Showing posts with label ACP Exam Experiences. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ACP Exam Experiences. Show all posts

Thursday, May 04, 2023

ACP Success Story: If You Have Prepared Well for Your PMP Exam, The ACP Exam Will Be A Cakewalk

 By Sandip Kumar Nath, ACP, PMP


Introduction
During my PMP certification preparation, I have already done a good amount of study in Agile concepts. So, I was already in a mindset to get an Agile certification. I’ve been a certified PMP since June, 2021.

Before taking any decision, I had reached out to my mentor, Satya Sir and shared my thoughts.  His first advice to me was to take a break, enjoy the moment of my PMP success, and then go for PMI-ACP. He also informed me that other Agile certificates will explain only about a specific Agile methodology whereas ACP will help me to understand Agile concept as a whole. 

So, I have set my mind to go for PMI-ACP certification to understand Agile deeper and better.

ACP 21 Contact Hours
Every action item should have an owner and estimated time (ETA) associated with it. After completing my 21-hour training, the first thing I did was to fill the ACP exam form and submit.

A week later my application was approved and on the same day I paid the exam fee and scheduled a target date. I targeted for exactly 12 weeks.  

Now my actual preparation has started.

Resources Used
You can use any material you feel comfortable and available to you. But refer to the Agile Practice guide read at least once. This book is very basic and doesn't elaborate much on agile specific methods but gives good clarity on the differences between Traditional Project Management and Agile Project Management.

My primary resources were these: 

As I am a PMP, it helped me a lot in my preparation for the ACP exam. I have again gone back and studied the book, I Want to be a PMP by Satya Sir, but this time I have read only the topics which were relevant for Agile concepts.

As mentioned earlier, I passed PMP on 19th June 2021. And I felt 70% of the questions asked in the PMP exam were based on agile concepts. My personal experience in PMI-ACP was, if you have prepared really well for your PMP exam, your ACP exam will be a cakewalk. I was mentally prepared that I will not get any direct questions and the same happened in the real exam.

You can read my PMP Success Story here:
PMP Success Story: Focus, Consistent Practice and Self-Belief Will Make You A PMP

Own Study
I had a simple plan and as per this plan, I wanted to put around 400 to 450 hours of study. It includes the Books, Blogs, Articles, available Questions and Answers. There were enough. So, I had planned for 4-5 hours per day for the next 12 weeks.

In addition, I followed this free course from scrum alliance.
Name of the course: Introduction to Scrum (https://scrumalliance.learnupon.com/store/804338-introduction-to-scrum) and PM Prepcast Simulator

My preparation was smooth and I faced no difficulty in preparing or submitting the application form.  

ACP Exam Experience
My exam was scheduled center based on 10th March 2023 but Pearson canceled it. So, I again booked the slot in Pearson Shivaji Nagar Branch, Bangalore on 19th April 2023, 8am.

I had taken my PMP exam from home but this time I have decided to take my ACP exam from Pearson. Though I did not face difficulties by taking the exam from home last time, I still encourage you all to go to the center and give the exam.

Both taking the ACP exam from home and center have their pros and cons. For example, while taking the exam from home: 

  • You have your own known and comfortable environment; at the same time, you must make sure that you have a reliable internet connection.
  • Ensure to find a quiet place so that you can concentrate on the exam.

If you are taking the ACP exam from center:

  • Please do not carry anything except a valid ID (Aadhar ID is not accepted).

I reached around 7:20am to the center and after all formality I hope I have started my exam around 8 am.

 
ACP Exam Taking Strategy

I followed the below ones while taking the exam.

  • My first and foremost strategy was to make myself as calm as possible. 
  • I was mentally prepared that this exam will NOT be easy with a positive note that I WILL PASS.
  • I always read the question first so that I will NOT miss key words like NOT, LEAST, MOST, EXCEPT, ALL, ALWAYS, NEVER etc. This is crucial, otherwise I will choose the wrong answer. 
  • Then I read the scenario or the problem statement to understand which context the question was asked. 
  • Final step to read all given answers choices and choose the correct option(s). 
  • Time management was a big factor.  My plan was to take 60 min per 40 questions.

