We are happy to announce, upon partnering with a London-based project management firm, that we launched the future site for Prince2 Flashcards.  Currently, there is just a sign up form, for those who wish to be informed when our product is about to launch.  Additionally, we launched the future site for our PMP Exam Simulator. Again, sign up if you want to be informed when our product is about to launch.  Both the Prince2 and the PMP Exam Simulator sites are project management exam preparation websites that should help us expand our reach in the market.

So, what makes this blog post different from others?  Back in March, we launched our PMP Flashcards site.  This was the first site to use our HueCubed flashcard engine.  We’ve gone through several iterations of the engine and it just gets better and better.

What we’re looking for now are some affiliate partners for the PMP Flashcard website.  Do you like what we have created? Want to make some extra money, along with us?

Sign up as a HueCubed affiliate!  As we launch each of the sites, we’ll make affiliate links and buttons available.  All affiliate accounts will paid by HueCubed.

Disclaimer:  The Critical Path, HueCubed, and all of the mentioned product sites were designed and developed by me and my development team.

Thank you to everyone for your support,

Derek

Graphic from Flickr: Spring Stone

I’m always looking for ways to help others in their quests to be better project managers.  It doesn’t matter if it’s about getting the PMP® certification, getting PDUs, or even finding good tools to make a given task easier.  I field questions from both emails and Twitter.  Today I read an email that was not unlike others I’ve answered directly.  But, I thought others would benefit if I answered publicly.  Here is the content of the email:

I read your article about how the PMP certification is commercialized and an example of a PMP holder hiding behind the credential.  I want to become a good IT Project Manager.  I read the requirements to become a PMP. According to requirements, a person needs 3 years exp before attempting this test. My question is, how can I get exp without a certificate or who would give me a job to get the exp as a project manager and thereby attempt my PMP certification.  Can you please help me set my goals in an orderly fashion so I can ultimately become a good Manager?

Does this sound familiar? It’s kind of like the chicken and the egg.  First, I would like to say the person asking the question made a statement that resonated with me.  I want to become a good IT Project Manager. I really want to help because if they wrote that, they are half way there.  Let’s be clear.  You don’t need to have a PMP to be a good PM. I know very gifted people who do not possess the credential.  I would be a liar if I did not believe the deck is stacked against them.  Companies have bought into the idea that good PMs have PMPs.  But I digress.  Back to the question at hand.

It can be a challenge to become a project manager, if you have no experience.  If you have ever lead a team or managed a task, you have more experience than you give yourself credit for.  PMI will recognize that.  Remember, the PMP is not a test about something you are learning.  The PMP is an exam about what you should already know and do, but categorized within the framework of the PMBOK.  Let’s say you’re a QA Engineer.  I bet you have a lot of experience in the Monitoring & Controlling Process Group and specifically in the Project Quality Management knowledge area.  Document your experience around what you know and do.

In order to qualify to take the PMP exam, you do need to have experience in all 5 Process Groups (Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, and Closing).  Honestly, you could have 99.9% of your experience in one process group and 1 hour in each of the remaining 4.  PMI doesn’t care.  You just need to document that you have experience in all.  If you want to be a good PM, I would recommend you get exposure to each of the progress groups. Fewer things are as bad as a PM who does not empathize with all of the functional areas or have experience in the different phases of the project lifecycle.

On a practical note, I recommend you engage others in other functional areas of your current project(s).  Offer to help them in some way.  Don’t go in with an ulterior motive.  Honestly, help someone and you’ll get the experience you need as a byproduct.  The PMP should be for someone with overall experience. However, I do know managers in specific functional areas who also hold the credential.  I would recommend, if you want to be a good manager, to become educated through practical experiences and not solely through academia.  You can learn just so much from a book.

Did I answer the question?  Is it a good start?

Please post some comments and let me know.

