Hi All,
I am back with the article on PMI's new edition of PMBoK, version 4.
PMI had introduced this latest edition in last year.
From July 01, 2009 onwards, PMP exams will be based on this new version. This article is to differentiate between the third edition and fourth edition as far as PMP exam is concerned.
But before the start of the discussion, I'll ask few questions.
1) Will change in edition of PMBoK change the Project Management way?
2) Will the change have effects on Project Management Methodology?
3) Will the required soft skills(interpersonal skills) of Project manager (or Project Management) change becuase of edition change?
4) Will changing the proces names to verb noun format change the process?
What do you think the answers for these questions?
Obviously, all the answers will be "NO". Simply because PMBoK is a standard, and not a regulation. It is developed based on the best practises of Project Management.
So the next question... Will the exam (pattern) change with the change in edition?
Answer is same.., NO.
when I say NO here, I mean there will no be any major changes in the exam pattern.
I will start step by step and highlight if any change between third and fourth edition.
1) 35 contact hours eligibility criteria :
PMI says that these 35 contact hours are for any training on project management.
It does not specify or mandate that these training should be based on PMBoK so and so version.
So eligibility criteria is not changed and if you have 35 contact hours based on third edition, they are still VALID.
2) Now your study reference is changed. Study PMBoK fourth edition.
It is available for download for FREE to PMI members.
But if you have third edition, you can just go through that as well.
Dont read in depth, but understand the concept.
3) I was thinking of giving you the actual difference between third and fourth edition.
But there are so many articles explaining the difference like
http://www.pmsuccess.biz/detail_article.asp?article_id=4
http://linkbee.com/WTHB
4) If you have old exam question set, you can still use it.
Cause PM framework, professional responsibility is not going to change. So you can use it.
All the processes in Time , Quality and Risk management are same, only name change.
Read Appendix A in section IV of PMBoK carefully for all the details.
Reading this will help all, but more to the people migrating from third edition to fourth edition.
Hence, bottomline is, don't discard your study material based on third edition.
It has lot of potential.
I'll complete my article here and add to it when time permits more for the same.
Catch you next time,
Mahesh Masurkar, PMP
-------------------------------------
Future article:-
Maintain your credentials COST effectively !!
-------------------------------------
Monday, June 29, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Tips for PMP Exam
Hi friend,
I know you are in hurry. But take some time to read this article. Nowadays its lot of rush towards the Prometric center. Everybody is booking for the exam, clearing it with good numbers. I thought I'll just put my thoughts to those who are yet to appear for the exam.
1) Bring two sets of identity proofs like passport, driving license, employee card, credit card. One of these should have a photo. Check that name as it appear on this proof is same as what you mentioned in your application.
2) Reach to the testing center (min) 15 mins in advance. No need to go easry as well.
3) Make sure you know where the testing center is. Dont seacrh for it at the last moment.
4) After reaching the center and providing your id etc, make yourself conversant with the facility.Check for rest room, water cooler etc. Keep everything you carry in locker.Do not carry anything with you for the exam.
5) After passing the routine security check, you'll be allowed to go inside.
6) Check the name again as it appears on the form there. Report any correction immediately.
7) You ll be given couple of pencils, a set of blank papers and one computer will be allocated to you.
8) Go to the computer. Check everything, mouse, keyboard, screen and most importantly power cables. Normally these cables are below the table and people have habit of stretching their legs during the exam. It might pose a problem and computer might be OFF. So be careful while stretching your legs.
9) Dont to brain dump (or whatever you call) immediately. First complete the 15 mins training on how to navigate thru the exam. This will take 6-7 minutes. DONT MISS THIS STEP. Then if you want you can do brain dump. last 1 minute, be relax and take a deep breath.
10) Now your exam is going to start. It may happen that first few (5,10 or 20) questions are tough.let it be. Dont be panic. If you are not sure, select an answer, MARK the question and move ahead. Normally you need to cover 50 Q in 1 hr. One of my friend completed only 20 in first hour. (And he cleared his PMP exam). So don't bother about your rate of answering. You can cover it later. But DONT let the pressure built to loose focus for the next 3 hrs.