Type of Questions Faced in the ACP Exam
Below is my experience with the types of questions faced. 

  • I had NO direct questions, NO key words. All questions were scenario-based.
  • Around 80% of questions were one or two liners. Very few questions had three to four sentences or more. 
  • I faced NO mathematical questions. Hence, I did not use calculator.
  • For your exam, you need to be very clear about roles/responsibilities of Stakeholders (Internal and External).
  • Many ACP exam questions were from Agile events, Stakeholders, Agile Team. These will be related to ACP Exam Domains.

During the exam, there will be some interruptions due to candidate movements and mouse click sounds! But I used the headset given me which helped a lot. This you can’t use at home if you opt to take an exam from home.   

In addition, as per exam rule you have to report 30 minutes before your scheduled time. So, it is always better if you reach a little early.

Suggestions for ACP Aspirants
Dos

  • Fix the exam date ASAP. Until you do not have the exam date, you will NOT be able to plan and execute your preparation.
  • Focus is the key. Focus on your study plan, focus on the topic you are studying now, focus while answering questions. 
  • Try to understand each topic you read and make your own notes while reading. 
  • During the exam usually, you can eliminate two answers easily but if you have difficulty in choosing between two, re-read the QUESTION first.
  • If the above step is not working for you, re-read the problem statement which has a lot of distractions and unnecessary information, considering the real question.

Don’ts 

  • During the exam, never think about the previous question(s) you already answered or the performance of your previous section. 
  • Avoid brain dump if possible. Please do not take unnecessary tension before the exam and brain dump will NOT help you in the exam.

Conclusion
It's a pleasure and privilege to write my experience and share with you readers. I believe, it will help you in your endeavor to be a PMI-ACP.

Wish you all the best for your ACP exam.

Brief Profile: Sandip Kumar Nath, PMP, ACP
Senior Manager – Delivery, Datamatics.
 



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Monday, January 17, 2022

ACP Live Lessons Success Story: ACP Live Lessons is the Best Way to Earn Your PMI-ACP Credential

 By Sindhu Pillai, PMI-ACP, PMP



Introduction

One year ago, I attended an interview and the interviewer asked me a large number of questions on Agile methodologies. I couldn’t even answer a single question properly. 

I took it very personally and felt very offended by it. I made up my mind to master this topic and decided to earn the PMI-ACP credential. 

At the end of my journey, I’ve not only earned the ACP certification, but also understand the Agile mindset and I want to pursue this understanding in my career path.


ACP 21 Contact Hours Experience

I bought Satya's PMI-ACP Book and PMI-ACP Live Video Lessons because I believe in the guarantee he claims. Both the video course and the book have helped me crack the ACP exam. In fact, I was sure that I would crack the ACP exam with Satya’s help. 

After going through all domains, I wrote a test conducted by Satya (as a part of ACP Live Lessons, FAQs). After completing the test, I received the needed 21 contract hours to fill the ACP exam application form.

Own Study

I first bought Satya’s course material (bought both the book and video course) to kick-start my preparation. However, I couldn’t stick to a regular routine of keeping in touch with the course as my official workload increased. I also had a few family emergencies because of which I had a gap in my studies and was finding it very difficult to get back on track. 

When I took PMP training from Satya, I remember his words: “Everyone is enjoying their weekends. But you are sitting here and attending classes. MAKE IT COUNT”.  I kept telling myself, “make it count Sindhu for the weekends and hours you have already put in by sacrificing all the weekend time.” 

I did put my heart and soul into preparation and went hard during December 2021, when the workload reduced. In this month and previous one, I could invest up to 8 hrs a day in preparation. 

Preparation and practice of questions will be the keys and there is no shortcut to success! I’ve gone through Satya’s Live Lessons course a couple of times till my concepts were clear. Simultaneously, I made my notes, which I could refer to whenever needed. And I did a lot of Mock Questions, which were provided by him. 

I did have my ups and downs during the preparation. Satya was always available to help me with all queries and guide me through any obstacle I came across.

