Skip to main content

Listen to The PM Podcast

Listen to any of our free interviews in your browser. Select the interview below, then press play.

Episode 236: How to Become PMI-ACP® Certified even after a Disappointing Class (Free)

Play Now:

This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP® Exam:
agileprepcast-468x60-1

felix rodgersA little over a year ago I decided that I wanted to take a preparation course for the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® Exam. I looked around and found a company that held a course in San Diego, which is about an hour away. I signed up and was sorely disappointed by the low quality training materials the class used. The only two good things about the class were the teacher who managed to keep it interesting despite the not so well designed curriculum and that I made a few new friends.

(Note: The company that provided this training to us took the negative feedback they received seriously and have updated & improved the training in the meantime.)

About a month ago one of these friends wrote and said that he had just passed his PMI-ACP exam. His name is Felix Rodgers, PMI-ACP (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/felix-rodgers/48/579/b) and I jumped at the opportunity to interview him about how he went from that classroom experience to actually passing the exam.

And this is what I liked about his experience: We often hear from certified project managers that they had also taken disappointing classes but still managed to pass their exam. But so far I have never had a chance to speak to someone in that situation. Turns out that for Felix it was hard work and lots of studying.

As you know, the rules of all PMI exams are such that we are not allowed to discuss specific questions from the exam. But we can discuss his overall experience, general thoughts on the process and his recommendations to you. So you can look forward to an experience and tip filled interview on how to prepare for and pass your PMI-ACP Exam.

Continue reading

  • Last updated on .

Episode 235: Agile and Project Portfolio Management - Part 2 (Free)

Play Now:

This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP® Exam:
The Agile PrepCast

Episode 235: Agile and Project Portfolio Management - Part 2 (Free)

This is part 2 of our interview with David Blumhorst (http://www.linkedin.com/in/dblumhorst/) in which we discuss that combining Agile and Project Portfolio Managment is not really that much different than if you used traditional project management approaches.

In part 1 we talked about agile project portfolio management. We discussed the four exceptions you need to be aware of when integrating agile project management with PPM and then we looked at how you need to adjust your PPM framework to include include 5 standard metrics for Agile. They were Scheduled Finish Date and Percent Complete.

Here in part 2 we will move on to the other 3 metrics and then David and I open up the white paper from Daptiv and look at the graphic that clearly shows how straightforward integrating Agile and PPM can be. (A link to download the white paper is on our website. Please grab it from there.)

Continue reading

  • Last updated on .

Episode 234: Agile and Project Portfolio Management - Part 1 (Free)

Play Now:

This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP® Exam:
The Agile PrepCast

Episode 234: Agile and Project Portfolio Management - Part 1 (Free)One of the seemingly larger challenges out there for corporation that use both Agile and Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is integration of what seem to be two very different philosophies. But more than that... you will have to overcome three fallacies about Agile and PPM.

The first fallacy is that people think that agile project management doesn't provide executive visibility, the second that they don’t have reliable “Scheduled Finish Dates” and the third that Agile and traditional practices simply aren’t compatible.

David Blumhorst (http://www.linkedin.com/in/dblumhorst/) begs to differ. He co authored several articles and a white paper on this topic and he outlines a simple and straightforward way to realize the best of both worlds.

This is part 1 of our interview with David. In it we discuss how integrating Agile with into a PPM framework is no different than integrating a more traditional project methodology, but that there are four four exceptions, which we’ll look at in detail. And then we move on to 5 areas of estimation how a PPM framework with standard metrics can be created for Agile. We will talk about the first two, which are Scheduled Finish Date and Percent Complete.

Continue reading

  • Last updated on .

Episode 017: Call for Assistance

Play Now:

Yes... you are not seeing things. This is really a call for your assistance with Episode 017, which was originally published about 6-7 years ago.

In that episode we interview Sabrina Mancini Johnson and every 2-3 months we get a request from a listener if we could please send them the templates mentioned in that episode from way back when.

Unfortunately... we don't have them. But maybe you do?

So if you happen to be a long time listener to the podcast and you still have a copy of those templates from Sabrina, then please send them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and everyones gratitude will be yours!

Episode Transcript

Below are the first few pages of a computer-generated transcript with all its computer-generated quirks.

Cornelius Fichtner (00:00):

Hello everyone. This is Cornelius Fichtner. with a quick call for every body's help back in episode 17 of the project management podcast. Yes, almost six years ago, seven years ago. I believe we did an interview with Sabrina Mancini Johnson. And there we talk about how to turn the search for your next job into a project. And Sabrina for this interview had created templates deliverables and all, and at the time she said, Oh, just tell your listeners to give me a drop me a line, sent me an email and I will send them the templates. So unfortunately I never got those templates. And every two to three months, one listener, a fresh listener writes to me and says, Hey, how can I get these templates from Sabrina? Now I've contacted Sabrina's she doesn't have those templates anymore. And I was just wondering, are there any old time listeners out there who by pure chance still have these templates from episode seventeen? So if you are one of those old time listeners and you still have the templates from episode 17 from Sabrina Mancini Johnson, then why don't you attach them to an email and send them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so that I have a copy, I can upload them to the PM podcast website, and then everybody in the future has access to them. So thank you very much. And of course, until next time.

Above are the first few pages of a computer-generated transcript with all its computer-generated quirks. A human-generated transcript is available to Premium subscribers starting with episode 136.

  • Last updated on .

Project Management for Beginners and Experts

Going beyond Project Management Professional (PMP)®, PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)®, and Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)®

PM PrepCast, Agile PrepCast, PM Exam Simulator, PDU Podcast, PM Podcast are marks of OSP International LLC. PMI, PMBOK, PMP, PgMP, PfMP, CAPM, PMI-SP, PMI-RMP, PMI-ACP, and PMI-PBA are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

Copyright © 2008-2025 OSP International LLC. All Rights Reserved. Our Privacy Notice: http://www.osp-international.com/privacynotice