ICPM

Job/Task-Related Training

A quality organization understands the value of the people who work in it. The same goes for project management. Training project managers, analysts, and everyone else who regularly works on projects in the company methodology, soft skills, etc. can bring significant rewards.

My first tip for those of you on the road to the PMP is to read the PMI Credentials Handbook.

The PMI has published a Credentials Handbook, which you can find at the following URL: http://www.pmi.org/info/PDC_PMPHandbook.pdf. The Credentials Handbook explains everything that you want to know about the process of taking the PMP® exam and becoming PMP® certified. It discusses the following topics and questions:

I recently studied Frederick Hertzberg's article on his motivational theory, in the Harvard Business Review. The title is "One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?"

I've heard about the theory before of course, vaguely referred to as the hygiene/motivator theory and it usually managed to earn about 1 slide in a presentation flooded with motivational theories. I was excited to read the author's article and understand the theory in more depth. There is a lot of value in it for project managers, and I'd like to share some of my notes and thoughts.

Multi-tasking is a subject I'm passionate about. Passionate about NOT doing actually, whenever possible. Let me start by identifying two types of multi-tasking, bad and required. 

Bad multi-tasking is working on two things simultaneously, or switching between things because something else is suddenly urgent, but not important enough to justify dropping everything you are working on. Many of us never stop to think about it though, we automatically equate urgency to priority. Just because something seems urgent doesn't mean you should drop everything. Remember Mr. Covey's 4 quadrants:

Analogous estimating - Uses similar historical information to predict the cost of the current project. Such estimates are usually performed early in a project and rely on knowledge of the actual cost outcomes from similar projects.

Constraints are factors that may limit the project management team’s options, whereas assumptions are factors that for planning purposes may be considered to be true, real, or certain. Understand the differences between constraints and assumptions, and be able to recognize examples of both. 

PMP Exam Prep Classes or Boot Camps: These cram session courses are specifically designed to fill your mind with the knowledge required to pass the test. Typically a more expensive route, but very effective at helping you beat the PMP Exam. We recommend Exam Prep Classes through ReadySetPass.com, as their classes are priced mid-range and provide project managers with more understanding of real life application than that of industry competitors. Most of these courses qualify for contact hours or PDU’s, which can be used on your application with PMI.