11) 4 hrs (240 mins) are very very important. Use the time wisely.
12) Normally 5 breaks of 10 mins each are allowed. The clock will be continuing ticking during your breaks too. Two breaks (after 90 mins each) are sufficient. (Personal view)
13) All the letters like MOST, BEST, FIRST, EXCEPT etc are marked bold. So read carefully.
14) Have a habit of - Read the question, then think of a answer, then check if the answer is present as a option or not AND READ ALL THE ANSWERS. It might happen like whatever answer you thought is present as option B. But option C and D also look correct. Read question again. It might have word EXCEPT in that.
15) Whenever you mark any question, write the no. down on paper as well.
16) SCREEN LAYOUT:-
================================================
TOP:- Qestion no. YOUR name CLOCK (HR:MM:SS)
================================================
MIDDLE:- QUESTION
4 OPTIONS
CALCULATOR (ICON)
================================================
BOTTOM:- PREV NEXT MARK (UNMARK) REVIEW
================================================
When you click MARK, the button will be RED with UNMARK text.
17) Calculator is very good, same linke Windows calc with basic function. Check its usage during the initial 15mins training.
18) After finishing all the questions, click on REVIEW.
You can see:- REVIEW MARKED, REVIEW ALL, REVIEW NO ANSWER.
If you have forgotten to select answer for any question, you can get it through REVIEW NO ANSWER.(Or the "i" icon)
19) Dont MARK so many questions. Mark only those for which you have a conflict for answer.
20) After all the review done (or time is finished), click on SUBMIT button.
21) Once you click on SUBMIT button, screen will be blank for few seconds and then 1 survey will pop up.Give your correct feedback. Dont be bias according to your test condition. This survey is a part of PROCESS IMPROVEMENT PLAN for prometric.
22) After finishing the survey, again the screen will be blank for few seconds (normally this time looks like few minutes !!!) and then your result will be shown on the screen.
23) Click OK. And come out. The instructor will give you a print out of your test score.Preserve it. Do not loose it.
24) During breaks, you need to sign in and sign out and show your id proofs.
25) It was hot summer and I was sweating, so my hands were wet. I asked for tissue paper.The instructor told me that they dont have any issue to give me tissue.
BUT THIS WILL BE REPORTED TO PMI. I told NO then :) (scared may be !!!)
26) Analyze and Celebrate your success. (Analyze your failure)
27) Dont forget to put your LL on the groups you registered.
ALL THE BEST FOR YOUR EXAMS !!!
Catch you next time,
Mahesh Masurkar PMP
I know you are in hurry. But take some time to read this article. Nowadays its lot of rush towards the Prometric center. Everybody is booking for the exam, clearing it with good numbers. I thought I'll just put my thoughts to those who are yet to appear for the exam.
1) Bring two sets of identity proofs like passport, driving license, employee card, credit card. One of these should have a photo. Check that name as it appear on this proof is same as what you mentioned in your application.
2) Reach to the testing center (min) 15 mins in advance. No need to go easry as well.
3) Make sure you know where the testing center is. Dont seacrh for it at the last moment.
4) After reaching the center and providing your id etc, make yourself conversant with the facility.Check for rest room, water cooler etc. Keep everything you carry in locker.Do not carry anything with you for the exam.
5) After passing the routine security check, you'll be allowed to go inside.
6) Check the name again as it appears on the form there. Report any correction immediately.
7) You ll be given couple of pencils, a set of blank papers and one computer will be allocated to you.
8) Go to the computer. Check everything, mouse, keyboard, screen and most importantly power cables. Normally these cables are below the table and people have habit of stretching their legs during the exam. It might pose a problem and computer might be OFF. So be careful while stretching your legs.
9) Dont to brain dump (or whatever you call) immediately. First complete the 15 mins training on how to navigate thru the exam. This will take 6-7 minutes. DONT MISS THIS STEP. Then if you want you can do brain dump. last 1 minute, be relax and take a deep breath.
