Will You Surely Get A Job After PMP® Certification?
By Joyeeta Bose
Acquiring more qualification and more experience is a part of the rat race which is known as a high paid job. Various people have various expectations regarding the position. Some would want a high level of satisfaction; some would like to maintain a work-life balance, while others want to keep a flexible hierarchy of payment. Especially the management students who are landing up managerial jobs in the reputed multinational companies must be aware of the stiff competition that they have to face in the corporate world. It is not easy to stay on par with all the expectations and dynamic changes that are happening in the market. Many employees are stuck with the same position year after without promotion or increment as they are not able to meet the extreme standards that the industry requires.The definition of PMP®Therefore, numerous courses and the curriculum are organized for even the working professionals, so that they can have more insights into the recent updates that are occurring in their profile. The apparent aim of such courses is to make the prospect of the promotion and increment higher by making you an industry expert. But the actual motto of such classes or certification is also to increase the efficiency of business trade and organizational growth that will help the business or institution. One such certification that is gaining popularity among the employers and employees alike because of its astonishing benefit and result is Project Management Professional Certification or PMP® Certification. Before going for the prospect of career and job that it brings, you must know about the concept of PMP® first.Eligibility criteriaProject Management Professional Certification is a designation that is globally recognized and provided by the Project Management Institute. The course is specially designed for the professionals in the field of Project Management and not for the freshers and students. You can go for the course only if you have the required amount of experience in managing projects in your organization. Before applying for the job, you need to know about the criteria that you need for the minimum eligibility of the course. So take a brief look at the admissibility of the course:You need to have a four years’ undergraduate degree in the management. If your country has three-year management degree course, then it will be of no problem. The main aim is to do the primary check about the foundation of the management career.Now comes the main criteria. Candidate applying for the certification must be associated with an organization and have at least three years of experience in the field of managing project tasks. Within these three years, at least 4,500 hours should be invested in leading the project directly. You also need to have a short-term course or training on the project management education of minimum 35 hours.PMP® and CareerSo now you can see that the certification is designed primarily for the candidates who are already full-time project managers. Therefore, rather than getting a job, PMP® actually helps you to secure your career and future job prospect in some higher positions than that where you are currently working. Based on this you can now take a look at the advantages that it offers to make your resume every employer’s favourite. Firstly, a course in project management will help you to land up a high-paying job in the more reputed corporate sectors. Having a professional certificate like PMP® is like having a crown on your resume. When you are presenting your resume, you will be highlighted and given importance than other candidates who are appearing for the interview.Secondly, having specialization in a particular field increases the chances of getting your desired job in the specific area itself. You do not search for different options and tire yourself. Instead, you can focus on a single perspective and give your best to it wholly. In words of Dean Kamen- “I don’t work on a project unless I believe that it will dramatically improve life for a bunch of people.”Thirdly, you can connect with all the otter PMP® certified members globally and become the part of the ever growing and talented project managers around the world. You can exchange your ideas and your perspectives with another certified from the different part of the world. You, in turn, will be enriched with the knowledge and the management scenario of the other part of the world. Plus, after certification, if you are ambitious and looking for a job change, you can take suggestions from the community to know about the recent job openings worldwide.Lastly, but of course, the important one is that your salary increment becomes a sure shot thing once you earn PMP® certification. A PMP® certified professional is much more knowledgeable and confident in the handling of the critical projects than his or her non-PMP® counterparts. When your boss sees that your specialized knowledge is benefiting the organization in giving maximum profit within minimum time, he or she will inevitably take into account your promotion or increment plea. After all which company does not want to retain their best employee? To explain the last point regarding the growth of the business-organisation, a case study was conducted on a reputed Information Technology industry to improve the efficiency regarding the operations of the various hierarchies. The management felt that to increase the effectiveness of the finished results and completion of the targeted task faster garnering a maximum profit, they need to go for complete grass-root level improvisation. It called for the employee who is handling the project of the organisation and gave them the necessary project management training and selecting 200 employees among them for enrolling in the PMP® certification. Within three years, a drastic change given below was seen:Management Improvement: 90 percent.Development of Professionalism: 73 percent.The efficiency of the Office of Project Management: 80 percent.Management Insight: 67 percentAssessing the points mentioned above, the company garnered a turnaround of almost double than the expected within the lesser amount of time gaining both employee satisfaction and business improvement.PMP® Certification, therefore, should be adopted by every company. If your company does not provide you the certification, but you have the eligibility, then you can enroll yourself online.Learn more about the benefits of PMP® Certification here-
Rated 4.0/5
based on 47 customer reviews
Will You Surely Get A Job After PMP® Certification?