Graphic via motochan.com

If you’re studying for your PMP®, I think you must watch this video.  This guy, Jeff Minder (PMP) of Victory Vets, gets it. As a disclaimer, I am in no way profiting or promoting his service.  I just think he did an awesome job with this video.  While I’ve been working on HueCubed, I’ve realized the importance of memorizing page 43 of the PMBoK.  I don’t think you can memorize the entire PMBoK and expect to pass the PMP Exam.  To be honest, I would hope you wouldn’t.  The exam is a series of scenario based questions.  You are not going to be asked to define a project.  Rather, a lengthy statement will be made and you’ll probably be asked if it is a project, operations work, both, or neither.

But back to the video and memorizing page 43.

My analogy of memorizing page 43 is like a child memorizing his or her ABCs.  When they memorize their ABCs, they can then identify which letters are vowels and which are consonants.  They can then build words to put into sentences.  Sentences go into paragraphs…and so on and so on.  Memorizing the ABCs will not make kids literary geniuses.  Rather, they use the ABCs as building blocks for future learning.

When you’re looking at page 43 of the PMBoK, you’ll see Process Groups, Knowledge Areas, and processes.  You need to memorize these core processes and understand where they fit into the big picture of a project.  In this video, Jeff explains the proper way to read page 43.  Yes, there is correct way to read that page.

From my perspective, the other note to make about this video happens at 6:17.  The PMBoK and testing are written toward a projectized organizational perspective, in comparison to functional, matrixed, or composite.  Remember that!

I think back to when I sat for the PMP exam and remember taking the first few minutes to quickly write down the following formulas.  It was my cheat sheet.  There was enough to think about for the next few hours and worrying if I could remember some key formulas was not one of them.  So, here is a bit of advice.  If you’re preparing[1] to take the PMP exam, MEMORIZE these formulas.  The exam won’t come right out and ask you to identify the correct formula for a variance of an activity. Rather, it will offer a question like:  Your current activity was pessimistically estimated at 65 hours and optimistically estimated at 40 hours.  What is the variance of the activity?  (you can use this formula for both time and cost)

You can see how knowing the formula is going to make you or break you on this question.

Do yourself a favor.  Make flash cards, get a tattoo, it doesn’t matter.  Commit these formulas to memory and you’ll save yourself some pain and suffering (and a few points on the exam).

The Formulas

Acronym	Title	Formula
PERT	Program Evaluation and Review Technique	P = Pessimistic Estimate M = Most Likely Estimate O = Optimistic Estimate
	Standard Deviation of Activity
	Variance of an Activity
	Total Float	LS – ES or LF – EF
	Communications Channels	[N(N-1)] / 2
CV	Cost Variance	EV – AC
SV	Schedule Variance	EV – PV
CPI	Cost Performance Index	EV / AC
SPI	Schedule Performance Index	EV / PV
EAC	Estimate at Completion	BAC / CPI AC + ETC AC + (BAC – EV)
ETC	Estimate to Complete	ETC = EAC – AC
VAC	Variance at Completion	BAC – EAC
CPIc	Cumulative Cost Performance Index	Σ EV / Σ AC
TCPI	To-Complete Performance Index

[1] This is a link to a product I created

A few years back, when the PMP exam changed, I was really curious which PMPs out there took the new exam versus the old one. It has been my understanding, back in the day you could memorize areas of the PMBOK and pass the exam.  Since the exam changed and became scenario based and started asking “which answer is the most correct” I wonder if some of the PMPs out there could pass the new exam.  I understand it is unfair to insinuate PMPs who sat for the exam before a certain date aren’t good project managers.  I prefer to recognize the certification as a benchmark.  Project managers with the PMP credential should use the same terminology and should understand what I’m talking about when I speak of input or outputs of specific process groups.

One of the first things I do, if asked to review a resume, is I verify when the applicant passed their PMP exam. Want to ensure the next applicant really is a PMP if they say they are?  Go to the PMI Registry.