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Congrats! I passed recently too. Agree with the draining thing, the whole exam feels like a giant messing with one's mind. I sometimes wonder if passing simply means making it to the end without going certifiably mad.
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Jun 1, 2021 22:46
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Rooted Vegetable posted:Congrats!
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Jun 1, 2021 23:21
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Further advice for test takers: * Get a PMTraining.com practice exam package ($90 for 3mo) and do lots of practice exams. This is the most effective method of preparation. Read around what you get wrong. * Use Anki to make flashcards and maximize your toilet phone time * Read the PMBOK, Agile Practice Guide and PMP authorized prep courses manual.
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Jun 3, 2021 03:17
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Congrats to every one who passed the exam! I took the exam 4 years ago and I remember it was a test of my endurance and sanity. Remember to continue training so you can re-certify in three years and never have to take the exam again.
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Jun 12, 2021 22:47
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PMBOK Seventh Edition will be out in August and by god I'm counting the hours reading the changes as PDUs (which is allowed afaik)
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Jun 13, 2021 03:44
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Rooted Vegetable posted:PMBOK Seventh Edition will be out in August and by god I'm counting the hours reading the changes as PDUs (which is allowed afaik) This is a friendly reminder for me to sell my 6th Edition for the $20 I can get it for tops now
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Jun 13, 2021 19:09
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Don't be ridiculous! I'm keeping it on a shelf in my office to make me look well read.
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Jun 13, 2021 20:09
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Congrats on passing! Update on the Google PM course: I am coming down the stretch on course two, initiation (course one is just an intro, loose overview of the phases and how to search for a job) I am finding it's idea of what a weeks work is, very, very over estimated. I think they do this to make people who are working while taking the course feel good about putting 1 hour into it a day feel on track, but so far the estimates for me are "1 week = 2 days" and that's with me getting distracted a lot. A person who is good at studying could easily do a week per day, even with some side studying by finding extra material on the internet. I have never been good at studying so the pace is actually working for me. I am letting my partner distract me often so I'm finding myself spending 5 days at a time not accomplishing anything. Hoping to change that next week. Anyway if anyone is interested I am making a series of notes on google docs, and I would be happy to make them viewable. Maybe you guys are just curious about offering the course as a tool to potential PM's or for people put in the role of a PM but with no training in it per se. I assume most people in this thread are existing PM's or have their PMP, which would make the google cert redundant. Maybe you'd just like to give me advice on where to beef up, or just point out areas that the PMP, or actually work life, will be expecting more? ( I would greatly appreciate it. Send me a DM or a gmail (same username if you're curious)
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Jun 16, 2021 21:13
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Question, but more of a call for stories. I recently changed positions (still a PM, different company in same group) and it's dramatic how much financial tracking is in the new one. I feel like I've become a financial analyst with what I've got ahead of me. Previously, it wasn't a concern as I was managing internal projects. The question is simple, strategies for dealing with large PM process change when you change roles?
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Jun 24, 2021 05:38
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As I look around for a possible job change I see PMP listed on almost every job posting I'm looking at, so I think I am going to take the plunge and start studying for the exam. Given that it's switching from 6th to 7th edition in January is there any reason it would be a stupid idea to plan on being able to be ready for the exam by December if I start now and devote 5-6 hours a week to studying for it? My background is project engineering and I've taken various program management classes both as part of my MBA and internal training with my employer so I'm not coming in blind but this will be my first exposure to a lot of the specific terminology and specifics of the process steps as PMI defines them. Also any specific test prep classes that are recommended? Thoguh fucked around with this message at 15:52 on Jul 29, 2021 |
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Jul 29, 2021 14:50
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Thoguh posted:As I look around for a possible job change I see PMP listed on almost every job posting I'm looking at, so I think I am going to take the plunge and start studying for the exam. Given that it's switching from 6th to 7th edition in January is there any reason it would be a stupid idea to plan on being able to be ready for the exam by December if I start now and devote 5-6 hours a week to studying for it? My background is project engineering and I've taken various program management classes both as part of my MBA and internal training with my employer so I'm not coming in blind but this will be my first exposure to a lot of the specific terminology and specifics of the process steps as PMI defines them. Are you aware that to qualify to write the exam you have to first meet education and experience requirements? I only ask because fulfilling the education requirement is where you would typically get that first exposure to the terminology etc.
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Jul 29, 2021 20:21
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Apsyrtes posted:Are you aware that to qualify to write the exam you have to first meet education and experience requirements? I only ask because fulfilling the education requirement is where you would typically get that first exposure to the terminology etc. Yeah, I've got the contact hours and the experience requirements I meant the specific terminology that PMI uses since my impression is that exact definitions are a big part of the exam.
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Jul 29, 2021 22:29
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My contact hours were fulfilled by a 1 year certificate course @ University where the syllabus was structured around the PMBOK. The exams each term were similar to PMP exam questions. So my experience might be different from yours. But the timeline you proposed should get you prepared if you have a decent book (Head First PMP is pretty good) and access to a lot of PMP sample questions or a PMP simulator. Maybe spend some time with sample questions real soon to get a feel for what you should be learning from the book. In my opinion the exam isn't really dependent so much on "terminology" - it's more situation/what should you do type questions.