By Joyeeta Bose
Acquiring more qualification and more experience is a part of the rat race which is known as a high paid job. Various people have various expectations regarding the position. Some would want a high level of satisfaction; some would like to maintain a work-life balance, while others want to keep a flexible hierarchy of payment. Especially the management students who are landing up managerial jobs in the reputed multinational companies must be aware of the stiff competition that they have to face in the corporate world. It is not easy to stay on par with all the expectations and dynamic changes that are happening in the market. Many employees are stuck with the same position year after without promotion or increment as they are not able to meet the extreme standards that the industry requires.The definition of PMP®Therefore, numerous courses and the curriculum are organized for even the working professionals, so that they can have more insights into the recent updates that are occurring in their profile. The apparent aim of such courses is to make the prospect of the promotion and increment higher by making you an industry expert. But the actual motto of such classes or certification is also to increase the efficiency of business trade and organizational growth that will help the business or institution. One such certification that is gaining popularity among the employers and employees alike because of its astonishing benefit and result is Project Management Professional Certification or PMP® Certification. Before going for the prospect of career and job that it brings, you must know about the concept of PMP® first.Eligibility criteriaProject Management Professional Certification is a designation that is globally recognized and provided by the Project Management Institute. The course is specially designed for the professionals in the field of Project Management and not for the freshers and students. You can go for the course only if you have the required amount of experience in managing projects in your organization. Before applying for the job, you need to know about the criteria that you need for the minimum eligibility of the course. So take a brief look at the admissibility of the course:You need to have a four years’ undergraduate degree in the management. If your country has three-year management degree course, then it will be of no problem. The main aim is to do the primary check about the foundation of the management career.Now comes the main criteria. Candidate applying for the certification must be associated with an organization and have at least three years of experience in the field of managing project tasks. Within these three years, at least 4,500 hours should be invested in leading the project directly. You also need to have a short-term course or training on the project management education of minimum 35 hours.PMP® and CareerSo now you can see that the certification is designed primarily for the candidates who are already full-time project managers. Therefore, rather than getting a job, PMP® actually helps you to secure your career and future job prospect in some higher positions than that where you are currently working. Based on this you can now take a look at the advantages that it offers to make your resume every employer’s favourite. Firstly, a course in project management will help you to land up a high-paying job in the more reputed corporate sectors. Having a professional certificate like PMP® is like having a crown on your resume. When you are presenting your resume, you will be highlighted and given importance than other candidates who are appearing for the interview.Secondly, having specialization in a particular field increases the chances of getting your desired job in the specific area itself. You do not search for different options and tire yourself. Instead, you can focus on a single perspective and give your best to it wholly. In words of Dean Kamen- “I don’t work on a project unless I believe that it will dramatically improve life for a bunch of people.”Thirdly, you can connect with all the otter PMP® certified members globally and become the part of the ever growing and talented project managers around the world. You can exchange your ideas and your perspectives with another certified from the different part of the world. You, in turn, will be enriched with the knowledge and the management scenario of the other part of the world. Plus, after certification, if you are ambitious and looking for a job change, you can take suggestions from the community to know about the recent job openings worldwide.Lastly, but of course, the important one is that your salary increment becomes a sure shot thing once you earn PMP® certification. A PMP® certified professional is much more knowledgeable and confident in the handling of the critical projects than his or her non-PMP® counterparts. When your boss sees that your specialized knowledge is benefiting the organization in giving maximum profit within minimum time, he or she will inevitably take into account your promotion or increment plea. After all which company does not want to retain their best employee? To explain the last point regarding the growth of the business-organisation, a case study was conducted on a reputed Information Technology industry to improve the efficiency regarding the operations of the various hierarchies. The management felt that to increase the effectiveness of the finished results and completion of the targeted task faster garnering a maximum profit, they need to go for complete grass-root level improvisation. It called for the employee who is handling the project of the organisation and gave them the necessary project management training and selecting 200 employees among them for enrolling in the PMP® certification. Within three years, a drastic change given below was seen:Management Improvement: 90 percent.Development of Professionalism: 73 percent.The efficiency of the Office of Project Management: 80 percent.Management Insight: 67 percentAssessing the points mentioned above, the company garnered a turnaround of almost double than the expected within the lesser amount of time gaining both employee satisfaction and business improvement.PMP® Certification, therefore, should be adopted by every company. If your company does not provide you the certification, but you have the eligibility, then you can enroll yourself online.Learn more about the benefits of PMP® Certification here-
Rated 4.0/5
based on 47 customer reviews
146
- by Joyeeta Bose
- 22 May 2018
Acquiring more qualification and more experience is a part of the rat ... Read More
Is The Schedule Driving The Project or Vice Versa?
