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Download The PM Podcast PDU Logfile (XLSX) and track each episode you listen to. The better you document your learning activities the more you can give evidence to PMI that you have indeed subscribed and listened to The PM Podcast during an audit.

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You can use the logfile to record any free PMP PDU learning you have undertaken from our podcasts, as well as any paid programs or podcasts you used as part of your professional development. As it's an Excel spreadsheet, you can edit and amend the file to suit your needs, keeping in mind that it is your primary evidence log for podcast learning.

And for all the details about this, please visit our PDU tutorial and learn How to Earn 60 Free PDUs.

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Bruce Harpham, PMP

If you are a regular listener to The PM Podcast then you heard me say on many occasions that projects are the mechanism by which companies turn their vision and strategy into a reality. And it is us -- the project managers -- who are asked to bring these projects to a successful completion so that the business needs are met.

This means that we project managers need a great deal of business acumen and business awareness. But many of us are accidental project managers, who at some point in our career found ourselves to be quite shockingly thrust into the position of a project leader. We were taken by surprise back when that happened and now they suddenly tell us that we also need all this awareness?

Well, fear not because Bruce Harpham (https://ca.linkedin.com/in/bruceharpham and http://projectmanagementhacks.com) is here to tell you how to grow your business know-how as a project manager. In this interview we review what foundational skills you need, how to access internal business knowledge from your organization and how to look for information and trends in the broader environment outside the four walls of your company.

Our goal is to help you grow the situational awareness that you need day after day on your projects by adding business awareness.

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Bruce Harpham, PMP

Does your project rely on virtual teams? If yes, then it means that working remotely is the norm for your project team members.

Are they doing their work effectively and efficiently? And even if you answered yes, there is always room for improvement, right? Good, because how to make remote work productive is our topic today.

Our interview guest is Bruce Harpham (https://ca.linkedin.com/in/bruceharpham and http://projectmanagementhacks.com) who has written about remote workers and how to increase all our effectiveness. He argues that working virtually is simply the reality on many projects and project teams these days.

And so in order to help us improve remote work he recommends the following four steps:

• Evaluate your current tools
• Review communication preferences and strengths
• Analyze the project’s requirements
• Adjust your communication practices

We’ll go through each of these in detail with lots of examples from his own experience.

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This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast. PDU for PMP::

Lindsay Scott

If you are working in a PMO then we have something good for you today.

Lindsay Scott (https://uk.linkedin.com/in/projectsmanagementrecruitment) from Arras People is back to talk us through the PMO Benchmark Report 2016. Yes... last week we looked at the overall PM Benchmark Report and right now it’s all about PMOs.

We are going to review who PMO practitioners are, who they work for, what their professional development looks like, how PMOs are set up, what functions they provide, where in the organization they are located from a reporting perspective, we’ll hear some PMO thoughts and challenges, and finally, we are going to be talking about www.pmoflashmob.org.

To download your PDF copy of this report, please visit the Arras People website and Request the PMO Benchmark Report 2016. You are also going to be invited to fill in the survey for the next report.

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Lindsay Scott

For over a decade now, Arras people has been publishing their yearly project management benchmark report and so I’ve invited Lindsay Scott (https://uk.linkedin.com/in/projectsmanagementrecruitment) to introduce it to us to this latest version.

Lindsay says about the report, that even after all this time of doing the research and seeing the changes over the years, it is hard not to be drawn to the fact that project management is still an exciting and growing field. The fact that projects are still failing suggests that even with all the effort and time expended we are still searching for that magic bullet which will ensure we deliver.

Of course, the report doesn’t give us this magic bullet, but it provides an interesting insight into what you and I are doing day after day.

There are two options for you to get a copy of this report:

• First, download your copy right here...
• But your second option, which is actually the better one, is to visit the Arras People website and Request the Project Managment Benchmark Report 2016. Because in that way you are also going to be invited to fill in the survey for the next report.

Project Management Benchmark Report 2016

Click here to download the Project Managment Benchmark Report 2016...

Download your copy of the report simply by clicking on the link above.

If, however, you want to be invited to take the survey for next year's report then please Request the Project Managment Benchmark Report 2016 directly from the Arras People website.

You'll be asked to provide your basic information and will be contacted when the survey for the next report is sent out. It's a great way to give back to our community.

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Joseph Flahiff, PMP, PMI-ACP

Decision making in project management can be hard. That is of course especially true if your decision making process is such that every decision you have to make must be passed up the command chain in your organization until finally someone up there has the time to review your input and make that project decision.

But what if there were an easier way for project management decision making?