Review – PMI-ACP Live Lessons

The ACP Live Lessons course comes with a money back guarantee with no conditions applied, except you appearing in the exam. I was very certain that this course is a complete package to earn this certification. Also, I’ve already used Satya’s PMP Live Lessons, which helped me to clear the PMP exam. Hence, I didn’t have any second thoughts before getting the Live lessons and the I Want To Be An ACP book from Satya. 

The ACP Live Lesson course covers every possible aspect of Agile and associated concepts. Satya has created short and long videos and broken down the lessons in such a way that it makes our life easier. At certain points Satya asks a few questions which act like revisions automatically. There are a set of Smart Card questions after every domain which ensures you have the fundamentals in place. 

After every domain there are a good number of mock questions provided. This helps you to gauge your understanding with respect to the specific domain. Once you are done preparing with all the domains, there are lessons available with video exercises which gauges your overall understanding of this course. 

I found this course very helpful in understanding the Agile principles, values, methodologies in a very insightful way.

After you are done with all the domains and practice tests provided at the end of the individual lessons, there are six full-length questions sets provided in this course. These question sets get tougher with each set. 

These question sets will train to face the exam questions where you get 180 minutes to appear 120 questions. My score was consistently above 95 to 100. Satya informed me these scores are good.

Finally, in my ACP exam, I was able to score Above Target in five domains and Target in two domains. This I did in a few months after the knowledge I gained using this course material and by doing 6 full length questions provided by Satya.

ACP Exam Experience

I booked a centre close to my house to avoid longer travel in traffic. I visited the exam centre a day prior to the exam and enquired about the documents required on the day of exam. The full-length mock questions had given me a feel of the actual exam. The more seriously you take it, the easier it will be for you in the exam.

Following are highlights from my ACP Exam:

  • In the ACP exam I faced a lot of questions on Scrum, Retrospectives, Kanban and Velocity. 
  • There are not many mathematical questions. I had faced one on Velocity.
  • The exam follows the domain distribution closely. The better prepared you are, the higher chances of you clearing the exam.
  • During the exam, keep a tab on timing and ensure you don’t spend much time on a single question. There is an option to flag the question which can be reviewed later. 
  • There is an inbuilt calculator on the screen. Hence, you don’t have to carry a calculator.

Suggestions for ACP Aspirants

Dos: 

  • Always stay focused and always stay in touch with the course during preparation. 
  • Do a lot of practice questions and revisit the areas where you go wrong.
  • Pay special attention to topics where Satya says: it’s important. 
  • I did prepare thoroughly on Scrum, Kanban, Velocity, Charts, XP, Retrospective and I did get a lot of questions in my exam related to them.
  • I’ve always visualized myself clearing the exam and returning home with a pack of sweets and that did happen, so it’s important to stay positive.

Don’ts:

  • You should always remember that by failing to prepare you are preparing to fail!! Hence, leave no stones unturned when you prepare. Success will follow you.

Conclusion

Sindhu Pillai, PMP, PMI-ACP

I’m currently working as a Project Manager in Kyndryl (previously IBM). Now I would like to work in an Agile Environment and use the knowledge & skills earned with this course and the ACP credential.


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Tuesday, August 03, 2021

ACP Live Lessons Review – One Stop Solution to Ace the PMI-ACP Exam

By John P S Oliver, PMI-ACP, PMP, RMP, PMI-PBA



During my preparation for the Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP®) exam from Project Management Institute (PMI) ®, I’ve prepared strongly to clear the exam. It’s not an easy exam like 2-days Scrum Master course or a Product Owner course, which almost everyone gets!

A question that frequently comes is this:

Is the ACP exam needed for a professional and does it truly help? 

With Agile being widely practiced not only in IT software projects but also in non-IT projects today, the PMI-ACP certification certainly adds value to one’s knowledge and career. This complements the reason why PMI-ACP is one of the fastest growing certifications in the world today. With the booming start-ups, certified agile practitioners are in high demand and having the PMI-ACP certification is certainly a differentiator in the market.

I’ve gone through this course of ACP Live Lessons – Guaranteed Pass course in-depth. I’ve also checked the lesson-end as well as full-length questions. Below is my detailed review.