By Nagaraja Gundappa
Are you familiar with a situation where a project manager diligently drafts a project schedule and uses it to drive the project for 2-3 weeks and then the schedule goes into cold storage? Either the schedule disappears or gets driven by the project getting executed independent of the schedule.Most people that I interact with tell me that this is a very common scenario. Why does this happen? How can it be avoided and how can we draft an effective schedule that can actually be used to drive the project till its completion? What are the characteristics of such an effective schedule? Why should a project manager take pains to draw up such an effective schedule and what are the benefits? We have done some research in this area by studying a number of real project schedules and would like to present the findings in this article.Why are effective schedules important?One of the major challenges faced by the software industry is delivering fixed price projects profitably. And poor scheduling is one of the top three areas of challenge, the other two being poor estimates and poor requirements management. While leading a delivery excellence program, I happened to interview several roles and one business unit head revealed that he had won a million dollar deal recently and assigned the best PM of the BU to the project. And when that PM came up with a draft schedule, it had a built-in overrun of 5%. Projects typically follow Murphy’s law “work expands to fill duration” and people tend to consume all of the allocated duration, even if it is in excess, and on top of the built-in 5% overrun, if there is an additional 20% overrun, then the project would move into a loss zone. Incidentally, the BU head was a pro in scheduling, he sat with the PM, optimized resource allocation and then the schedule came down to utilize only 85% of the originally estimated effort. Mind you, this schedule did not reduce the effort or duration of individual tasks but just carried out resource optimization and boom, the effort reduces by 20%!! This incident highlights that well-drafted schedules can play a major role in profitability of fixed price projects. And the ROI can also be huge as spending ½ a day in scrutinizing the schedule lead to a saving of almost two hundred thousand dollars in this case.What makes schedules unusable?Why do schedules go into cold storage in spite of their critical advantages? Because, these schedules are not usable. What makes schedules unusable? Having researched into dozens of schedules, we have found several common factors that make schedules unusable and the top three reasons are explained below.The task breakdown does not match with the actual tasks that will be performed to realize the end deliverables: Many PMs would be out of touch with software engineering and cannot figure out what activities will be performed and what artifacts will be produced in each phase of the project at a granular level. They may be familiar at a coarse level so that analysis, design, coding, and testing will be performed but they may not be able to determine exactly what tasks constitute analysis and design and what artifacts will be produced from these tasks. For instance, they may not be able to identify all the activities and artifacts such as “Design object model”, “Normalize database”, “Create interaction diagrams” that results respectively in object model, database model and interaction diagrams all of them becoming a part of the design document. As a result, PM may not be able to document all the tasks in the schedule and the team will be performing many tasks, not accounted for in the schedule. This gap quickly causes misalignment between schedule and actual work. Consequently, the team stops referring to the schedule for guidance on what to do and the schedule becomes unusable.Estimated duration in the schedule does not match original effort estimates: Many PMs allocate duration to tasks independently instead of deriving them from the original effort estimates. They may not follow any formal method while estimating durations and this makes dates in the schedule mismatch with the actual dates significantly. Although, even the well-drafted, usable schedules can also have mismatch between planned and actual dates, a large-scale mismatch may discourage the team members to use the schedule as a guidance to determine their weekly plan.Resource loading is not optimal: The resources are either under-loaded or overloaded. When the resources are under-loaded, the Murphy’s law “Work expands to fill duration” may kick in and the under-loaded resources may use up all of the available duration (allocated duration and free time) to perform the allocated work resulting in effort and schedule overruns. The overloaded resources obviously cannot perform work according to the schedule and they start performing work independent of the schedule.What makes schedules usable?Having seen the characteristics of unusable schedules, we have also seen the characteristics of usable schedules. It is not necessary that usable schedules are lax schedules. Very tight schedules can also be well-drafted and usable schedules. Our research into schedules that have been successfully used to drive and track projects from inception till end shows that they generally possess a large number of following characteristics.1. Work breakdown is immaculateThe structure of the work breakdown is completely aligned with the software engineering life cycle chosen for the projectThe WBS covers at least 90% of all activities that will be performed in the project. The amount of time that people spend doing work not accounted for in the schedule, is negligible.Milestones are identified appropriatelyGranularity of task breakdown is optimal. A coarse-grained task breakdown results in a very lax tracking leading to delays whereas a very fine-grained task breakdown results in micro management and tracking overheads and can delay the project. The well-drafted schedules usually use the 1% to 10% rule – that is, the effort allocated to a leaf node of a breakdown structure should not be more than 10% of the effort