Part III - Style and Substance

I stumbled across an online PMP resource, which stated, “PMP  exam answers lie, in framing the question in one of the cells on the matrix chart of pg 43. of the PMBOK”.

I filed that concept away, in the back of my mind, and made a tactical switch in working through the simulated exams on-line. In answering these tests, I was working to beat the clock more, than, really reading the question and understanding it thoroughly. I began  to search out book based simulation exams. I needed to free myself from the constraint of time and instead focus more on the style and substance of the question; what was the question really asking ? what was it not asking ? reading the question from the end first, learning to eliminate the fluff. I slowly began to get good at zeroing  in on a question’s main idea.  

I realized, long and wordy questions were meant to confuse and throw you off. I learned to spot one or two key words in a question that gave it all away.  I began to analyze answers and realized in many cases the shortest answer was usually the correct one.

I took my time in reading the question, could I frame it into the matrix chart ? Reading the ITTO thoroughly,  I began to match  key ideas together: if a question had something on verify scope,  an answer with customer devlierables, was most surely the right one.

By knowing for sure, what the answer was not, by method of elimination, I rang the bell on the right answer.  My battle with the PMP fire-breathing dragon, was slowly but surely turning into a rout.  The tide was turning, I was ready to storm the lava filled moat castle again, in full battle regalia. Fiona would be rescued this time !

My 2nd attempt at the PMP certification was in June of 2012.  By the 50th question, I was certain I was going to pass.  With my intense preparation and focus, I moved through the questions faster. I was more familiar with the question wording, the nuances, subtleties and other distractions meant to throw you off.
I was able to quickly and easily, scythe through the fluff and zero in on the essence of what was being asked. I finished in 3 hours.

The feeling of victory was well deserved. I have learned so much from the study material and consider the experience life-changing in many ways. I understand now, I need to have a plan for everything I do. Communicating my project plan to others on the team, and getting acceptance is PMP 101. Nothing proceeds smoothly without this first step, in fact you are doomed to failure if you don’t.

Risk Management is probably the most important concept,  which applies to a wide variety of situations.
Understanding Risk, developing a fallback plan and putting in contingencies is crucial, in ensuring project success.

This completes the series from Gerry, we thank him for sharing his experiences through our blog and hope you have enjoyed reading them.

Analysis

I finally decompressed over the weekend, and began to think about what went wrong. Coming off preparations for the first exam, I felt like Shrek, in a battle with this big PMP fire-breathing dragon, it was ugly, my ego was terribly bruised. I had come apart under stress - layer by layer.  I had no clue what to focus on, there was a firehose of information dousing me constantly, I was flailing at not knowing where I needed to spend time. I needed a better plan, a project plan !

I started to re-collect some questions I had guessed on. I began to make mental notes on where I fell apart.

• Where are Assumptions and Constraints usually specified?
• What was a Hammock activity?
• Difference between Precision and Accuracy?
• Risk Register items.
• Why is managing Risk so important?
• Why is a Stakeholder register so important?
• Procurements and Contracts.
• ITTO’s.

Even though I had read the PMBOK a couple of times, I had focused more on reading Rita M.

I realized I had completely missed many key definitions - (low hanging fruit) in the appendix of the PMBOK. My speed reading approach needed to change.

I scoured the internet for PMP discussions sites,  FREE simulation test exams (there are plenty), books in the library, I was becoming a PMP junkie, devouring anything and everything in preparing for the exam.

I decided to attack the low-hanging fruit. I read through the PMBOK again, this time methodically. I memorized as many definitions as I could.

There are matrix charts of the ITTO’s all over the internet, I downloaded, and color-coded key areas, making careful notes of commonalities in Inputs, T&T, and Outputs. I pinned up ITTO charts in various rooms of my house, formed crazy imagery of  ITTO concepts (Define Activities: T&T: Decomposition, Rolling Wave Planning, Templates, Expert Judgement translated to this visual:
I am Surfing a wave, Decomposing a brick Temple, using Expert Judgement).
Visual Imagery helped me with many key areas,  I did not have to recollect words, just an image, key concepts and ideas were now sticking without an effort.

I delved more deeply into the section on Risk, Procurement, and Quality. I re-read Rita on these specific sections.  

A virtual study group I had joined helped me tremendously, as we exchanged ideas, Q&A  and held lively email discussions on key areas. I became a mentor to one of the junior participants, this helped me review more and made sure I was on top of my material. We both tested each other with regular exchanges of trick questions, I was beginning to have fun with this.

Over the next month we will be posting the experience of PMP candidate Gerry Castellino as he relates his own experience of preparing for the PMI PMP® examination. The story is organised into three parts, the first is shown below:

April 30th was the date I had scheduled for my "first" PMP exam. I walked into the exam room, with plenty of confidence, having prepared diligently for the last 2 months,  I was relatively laidback, thinking this was in the bag !  I was on my way to being PMP certified.  I was done with studying ...  so I thought.

I did not drive to the testing center the day before, or do some of the other items suggested on websites I had read, prior to the test.  My GPS would hopefully get me there without issues. I arrived a little early at the test center, and spent the last 15 minutes in my car reviewing whatever I could: ITTO's, definitions, formulae, matrix chart on page 43 ...
I felt good, ready to go, PMP exam - bring it on!

My preparation was fairly decent – so I thought – I had read the PMPBOK guide thoroughly – once. I had gone through Rita a couple of times, worked out all the questions, scored decently on the practice exams (about 73% average). I was confident, I was going to get through this exam.  I had put in my time, there was no way I was going to fail.