10) Now your exam is going to start. It may happen that first few (5,10 or 20) questions are tough.let it be. Dont be panic. If you are not sure, select an answer, MARK the question and move ahead. Normally you need to cover 50 Q in 1 hr. One of my friend completed only 20 in first hour. (And he cleared his PMP exam). So don't bother about your rate of answering. You can cover it later. But DONT let the pressure built to loose focus for the next 3 hrs.
11) 4 hrs (240 mins) are very very important. Use the time wisely.
12) Normally 5 breaks of 10 mins each are allowed. The clock will be continuing ticking during your breaks too. Two breaks (after 90 mins each) are sufficient. (Personal view)
13) All the letters like MOST, BEST, FIRST, EXCEPT etc are marked bold. So read carefully.
14) Have a habit of - Read the question, then think of a answer, then check if the answer is present as a option or not AND READ ALL THE ANSWERS. It might happen like whatever answer you thought is present as option B. But option C and D also look correct. Read question again. It might have word EXCEPT in that.
15) Whenever you mark any question, write the no. down on paper as well.
16) SCREEN LAYOUT:-
================================================
TOP:- Qestion no. YOUR name CLOCK (HR:MM:SS)
================================================
MIDDLE:- QUESTION
4 OPTIONS
CALCULATOR (ICON)
================================================
BOTTOM:- PREV NEXT MARK (UNMARK) REVIEW
================================================
When you click MARK, the button will be RED with UNMARK text.
17) Calculator is very good, same linke Windows calc with basic function. Check its usage during the initial 15mins training.
18) After finishing all the questions, click on REVIEW.
You can see:- REVIEW MARKED, REVIEW ALL, REVIEW NO ANSWER.
If you have forgotten to select answer for any question, you can get it through REVIEW NO ANSWER.(Or the "i" icon)
19) Dont MARK so many questions. Mark only those for which you have a conflict for answer.
20) After all the review done (or time is finished), click on SUBMIT button.
21) Once you click on SUBMIT button, screen will be blank for few seconds and then 1 survey will pop up.Give your correct feedback. Dont be bias according to your test condition. This survey is a part of PROCESS IMPROVEMENT PLAN for prometric.
22) After finishing the survey, again the screen will be blank for few seconds (normally this time looks like few minutes !!!) and then your result will be shown on the screen.
23) Click OK. And come out. The instructor will give you a print out of your test score.Preserve it. Do not loose it.
24) During breaks, you need to sign in and sign out and show your id proofs.
25) It was hot summer and I was sweating, so my hands were wet. I asked for tissue paper.The instructor told me that they dont have any issue to give me tissue.
BUT THIS WILL BE REPORTED TO PMI. I told NO then :) (scared may be !!!)
26) Analyze and Celebrate your success. (Analyze your failure)
27) Dont forget to put your LL on the groups you registered.
ALL THE BEST FOR YOUR EXAMS !!!
Catch you next time,
Mahesh Masurkar PMP
-------------------------------------
Future articles:-
PMBoK V4 - What does this mean to PMP aspirants?
Maintain your credentials COST effectively
-------------------------------------
Monday, June 22, 2009
Few FREE and good resources
Hello friends,
I am back with a new post.
Here are few very important resources available on internet.
This are hepful for your PMP certification.
Groups:
1) PMPExamForum yahoogroups.
2) PMI Local chapters' group if available
3) http://pmhub.net/ (Continue this lifelong. Don't terminate after PMP exam)
Books:
1) PMBOK® Guide—Fourth Edition
2) The Human Aspects of Project Management: Organizing Projects for Success, Volume One
by Vijay K. Verma
3) PMP: Project Management Professional Study Guide, Deluxe Edition
by Kim Heldman and others
4) PMI's Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
http://www.pmi.org/PDF/ap_pmicodeofethics.pdf
(You will not believe, but many people struggle to locate this)
5) Various standards on scheduling, risk management, earned value management etc
All are available at eReads section on PMI.org. Free to PMI members.
Questions:
1) Daily digest question from crosswind (pmhub.net) and pmexam.com
2) PMBoK Q&A.
3) Questions at the end of chapters from Kim Heldman book.