aggregated at the root node and should not be less than 1% of the effort at the root node. If the effort of a leaf node is more than 10%, it is broken down into sub tasks and if the effort of a leaf node is less than 1%, it is folded up into its parent task so that the 1% to 10% rule is satisfied.2. Duration estimates of the schedule are aligned with the project estimatesDuration estimates of tasks and sub tasks are derived from the project estimatesThe overall project effort reflected in the schedule matches with the estimated effort. This is a key to the profitability of fixed price projects.3. Resource loading is optimalResources are neither under loaded nor overloadedTeam members perform very minimum ad hoc activities because large part of their work is covered in the schedule. It is this factor that enables the team members to use the schedule for guidance, week-on-week, to plan their weekly activities.Parallelism among tasks are identified and leveraged properly while allocating the resources4. The schedule is an elegant tool for work allocation, tracking and reportingThe schedule enables allocation of work to team members on a weekly basis with a clear scope, activities, and deliverables. Many times, weekly task reports are maintained as a supplement to the schedule. The weekly plans draw tasks from the schedule and also ad hoc tasks if any. Sometimes, the sequence of tasks may have changed and hence rather than changing the schedule, the change is implemented using a supplementary weekly plan. In projects having a well-drafted schedule, the weekly plans for the individual team members don’t diverge significantly from the schedule and remain aligned to the schedule throughout the project.A well-drafted schedule facilitates easy generation of status reports on task completion, work performance of team members and projections.The schedule clearly shows dependencies and delivery dates for integration of modules to take place smoothly.5. Facilitates quick response to changes. With clarity on tasks, duration, and resource allocation, the schedule helps the PM to add, delete or move around tasks and resources to accommodate changes.When project gets additional requirements and additional resources, a PM can assign the additional resources to non-critical path tasks and allocate current team members to tasks on critical pathWhen project gets additional requirement, there is no additional resource, but if PM is allowed to descope some functionality, the schedule comes in handy to decide which tasks among low priority ones can be removed to free up some resource load so that they can handle the changes.ConclusionWell-drafted schedules can provide the PM not only a significant grip but also enough maneuverability to navigate the project to successful completion amidst changes. It is not straightforward to draft schedules and it needs significant application of time and rigor to come up with schedules that are usable. If this rigor and time is invested, it can yield significant non-financial benefits in terms of better project control and financial benefits in terms of cost savings making it a high-priority area for PMs to spend their time and energies.
Rated 4.0/5
based on 45 customer reviews
148
- by Nagaraja Gundappa
- 18 May 2018
Are you familiar with a situation where a project manager diligently d... Read More
The Three Most Fundamental Project Management Tools & Techniques
By Susanne Madsen
Over the years I have found that my most popular blog posts are those that speak to entry-level project managers. They value information which is clear and concise and which helps them understand what tools and techniques to use. Project management is a vast practice area and for somebody who has only recently started managing projects, it can seem overwhelming. It is my observation that there are more entry-level project managers coming into the field. And there is a good reason for that. With more and more changes taking place at a faster rate, we have a need for more people to manage those changes. This can be anything from integrating new technology to streamlining business processes or producing cheaper and better consumer goods. With that being said, let’s look at the three most fundamental project management tools and techniques that will help entry-level project managers get their project off the ground.Project DefinitionProjects need to be defined and scoped before they are planned and executed. That is true for all projects irrespective of the type of methodology they use. Defining the project helps us understand what it is meant to deliver, what the benefits are, what the costs might be and by when it is needed. This may sound like a plan to you, but it’s more like a high-level description of the project without the details having been fleshed out. The main question we ask during project definition is whether the project is worthwhile doing or not. There may be lots of ideas for new projects but not all of them have a good business rationale. Therefore they shouldn't be executed at this moment in time with this particular scope. In the company where you work, I’m sure there are many things you could improve on and many ways in which you could enhance your products or services. But not all of these enhancements will be viable business ideas, perhaps because there is a small market for some of those products or too low a margin.When we define the project, we’re essentially looking at the project’s business case and ascertaining if it provides a strong enough foundation for the project to go ahead. Defining the project can take as little as a couple of days for a very small project and several months for a larger one. You can capture the conclusion of this phase in a Project Definition Document, Project Charter, Terms of Reference or Business Case. Different companies use different terms for this document, but they may essentially contain the same information. What I recommend you to put in the document is: Aims and objectives of the project, high-level deliverables, expected benefits, high-level constraints, assumptions and risks, expected costs, future