There is. It is called the Proximal Decision Making Model and I’m welcoming back Joseph Flahiff (www.whitewaterprojects.com -- www.linkedin.com/in/josephflahiff) to discuss it with us.

We begin with a definition, look at what’s wrong with today’s decision making process, offer a way to make decisions simply by flipping a coin and then look at the proximal model in detail with lots of examples, tips and tricks. All with the goal that you can improve your project management decision making process.

This interview is in part based on Josephs's article titled "The best approach to leveraging change".

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This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast:

Niraj Kumar, PMP

Is PMP certification worth it? According to Niraj Kumar (www.leadproje.com -- http://www.linkedin.com/in/thenirajkumar) the answer is an emphatic yes!

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.

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Joseph Flahiff, PMP, PMI-ACP

Have you heard of supportive leadership? I certainly had not. I knew what servant leadership was, but the concept of supportive leadership was a definite unknown.

But that changed when Joseph Flahiff (www.whitewaterprojects.com -- www.linkedin.com/in/josephflahiff) got in touch with me and suggested this interview. I was intrigued.

The good news is that Joseph is a prolific writer who has a number of articles on the topic. He reviews the concept from various angles and he also has a number of great examples of how he works with his customers to implement supportive leadership in their organizations and how he uses the concept as a project leader himself. In this edition of our leadership podcasts series you’ll learn how to incorporate all of this as part of your own project leadership almost right away.

And of course we will also touch upon the main difference between supportive leadership and servant leadership. You’ll be just as surprised as I was.

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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?

We have the answer for you in this interview with Jim Coughenour (https://www.linkedin.com/in/coughenourjim).

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.

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Niraj Kumar, PMP

Leadership in project management is an important topic these days. And if you are like most project managers then you may have fallen into project management a bit by accident. And then, after you have successfully delivered a few projects, suddenly everyone tells you that you must improve your project management leadership skills.

Effective project management, they say, depends a lot on your project leadership, and we have many leadership podcasts in the archives to help you do that.

But today we are tuning in to another expert in the field. Once you realise that you have to transform into a project leader then leadership training will be part of your ongoing professional development, and that is where our guest can help.

Niraj Kumar (www.leadproje.com -- http://www.linkedin.com/in/thenirajkumar) is a leadership expert and proponent of self-growth through continuous learning. Together we explore his view on leadership, how these skills help you as a project manager, how they help you when dealing with senior executives. We talk about the power of project leadership and as always we include a lot of tips on how you yourself can improve how you approach project management and leadership starting today.

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This episode is sponsored by the PMP Exam Simulator:

Dr. Julie DeSot, PMP

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.

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Fernando Remolina, PMP

Shipyards and dockyards are the places where ships are repaired and built. Here we are talking about yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other types of cargo or passenger ships. And of course, in order to stay on time, on budget and on scope, a shipyard project manager oversees the project.

Fernando Remolina González (https://www.linkedin.com/in/remolinaf) has been working in ship repair and shipbuilding project management for about a decade. He is one of the few voices that write and speak about their experience in managing projects on ships.

It's a fascinating and centuries old industry that requires the project manager to have lots of technical experience. Beyond that shipyard project management follows a pretty standard approach. You initiate, plan, execute, monitor & control, and then you close the project. But as in any other industry, it’s what you do that makes all the difference.

This interview is based on Fernando's article titled "Shipyards: Fast and Complex Projects" [Update: the website is no longer available, so we removed the link].

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This episode is sponsored by the PMP Exam Simulator:

Fernando Remolina, PMP

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a powerful project management planning and controlling tool. It is the backbone to planning and managing scope on any project and - as you will hear in our interview - every ship repair project must have it.

Fernando Remolina González (https://www.linkedin.com/in/remolinaf) is a project management professional and works for the Curacao Drydock Company in ship repair, engineering and ship conversion. In his many years of working in shipyard project management he realized that managing the scope is both central and vital and that the WBS is the tool to use. And his successful projects are the proof.

So he set out to help others in his industry and wrote the article WBS for Ship Repair Projects. But here is the good news. First of all his article offers a fascinating look at shipbuilding project management and second, his review of how to apply and use a WBS can easily be applied to many other types of projects.

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This is a brief interview with Rich Maltzman who is writing a new book together with his co-author Loredana Abramo. The book is tentatively titled "Bridging the PM Competency Gap" and will be out toward the end of 2016.

The reason for such a short interview? Rich has a favor to ask and would like you to fill in a quick survey:

Please click here and take the survey...

It should take you no more than 5 minutes to complete.

Rich will of course be back later in the year to present their findings and the book.