Why this Course?

Let’s start with the Unique Selling Point (USP) of this course. This course provides you with all the concepts and knowledge gathered from all the reference books (10+) prescribed by PMI for the ACP examination. For example, you have books for Scrum in detail, two books for Kanban, and multiple other books related to Agile. Hence, this course virtually makes it a one stop study guide for passing your PMI-ACP examination. 

The bonus is that it comes with a full Money Back guarantee which speaks a lot about the confidence of the author in his material.

Top Advantages

Some of the top advantages of this course are as follows:

  • This is a complete course since it starts from explaining the PMI-ACP certification, its background, prerequisites, application procedure, exam fees, and exam pattern all the way to maintaining your PMI-ACP certification once you have achieved it. 
  • The course is structured in such a way that it follows the Agile Practice Guide, which is a key guide for the examination.
  • This course also provides you with the mandatory training hours required for qualifying to apply for the PMI-ACP exam.
  • This course is so comprehensive that it will not only enable the student to pass the PMI-ACP exam if they prepare well but will also provide them with the knowledge required to practice agile values, principles and approach in real time projects.

Course – ACP Live Lessons: Key Features

Following are the key aspects of the course – which I found to be unique and distinct.

  • This course is well organized with relevant chapters and topics following the Agile Practice Guide.
  • Each lesson starts with the respective list of domains, sub domains, tasks, tools and techniques (T&Ts) and knowledge and skills (K&S) from the exam content outline (ECO) applicable to the lesson. This helps us in relating the ECO to specific topics / situations which is very useful from exam point of view
  • The durations of the videos are short - the longest being 11 or 12 minutes. This helps the students in a couple of ways:
    • With most students being working professionals and pursue the course in between their work from home, they can easily bookmark and return to the videos in case of a break.
    • They can easily go back to topics that they want to refer or revise.
  • The author uses real life and practical examples to explain the concepts in plain English which makes it easy for the students to understand.
  • The author keeps updating the course in response to changes in the underlying reference material so that the students are up to date with the changes to curriculum.

Most Helpful Topics

Below are some of the topics that helped me the most:

  • Explanation of various agile framework and methodologies
    • SCRUM, XP, KANBAN, LEAN
    • Their similarities and differences
    • Scrum events
    • Scrum Artefacts
  • Conflict Management
  • Tools and Techniques for Requirements Elicitation
  • Prioritization Factors
  • Features and Benefits
  • Various Agile Exercises
  • User Stories

This course covers all concepts related to Agile including advanced Agile Management. This helps you to get a holistic knowledge of Agile and not just from an exam point of view alone. This will come in handy when you practically apply agile in your real time projects.

Question Sets

While the lesson-end questions provided me with an opportunity to test my knowledge and understanding of the lesson, the full-length questions prepared me for the exam. 

The one that helped me the most in my understanding of agile principles was "Lesson – 10: Various Agile Exercises". This is truly a differentiator and helps you master agile practices.

Specific and Important Videos 

This is a complete video set and all videos should be viewed in combination to get an overall understanding of the course. There are some videos that I believe are more useful in understanding the concepts better.

  • Videos: 3.1.35, 36 – Characteristics of Information Radiators
  • Video: 3.1.44 – Collaboration vs. Coordination
  • Video: 3.2.10 – Scrum Events – Figure
  • Video: 4.1.7 – Features, Benefits, Agile Business Value
  • Video: 4.1.14,15 – Prioritization Factors
  • Video: 4.1.25, 26 – Backlog Refinement
  • Video: 4.1.51 – Agile Contracting Techniques
  • Video: 5.1.8 – Stakeholder levels and classification models 
  • Video: 5.1.16 – 27 Eliciting Stakeholder Requirements to Collaboration Games
  • Video: 6.1.12 – Agile Team – Roles and Responsibilities
  • Video: 6.1.14 to 6.1.20 – Building Agile Teams to Team Motivation
  • Video: 7.1.19, 20 – User Stories and Type of Stories
  • Video: 7.1.61 – Agile Earned Value Management (Agile EVM)
  • Video: 8.1.10 – Technical Debt
  • Video: 8.1.12 to 23 – Risk Management in Agile
  • Video: 9.1.23, 24 – Value Stream Mapping
  • Video: 9.1.31 to 45 – Retrospectives

It’s pertinent to note that throughout the course, the author uses various examples and snapshots to explain the concepts and metrics:

  • For example, a real-time user for Personas helps you to not only understand the concept but also provides you with a template to use in real life projects. 
  • Some other useful snapshots are the Kanban Board, Task Board, Burn down chart, Fishbone diagram.

