As a project management trainer, I have always focused not only on teaching my students how to pass their exams but also on how to become better at what they are doing. Yes, of course, I want you to pass your exam and become certified but I always strived to ensure that what I teach helps you to better lead your projects and deliver them successfully for your stakeholders.
And that is why I think the changes that the Project Management Institute (PMI)® is making to the Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam on July 1st, 2020 is a good change, even though they could have managed the roll-out a bit better.
With this update, PMI® is moving away from the five current and somewhat ‘technical’ domains and shifts the focus of the exam to test a candidate’s knowledge of, and experience in the skills necessary to actually lead and manage a project. Specifically, the three new domains are People, Process, and Business Environment.
But why am I telling you all of this when we have a guest for you who is much more qualified than I am: Sierra Hampton-Simmons (LinkedIn Profile). Sierra has nearly two decades of experience as an expert in Certification Management and joined PMI in late 2013. Currently, she serves as the Portfolio Leader/Head of Certification Products. This means that she is responsible for the entire portfolio of Certification Products including the PMP® exam. So she’s the perfect person to discuss both the background and nature of the changes. You’ll even get to hear that PMI is making changes to the type and style of questions a candidate will see during the exam itself.
Project Management Professional (PMP)® Training on your mobile device:
Simona Fallavollita and Cornelius Fichtner
The exam for the Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification is driven by current practices in the profession. Because project management is evolving, so is the PMP exam. As a result of the release of the A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition in September 2017, the PMP exam will change on 26 March 2018. This is to ensure that exam content is consistent with the guide.
This interview with Simona Fallavollita (LinkedIn Profile) was recorded at the magnificient Project Management Institute (PMI)® Global Conference 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. We discuss the how, what, why and when of the changes that are coming to the PMP exam.
Although the PMP is not a test of the PMBOK® Guide, it is one of the primary references for the exam. This means that students preparing to take the exam after the change can expect to see lexicon changes and terminology used within the exam as well as harmonization of process groups, tools, and techniques. Students planning to take the exam after the change are advised to use PMP Training materials that are updated to the new guide.
For your Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam on your phone with The PM PrepCast:
Margaret Meloni, MBA, PMP
Those of you who have, will or are preparing for your PMP exam, inevitably come across the term “Interpersonal Skills”. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) mentions them, your prep books talk about them, and you find me talking about them in my PMP exam prep training lessons as well.
Leadership, team building, motivation, negotiation or trust building are some of the terms you’ll find. But there is another dimension to these soft skills that we project managers need. And that is “Emotional Intelligence”.
Margaret Meloni (www.margaretmeloni.com) has been coaching and training on the “softer side” of project management for a long time and so I’m very happy to welcome her as our expert today.
For your Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam get PMP Training on your phone from The PM PrepCast:
Oliver F. Lehmann, MSc., PMP
The one thing I really like about project management is how unpredictable my days can sometimes be. I come to the office in the morning with a clear plan of what we are going to do today, and then something happens.
Maybe something breaks, a critical resource is unexpectedly not available today, or -- even more normal -- the customer wants a change and he wants it now. I love this challenge, because as a project manager I now have to re-evaluate the situation and change my plans accordingly. That is situational project management.
However, there's more to situational project management than just responding with a knee-jerk reaction. These times demand situational awareness, skill and finesse from us project managers.
Most of this interview is on technical aspects, but a little over 15 minutes are on leadership topics. That is why you can claim 0.50 'technical' and 0.25 'leadership' PDUs.
Every project that you and I have ever and will ever manage depends on people’s skills.
The sponsor relies on you as the project manager to successfully lead the team, you rely on the team to have what it takes to create all the deliverables at the required quality, and the end user -- the recipient of what you and the team deliver -- must have the skills to use the product you finally give them.
But what if the skills don’t match up to the tasks at hand? What if a team member is lacking a skill? What if the technology is so new and different that your users will have a hard time with it? The answer is of course coaching, mentoring and training.
And there is no one better than Susanne Madsen (www.susannemadsen.com -- www.linkedin.com/in/susanne-madsen-1134312) who coaches and mentors project managers into project leaders to come on the program and help us understand these three similar yet different activities.
PDU Tip
This interview is 42:34 minutes long. This means that you can "legally" only claim 0.50 PDUs for listening to it, because in order to claim 0.75 PDUs the interview must be 45 minutes long. However... if you first listen to the interview and then also read the following article from Susanne about coaching and project management, then you can go ahead and claim 0.75 PDUs!
He not only says that the PMP salary you can expect is greater on average, but he also found many other PMP certification benefits. Having a shared vocabulary and enjoying a completely different and often steep career path are just two of them.
So if you are either already PMP certified or thinking about your own PMP Exam Prep and and wondering about the value of PMP certification, then this interview is definitely for you. Niraj and I explore the benefits of being or becoming a PMP from various aspects.
This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for PMP Exam Prep:
Jim Coughenour, PMP
Are you thinking about how to get PMP certified and wondering whether you should take a PMP boot camp, a PMP class, hire a PMP trainer, or whether to achieve this certification simply through PMP self-study?
