Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
January 10th, 2011 | 
Author: With all the talk of managing projects via Twitter, web-based tools, and more collaborative/social mediums there is still a lack of wide-spread adoption of PM/PPM management tools at many organizations. Many projects still cobble together some Excel spreadsheets, static MS Project file, and MS Viso schemas into a PowerPoint presentations. Version control, standardization, collaboration, real-time updates, etc are all so close yet so far away!
Source: http://kellycrew.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/top-10-issues-for-project-managers/
The sheer number of tools – both good and bad – is daunting. We’d like to think our tool of choice – web2project – solves all of them but there’s still No Silver Bullet.
Source: Keith Casey
Posted in 
Hello, my name is Asaf Gilad.
I’m an information systems engineer and nowadays I work in a consulting company for project management.
During my very short career I have managed to work as a programmer, system analyst and project officer. The lack of a solid experience in any of those functions makes it very difficult for me to find out what is the secret for a good project.
I’m well aware that no one has solved this riddle before and that probably, no one ever will. I have spoken with a lot of people: friends, colleges and even a couple of CEO’s. I’ve read books which represent the opinions of many others. It seems that a “teach your self project management in 21 days” book is just not practical.
So, as you probably understood by now, I’m not going to write about new methods or new ideas. I will present this exciting world from my point of view and as I understand it.
I have mentioned before my multi disciplines point of view which let me examine this world from a multiple different and sometimes opposite angles:
I know what it is like to be a developer in a cubic or a mechanic in the operation floor. You do your best; work all day long, only to get a basic salary or less and being criticized by all.
I also know the huge pressures on the management that must master enormous volumes of data and some out turn it into information and if this monstrous task is not enough, it has to take good decisions as fast as possible.
I also know that the project manager is trapped in the middle in a position which is hard to accept: the employees just don’t have the time or the will for this overhead effort and the management feels like they are loosing control by letting the project manager manage the project.
I’ll try to solve this conflict for me by analyzing the tasks of the PMO and hope that you’ll find this little brain storming interesting.
Asaf Gilad
Source: giladasaf
“Have you ever noticed how certain questions come up again and again on Stack Overflow sites?”
— From The Wikipedia of Long Tail Programming Questions, over on the Stack Overflow blog.
Need to hire a really great programmer? Want a job that doesn’t drive you crazy? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people.
Source: Joel Spolsky
As the days spin forward changes are in the wind. The new PMBOK is just around the corner and only God knows what will change.
I have been doing some work for PM Mentors in Austin, helping to edit curriculum and develop a PMI test simulator. They have a 97% pass rate with their students, so I am am fairly intimate with many of the subtle changes in the certification exam that have already happened. Do you know what a “stakeholder networking meeting” is? Or which former PMI suggested meeting name it replaces?
Most changes in the exam are not announced. Heck, they may not see the light of day till the new PMBOK arrives! That is one reason sites like this are so helpful… professionals can exchange ideas and stay on the cutting edge with up-to-date info. There are ethical considerations too- PMI does not want testing PMP candidates to disclose the specifics of the exam. And rightly so. A Project Manager should know the job well, not learn it by rote.
For those of you who are project managers and have never sought your certification but are considering it… be aware that a lot of the stuff on the exam is not in the “Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge.”
Okay, the “project briefing meeting” appears to now be the “stakeholder networking meeting.” If you know of any other items in the PMBOK which are obsolete or things it would be helpful for certification candidates to know about(without being unethical) post it. May all your projects succeed!
Source: austinjoep
PMP Exam
One of the most high demand and credible certification available is the PMP® (Project Management Professional) certification offered by PMI® (Project Management Institute). The PMP demonstrates advanced knowledge of and experience with Project Management concepts. Today, there are over 250,000 PMP-certified project managers worldwide. To obtain PMP certification, a candidate must satisfy the followings:
Educational requirements
Experiential requirements
Agree to and adhere to PMI Code of Professional Conduct
Pass the PMP Certification Examination
The Project Management Professional (PMP) is the project management credential of choice for numerous industries and companies. By attaining the PMP credential, your name will be included in the largest and most prestigious group of credentialed professionals in the project management community. Many who have PMP designation have received raises, or promotions as a result.
2. PMP Exam Passing Score
There are 200 questions you need to answer in 4 hours. 25 pretest questions are randomly placed throughout the test to gather statistical information on the performance of these questions in order to determine whether they may be used on future examinations. These 25 pretest items are included in the 200-question examination, but will not be included in the pass/fail determination; candidates will be scored on 175 questions.
There are still 200 questions you need to answer in 4 hours. You will not be scored for 25 questions. But, you will not know which questions are pretest questions and if you will be scored or not for a question. Therefore, you must make every effort to answer all of the exam questions correctly.
PMI made a decision in 2006 to no more publish passing scores for its exams. In 2007, PMI also removed all quantitative elements from the post-exam review for test candidates. The passing score is estimated inside a range between 61% and 75%.
3. PMP Exam Itself
The first 15 minutes, you will be asked to go over a tutorial. 15 minutes to review tutorial is not included 4 hours exam duration. Reviewing tutorial approximately takes 5 minutes. You can use 10 minutes of this time to jot down formulas, all processes, and knowledge areas on your scratch paper as you did in the ‘Exam Cheat Sheet Workbook’. Don’t skip this step. During the exam, you need to focus on the question instead of trying to remember formulas. You can just refer to written formulas when those questions arise rather than having to reach into your memory during the stress of a timed exam.
25 pretest questions will be randomly placed throughout the new examination to gather statistical information on the performance of these questions in order to determine whether they may be used on future examinations. These 25 pretest items are included in the 200-question examination, but will not be included in the pass/fail determination; candidates will be scored on 175 questions.
There are still 200 questions you need to answer in 4 hours. You will not be scored for 25 questions but you will not know which questions are pretest questions and if you will be scored or not for a question. Therefore, you must make every effort to answer all of the questions correctly.
Each question on this exam is worth exactly as much as the next. The very simple ones and the more complex ones are not weighted against each other; all are the same weight. So if you do not want to deal with a question that you do not understand at first, do not.
Select Mark for review for your answers you are not sure about. After you complete all questions, review marked questions. Make sure that you have some time to review marked questions at least once more.
Do NOT leave blank any question. There is no penalty for incorrect answers.
All questions are worth the same value. One question, one point.
The questions are in random order. They are not grouped by knowledge area.
Look at all the answers before you answer the question. Take time to read all the answers, even if you are sure that the answer under the letter A is the correct one. You may find that there will be an even better answer in the other options.
If the question is too long, first read the last sentence to understand what the question is? Sometimes, the information given in the question is not necessary to be able to answer the question. However, read the question at least once.
If you are not sure the answer of the question, eliminate the answers. Usually, you can reduce the possible correct answer to two options. Use your logic and select the best answer between two.
Getting done early helps. It gives you a chance to go back over some of your answers.
Esra Guven, BScEE, PMP
Founder/Director, STAR-PM,
http://www.star-pm.com
Esra Guven is the Founder of Star-PM and serves in the position of Director. In this capacity, Ms. Guven prepares and provides all the informative study guides on the website and in the published study guide. She is a qualified trainer who has over 10 years of project management experience in the Information Technology area. She is also author of a PMP Certification Book called “Pass PMP Exam on Your First Try, Aligned with PMBOK 4th Edition” which is recently published in Canada.
She can be reached by e-mail at esra.guven@star-pm.com at http://www.star-pm.com
Source: PMP Guru