4) 500 questions available at pmhub.net http://linkbee.com/Q500
5) PMP Prep course exams after each chapter. (Remember..This one you took to get 35 PDUs)
6) PMStudy Framework questions. http://www.pmstudy.com/freeresources/chapterTestFramework.asp
7) If you become members of few more yahoogroups like pmpbest, pmpsingapore, pmi_pune_exam_forum, you can find more questions in their Files Section
I have removed one site as I feel it is violating copyright law.
Sr. No. 2 & 3: Available at eReads section on PMI.org. Free to PMI members.
Another major benefit of being a PMI member during PMP certification.
Exams:
1) Headfirst 200 Q http://headfirstlabs.com/PMP/free_exam/
2) PMStudy 200 Q http://www.pmstudy.com/enroll.asp#PMP
3) PMSuccess 200 Q http://www.pmsuccess.biz/Free_Simulated_Test.asp
4) Oliver Lehman 75 Q http://www.oliverlehmann.com/pmp-self-test/75-free-questions.htm
5) Oliver Lehman 175 Q http://www.oliverlehmann.com/contents/free-downloads/175_PMP_Sample_Questions.pdf
6) PassPM.com http://www.passpm.com/services
7) Crosswind http://crosswindpmtv.com/myonlinetests.aspx
8) PMP Prep course 200 Q exam. (If provided)
Hope this list will help all the PMP aspirants in future.
Let me know if you know any good resource available.
I'll check that and if found good and legitimate, I'll add to this post.
Catch you next time,
Mahesh Masurkar, PMP
-------------------------------------
Future article:- PMBoK V4 - What does this mean to PMP aspirants?
-------------------------------------
I am back with a new post.
Here are few very important resources available on internet.
This are hepful for your PMP certification.
Groups:
1) PMPExamForum yahoogroups.
2) PMI Local chapters' group if available
3) http://pmhub.net/ (Continue this lifelong. Don't terminate after PMP exam)
Books:
1) PMBOK® Guide—Fourth Edition
2) The Human Aspects of Project Management: Organizing Projects for Success, Volume One
by Vijay K. Verma
3) PMP: Project Management Professional Study Guide, Deluxe Edition
by Kim Heldman and others
4) PMI's Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
http://www.pmi.org/PDF/ap_pmicodeofethics.pdf
(You will not believe, but many people struggle to locate this)
5) Various standards on scheduling, risk management, earned value management etc
All are available at eReads section on PMI.org. Free to PMI members.
Questions:
1) Daily digest question from crosswind (pmhub.net) and pmexam.com
2) PMBoK Q&A.
3) Questions at the end of chapters from Kim Heldman book.
4) 500 questions available at pmhub.net http://linkbee.com/Q500
5) PMP Prep course exams after each chapter. (Remember..This one you took to get 35 PDUs)
6) PMStudy Framework questions. http://www.pmstudy.com/freeresources/chapterTestFramework.asp
7) If you become members of few more yahoogroups like pmpbest, pmpsingapore, pmi_pune_exam_forum, you can find more questions in their Files Section
I have removed one site as I feel it is violating copyright law.
Sr. No. 2 & 3: Available at eReads section on PMI.org. Free to PMI members.
Another major benefit of being a PMI member during PMP certification.
Exams:
1) Headfirst 200 Q http://headfirstlabs.com/PMP/free_exam/
2) PMStudy 200 Q http://www.pmstudy.com/enroll.asp#PMP
3) PMSuccess 200 Q http://www.pmsuccess.biz/Free_Simulated_Test.asp
4) Oliver Lehman 75 Q http://www.oliverlehmann.com/pmp-self-test/75-free-questions.htm
5) Oliver Lehman 175 Q http://www.oliverlehmann.com/contents/free-downloads/175_PMP_Sample_Questions.pdf
6) PassPM.com http://www.passpm.com/services
7) Crosswind http://crosswindpmtv.com/myonlinetests.aspx
8) PMP Prep course 200 Q exam. (If provided)
Hope this list will help all the PMP aspirants in future.
Let me know if you know any good resource available.
I'll check that and if found good and legitimate, I'll add to this post.
