Certification Archive

PMI-ACP Prep Workshop

– August 30, 2011Posted in: Agile, Project Management

I am very excited to announce that I will begin offering my own 3-day PMI-Agile Certified Practitioner Certification Prep workshop, beginning September 26-28. The workshop will be offered at the Bridge Education Training Facility located at 6716 Alexander Bell Drive, Suite 100, in Columbia, Maryland. As an added bonus, for those who register for the September (and the to-be-announced October) class, I will give each attendee a free ticket to AgileDC 2011.

Count on 3 full days of learning, simulation, and Legos!

Who Should Attend/Prerequisites

Although this prep course is primarily targeted towards project management professionals interested in achieving the PMI-ACP^(sm) certification, it could benifit many others. It is an effective foundation for anyone interested in adopting and leveraging Agile techniques, including Product & Line Managers, Program Managers, IT Managers, or Senior Technicians.

Course Overview

The PMI-ACP^(sm) certification requires the candidate to have 2,000 hours of general Project Management experience, 1,500 hours of Agile Project Management experience, 21 training hours in an Agile specific curriculum, and pass the PMI-ACP^(sm) certification exam.

This course will satisfy all of the training requirements for the exam. After taking this course, students will have the strong foundation needed to begin preparing for the certification exam.

Take your course from one of only a few instructors who were independent reviewers of the curriculum, as it was being developed. As independent reviewers of the PMI-ACP, it was our job to modify, revise, update or delete elements to ensure that it was comprehensive, contemporary (reflective of current practice), concise, and clear.

Learning Objectives

The course will provide a broad survey of Agile PM tools, techniques, skills, and knowledge areas. Within the 3-Day course, we will cover all 6 domains of the upcoming PMI-ACP exam

Value Driven Delivery
Stakeholder Engagement
Boosting Team Performance Practices
Adaptive Planning
Problem Detection and Resolution
Continuous Improvement (Product, Process, People)

Some of the topics covered include:

Active Listening
Adaptive Leadership
Agile Frameworks and Terminology
Agile Manifesto Values and Principles
Agile Project Accounting Principles
Assessing and Incorporating Stakeholder Values
Applying New Agile Practices
Building High Performance and Empowered Teams
Coaching and Mentoring within teams
Communications Management
Co-Located and Geographically Distributed Teams
Conflict Resolution
Continuous Improvement
Elements of a Project Charter for an Agile project
Facilitation Methods
Feedback Techniques (e.g. Prototypes, Simulation, Demonstration, Evaluation)
Globalization, Culture, and Team Diversity
Incremental Delivery
Innovation Games
Knowledge and Information Sharing
Leadership tools and Techniques
PMI’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
Problem Solving Strategies
Product Roadmapping
Progressive Elaboration
Project and Quality Standards
Principles of Systems Thinking (e.g., complex adaptive, chaos)
Servant-Leadership
Stakeholder Management
Team Motivation Techniques
Time, Budget, and Cost Estimation
Variations of Agile Methods and Approaches
Value Based Analysis, Decomposition, and Prioritization

When:

Monday, September 26, 2011 9:00 AM - Wednesday, September 28, 2011 4:30 PM (Eastern Time)

Where:

Bridge Education Training Facility
6716 Alexander Bell Dr.
Suite 100
Columbia, Maryland 21046

Cost:

$1,495 per attendee (plus travel and expenses for private workshops)

Drawing courtesy of Pictofigo

Popularity: 1%

Tags: Agile, Baltimore, Certification, PDU, PMI, PMI-ACP, Washington DC

Agile Flashcards

Derek Huether

– August 8, 2011Posted in: Agile, Project Management

To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the signing of the The Manifesto for Agile Software Development and the upcoming launch of the PMI-ACP^sm Agile certification, I have been working behind the scenes on a new mobile learning tool. After realizing how congested the PMP market was, I decided to leverage what I learned from PM Prep Flashcards and apply the code toward agile learning.

So, are you going to take the PMI-ACP^sm certification exam? Would you like to be notified as soon as we’re done with a simple learning tool that you can use on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad to prepare for the exam?

Get on the list!

PMP® is a registered trademarks of the Project Management Institute, Inc. PMI-ACP^sm is a service mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

Popularity: 1%

Tags: Agile, Certification, Exam, Flashcards, Learning, PMI, PMI-ACP

CSM & PMI Agile Certification Eligibility

Derek Huether

– April 27, 2011Posted in: Agile, Project Management

Though PMI has published information about what is required to be eligible to take the upcoming PMI Agile Certification exam, I’m getting quite a few emails from people asking about the upcoming exam. One of the most intriguing was from a Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) asking if (his or her) CSM training could be applied toward the required 21 PDUs.

The question: Do Scrum Alliance® Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) courses qualify for the training eligibility requirement?

The answer: Yes, Scrum Alliance® courses qualify for the training eligibility requirements. Only hours in Agile training will meet the certification eligibility requirements. One hour of training equals one contact hour of education eligibility.

Popularity: 2%

Tags: Certification, CSM, PMI, PMI-ACP, Scrum Alliance

PMI Agile Exam Tools and Techniques

Derek Huether

– April 22, 2011Posted in: Agile, Project Management

50 percent of the PMI Agile certification exam will be comprised of questions about tools and techniques. The PMI Agile Certification team grouped the tools and techniques it 10 areas.

The toolkits below are ranked in the order of their relative importance within the tools and techniques section of the exam.

1	Communications
2	Planning, monitoring, and adapting
3	Agile Estimation
4	Agile analysis and design
5	Product quality
6	Soft skills negotiation
7	Value-based prioritization
8	Risk management
9	Metrics
10	Value stream analysis

Want an example of what you will find within the Communications area? Some tools and techniques included but are not limited to information radiators, team space, agile tooling, osmotic communications for collocated and/or distributed teams, and daily stand-ups.

Remember, 50% of the exam will be dedicated to Tools and Techniques and 50% will be dedicated to Knowledge and Skills.

HT: PMI Agile Certification Examination Content Outline

Popularity: 2%

Tags: Agile, Certification, Exam, PMI, PMI-ACP, Techniques, Tools

8076 Less PMI Members

Derek Huether

– April 6, 2011Posted in: Project Management

I cracked open my April edition of PMI Today to review the monthly statistics. I was impressed to see PMI added 9,750 new members in February. Upon adding the numbers to my spreadsheets, February was suddenly in like a lion and out like a lamb. Though PMI added 9,750 new members, they also lost 8,076 members. That’s in one month! I realized the net gain was only 1,674 PMI members, in comparison to 3,127 PMPs. If your project had retention rates like this, don’t you think someone would try to do something about it? Shouldn’t the PMI see this low retention rate as being an issue that should be addressed?