PMP Certify!

Disclaimer: The information provided here is purely my opinion, based on my learning and I do not represent any of the organizations. The information provided is to share my success path to others and might contain errors or not updated. Always check yourself for latest details directly from individual websites.

Sometime in May, 2004

The Seed

The seed is from couple of my friends (Murali Krishnan from IBM, Ravindranadh Vetsa from Wipro) and colleagues (VJ Yalamanchili, Manesh Rao) who talked about this and the fact that few companies keep this as a standard to measure and some to consider for higher levels. Hearing about the importance, I visit PMI.org to understand what this certification is about. PMP or Project Management Professional is the certification for Project Managers. The concept is pretty neat - very interesting to learn. Certification around Project Management is not much of Science or Math but more of an Art - and it is very difficult to measure a Project Manager's ability. Also there is no general accepted theory around Project Management like the way PMI talks. Unlike a Technology Certification as Java or CCNA, this is very different. This needs experience and overall understanding of the entire Project Management. One thing for sure - lot of reading and understanding needed!

Sometime in May, 2004

What is needed?

Researching on what is needed for taking the exam, I come to know the following: Eligibility (you need minimum qualifications for this) Experience (you need minimum hours of this) Training (you need minimum hours of this) The good news is PMI does not necessitate that you had to be a Project Manager for all the relevant experience. If you were a Leader or doing the project management on a similar role, it is counted. PMI documents this clearly in this document. Of course you need the following: A copy of PMBOK guide (2000 or later based on when you want to appear for the exam) and another book of your choice to supplement. Googling the web, I could find this article interesting - to make it light - I found myself similar to this with lack of motivation and more of a personal goal. P.S.: This info may not be updated. Always check PMI website for the latest info.

Sometime in June, 2004

Managing Projects Training

The first ever training on Project Management by ESI. Though introductory, very useful training that gives the overall idea about what it is about. Lot of input. The best part I liked was when the instructor told we can even appear for the PMP exam after this training with lot of reading. That gave lot of confidence!

Sometime in August, 2004

Rita Mulcahy - a pioneer in PMP Training

Almost everyone I talked to about PMP Certification referred about "PMP Prep Course" book by Rita Mulcahy and I concur with them. After buying it and reading the first chapter, I found myself the same. Excellent book that has a flavor of everything - Hot Topics, Definitions, Exercises, Explanations, Sample Questions, Games - all ways to make you GET the topic. I heard other materials like Flashcards and FastTrack CD are also useful but they seem expensive - got to see how to get these :-) But a word of caution - Rita herself recommends her book as a supplement to PMBOK guide and hence use it as a supplement

Sometime Mid-November, 2004

Risk Management Training

For the past three days I have been taking Risk Management Training. The training is very interesting and useful. No wonder PMI has revised its processes around Risk Management - the six processes in this Planning, Identifying, Qualitative, Quantitative Analysis, Response Planning and Control - indeed we need all these processes for efficient risk management. One of the most interesting and useful class - even for personal risk management. It was a pleasant surprise to score 100% in the test at the end of the training.

Late 2004

More Trainings...

ESI offers seven courses focusing on PMI Knowledge areas - Time, Cost, Quality, Risk, Communications and Procurement apart from the 2 generic courses and one prep course. Taking all is preferred but I could take only couple of more - Scheduling and Cost Control and Contract Management are very useful and interesting. (For that are skeptical of trainings, ask yourself - Do you ever use Earned Value at work or do you know what is Time & Material Contract?)

January 29, 2005

Application Filed

There are two ways you can do it - print, write and submit through mail or my way - do it online :-) This required little planning - to gather all the experience, hours spent on each process area, training you took and the details around this. An Excel Spreadsheet helped me capture all these before I entered the online form. For online application go here: https://certificationapp.pmi.org/ For paper application go here (part of the handbook): http://www.pmi.org/info/PDC_PMPHandbookFile.asp Tip: Become a PMI member before filing the application. You can save some money on the application fee by becoming a member for around $100

February 1st week, 2005

More Training material from Rita Mulcahy

Thanks to my team that bought other training material from Rita Mulcahy - "Hot Topics Flash Cards" and "FASTrack Simulation Software", I could borrow these after my colleague passed the exam. First of all, both products are designed thoughtfully: The flashcard to refer quickly and recall the topics periodically and the FASTrack CD to practice questions; More than 1300 questions that can be taken in two modes - process wise and knowledge area wise plus two exams that is timed to simulate the actual exam. Highly recommended but note that these are a bit expensive.

February 10, 2005

Schedule Test

Today I got a mail from PMI that my application has been accepted. I got an email that had details on how to schedule test and how to cancel/reschedule the test. I went to Thomson Prometric to look for dates available and to get a feel of the procedure to schedule the test. Word of caution: Not many centers are available in each city. Unless you are sure of the date, do not schedule the test as there is a lead time to cancel/reschedule without losing money.