revenues, expected end date, name of project sponsor, project manager, and core team members.Milestone plan Once the project has been approved, meaning that the Project Definition Document has been signed off, you can move to the next part of the project, which is to plan it. The way you plan a project and lay out its phases, stages, and milestones will look a bit different depending on the methodology your company prefers. If you’re in a more traditional waterfall environment you’d be planning the project in a sequential way, beginning with requirements gathering and detailed statements of scope. You’d then plan for the build or execution phase to take place followed by some testing and final delivery or implantation. And of course, you’d plan for a project review to take place at the end. In more agile environments you’d carry out the above activities (requirements gathering, build, test, deliver, and review) in much shorter intervals or iterations. In addition, you’d deliver something tangible after each phase or iteration instead of all products or features being delivered at the end, which is what we do with a waterfall methodology.No matter how you plan your project, it’s a good practice to plan it collaboratively with the team. Those days are over where the project manager was sitting in isolation behind their desk doing all the planning. That approach simply doesn't create buy-in from the team members. They want to be involved in planning the work that they are expected to carry out.There are several collaborative planning techniques out there that you can make use of. I favour an old-fashioned post-it note-approach where you get people together and brainstorm what the phases, work streams and milestones of the project might look like. You’ll need lots of post-its and a white board or a wall to stick the notes onto. You also need a good facilitator (perhaps your good self) who can guide the team through the process. At the end, you should have a rough idea of which milestones and outputs will be delivered by when. You should also assign ownership to each milestone or deliverable as otherwise, the project manager may end up owning most of the items. Ask the owners to carry out the detailed planning of their individual items and revert at the next meeting with a confirmation of exactly what will be delivered by when. If your team is remote you can make use of virtual post-it-note planning tools.The outcome of your collaborative meetings and planning activities can be captured in a milestone plan. This would be a simple Excel sheet listing the project’s top ten milestones, the owner of each milestone and the expected delivery date. Very simple! As a project moves forward you can also use the spreadsheet to record whether each milestone is on track for delivery and comment on their status. In that way, this simple one-pager overview of milestones becomes a high-level plan and a tracking tool in one. This is an ideal overview sheet to use as a communication tool to your stakeholders so that they can ascertain the status of the project. Your stakeholders don’t need a detailed plan. An overview of the top ten milestones will be sufficient. The detailed plan is reserved for the core team.Risks listBe warned that no matter the size, complexity or methodology of your project, I can assure you that it will be full of risks. That’s because all projects are about creating change, meaning that the project will result in something that hasn’t been done before in that exact setting. In other words, every project is unique and therefore contains a certain element of risk. Project management methodology is essentially there to control risk and to help us execute a project with some level of predictability in spite of its uncertain elements. Defining a project, identifying and analysing user needs and requirements, planning how these requirements will result in outputs and deliveries, clarifying roles and responsibilities and prototyping the solution are all examples of activities we undertake in project management with the aim of driving down risk.Managing risks is a dynamic process as the project’s environment changes on a daily basis. Identifying and mitigating risks is, therefore, something which shouldn’t just be done when the project starts up. It’s an essential project management activity that should be carried out on a regular basis to make sure that new risks are identified and managed and that the existing ones are reviewed. In essence, I suggest that you sit down with your team every couple of weeks to go through the risk list. The collaborative element is important, as the project manager cannot identify all the risks on her own. The team has the knowledge, not only of the things that could go wrong but also in terms of generating ideas for how to overcome potential roadblocks.The outcome of the collaborative risk management meetings is risk list. This is a simple Excel tool, which lists and describes all the risks, the date they were logged, what the potential impact of the risk is and how it can be mitigated. The risk list should also contain information about the probability and likelihood of each risk (high, medium, low) as well as an owner. In many projects, there is a tendency that the project manager ends up owning most of the mitigation strategies. But in many cases, a team member or a stakeholder is the best person to manage a specific risk because they are closer to the detail.In summaryProject management tools and techniques can be difficult to navigate for an entry-level project manager. Three of the most important tools for a project manager to make use of on any project are: a Project Definition Document, a Milestone Plan and a Risk List. Whereas the project manager owns all of these tools, it’s not sufficient to simply fill them in on their own. Irrespective of whether we are running an Agile, Waterfall or a hybrid project, it will be the collective effort of the people involved who will get the project delivered. For that reason, the tools we use must be as collaborative as possible so that we can make the most of our precious team.