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Jul 29, 2021 23:47
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Thoguh posted:Also any specific test prep classes that are recommended? If you do the week long PMP preparation course, make sure it's a PMI authorized one. They use standard, PMI branded, slides and materials. This means you'll get the same content, and you can select a trainer you like. After that, I personally liked PMTraining.com for practice exams, but there are others.
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Jul 30, 2021 05:12
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angry armadillo posted:I'm an IT Engineer slowly finding myself heading towards PM world. Negative bits out the way, since that post I've done a whole heap of projects for my little corner of the business, I've also done my agile foundation/practitioner certs, even though we aren't a particularly agile shop and now I have secured a full time PM role with the wider business starting in the new year. I'm really happy with what I've done. Interestingly, the job spec had some specific budget/timescales and my future boss was saying he wants the PMs to look after those projects, then the Senior PMs to deliver the projects that exceed those numbers as thats when you start have to seek group approval etc etc. The good thing is that I've already done some of those 'big' projects in my current role/taking PM work on mission so I am feeling confident that I am going to hit the ground running in my new role. Another point of note is I'm currently just an IT manager, however, compared to my 4 peers, I'd dare suggest I'm probably more involved in management side of things - obviously moving to a PM role is not a leadership role. I think it will take some adjustment for me not to overstep but I guess I'll just have to be aware of that and make sure I behave but that won't be a big deal.
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Sep 6, 2021 10:32
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Anyone got any good books to read if you might be going from an internal facing role to an external client facing/professional services role?
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Sep 9, 2021 07:03
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I just started a new job where I'll be organizing about a dozen courses/seminars a year. I figured that since I have a lot more overlapping deadlines than my previous roles, I should find something that'll help me track those tasks. I'm a complete newcomer to software designed for that purpose though. Is there any provider that is the industry standard? I want to keep myself organized, but I'd also like to be able to put this on my resume down the line. It sounds like some of the other teams use Asana, so I might be able to ask for access to that if it's worth it. Are these tools useful if I'm the only one using it? Or would I basically just be making a really complex to-do list? Do any of these applications make it really easy to connect to your own scripts? Or, on the flip side, are any particularly locked down? Again, it seems like it might be beneficial to a future position to be able to show them a bunch of little automation tools I wrote.
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Oct 7, 2021 21:07
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What solution did you end up going with?
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Dec 2, 2021 09:49
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Golden Bee posted:What solution did you end up going with? Asana. My employer already pays for it and they were willing to get me set up on it even though my team doesn’t use it, so that made the decision pretty easy. Being able to set templates for projects was also super useful, though I wish there was a better way to see what project each task is assigned to besides color codes.
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Dec 3, 2021 17:35
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Thoguh posted:As I look around for a possible job change I see PMP listed on almost every job posting I'm looking at, so I think I am going to take the plunge and start studying for the exam.  
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Dec 6, 2021 00:58
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Awesome... way to go!
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Dec 6, 2021 01:11
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Congratulations! Now please update your milestone on the Gantt so we can circle back in the next stand-up
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Dec 6, 2021 03:18
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How hard is the PMP compared to like, the SATs?
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Dec 6, 2021 09:00
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Apsyrtes posted:Awesome... way to go! canyoneer posted:Congratulations! Now please update your milestone on the Gantt so we can circle back in the next stand-up Thanks! Nice to finally have it be over. In retrospect I way over studied for it, and probably could have taken it a month ago or more I was expecting it to be a lot harder than it actually was.
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Dec 6, 2021 12:08
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Golden Bee posted:How hard is the PMP compared to like, the SATs? Different type of exam, it's all about knowledge of terms and how to react to situations. More like a final from a college class than anything else.
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Dec 6, 2021 12:09
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Is there a decent resource for examples of completed MS Project files? There are plenty of templates but I was hoping for an example of one that was used through to completion. Templates don’t really demonstrate things like shifts away from a baseline and I’d like to see more examples of people’s WBSs. Obviously companies aren’t eager to release that sort of thing but maybe there’s a PM focused place that has examples beyond blank templates.
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Dec 6, 2021 13:27
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Golden Bee posted:How hard is the PMP compared to like, the SATs?
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Dec 6, 2021 13:46
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Does it matter how small projects are for project management hours? I have some large renovation projects of entire floors I've worked on, but a lot of my projects are fairly small like coordinating 2-3 office rooms getting re-painted since I'm just an admin assistant who has become the go-to person for any physical space projects. I've also thought of maybe retconning small projects together as one large project, e.g. "renovating 3rd floor of building X" and having that include any painting, new furniture, coordinating a staff person moving into an office there, etc.. even though they were totally separate plans. My instinct from reviewing this thread seems to be that as long as your boss vouches for you, it's fine. Combining the projects seems easier, but feels sort of odd. pizzapocketparty fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Jan 19, 2022 |
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Jan 19, 2022 20:01
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Fewer total projects means fewer approval processes. Lumping things together when related is often a good idea. Where do people find new project management cakes? LinkedIn puts general project management and construction management as the same title, which is frustrating.