I stumbled on the first few questions, but then found my way back, my confidence level was high, I was in good shape. I was going to pass. I clicked submit, and waited interminably for the result, then I saw it ‘DID NOT PASS’. I was stunned, sat and stared at the screen, it seemed, for an eternity.

NO! NO! NO! this is a mistake my brain screamed, this is a cruel joke, it will change to ‘PASS’ soon enough, I waited ....

On the drive back home, every billboard I passed, seemed to have the image of ‘DID NOT PASS’ on it.

My wife called me on the drive home, I could hear a scream through her silence...  I dreaded having to actually hear my kids scream when I told them the news. I had to sacrifice play time, bike rides to devote to PMP study, they were not happy to have their daddy be so close, and yet so far away.

Through the intense preparation I was going through in days before the test, my brain seemed to be on an overdose of caffeine, I was very wired mentally and coming down to a relaxed state took some time. It was a Friday, I was supposed to be celebrating this occasion, with my cocky personality, I had even told a few friends I would be toasting this moment with them over a few drinks and a certificate on a plaque !

Look out for part 2 of the story.

Less than 100 days to go – those are the words which elicit a mixture of feelings to the business community. It will certainly increase the footfall within the City and bring with it an increase in expenditure so many businesses are delighted. Others are conversely worried how the once in a lifetime event that is the Olympics will impact their business as staff try and get to work, and home again!

 A number of businesses that I work with have significantly reduced the level of work they are doing in London over the Olympic period, others have chosen to reassign teams to other offices around the country to minimise disruption on their business operation. It is not all doom and gloom though – there are great opportunities to be shared, experiences to be enjoyed and memories to be ultimately treasured. Whilst it has been viewed as a London event by many, the whole country will undoubtedly reflect on the Olympic event once the final ceremonies have been completed.

 What story does the history of other Games show? Research from BT on the 2010 Vancouver Games suggested sales for many businesses that prepared to take advantage of the opportunity increased by 10 – 25%; this continued on after the events. Interestingly only 27% of those surveyed attributed this to overseas visitors, this being significant since more of the increase was home grown and resulted in on-going benefit. Another important statistic through was that 30% of businesses felt they could have gained more benefit if they had prepared better.

 Preparation is key – prepare to be flexible, prepare to scale your business to meet demand, prepare to ensure your service levels do not suffer and prepare to create a beneficial legacy for your business.

 My blog will focus on the business impact in the immediate vicinity of the games, inside the games if I am able to arrange access (if you can help please do email since my efforts so far have not been fruitful), and also further afield. I will be looking at how businesses are preparing over the last 100 days and I am keen to capture the views of business owners and managers. As a business owner myself, I am aware of some of the challenges and opportunities that have been presented over the past few years – the coming few months will crystalize these for many.

 If you would be happy to share your thoughts and plans, please email them to me or I would be happy to come along to your business if it suits better. I will also be keeping a photographic journal which will support this blog and hope you will enjoy reading it before, during and after the Games. All submissions will be acknowledged and I hope to be able to capture a montage of the business perspectives of the Olympics.

This blog also appears on thesportsfeed.com

It has been a little while since writing my last blog since it has been a busy time here at PCMi. You may well notice a subtle change to the website with our core products being more accessible from the main menu and the reorganising of some of the support resources now found in the side menu bar,

The good news is that we have added new products to our portfolio and are now a Registered Education Provider (REP) with the Project Management Institute (PMI) so this will enable us to expand our portfolio of Project Management products. We are also leading the roll out of international project management capability developments with a number of organisations so these are exciting times.

We have also added to our Monitoring and Evaluation provision so again, if this is an area of interest please take a look and see how we can help.

Over the years I have noticed that the onset of Spring often breathes new life into the market and we wait to see how the next few quarters of 2012 develop. We want to continue to encourage the use of our groups feature which is provided without charge for registered users to build their own topic focused communities or study groups - if you have not tried it then give it a go.

As always, if you have any suggestions from improvement I am always happy to receive them. I do hope that the coming few months will prove to be successful for you.

We have been busy this week adding new site features and linking up to an excellent resource for aspiring PMP® candidates.

The new site features include our social networking platform which is designed to enable interaction and development through the use of group working. This will both support our existing development programmes and will open up many other areas for exploration as well, feel free to try it out!

We are also investing heavily in supplying support to indviduals seeking to become project managers or those who are working as project managers already but wish to increase their skills, capability and qualifications. Since we are able to advise and provide support across all of the main project managment qualifications, our approach builds upon the solid foundations we have developed over the past years.

The latest project management resource we have added to our portfolio is helping aspiring PMP® candidates and supporting those who already have the qualification to earn the required PDUs. More details on our offerings in these areas will be provided shortly but in the meantime, why not visit one of the following:

Aspiring PMP® candidates - http://pmp.groupsites.com

PMP® credential holders - PCMi groups

More and more of our clients are moving towards a blended learning or full e-learning approach. There are numerous articles on the worldwide web which focus on the benefits and disadvantages of such learning approach however the biggest challenge is to ensure that the experiential elements of development are not lost, something which can be more easily created in an instructor led environment.

PCMi has embraced the new technologies that are available for some time now and uses a range of approaches to meet client and learner needs but let's hear your thoughts - what type of learning do you prefer and why?

We are pleased to introduce one of our new features for 2012 - a blog for our website.

Keep up to date with the latest news and link to our social media portals on facebook and twitter.

We welcome ideas and feedback from you. Feel free to send us an email or tweet us.