How I Passed the PMP Exam

Why PMP?


From my perspective, a credential such as the PMP has tangible benefits that can be divided in two main categories: the recognition of knowledge that comes from passing the exam and the process of becoming a better project manager by learning for the exam.

The PMP credential means that one's experience and knowledge of project management is recognized by the standardizing body (the PMI), giving the owner international credibility.

On the other hand, learning for the exam itself has a strong transformational power. It forces the student to mentally walk through a series of scenarios and relive past projects to understand what went right and what went wrong then. It takes all the previous experience and knowledge and benchmarks it against standardized best practices, recognized across all industries - The PMBOK. I've mentioned experience: to qualify for the exam itself, one needs at least three full years of project management practice*.

How does the exam look like?

It is a computer based, 4 hours / 200 questions exam, which is taken at a Prometric site. There is no official break. To get a flavor of how it goes, one can check many resources online that provide test samples. Here is an example:

http://www.oliverlehmann.com/pmp-self-test/75-free-questions.htm

The exam is not very difficult yet it is not easy either. Beside a good understanding of project management philosophy, it requires concentration to correctly identify the problem, then to identify the right project management process that the problem is part of. Besides that,

• Some questions are very long and difficult to read.
• Some questions have very similar answers.
• Some questions have may seem to have all the choices correct.
• Some questions have unnecessary information.
• Some questions may pose more problems and the student is asked to identify what is the most critical to be solved next.

During my learning, I realized that it was a very thin balance between answering the questions correctly  and wrongly. A mere interruption as small as going to drink a glass water for 5 minutes resulted in a higher probability of mistake that spanned across roughly 10-15 questions (10-15 minutes). I made this measurement over many tests by identifying clusters of wrong answers around the same time I had an interruption. 

How did I study?

1. I picked a less professionally demanding period (after the first patch of Assassin's Creed Revelations PC was released) - November - December last year 2011. 

2. I enrolled in a PMP class here. Fortunately, they had a session in December. The course itself was based on the Rita Mulcahy method, which I warmly recommend.

3. Roughly 3 weeks before class, I started reading the materials (The PMP Exam Prep book, by Rita Mulcahy). 

4. I took 4 working days off of work just before the class started, to finish the book and the exercises it contained.

5. I went for 4 days in class.

6. After the class, 1 week - no learning. During this period I paid my PMI membership, completed my application, submitted it and then, after it was approved, scheduled the exam. 

7. After that, for one week, I did 50 questions a day from each knowledge area. At the end of the week I took a 100 questions sample PMP exam. For all these, I used the PMP Fast Track software, also from Rita Mulcahy. This was between Christmas and New Year's Eve.

8. For 4 days after the New Year's Eve party - nothing.

9. 3 days before the exam, I passed through the PMP Hot Topics Exam Flashcards. It took 2 days.

10. 1 day before the exam I took a full 200 questions PMP Exam to see where I stood.

11. On the 8th of January 2012 I passed the exam.

Suggestions for taking the exam:

1. Reading the materials prior to class was of extreme importance. That way, I was able to solidify my knowledge and identify gaps by asking the teacher all sorts of questions.

2. Exam questions are asked from the perspective of a large (100+ people, 1 year+, 1 million+ EUR) international project. Having experience managing this kind of project helps. 

3. It helps a lot being in a less demanding period at work. 

4. Overstudying does not help, nor does taking the exam lightly.

Good luck! :)

Note:

One insight I had while studying for the exam was that project management knowledge alone was not enough for one to succeed. Strong industry experience is also required to become an accomplished project manager.

Performance Appraisals

I believe it is important to evaluate performance not only based on absolute results, but rather on results put in the context of that person: what was his level of understanding at the moment for which we are evaluating him, his know-how, visibility, what kind of help did he receive, how was the team he worked with. Given the context, would he have been able to do better? Is he willing to learn from past mistakes? Did he have the proper means to act differently? Many environmental factors are not under the direct control of the employee nor does he feel he has control over them. Did I, his manager, do enough to provide him with the tools to take the right decisions?

Some people shine in a certain environment only to fail later when the factors they relied on change. Do we take this into consideration? Do we allow them to fail to grow or do we leave them to be failures? In order to perform, one needs to focus on strengths rather than weaknesses and learn from mistakes. What kind of example do we set when we evaluate performance? Do we apologize for our mistakes? Are we really encouraging trial and constructive failure? What do we measure? We should never  forget that the performance appraisal is one of those moments when managers show their true self: what they value and what kind of behaviour they expect from their teams.

Appraisals should be done from the heart, with true empathy. It is a very much needed and powerful moment that can affect employees for years to come (in their career path, self esteem, salary revisions, role in the company, perks). It can give them wings or it can break their wings. How much heart and care do we put in that moment? How much responsibility do we take for that moment? Do we try to level people or do we set them performance targets so that they can surpass themselves? Do we customize the appraisal to the individual and his strengths or do we try to fit everyone in the same measures? Do we work toward a Gaussian distribution for performance or do we give recognition and celebrate uniqueness? Do we really care for our men to give them feedback way in advance for them to have a chance to improve before the official paper is signed? Do we explicitly set individual performance targets that can, eventually, be exceeded?

Performance evaluations can be painful if not properly performed. They can impact morale and careers for years to come - even a lifetime. They impact salary, mobility, advancements, perks, assignments, everything. This is why we should care more about giving our guys an honest, customized feedback and set up correct performance objectives for the next appraisals rather than to look good in the eyes of our supervisors. We should try to deliver bad news in advance, verbally. We should try to give people time, space, guidance to improve or surpass our expectations. As Jack Welch put it, a good appraisal is one in which no one finds anything new.

On Leadership

(This post has originated as part of an interview for a summer school on the topic of leadership)

When I think about my leadership experiences I would say that probably there is none that may qualify as out of the ordinary if seen from outside. I would say that the most difficult battles I have fought were within myself. From outside, it is an everyday process of being there, standing for something, not quitting and encouraging others to continue when they are about to quit.

I have not experienced myself major acts of bravery, I have not saved lives, I have not taken life or death decisions. I have not seen anyone doing this around me. I have experienced though moments of triumph and set backs, I have experienced fear but also pride, I have experienced self confidence, self doubt, attacks, challenges, failures to lead and moments of courage. I have failed my team sometimes but I’ve also managed to inspire them some other times and keep them focused on shared goals. I have learned that being there for them feels good even if it means giving bad news or signaling difficult problems. I have learned that, although sometimes extremely scary, being true to yourself is the only way to feel peace inside. And I have seen others going through the same processes.

When I think about leadership the first thing that comes to my mind is the phrase “keep on going”. In this context, if I were to pick a single most relevant leadership experience I had I would pick a tough project when, although we were able to keep it afloat and ship it within the deadline, I made two mistakes: I forgot that leading meant not only ensuring product acceptance but, above all, people and relations and, secondly, I was too eager to meet the deadline at any cost, tramping upon my values. What followed were six months of “what if”’s, of soul searching. I had to rebuild team’s confidence in me. I had to be humble to compensate for my former arrogance. I read books, I met people, I asked for advice. Although emotionally challenging, it was one of the most transforming experiences I had and the hardships did not stop me.

When I had the chance to return to project leadership I promised myself that things will change. I believe that there’s nothing more intrinsic to leadership than constant learning - either from past mistakes, either from others.