1. My exam preparation was not continuous as I had to do the exam preparation with my job. So the time span for the preparation was from 5-7 months. Initially it was roughly one hour per day including gaps between days.
2. My initial plan was to learn different concepts presented in PMBOK so for some topics I was going into a bit of detail which later helped me in the exam preparation.
3. It is recommended that you should try to implement what PMBOK is saying at your workplace as it was quite easy for me to remember earned value/planned value and performance reporting as I was involved in preparing monthly progress reports for three projects at my work place.
4. If you have not done your training yet, make sure you schedule the training after going through the course once. As five days are quite hectic and one can easily lose way in the middle of the training. Remember training is important.
5. Regarding Input/T&T/Output; rather than learning by heart just try to understand the concept.
6. Sample questions are VERY important, make sure you understand and theme behind your incorrect answers. Free sample questions are available from different website (Google will help you in this).
7. Joining different groups on yahoo also help a lot as some the material there is quite helpful especially the lesson learned from those who have appeared in the exam.
8. Make sure you visit the exam site once before your exam. Even the exam center was in my city, it took me some time to find the site on my first visit.
9. Four hours is quite ample time for answering 200 questions. So don’t worry if some questions are taking a bit more time. I recommend you to take at least one break (I personally took two breaks).
10. I tried to answer almost all the questions in my first attempt. If I was 80% sure about the answer I still marked that answer for later review.
11. PRAYERS; the most influential ingredient for my exam success. I did not have the expected build-up to my exam. Two-Three days before the exam my grandfather was quite sick and I even though about rescheduling my exam. Last day before exam, the electricity went off for four hours. BUT ALLAH ALMIGHTY HELPED ME AND I MANAGED TO PASS THE EXAM.
Showing posts with label Project Management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Project Management. Show all posts
Friday, June 27, 2008
Monday, February 4, 2008
Project “EVIL” Wish List
Having a wish list in your project is a common phenomenon. Everybody wants more good things in the project with fewer resources and in a short span of time.
There is no clear cut difference between wish list and necessary changes. Generally wish list can be characterized as something which does not look harmful at the start and the project manager or his/her team thinks that they can accommodate the request without suffering any delay. On the other hand, Change requests means something that will surely affect your project. When you are working on projects where funds are not coming from your own organization’s pocket, then change request can be a very good source of income.
For any project, it’s up to the project manager that how he/she conceives the wish list. In many organizations (with very few exceptions) saying a “NO” to a stakeholder wish is like putting up your resignation. So people are always in an “Accepting Mode” i.e. any wish that comes from a stakeholder is welcome or in Urdu “sir-e-tasleem kham”.
What people don’t realize is that this attitude is adversely affecting your project. Many a time this attitude results when the project manager is working simultaneously on projects and operations (like handling a portion or complete human resource department) and he/she is unable to distinguish the meaning and consequences of wish list in these two different work scenarios.
In projects (as you have scope, cost, resource, quality and time constraints) wish lists tend to have a long term impact on the health of any given project and you don’t realize the impact until or after execution phase of the project and when you do realize the impact, its very hard to trace back to the exact wish list; at the end its bad project management on your part and good critical assessment on stakeholder part.
In operations you do have the flexibility as far as triple constraints are concerned and it’s comparatively easy to evaluate the impact in early stages.
So it is better to say one “NO” than to face one hundred embarrassments.
There is no clear cut difference between wish list and necessary changes. Generally wish list can be characterized as something which does not look harmful at the start and the project manager or his/her team thinks that they can accommodate the request without suffering any delay. On the other hand, Change requests means something that will surely affect your project. When you are working on projects where funds are not coming from your own organization’s pocket, then change request can be a very good source of income.
For any project, it’s up to the project manager that how he/she conceives the wish list. In many organizations (with very few exceptions) saying a “NO” to a stakeholder wish is like putting up your resignation. So people are always in an “Accepting Mode” i.e. any wish that comes from a stakeholder is welcome or in Urdu “sir-e-tasleem kham”.
What people don’t realize is that this attitude is adversely affecting your project. Many a time this attitude results when the project manager is working simultaneously on projects and operations (like handling a portion or complete human resource department) and he/she is unable to distinguish the meaning and consequences of wish list in these two different work scenarios.
In projects (as you have scope, cost, resource, quality and time constraints) wish lists tend to have a long term impact on the health of any given project and you don’t realize the impact until or after execution phase of the project and when you do realize the impact, its very hard to trace back to the exact wish list; at the end its bad project management on your part and good critical assessment on stakeholder part.
In operations you do have the flexibility as far as triple constraints are concerned and it’s comparatively easy to evaluate the impact in early stages.
So it is better to say one “NO” than to face one hundred embarrassments.
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