Rated 4.0/5
based on 53 customer reviews
180
- by Susanne Madsen
- 18 May 2018
Over the years I have found that my most popular blog posts are those ... Read More
A Beginner’s Guide To Project Management – Part 1
By Abhinav Gupta
PMP, Prince, PMBoK, Templates, deadlines, communications, charter, review books, meetings and what not! Project management is a heavy duty exercise that takes up so much involvement from a person yet most of the time it is a thankless work [from my personal experience]. And that is because excellence in this field is considered as expected. Hence the chances of you failing or letting someone down are very high. In this post, let me share with you some of the tips and tricks to make project management easier for you based on my 11 years of experience in this field. I have been burnt many times and hurt quite a few times. And excelled multiple times. The basic problem with Project Managers The basic problem with project managers is they are a pain in the neck [for the lack of better term] for their team. They nag their team members and leads constantly about cost, schedule and most often ask them to work overtime or on the weekend. Aren’t these the reasons why we used to hate our project managers when were engineers? And trust me, these are the reasons your team does not like you now. After being on both sides of the fence in my career, I can now totally understand the pain and pressure project managers go through. We are also human beings and we do not want to harass our team by constantly asking them to provide tracking data, validation arguments, and checking costs. But due to our circumstances, we have no option. So why do we do this? Because we don’t have any better way to do it. But not anymore. Let me tell you some of the tips that will help you. Steps of IPECC In order to help align your thoughts with the management tips and tricks, let me go in order of the IPECC [Initiation, Planning, Execution, Control and Closure] areas. 8 challenges affecting software project management | CIO #PMOT #ProjectManagement https://t.co/r1rG9oeL5n — Project Insight (@ProjectInsight) May 5, 2016 How to save time and escape problems in Project Initiation? Many would think that project initiation stage is very simple and small to bother anyone. You are right. But the real danger of this stage occurs during the control stage wherein you try to control escalating costs, off-track schedule and suddenly you get to know that people who made the charge have moved on and are unanswerable, or you do not have the same amount of control you thought you would have. Has this happened to you? If yes, then read on. If this has never happened to you, then keep the notes handy with you as you could be next! Trust me! No one gets spared! Tip # 1: Take control of the project, officially. After you have been assigned a particular project, take it in writing from the project sponsors. The written confirmation should have the following things clearly mentioned in it: The duration of your engagement in the project The clause of renewal The success criteria of the project What you are authorized to do The things you are not authorized to do And that written confirmation should be signed by the project sponsors with the dates. This confirmation need not be in a single document; although it is preferable. Tip # 2: Know the people who can influence your project Officially this is known as stakeholder register. But I am not talking about that one. I am talking about something more sinister, a hidden plot to derail you that is unfolding while you are focusing on your project. I am kidding! But I mean business when I say that you should know of all the forces that can influence your project either personally or professionally. They could be your friends, foes, colleagues or family. Always keep a map ready in your mind that tells you who can add up to your strengths and who might be the cause of your downfall. This will also help you distinguish between a well-meant scolding and a misleading appreciation. Tip # 3: Plan in chunks, the smaller the better If you straight away create a plan that covers all aspects, all scenarios from start to finish, then it will definitely please your seniors. But it will harm your team as the plans would become outdated soon. If you choose to go just in time approach for planning, then you might be the cause of bottleneck for your team. So here’s what you need to do: Prepare a broad outline of all the things you need to cover Along with the detailed plan of the very next stage your team needs to do Run these 2 items with your seniors to get their buy-in, in writing of course. Then share these plans with your team ensuring that your leads are completely on-board with your plans. This way your planning will always be one step ahead of the team’s progress and not be outdated at the same time. Tip # 4: Involve your team in planning I would like to say, teams that plan together sail together. Else you run the burden of multiple project meetings, getting sign-offs and commitment issues from the team. By including the team in your planning, you achieve following things: Complete and real picture of ground reality that allows your plan to be as close to reality as possible You get to know bad apples and good apples in the team first hand by means of their interaction during the planning You gain firsthand knowledge of dynamics within the team The Team buys into the plan because they have helped create it This way you will be saving a lot of time from recurring meetings, review, pushing people to get things done and conflict management. Tip # 5: Get in external reviewers early in the game By getting external reviewers early in the game, you safeguard yours and the team’s interests in multiple ways. Let me elaborate: The viewpoints of external reviewer will allow you to dispassionately review the project and deliverables and thus create a higher quality of products. The team is fully aware that no amount of politicking or gaining favors with management will allow them to escape from an independent external review and thus, self-quality control. In tough times, when your decisions and approach of the team will be questioned by stakeholders, these records of external validations will help you present your case on a strong foot. The External review will help you forecast trends and upcoming challenges early in the game. If we do not opt to do this earlier than in times of escalations, the external agencies are looped anyways by the investigating committees and at that time, you have no say in the matter and you cannot stop the vested interests from bringing external auditors of their choice. So take a bold step and involve external reviewers early in the game and document every review with findings, actions taken by the concerned people. These are just 5 tips to handle initiation and planning aspects of project management in a smarter manner that helps your cause and reduces the number of brickbats that you get from teams. Stay tuned for more such tips and tricks in the upcoming posts on “beginner’s guide to project management”.