The PMI-ACP formula gold card is very useful as I had received a couple of formula-based questions especially on Agile EVM and EMV.

One of the highlights of this course is the yogic vision and yogic revision tips throughout the lessons which induces you to revise important concepts and points from the exam point of view. The tips for before/during/after the exam will guide you to prepare for the exam in an assured way.

Lessons in the Course – ACP Live Lessons

This course has multiple Lessons (from “Welcome” to “Lesson - 12”). Following are some of the important notes for each lesson. 

Lesson – 1: Welcome

The course starts with the “Welcome” lesson which provides you with an overview of this ACP Live Lessons course including details about the Author, his qualification and experience, how to approach this course, and the money back guarantee criteria. In fact, I don’t think moneyback guarantee is needed because I am sure anybody who goes through this course and takes the exam with due preparation will only have success as the outcome.

With this course you will also get the 21 contact hours certificate required for taking the exam (in my opinion, a Big Bonus). This welcome session helps us in getting started with the course.

Lesson – 2: Introduction

This lesson provides the background and overview of PMI certifications and the uniqueness of PMI-ACP certification. It covers the pre-requisites, exam content outline, exam structure, performance domains, tools and techniques, knowledge and skills of PMI-ACP certification. This lesson also provides information on the cost, blueprint and process of the PMI-ACP exam along with guidelines for filling up the application form and maintaining your PMI-ACP certification once you have earned it. 

In short, this lesson helps us in understanding the PMI-ACP certification and sets us on our journey to achieving the PMI-ACP certification.

Lesson – 3: Agile Principles and Mindset (Duration: Over 5 hours)

This lesson covers agile frameworks and approaches. This session covers all Domains, Sub Domain, Tasks, Tools & Techniques and Knowledge & Skills. I had questions on Scrum, XP, Kanban and Lean approaches. 

The lesson helped me through the exercises to remember, yogic vision and yogic revision tips. Especially the Artefacts and Events related to the approaches were presented in a coherent and easy to recall manner. I received a few questions on Scrum roles, events and Artefacts, Information radiators. 

Lesson – 4: Value Driven Delivery (Duration: Neary 4 hours)

This is the lesson that generates the MOST number of questions in the exam. 

I received quite a number of questions in my exam as well. This lesson covers Features and Benefits, User Stories, Accounting Principles, Prioritization factors and Techniques, Backlog Refinement, Risk Adjusted Backlog, Scrum and Kanban, EMV, DoD, Agile Contracts, Compliance, among others.

Lesson – 5: Stakeholder Engagement (Duration: Over 3 hours) 

I received a couple of questions from this lesson. 

This lesson informs in detail on Agile Business Case, Elements of Project Charter, Tools and Techniques for elicitation – Personas, Collaboration games, Communication Options and effectiveness, Synchronous and Asynchronous communication, Levels of listening, Conflict Resolution Strategies, among others.

Lesson – 6: Team Performance (Duration: Nearly 3.5 hours)

Some important topics in this lesson are Modes in Training, Coaching and Mentoring, Levels of coaching, Osmotic Communication, Characteristics of Agile teams, Velocity, Various performance tracking tools etc. 

Burn down charts is another important topic. I received a couple of questions on velocity and burn down charts. 

Lesson – 7: Adaptive Planning (Duration: Over 4 hours)

Important topics from this lesson are Agile Discovery, DEEP Characteristics, User Stories, Story Map, Various estimation techniques, and Agile EVM.

In my ACP exam, I received questions on User Stories, Estimation Techniques and Agile EVM.