Jim is an experienced PMP Trainer and he and I look at the benefits, disadvantages, cost and other factors that you should consider before deciding which way you want to go.
But even if you have already decided that maybe a PMP bootcamp is for you, then I recommend that you should still listen to our discussion because I also ask him to share with us his tips on what you should and should not be including as part of your PMP preparation.
If you are preparing for your PMP Exam then you know that one of the most important activities is to take many PMP sample exams and answer as many PMP sample questions as you can.
But as a general rule, it is not always easy to identify the correct PMP exam answers.
Those who pass the PMP exam often report back that PMP answers are ambiguous, sometimes more than one looks right and sometimes you may even have to choose the one that is least wrong. So what are you to do?
One solution is that you can work with a PMP Trainer who guides you and works with you on those pesky questions. And this is of course exactly why I have invited Dr. Julie DeSot (https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliedesot) for an interview. As a PMP coach she has helped many people successfully prepare for their PMP exam and get to the bottom of those questions.
This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for The PMP® Exam:
David M. Kornaros, PMP, CSM
Today you will be treated to another PMP exam success story. I proudly present to you David Kornaros (https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidkornaros) who is one of my successful PMP students. He has used The PM PrepCast, which is my PMP training videocast and also The PM Exam Simulator in his preparation.
As always with these interviews, they are intended for those among you who are currently preparing for their PMP Exam because the in-depth knowledge that I can take from someone like David who has passed their PMP exam will help you understand how to prepare for PMP.
This PMP exam lessons learned interview reviews David’s journey from start to finish, including many tips and tricks that he picked up along the way.
This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for The PMP® Exam:
Mark Chropufka, MBA, PMP
This is another episode in which I am proudly introducing you to one of my successful students who was able to pass the PMP. Hi name is Mark Chropufka (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-chropufka-pmp-mba-a3a8196) and he is a student of my PMP PrepCast.
I love doing these kinds of interviews because of the in-depth knowledge that I can take from someone like Mark who has passed their PMP exam and bring it to those who are still studying for their exam. And of course, I also feel very satisfied that it was my exam preparation course that showed Mark how to prepare for PMP.
In this PMP lessons learned interview you are going to hear him talk about his journey to becoming PMP certified from start to finish.
Are you studying for your PMP Exam, and did you know that the exam is changing soon? And maybe you are wondering about one of the following questions:
Why is the PMP exam changing in 2016?
Wait... wasn't it supposed to change in 2015?!
So when exactly is the PMP exam changing?
What exactly is changing with the PMP exam?
Do I have to study new topics?
Is there a new PMBOK® Guide?
Are my study materials still OK after the PMP exam changes?
We have the answers to these and many more questions about the upcoming changes.
This interview with Simona Fallavollita (Program Manager, PMI) was recorded at the 2015 Global Congress in Orlando, Florida. We review the upcoming PMP exam changes, how this affects training companies, what PMP students can do to prepare for this change, and look at some of the detailed changes that are coming to the PMP exam early next year.
Spoiler alert: The PMP exam changes were originally scheduled to go into effect in 2015 but were later moved to early 2016 for scheduling reasons, and no there is NO new PMBOK Guide.
This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for The PMP® Exam:
Bryan Bowers, MBA, PMP
This is another episode in which I am proudly introducing you to one of my successful students who was able to pass the PMP. His name is Bryan Bowers (https://www.linkedin.com/in/bowersbryan) and he is a student of the PMP PrepCast.
There are two reasons that make me especially proud of helping him pass. First of all, Bryan has taken over a dozen certification exams, and second he says that “this was by and far the most brutal exam I have ever taken”. And so I feel very satisfied that it was my exam preparation course that showed Bryan how to prepare for PMP.
In this PMP lessons learned interview you are going to hear him talk about his journey to becoming PMP certified from start to finish.
This is a special episode of The PM PrepCast for the launch of our new PMP Exam Coaching program.
This is the final interview in our series where we focus on PMP exam coaching and it is also the third interview where a PMP exam student talks about her personal journey and experience in using a PMP exam tutor.
In this interview you will hear the story of Tara Guidi, PMP. Tara attended a condensed PMP training class and then unfortunately failed her PMP exam. Once she realized that the condensed approach wasn't for her she chose to try PMP coaching where a professional PMP coach works directly with her and a personalized training schedule.
This is a special episode of The PM PrepCast for the launch of our new PMP Exam Coaching program.
This is the second of three interviews in this series, in which we focus on the coaching student. It's a lessons learned interview from the perspective of the PMP exam student who used a coach so that we can learn how a PMP Tutor helps his students to achieve success.
In this interview we welcome Derek Satz, PMP and we will be hearing about his trials and tribulations in preparing for this exam. One very notable fact about Derek is this: Derek has 11 certifications to his name and he says that the PMP certification was the most difficult one to achieve.
I asked him why he thinks that the PMP exam is so much more difficult and I read you his answer during the introduction of the interview. It's a long introduction, but worth hearing.
This is a special episode of The PM PrepCast for the launch of our new PMP Exam Coaching program.
In the first two interviews about PMP Exam Coaching, we heard from a PMP Tutor about his work and how he helps students as they are prepping for their PMP exam. Now we want to switch the focus to the students. This is the first of three interviews with PMP exam students who decided to use a coach during their exam preparation.