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Jan 20, 2022 04:22
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Golden Bee posted:Where do people find new project management cakes? LinkedIn puts general project management and construction management as the same title, which is frustrating. 
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Jan 20, 2022 04:30
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pizzapocketparty posted:Does it matter how small projects are for project management hours? I have some large renovation projects of entire floors I've worked on, but a lot of my projects are fairly small like coordinating 2-3 office rooms getting re-painted since I'm just an admin assistant who has become the go-to person for any physical space projects.
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Jan 20, 2022 15:57
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Hello everyone, So I think I am in a similar situation to other people who had asked questions in this thread, albeit a little more of a beginner. I have worked on Agile software teams and more ad hoc teams that use Jira and Kanban and all that, but at my current role, I am more in a data integration/analytics/reporting roll. My company is a manufacturing company that is very behind the times technologically, and I am helping build all the infrastructure and reporting for various teams, from Supply Chain to Finance to Operations. Sometimes, it's as simple as developing a report to replace someone printing out a piece of paper and faxing it; sometimes it's helping develop a model for pricing our products based on changing commodity prices. I am finding myself leading more projects, partially due to simply not having enough people, but my boss would like me to start getting more more experience with this and agreed to pay for PMP cert when I get to that point. I still think I need another year or so for the 36 months of experience but I was wondering if there was anything I could do in the mean time to get caught up on best practices and strategies. Should I just buy that PMBOK book and look into some training courses?
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Mar 21, 2022 16:50
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You can get a Certified Associate of Project Management cert with much less experience (it’s what I have). Even without that, see if your boss can pay for a PMP training class or something, those come with the PMBOK and will teach you a lot about the theory. Baring that, I suppose self-teaching is a way to go but I would try to find a video series instead of just barreling through the book.
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Mar 21, 2022 17:14
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Yeah that was part of the discussion too, I'll do some more research into the training classes. I'll check out that other cert as well, I was browsing the PMI site and there was a lot of info and acronyms so I figured I would ask around a bit instead of trying to parse that. Thanks!
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Mar 21, 2022 17:43
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The PMBOK is really a reference book, not a textbook it would be difficult to learn with it alone. There are tons of affordable online courses you can take to get the basics down, then have your employer pay for a good accredited course to qualify for the PMP or CPM test once you're ready to take it.
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Mar 21, 2022 23:53
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Apr 1, 2022 13:56
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This is upsetting
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Apr 1, 2022 14:02
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Well, I've somehow managed to fall rear end backwards into a project management type role as my first proper job. I'm feeling more than a little terrified. My project management experience up to this point can be summed up as trying to beat an Excel Gantt chart template into submission and (mostly successfully!) putting out fire after fire during both of my university degree's engineering project modules. I had no real formal instruction on project management itself beyond the occasional class and what I could glean from reading books in the university library. And I have no experience with construction-type projects - which is what I've been asked to deal with. Though as I understand it generally a project is a project is a project. I'm extremely lucky in that A) I have a cool boss who hasn't dumped me in the deep end right away, and B) my workplace has a very collaborative culture, but I want to make up for the lack of formal instruction I received. What's this thread's advice for a near-neophyte, and what should I be reading/looking at in order to shake the rust off and ensure I'm not going to crash and burn spectacularly? Unfortunately money's tight so ideally it'd be stuff I could act upon without having to spend a ton of cash. In short, 
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May 9, 2022 23:02
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I wouldn't worry about it too much. In my experience the vast majority of PMs have no clue. As long as you learn from your peers and improve through mentorship you will be ok. Meetings must have a purpose, an agenda, and the right people there. If you think you need an hour, shoot to do it in 30 min. Create action items and hold people to dates in the tracker. This one thing, good meetings, will get people to help you succeed the most.
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May 10, 2022 02:56
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Agree with spwrozek 100% I was taught the acronym PDORA - Purpose, Desired Outcome, Roles, Agenda. I don't do roles in my meetings, but the rest I do. In your meeting invite, explicitly list a concrete measurable desired outcome for the meeting, as well as a purpose and an agenda broken out in 5 minute intervals. Do your best to stick to the agenda, accomplish the purpose, and create the desired outcome. Prepare in advance, including reviewing everyone's contributions before the meeting. If you're surprised by anything in a meeting you run, you hosed up. Be assertive and cut people off if they ramble. This will be scary at first, but everyone will appreciate it in the long run. Also, create an action item tracker and keep it updated. I put them at the bottom of every meeting invite. Form doesn't matter; just create something that works for you and keep up on it. There is a lot of power in running through the action items and updating due dates on each. People really don't want to look like the weak link in front of the team. I can not stress this last one enough: Get training. I took this course: https://mckimmoncenter.ncsu.edu/course/how-to-communicate-influence-and-negotiate-in-project-management/ Highly recommend. Get your work to pay for it.
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May 10, 2022 04:15
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