Catch you next time,
Mahesh Masurkar, PMP
-------------------------------------
Future article:- PMBoK V4 - What does this mean to PMP aspirants?
-------------------------------------
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Journey towards PMP
Hello everybody,
Recently I completed my PMP (Project Management Professioanl) certification from Project Management Institute (PMI), USA.
I thought I should do something to the project management community and PMP aspirants in general. Then this very idea of writing a blog striked in my mind. This is my first post towards this. I dedicate this first post to all my eFriends at PMPExamforum.
Completing PMP is really a achievement for me. I heard it is very difficult to learn once anybody starts working. I felt the same throughout my journey towards PMP. Now I have a feel of satisfaction.
I was introduced to PMP by one of my colleague, Shambhavi in year 2007. I was not sure whether to do it or not. I talked to my then manager Dr. Ravi Guttal and he gave a green signal to me. I got a training from Seed Infotech in September 2007 which gave me the required 35 contact hours for PMP exam application. Ideally, one can finish the exam withing 3 months from the training. But somehow it slipped. There were personal reasons, office work load. I was parallely persuing my Six Sigma Black Belt. There are many more reasons, but major reason was I was not sure whether to do PMP or not. Though there was delay for my exam, I was studying intermittently.
Major focus was obtained once I got audio prepcasts from Cornelius. That was late December 2008. These prepcast, while hearing, gave me a confidence boost that I can now appear for PMP exam. After that I started preparing and was serious enough from February 2009. Why? PMI introduced a new version of PMBOK and exam pattern will be based on this new version from 1st July 2009.
I got my exam date on 5th June. In fact I selected this date purposefully. I selected Hyderabad as my center cause I was more familiar to Hyderabad than Mumbai. The other reason was I can meet my old friends.
Exam was OK. Planned (??) preparations let me pass the exam. I am a PMP now, WOW !!!
I felt relieved while coming out of exam center.
Evening, I celebrated this success with my friends. This was my bday too !!!
Now my (re)certification will be aligned with my birthdate.
Catch you next time,
Mahesh Masurkar, PMP
------------------------------
"PMI,” “PMP,” and “PMBOK,” are registered trademarks of the Project Management Institute.
Recently I completed my PMP (Project Management Professioanl) certification from Project Management Institute (PMI), USA.
I thought I should do something to the project management community and PMP aspirants in general. Then this very idea of writing a blog striked in my mind. This is my first post towards this. I dedicate this first post to all my eFriends at PMPExamforum.
Completing PMP is really a achievement for me. I heard it is very difficult to learn once anybody starts working. I felt the same throughout my journey towards PMP. Now I have a feel of satisfaction.
I was introduced to PMP by one of my colleague, Shambhavi in year 2007. I was not sure whether to do it or not. I talked to my then manager Dr. Ravi Guttal and he gave a green signal to me. I got a training from Seed Infotech in September 2007 which gave me the required 35 contact hours for PMP exam application. Ideally, one can finish the exam withing 3 months from the training. But somehow it slipped. There were personal reasons, office work load. I was parallely persuing my Six Sigma Black Belt. There are many more reasons, but major reason was I was not sure whether to do PMP or not. Though there was delay for my exam, I was studying intermittently.
Major focus was obtained once I got audio prepcasts from Cornelius. That was late December 2008. These prepcast, while hearing, gave me a confidence boost that I can now appear for PMP exam. After that I started preparing and was serious enough from February 2009. Why? PMI introduced a new version of PMBOK and exam pattern will be based on this new version from 1st July 2009.
I got my exam date on 5th June. In fact I selected this date purposefully. I selected Hyderabad as my center cause I was more familiar to Hyderabad than Mumbai. The other reason was I can meet my old friends.
Exam was OK. Planned (??) preparations let me pass the exam. I am a PMP now, WOW !!!
I felt relieved while coming out of exam center.
Evening, I celebrated this success with my friends. This was my bday too !!!
Now my (re)certification will be aligned with my birthdate.
Catch you next time,
Mahesh Masurkar, PMP
------------------------------
"PMI,” “PMP,” and “PMBOK,” are registered trademarks of the Project Management Institute.
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