn how to use the colalborative platform Miro. I highly recommend this course. 

Stay tuned for more to come ! 
 

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 !

The intent of this blog is to provide a summarized comparison between the current exam content outline Current ECO August 2021 and the updated Pilot ECO November 2021 in order to facilitate the way forward for future candidates.

DOMAINS and TEST PERCENTAGES

The domains in the new ECO will change as well as the percentages of test questions per domain. The below tables illustrates the difference between both:

PROJECT ENVIRONMENTS AND APROACHES COVERED

In today’s world, risk management practitioners operate in a variety of environments and utilize different project approaches.

The new exam will incorporate approaches across the value delivery spectrum from Predictive, agile, to hybrid approaches. Questions will be found throughout the five domain areas and are not isolated to any particular domain or task.

DOMAINS, TASKS AND ENBALERS

In the current exam version, each domain is broken down into tasks and at the end of each domain there is a list of knowledge items and skills that candidates need to be familiar with. Moreover, at the end, there is a list of Core Knowledge and Skills that apply to all domains – Refer to the current ECO August 2021 (Pages 4 – 14) for more details.

In the new upcoming version of the exam, each domain is broken down into tasks that are different than those included in the current version and each task is broken down into enablers which are basically examples of work associated with each task. The section for Core Knowledge and Skills required will be removed – Refer to Pilot ECO November 2021 (Pages 5 – 10) for more details.

APPLICATION PROCESS AND ELIGIBILITY

The application process, eligibility and how to record your experience and education remains unchanged.

To be eligible for the PMI-RMP certification, you must meet certain educational and professional experience requirements. All project risk management experience must have been accrued within the last five consecutive years prior to your application submission.
 

APPLICATION PRCOESSING TIMES AND FEES

The application processing time (Online, 5 Days Processing) and fees remain unchanged. However, processing time may vary if application was selected for audit.

PMI EXAM INFORMATION

• Number of exam questions, examination time and questions type are changing: 

• Exam retake policy remain unchanged except for those who take the pilot exam.

PILOT EXAM SPECIFIC NOTES

• As a limited time offer, participants in the PMI-RMP Pilot Exam will receive a 50% rebate if they schedule and take the Pilot Exam during the Pilot period (December 2021). The rebate will be given approximately 6 weeks from the close of the Pilot Period.
   
• Between 6 October 2021 – 31 December 2021 (or when 200 candidates take the pilot exam, whichever occurs first), candidates can choose to schedule for the PMI-RMP Pilot Exam. During the scheduling phase, you will see two options: Pilot or Current PMI-RMP Exam. Those who choose to take the Pilot Exam must choose the Pilot Exam on this screen and take the Pilot exam during the month of December. Please note it will take 2 months to receive your score if you participate in the Pilot exam.
   
• If you do not pass the Pilot exam, you will get the opportunity for a free retake of the exam once the full exam launches in April 2022.
   

REFERENCE MATERIAL

The list of reference for the new version of the exam are updated and can be found on page 17 of the Pilot Eco November 2021 so if you are taking the pilot exam, make sure your study plan is based on those references.

For easy reference, the below table lists the references recommended for each version of the exam.

Stay tuned for more to come ! 

Joy and happiness filled my heart upon receiving a paperback copy of PMI 50^th Anniversary Commemorative Book as a Thank You Gift from PMI. What an amazing gift to kick-off the year. It means a lot to me because I was part of those first 50 years of growth. 

From cover to cover, the book looks amazing and is very obvious that there was lots of thought put into it. It includes all the story from the day PMI started and with the limited no. of princted copies, this will be a great souvenir to keep forever. 

Being part of PMI and this great community for many years, I estabished a strong sense of ownership and commitment towards the profession, PMI, the Community and it's members. I enjoy volunteering and giving back to the profession and as the famous Elizabeth Andrew say: 

"Volunteers don't necessarily habe the time, they just have the heart."

Giving back to the Profession and Comunity is a noble thing to do and what motivates me most is seeing the people around me succeed.

Looking forward to be part of PMI during the next 50 years and contribute to their growth and success.

I wish you all a fantastic 2020 full of happiness, health, wealth and success ! 

During a conversation with a friend last week as we were working on a private project, he threw a joke that I should create a Certifcations Wall of Fame given that I earned lots of valuable certifications over the years. The joke turned into a serious conversation and thinking about it later, I concluded it would actually be a good idea so I decided to turn the joke into reality.

As I look at all those badges all consolidated in one view, I feel so proud of those accomplishments. I can’t even express how much each and every one of those journeys added value and helped me grow both personally and professionally. 

It took lots of dedication, commitment and hard work to build this concrete wall and guess what, I am ready for the next one. When there is a Will, there is a Way !