Rated 4.0/5
based on 38 customer reviews
138
- by Abhinav Gupta
- 07 May 2018
PMP, Prince, PMBoK, Templates, deadlines, communications, charter, rev... Read More
How To Earn More PDUs After The Completion of PMP Certification
By KnowledgeHut Editor
Are you a PMI® credential holder? Do you also hold a PMP® certification? Then this article will be useful for you! All PMI® certifications except CAPM® certification (Certified Associate in Project Management), need holders to string along with the Continuing Certification Requirements (CCR) Program. The aim of this program is to ensure that your skills and certified capabilities are up-to-the-minute. Generally speaking, it involves earning PDUs as well. PMP® Certification- If you are planning to take the PMP® training, it will be worth the cost and your efforts. Various industries use PMP® as a standard for project managers. PMP® certification entitles you to work in any environment and with any methodology. The PMP® certification covers the various project management techniques and skills that are essential for project managers. The PMP® course creates your impression as- It indicates your superiority in using the PMBOK® guide It indicates that you know the best practices for project management Salary of the PMP certified- According to the 10th edition of Project Management Salary survey by PMI®, it is estimated that the PMP® certified project manager is getting more than non-PMP certified project managers. The average annual salary for a PMP® certified professional is $108,200 per year. They earn 20% more than the non-PMP® certified individuals. Here is the salary report of the PMP® certified according to PMI® report. Once you have sailed through the PMP® exam, your 3-year PMP® re-accreditation cycle starts. You need to earn at least 60 PMP® PDUs with a specific end goal to effectively renew your PMP® accreditation. Usually, 1 PDU is equivalent to 1 hour of PDU activity participation. But, there are points of confinement to certain PDU activities. We will see ways to earn more PDUs in details. But before that, let’s know what is PDU? Do you know? 1 PDU equates 1 hour of PDU activity participation What is PDU? A PDU is a Professional Development Unit. Once you earn your PMP® certification, the next step is to maintain the PMP® credential. This credential is valid only for 3 years. So to renew the certification, you need to report 60 PDUs to the PMI® before completing the third year. If missed to renew, it leads to suspension of the certificate. Ways to earn PDUs- Earning PDUs for PMP certification is a hassle-free and less expensive process and some PDUs can be earned free of cost. PDUs can be earned in two ways- A. Free PDUs B. Paid PDUs A. Free PDUs Free PDUs are categorized into 2 sections, 1) Education PDUs: Education PDUs can be earned in following 3 ways- Online or in-person courses and training offered by PMI’s Registered Education Provider (REPs) Continuing Education (professional meetings and local events) Self-driven learning From Education PDUs, you can earn maximum 35 PDUs. Out of 35 PDUs, 8 PDUs consists of technical Project Management skills + 8 PDUs in Leadership skills + 8 PDUs in strategic business management skills. These 3 skills-sets are referred as a ‘PMI Talent Triangle’ by PMI®. 2) Giving back PDUs: Giving back PDUs includes the sharing of knowledge and applying skills to contribute to the profession. This includes- Creating knowledge Giving a presentation Creating content Working as a practitioner Sharing knowledge Volunteering From giving back PDUs, you can earn maximum 25 PDUs, but only 8 PDUs can be earned as working as a practitioner during 3 years. B. Paid PDUs Paid PDUs is another way of earning PDUs after PMP® certification. The second way consists of not only gaining the project management knowledge but also earning more PDUs. This way of earning PDUs is more effective than the free PDUs in terms of gaining PDUs too early. Also, this enhances your skill-set along with the PDUs. Really looking forward to the discussion on maintaining my PMP certification @pmiirl — Joanne Cronin (@dudara) July 6, 2017 Has it come to your notice? Paid PDU approach is more effective than the free PDUs, as it not only acts as a skill enhancer for an individual but also helps in earning PDUs too early. Here are some of the Project management related courses that can help learn more about project management and earn more skills. 1) PRINCE2® course: You can earn 16 PDUs from this course. PRINCE2® (PRojects In Controlled Environments) is a Project Management methodology that allows you to handle any complex project in a diverse environment. This method is practiced worldwide and the certifications are considered authentic if the training institute is an Accredited training organization (ATO) of PEOPLECERT and a certified partner of Axelos. 2) ITIL® course: You can earn 25 PDUs from this course. ITIL® training provides understanding of the project related best practices and implementing these practices to streamline the processes for continuous improvement. It is highly recommended that you take this course from the institute which is an Accredited Training Organization (ATO) of PEOPLECERT and a Certified Partner of Axelos for ITIL® Trainings. 