February/March, 2005

The last crucial months

Now time to gear up the studies. With necessary training completed and PMBOK guide and Rita's 'Exam Prep Guide' read once, got a good understanding of the subject. Decided to spend at least 3 hrs a day for this - an hour to go through a process from PMBOK (FYI - there are 39 processes according to PMI), an hour to go through the same from Prep Guide and an hour to take the sample questions from the guide. In over a month, could finish all processes. Also came up with a cheat sheet or brain dump of all important formulae, definitions and acronyms to remember. Click here if you want to see mine. "Rita Mulcahy's FASTrack CD" was the next target. With over 1300 questions divided into all 9 Knowledge Areas (Integration, Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, Risk, Human Resources, Communication and Procurement) and into the Project Management Lifecycle Phases (Initiating, Planning, Executing, Controlling and Closing), the questions are an excellent way to practice for the exam.

First week of April 2005

The last few days

The last week was spent mostly on practicing various tests available: 75 Sample Questions available at VLP (I scored 65%) Free Sample Test Available at PMStudy (I scored 74%) (You can buy 4 more for some money but I did not buy) ESI's Exam Prep Guide Sample Test (I scored 73%) Sybex PMP Final Exam eBook (I scored 75%) Rita's FASTrack CD - Simple and Super PMP (I scored 93% and 84%) Felt confident now that I am ready to rock. The last 2 days I spent only on the following: Review Input, Tools & Techniques & Outputs and Glossary of Terms from PMBOK guide, Review Rita's Hot Topics Flash Cards, My Brain Dump and final tips on how to take the exam from Rita's Prep Book. The evening and night before the exam I took it easy and did not touch any of them. Note: It is very essential that you practice at least few tests - this gives a good idea on how the actual test is going to be and would test you from multiple fronts - the type of questions, the concentration needed, how you fair in each area and which one needs focus or more study and physical aspects to sit for 4 hrs, when and how often you need break. The questions are distributed among different areas - check here for latest details I visited the test center a week before the exam to get to know the route as I did not want to spend time searching for the center on the test date or to get lost. This helped in locating the center without issues.

April 11, 2005

D-Day

I had scheduled for 10 am so that I can eat a heavy breakfast and don't feel hungry for 4+ hrs. Prometric suggests you to be there at the test center at least 30 min before the test. I was there 45 min before and after the briefing they let me take the exam before 10 am even. They asked for 2 forms of identification - I could use Driver's license and a Credit Card. They gave a calculator (that I never used), 2 sheets of scrap paper and 2 pencils. They took all my belongings (watch, wallet, pen, keys, cell phone, pager, file) and asked me to keep in a locker. The test starts with an introduction on the exam on how to use your mouse or keyboard and how to mark/unmark/review the questions that runs for 15 min. I could finish in about 4 min and used rest of the time to offload my brain dump onto the backside of the scrap sheet for my easy reference. The test automatically started at the end of 15 min with the first question. Each question has 4 choices and the options are to choose one of them, mark to review later, go to next question or review. Some questions have associate diagram and few questions use same scenario to answer 2-3 questions. I took 3 hrs 15 min to finish all with ~30 questions marked. I took a break for bathroom after that and drank a bottle full of water (lost about 4 min on this break). Got back, unmarked the marked questions and 2 min before the exam got over, hit, submit. The system took almost 5 min to process the results. Moments of mixed feelings - anticipation, stress, anxiety to finally see the result message "Congratulations! You passed". Note that you need to score 137 out of 200 questions to pass the exam. The score is provided phase-wise and I averaged out to 86% overall score. Wow! What a moment to feel! I was so happy and I called my wife as soon as I could come out of the center to share the moment! The Testing center gives print-out of the results and I was told I would be getting a formal certificate from PMI. Some tips: Formulae (EV, EAC etc.), Terms (Halo Effect, Maslow Hierarchy etc.), Graphs (like Bell curve, Matrix, Paretto, Control Chart etc.), Values (+/- Sigma values, % of time spent by PMs on Communication etc.), Acronyms (BCWP, GERT etc.) could be confusing. Best option is to write down before you start the exam. Do not waste any time - all 4 hrs is for you - no credit in finishing early Do not skip any question even if you don't know the answer - guess could get you some score Take a break if needed for nature call or for water - it helps to focus but bear in mind there is no specific break provided - you lose your time Remember, you cannot take water, soda or food to the testing cube. I was told I can keep them outside the locker (I preferred that to save time reaching out them instead of unlocking/locking the locker) Wear headphones if needed that are provided - as the centers have multiple people taking the test and could be disturbing you

April 12, 2005

Final few words

It was an effort that took almost six months to achieve this feat - passing the exam with 86% overall. I could achieve this thanks to my wife who allowed me to spend endless hours and took care of the mundane things allowing me to focus on this. Felt very happy and confident of my achievement. Special thanks to my friends and colleagues who encouraged me. Note: PMBOK is getting revised: Effective October 2005, PMP would be based on the new edition of PMBOK guide - read more here Different people may prefer different styles to study. If you wish to participate, there are some groups available in Yahoo! PMPCert & PMPBest. These are very helpful and discuss specific questions and share their experiences.