First off we meet Cathy Vasile, PMP. She had a hard time translating her initial training into PMP exam success. So she decided to work with a PMP coach and achieved success.
We learn about her journey from start to finish, talk about how the coach personalized the training for her needs, and why she feels that this was money well spent.
This is a special episode of The PM PrepCast for the launch of our new PMP Exam Coaching program.
Yes -- you read that right. We are going to tackle the issue of failing the PMP exam and I’m fully aware that you may not want to hear this. After all, if you are a PMP candidate then you are probably preparing for this exam like a madman or crazywoman so that you PASS the exam. And so it’s only natural that you are pushing the thought of failure away.
But… let’s look at this from a different angle: From the angle of lessons learned and how to proactively avoid failure.
My interview guest Dan Ryan has coached hundreds of students for the PMP exam. Many of them failed the exam before they came to him for help. He picked them up, motivated them, pointed them in the right direction and stood by their side on the road to PMP exam success.
That is what a coach does and if you want to know more about what type of coaching we offer, please visit www.pm-prepcast.com/coaching for all the details.
So listen to this interview not with fear about failing your PMP exam. But instead listen to it with the attitude of a project manager who has access to information from previous, similar projects and who uses information as lessons learned to make sure that your own project -- your own PMP exam -- does not fail.
This is a special episode of The PM PrepCast for the launch of our new PMP Exam Coaching program.
In this interview I introduce you to Dan Ryan, MBA, PMP. Dan is not only a certified PMP, he is also a PMP exam coach. As a PMP exam coach he works with PMP students from around the world to achieve the goal of passing the PMP exam. And he has done that hundreds of times. He successfully helped, motivated and guided his students to become PMP certified.
And he can do that for you as well because we decided that now is the right time for us to start offering personalized PMP exam coaching to you. To learn more about what type of coaching we offer, please visit www.pm-prepcast.com/coaching. That will give you all the details and introduce you to our coaches.
And please do yourself a favor and listen to this interview even if you think that you don’t need a personal coach for the PMP exam, because the 7 questions that Dan discusses are important. Everyone worries about them and Dan has the answers for you.
This is a quick announcement to let you know that we are doing something different in the coming 5 days: There are 5 interviews coming your way. They are all about PMP Exam Coaching.
If you have listened to The PM Podcast for a while, then you know that the podcast here is a labor of love and my way of giving back to the project management community. My bills, my rent and my food on the other hand are all paid for by my recorded PMP exam preparation courses.
And the word “recorded” is key here because we have decided that now is the time for our company to start offering live, virtual PMP exam coaching where a live coach works one-on-one with a student to propel him or her to the PMP exam. You can find the details about this new coaching program at http://www.pmprepcast.com/coaching.
And to mark the launch of our new coaching program we are releasing 5 interviews that look at exam coaching here on the podcast. But don’t worry… these 5 interviews are not just pure infomercials for our new coaching offer. Yes, the interviews are meant to promote the program, but each of these 5 interviews is primarily focused at helping PMP exam students on their journey to the exam.
In these interviews we look at the 7 most urgent questions that every PMP exam student asks and how a coach in a would answer them. We discuss how you can pick yourself up after a failed PMP exam and how a coach can assist you here. And I also interviewed 3 students who have worked with a PMP exam coach in the past. We learn about their journey, their exam troubles and how their coach helped them get across the finish line.
In each interview, you will find tips and tricks and also recommendations for those who are currently preparing for their PMP exam.
This means that if you are currently preparing for the PMP exam (even if you know that you don’t want to use a coach) listen to these interviews to learn about problem areas that other students have faced and how they have been overcome.
And if you are not preparing for the PMP then please recommend these 5 interviews to any colleagues you may have who are currently studying for their PMP certification.
This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for The PMP Exam:
Did you know that The PM Podcast started out as (and still is) a precious hobby of mine and that I took what I learned about podcasting from this show here and created a video podcast that helps you prepare for the PMP Exam?
Of course you do! Because I talk about it all the time.
And so today we are doing a bit of a crossover between those two podcasts with this interview that features Jonathan Hebert (linkedin.com/pub/jonathan-hebert-pmp/1/247/71/en). Jonathan is not only a PMP exam student of mine, he was also the senior project manager of updating my PMP prep podcast to the most recent version.
And in this “lessons learned” interview you are going to hear him talk about his journey to becoming PMP certified from start to finish.
In this episode of The PM Podcast we bring you a brand new interview that I did with Kevin Reilly, PMP for our sister podcast The PM PrepCast. Kevin and I discuss how he prepared and studied for the PMP Exam. We learn about his experience of becoming a PMP as well as his study plan and approach. At the end Kevin also shares his inspiring closing remarks with us.
In this episode of The PM Podcast we bring you a brand new interview that I did with Kevin Reilly, PMP for our sister podcast The PM PrepCast. Kevin and I discuss how he prepared and studied for the PMP Exam. We learn about his experience of becoming a PMP as well as his study plan and approach. At the end Kevin also shares his inspiring closing remarks with us.