Lesson – 8: Problem Detection and Resolution (Duration: Nearly 3 hours)

In my exam, there were questions from this domain as well. It covers Risk Management, Cycle Time and Lead Time, Throughput, Variance and Trend Analysis, Problem Solving Techniques, among others in depth.

Lesson – 9: Continuous Improvement (Duration: Nearly 3.5 hours)

Retrospectives is one of the most important topics from an exam point of view, please be thorough in your understanding of retrospectives – their objective, timing, participants, duration, input, output etc. 

I had a couple of questions on retrospectives, all situational. I also had questions from other areas. This lesson discusses Kaizen, Hybrid Model, Seven Wastes and Value Stream Mapping, Pre-Mortem, Fishbone analysis, Agile Coach – Success and Failure modes.

Lesson – 10: Various Agile Exercises (Duration: 1.5 hours)

This is a bonus for the video lessons and a key differentiator. These exercises provide a great way to measure your level of understanding of the agile concepts and revisit and revise them.

Lesson – 11: 6 Full Length Question and Answer Sets

The questions are of high quality and exhaustive. While the PMI-ACP book has only 3 full sets, the ACP Video Lessons has 6 full length questions and answers and your scores on this will serve as an indicator of your readiness to take up the exam.

Lesson – 12: Final Talk (06m 15s)

This session provides you with tips to prepare for PMI-ACP before, during and after the exam. The PMI-ACP formula gold cards provide you with a ready reckoner of the various formulas used in Agile and will be helpful in your exam.


Brief Profile: 

Name: John P S Oliver, PMI-ACP, PMP, RMP, PMI-PBA

Current Role: Supply Chain Manager

Brief experience details: 23+ years of in ITES operations and project management across BFSI, Healthcare, Telecom and Retail verticals.




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Saturday, June 12, 2021

ACP Live Lessons – Guaranteed Pass or Your Money Back

 



I am delighted to announce the availability of ACP® Live Lessons, a complete video course. 

ACP Live Lessons – Guaranteed Pass or Your Money Back

The Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) from Project Management Institute (PMI®) is a well-recognized and advanced certification in the Agile domain.

This is the ONLY such course in the world. No one ever has given a guaranteed pass, with FULL money back on ACP exam in two attempts with video lessons. This course was in private mode with a group of people for sometime. The current post announces the course going fully public.

I believe that the ACP certification is achievable for any genuine candidate. Anyone who truly aspires to be a PMI-ACP, can surely be one. One needs right content, proper direction, solid understanding of concepts with sufficient practice and of course hard work, to crack the exam. ACP Live Lessons meets this need.

This course has been requested by aspiring ACP because the coverage for ACP exam is quite different, advanced and deep. In-spite of them going through multiple classroom and virtual sessions, they are unable to have the confidence to appear for the exam.  There are few ACPs around the world – around 40,000, though many providers claim misleadingly. The ACP credential definitely stands as a differentiator in your profile. Unlike various "masters" in Scrum, who are created in 2- or 3-days of training and are in millions and millions now, the PMI-ACP credential is not easy to achieve. Hence, it has value!

ACP Live Lessons course has been internally available for some time with a few people aspiring to be PMI-ACPs. With this post, this course is now fully public. The contents of this course have been used already by successful ACPs, worldwide, who have used few videos to clear the exam. Now, it’s a full-fledged video course and available to everyone. 

For sample videos, you can refer the below link.

Sample Videos for ACP Live Lessons - 1 (8)

Sample Videos for ACP Live Lessons - 2 (10)

Sample Videos for ACP Live Lessons - 3 (11)

The ACP certification is NOT equal to the Project Management Professional (PMP®) as many think it to be. The learning for this certification will be at least 5x more when compared to the new PMP exam, particularly when you consider Agile. When compared with the pre-2021 old PMP exam, the learning will be 8x to 9x more. The exam coverage scope is vast, because it takes multiple reference books and one guide. In addition, you need to be aware of scaled Agile approaches. These make many aspiring ACPs struggle.