3) PMI-ACP® course: You can earn 21 PDUs from this course. The Project Management Institute- Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® is a widely accepted certification in the Agile community. This course shows the competency of an individual in carrying out a project in any circumstances using Agile practices. For this course, select the institute which is a Registered Education Provider (REP) of Project Management Institute (PMI®). Being a PMI® member, if you are PMP, PfMP, PgMP, PMI-PBA certified then you need to earn at least 35 PDUs from Education Category, 25 PDUs from Given back to the profession category 8 PDUs from each category of Talent triangle. Also, you can grab maximum 8 PDUs from ‘Giving back to the Profession’ by ‘Working as a Practitioner’ and all 60 PDUs from education category. Do you know? PDUs can also be earned by watching recorded webinars from projectmanagement.com. These PDUs will get recorded under the ‘PDUs awarded section’ on your account page. Hence , no need to report them separately. PMI membership comes with professional membership of project management.com. Future Demand for PMP professionals- According to the Project Management Institute®, the demand for project management professionals will explode by 2020. Below is the graphical representation of the new job vacancies worldwide for project management role. Bringing it all together PMI® is a registered trademark of the Project Management, Inc. and PMP® and its logo are accredited features of the Project Management Institute (PMI®) which are enrolled in the US and other countries. You need to keep in mind that your PDUs can be examined and you could be asked to provide justification of your learning any time. So, it is better to earn your PDUs only from accredited organizations. There are various genuine ways to learn, create and claim PDUs to stand out in the market. I hope this information will help you in earning PDUs the way you want!
Rated 4.5/5
based on 5 customer reviews
304
- by KnowledgeHut Editor
- 19 Apr 2018
Are you a PMI® credential holder? Do you also hold a PMP® certificat... Read More
Peak with PMP: Reach New Heights With KnowledgeHut’s Top Courses
By KnowledgeHut Editor
Project management professional certification is one of the most reputable certifications across the globe that proves your efficiency and productivity in project management in your workplace. One should meet the following criteria in order to receive the certificate: Secondary degree holders: Should have at least 5 years of experience in project management, with 7,500 hours in leading projects and 35 hours of project management education. Four-year degree holders: Should have at least 3 years of experience in project management and spent 4,500 hours in leading projects and 35 hours of project management education. If you fulfill the above PMP credential requirements then you can apply for the PMP certification online at https://www.pmi.org/. But, ensure you make a well-defined study plan that helps to complete your PMP certification process successfully. The 35-hour project management education program is the crucial factor for your success. Opting the course from a Registered Education Provider like KnowledgeHut can help you build the foundation for the exam by equipping you with the knowledge of PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge). This training program will not only make a candidate eligible for PMP exam but also provide ample insights to shoot your target. Schedule your PMP certification exam on successful completion of the course. The exam consists of 200 objective-type questions which need to be finished within 4 hours. And, you need to answer a minimum of 137 questions correct out of 175. You will get the PMP certification as soon as you see ‘passed’ on the screen. You need to claim 60 PDUs for every 3 years in order maintain the certification and your 3-year recertification cycle begins immediately once you receive the certificate. According to a study conducted by PMI Pulse of the Profession, enterprises are getting their projects done on time, within scope, and within budget which has at least one-third of PMP certified project managers. This is because a project manager is responsible for planning, organizing, leading, monitoring or controlling, estimating cost, developing the budget, and managing risks and reports of the project. A certified project manager can play multiple roles depending on the requirements of the project such as project manager, program manager, portfolio manager, functional manager, project sponsor, project officer, and delivery manager. The demand for Project management profession is growing faster than any other occupations. Holding a PMP certification proves that you understand the global language of project management and helps to connect with a community of experts, organizations, and professionals worldwide.
Rated 4.5/5
based on 5 customer reviews
358
- by KnowledgeHut Editor
- 17 Apr 2018
Project management professional certification is one of the most reput... Read More