Dear all,
I am happy to share my success of PMP Certification. I am thankful to you all for your valuable suggestions and guidance provided through this forum as well as other forums. My special sincere thanks of appreciation and respects to Cornelius Fichtner and authors of various books related to Project Management who have made this possible with their valuable resources.
My PMP Certification Plan:
I can say it took me around 4 months. The following are the resources used.
1.PMPrepcast Project Management Course – I can say this is one of the best resources to start with and Cornelius has done a wonderful job of explaining the concepts thoroughly that can be easily understood. I got 35 Contact Hours after going through this course and taking an examination at the end.
2.PMP Exam Preparation – Rita Mulcahy. A great book in terms of information, content and concepts. This is the only book I read through once completely.
3.Head First PMP – You will enjoy reading this book but I read only about 4 or 5 chapters overall.
4.PMI’s PMBOK – This is a must but after going through PM Prepcast and Rita Mulcahy book I hardly found any time and completed this in about 10 hours as though someone is chasing me with the fear that how am I attending a PMP certification without reading PMBOK just 2 or 3 days before exam.
5.PM Exam Simulator – I found this very useful and this is the only resource I have used for practice exams apart from the chapter tests from Rita’s book and Head First free exam.
Lessons Learned:
1.You can achieve PMP certification with a good plan by choosing proper resources and practicing tests that suits you based on your knowledge level, experience etc.. There will be lot of situational questions and hence as every one mentioned earlier in the forum, you have to be thorough with the concepts. Practice makes you perfect goes well with this and try to practice as many questions as possible.
2.Depending on your knowledge in the field of Project Management, I can say you can plan around 3 to 4 months with about 2 to 3 hours during week days and 5 to 6 hours on weekends. It can be less for more experienced or may be a little bit more for less experienced.
a)Month One: Listen to PM Prepcast Videos and Audios, Get the 35 Contact Hours, Prepare the application and apply for PMI membership if you are not a member.
b)Month Two: Choose 1 or 2 books of your choice based on feedback from the forums and the PMBOK. Complete one reading in this month if possible depending on your time.
c)Month Three: Read the same books you revised in Month Two and listen to the PM PrepCast again. Do the Chapter tests.
d)Month Four: Take 3 or 4 Comprehensive tests and practice as many questions as possible. I would say don’t worry about the results of scoring 85% - 90% in tests. I would say any score above 70% would be fine as long as you analyze the questions thoroughly about the questions you went wrong and read through those topics thoroughly. I normally scored about 70% in the tests.
3.Regarding the exam, I would say it is not easy and at the same time not tough. It all depends on your preparation as per the syllabus of PMBOK, understanding the concepts and reading through 1 or 2 books like Rita or any other book for additional 20% questions that may fall outside that may not have been covered in PMBOK and practicing test questions a lot.
4.With respect to my examination I had all kinds of risks without proper risk management. Busy office work, had to visit doctor almost about 4 times and spend about half day even though it is a minor one and hurricane Irene. I live in NJ and because of Hurricane my exam center was closed on Aug 29 and hence we have to take PBT exam (Paper Based Exam) for the old version as the exam pattern changed effective Aug 31. I have taken PBT at one of the locations specified by PMI on Sep 16 and got our results in about a week’s time. I think CBT is better compared to PBT in terms of convenience and time.
5.I took all the 4 hours for completing the examination. I felt comfortable with the questions except a few of them around 20 which I found hard to find the best answer among possible 2 choices. You can get all kind of questions. But plan your study such that you don’t go wrong in topics that you have pretty straight answers like problems on Earned Value, communication channels, network diagrams, floats etc.., Human Resource Theories, Quality Tools and Techniques, Quantitative Risk Analysis Tools and Techniques. With good planned preparation you won’t go wrong in any of these questions if you read once and revise them. With respect to situational questions, as every one says you have to understand the concepts and that will further help you in answering all T&T. You don’t need to remember T&T but I could remember the T&T of the 42 processes.
6.After listening to prepcast, going through Rita Mulcahy Book, PMBOK and practicing PMExamSimulator the areas I found that you may still need to consider is see if you can find more information with respect to Closing Process Group. They may have covered well but I felt little confusion with respect to Closing Process group and would recommend reading through some other books or material related to Closing. Expect that there will be about 10 questions that you will see some choices that you may not have read or create little bit confusion with respect to terminology. This I noticed with respect to Benefit Analysis methods and some mgmt plans. I think you can get rid of this by more practice and referring more books depending on your time. In my case I haven’t practiced any other tests except chapter tests of Rita and only some PMP Exam Simulator Tests and that may have lead to the above deficiency.
Conclusion:
With proper plan and preparation as per the PMI guidelines and syllabus, you can be successful in the PMP examination. It is not a competitive examination where in only a predefined number will be short listed. It is an examination which tests your knowledge in various areas of Project Management as per the PMBOK of PMI. Choose the right resources, follow a proper plan and practice well and end result will be to celebrate success with your family, colleagues and PMP family.
Read through my PMP Certification Project if that interest you or stop here if it is too lengthy.
Project: PMP Certification
1.DPC – Achieve PMP professional certification in 4 months within a budget of $1000. You are the sponsor and PM. In some cases the sponsor may be your company as some do pay for the training and certification.
2.DPMP – Prepare a detailed schedule, cost, quality, risk and procurement plans about the resources necessary to start your project.
3.D&MPE – Execute your preparation for achieving PMP certification as per the Project Management Plan.
4.M&CPW – Monitor your progress of preparation as per the schedule and control it with corrective and preventive actions as necessary to be back on track.
