Which of these phases will you consider for your project 'PMP Exam' ?

Hi Scott, why do you think this is not iterative and incremental?
Are there changing requirements or targets?

Hi Scott,

thanks for your reasoning, I do not counterargument here.

Interesting that you say requirements are changing, as far as I understood you, this means the requirements (of passing the exam) as you understand them at each point in time, as the the factual requirements of the exam are set before and do not change. Or maybe you thought about requirements being the gaps between your knowledge and what the exam requires.

While I completely agree with treating preparing for the PMP exam as a project, I don’t think Anupam is asking the right question. Preparing for the PMP exam should consist of the following steps:

1) Becoming Eligible to Apply to Take the Exam
• Reviewing the requirements, as defined by PMI.
• Conducting a gap analysis to identify the requirements you meet and do not meet.
• Developing a plan to close the gap(s). This could involve:
o Formal Education or Training Classes
o Work Experience

2) Filling Out the Application
• Review the printable application. This will help you identify the content and format needed for the online application. I recommend this because the online application is only valid for one year (last time I checked).
• Set a date for when you want, and will be eligible, to take the exam – be flexible; you can’t choose the exam date until after your application has been accepted, but you can set a target date to be ready.
• Once you are eligible and are within 1 year of your planned date to take the exam, begin filling out the online application. Update it regularly.

3) Studying for the Exam
• Understand your learning style and tailor your learning experience accordingly.
o Do you learn better from books, videos, audio, or practice questions?
o Do you learn better on your own or in study groups?
o Do you retain information from crash courses, like PMP boot camps?
o Use more than one approach to your studies; it will improve retention.
• Take self-assessments to identify strengths and weaknesses; don’t exclude your strengths from your study program, but give more attention to the areas where you are weakest.
• Keep in mind that the PMP exam is not about how much you know about project management; it’s about how much you know about PMI’s approach to project management.

There may be more to consider; these are just some thoughts to help illustrate my point.

Within each of these steps you have some flexibility, and the steps will likely overlap. You will likely be gaining experience, and possibly education, during the application process. You will also be studying up until a couple of days before you take the exam (give your brain a break a day or two before the exam). You may treat these steps as phases while using an adaptive or iterative approach to your studying. Timeboxes are great, but you may not be able to fit everything within two-week timeboxes.

So what is the right question? I’m not sure that there is one right question, but a better question might be, “What mix of approaches would you use in preparing for the PMP, and how would you use them?”

Adaptive, and this is my opinion as to why...

You need a good baseline from where to start, but as you move forward, you should take test exams and identify your strengths and weaknesses. Based on that weaknesses, you should be willing to adjust your studying techniques to focus on the bigger challenges of your learning. You are the key stakeholder in this who can decide when you need to adjust your training, so let your own change requests drive you.