5.PICC – Revise any thing as necessary with changes as planned risks or unplanned risks may come into picture based on your current job responsibilities, family responsibilities, nature etc.. You are the sponsor and boss. Issue and approve your change requests.
6.CPP – Achieved PMP Certification. Update Lessons Learned. Celebrate your success with family, friends, colleagues and fellow forum professionals who have guided and provided lot of support in achieving this goal.
7.CR – Read through the PMI website, forums and take the suggestions from colleagues and friends and arrive at the requirements necessary with respect to the PMP examination.
8.DS – Achieve PMP Certification in 4 months and list all the possible constraints and assumptions you may likely to come across in this time.
9.CWBS – Create WBS like obtaining Contact Hours, Application Preparation, Initial Review of the entire material, Detailed Review of the entire material, Testing your knowledge with practice tests and taking the Examination.
10.VS – Monitor your deliverables each week whether your preparation is going on as per the schedule and taking knowledge area wise tests.
11.CS – Measure your performance against the planned schedule and control as necessary depending on the scenario.
12.DA – Listening and Watching PMPrepcast Videos, Reading through Forums, Application Preparation, Reading PMBOK, First Reading 1 or 2 Books of your choice, 2nd Review of Listening and Watching PMPrepCast Videos, Review of PMBOK again, Final Reading of your choice books, Testing your knowledge with PMExamSimulator and other resources of your choice and taking the Final Examination.
13.SA – Schedule the activities you defined using PMStudy Plan or your own plan. You are a PM and I think we should make our own plan.
14.EAR – Outline all the resources required for the various activities defined above. PMPrepcast, PMBOK, Books of your choice etc..
15.EAD – Listening and Watching PM Prepcast Videos – 50 Hours, Application Preparation – 10 Hours etc…
16.DS – Month 1: Listening and Watching to PMPrepcast, Contact Hours and Application Preparation, Month 2: First Reading of PMBOK and books of your choice and taking chapter tests, Month 3 – Detailed Reading of PMBOK and books of your choice, Listening to PMPrepcast and taking chapter tests, Month 4 – Testing your knowledge thoroughly by practicing a lot through PMExamSimulator and other available testing resources and covering your gaps by concentrating on those areas and taking the final examination. Reading through forums is continuous during all the 4 months preparation now and then as LLs and questions posted help a lot.
17.CS – Monitor your scheduled preparation and control as necessary depending on the scenario.
18.EC – PMPrepCast $100, PMBOK through PMI $150, Two Standard Books of your choice about $125, Exam Fee $405, PMExamSimulator $90, Miscellaneous Tests - $30, Celebration with your family and/or friends - $100
19.DB – The Budget allotted for PMP Certification Project is $1000.
20.CC – Control costs as necessary if there are deviations in the above allocations by looking for alternative ways like used books of the required versions instead of new ones etc.. as necessary depending on the scenario.
21.PQ – Plan for good resources of materials by reading through the forums and your likes so that you can take the examination confidently with good quality preparation resources.
22.PQA – There is no quality team. You are the Quality Manager. Check whether you have followed all the processed and achieved good quality results (your test scores) based on the preparation.
23.PQC – Monitor and Control your preparation thoroughly based on the quality checklists from the experienced members in the forum i.e 80%, 85% etc..
24.DHRP – Prepare your self management plan.
25.APT – You are the only one in the team and no need to acquire any team and acquire knowledge through forums.
26.DPT – Develop yourself with the valuable resources, tests and from the forums to achieve your goal.
27.MPT – You are managing yourself to achieve your goal.
28.IS – Identify all the Stakeholders who are affected by this PMP Certification Project i.e Yourself, Family, Some Close friends/families, Colleagues, PMPrepcast etc,..
29.PC – Plan an effective communication plan with all the stakeholders involved in current work location, family and friends. This you are doing as a professional development to enhance your career, stay competitive and do a better job at your extra time by proper planning and your current duties at work and home should go as usual.
30.DI - Distribute the information as necessary to the Stakeholders.
31.MSE – You have to be very effective in your current job as your team expects about you and the same holds good with respect to some of the duties you have with respect to your family. Manage them effectively.
32.RP – Analyze and report yourself about your performance through each chapter tests as well as some comprehensive full length tests.
33.PRM – Plan how you are going to handle risks that come along during the preparation.
34.IR – The possible risks can be related to work, family emergencies and natural calamities. In my case I had all the 3 kinds of risks.
35.PQltyRA – Prioritize the identified risks above
36.PQtRA – Quantify the risks so as to look into the critical ones.
37.PRR – Plan the risk responses to identified risks with Contingency plans, workarounds, fallback plans etc..
38.M&CR – Monitor and control risks as and when they occur with the strategies defined in risk response planning.
39.PP – Plan procurements with PMPrepCast, Web Search for deals on books and Practice tests and short list good resources from forums.
40.CP – Negotiate in good faith to get good discount from PMPrepcast and PMP Exam Simulator in this economy.
41.AP – Get the PMPrepcast in the first month and buy the PMP Exam Simulator after this if you are planning to go ahead with completing PMP in about 4 months or buy around 3 months before taking the final examination as it has expiration period of 90 days for the amount paid. You can extend by paying an additional fee..
42.CP – Close Procurements with PMPrepcast and other Vendors, Update LLs with your procurements performance and service and thank them by writing LLs on whatever forums you have used to achieve your goal.
Thanks again to all of you for your valuable advice, suggestions and LLS and wish every one success and happiness in life.
Best regards,
Srinivasa Chekuri