The ACP Live Lessons course incorporates all the needed areas, including the latest practices and concepts in Agile. It has exhaustive content with high quality practice questions so that you crack the ACP exam. 

Top 12 Features: ACP Live Lessons

  1. Total Video Duration: 30 hours (29h 41m 16s) 
  2. Number of Videos: 480
  3. Number of Lessons: 12
  4. Number of Questions: 1254
  5. Number of Full-Length Question Sets: 6 (total = 720 Questions) 
  6. Practice Questions: 60 questions (average)
  7. Smart Cards: 160 (Smart Cards referring Agile guides and others)
  8. Figures and explanations: 100+
  9. Video Exercises on Agile with explanations: 107
  10. Tips and Tricks: 100s of Tips throughout the lessons
  11. Practical Tools: Usage of practical tools such as MS Project, Atlassian Jira in areas such as Release Planning, Iteration/Sprint Planning, and metrics.
  12. 21 Contact Hours Certificate: Mandatory 21 contact hours certificate needed to sit in the ACP is part of this course.

The content of this video course is highly simplified so that you can understand quickly. The videos are highly interactive, with a number of exercises and interactive questions.

Course Breakdown: ACP Live Lessons 

  • Lesson 1 – Welcome (9 videos): 18m 41s [18 minutes 41 seconds]
  • Lesson 2 – Introduction (19 videos): 1h 13m 16s
  • Lesson 3 – Agile Principles and Mindset (80 videos): 5h 26m 21s
  • Lesson 4 – Value Driven Delivery (58 videos): 3h 53m 52s
  • Lesson 5 – Stakeholder Engagement (55 videos): 3h 02m 34s
  • Lesson 6 – Team Performance (64 videos): 3h 23m 33s
  • Lesson 7 – Adaptive Planning (69 videos): 4h 14m 38s
  • Lesson 8 – Problem Detection and Resolution (46 videos): 2h 55m 16s
  • Lesson 9 – Continuous Improvement (61 videos): 3h 35m 16s
  • Lesson 10 – Various Agile Exercises (17 videos): 1h 31m 31s
  • Lesson 13 – Six Full Length Question and Answer Sets (720 Q&As)
  • Lesson 14 – Final Talk - ACPP Live Lessons (2 videos): 06m 15s

The details on it this course, with information on additional features, are available also available at:

https://www.managementyogi.com/p/acp-live-lessons.html


What is Full Money Back Guarantee for ACP Live Lessons Course?

You go through the videos, along with detailed instructions (also in video format), and appear in the ACP exam – only two attempts. If you couldn’t clear, share your exam report. I’ll refund your entire money - no questions asked. 

There are no little tricks, such as – “terms or conditions apply”, “appear the exam multiple times till you pass”, “** conditions (conditions with stars in the footnote in small letters)”, as you would have seen in many places. What you see (and reading in this post) is what you get.

The premise is simple – Give the exam. You pass and you are a PMI-ACP. You win. In case you couldn’t clear the exam, your full money will be with you. You still win.

You will also have the 21 contact hours certificate free of cost. The course, as noted in the top features, provides this certificate. This is another win for you.  

The below video explains the money-back guarantee scheme [2m:26s]. It has the goal (one), objectives (two) and motto (one) for ACP Live Lessons.


Note: You can also evaluate the videos before paying any money. Up-to thirty (30) videos will be available for your evaluation, even before your purchase. 

Applicability and Validity

  • ACP Exam Base: Agile Practice Guide (APG) from PMI, Eleven (11) recommended reference books by PMI, around 50+ other books on Lean-Agile approaches and practices. 
  • Course Duration: 6 months or 1 year from the date of purchase
  • Price:
    $US 709/ Rs 56,719. Now $US 379/ Rs 34,109 (6 months access)
    $US 949/ Rs 75,949. Now $US 439/ Rs 39,509 (1 year access)
  • Payment: paypal.me/managementyogi
    (Login, Send your payment to paypal account of ndsatya@gmail.com, Enter the amount; Invoice will be generated after payment)
    OR, you can pay via Bank Transfer or Payment. For this, please send a mail to managementyogi@gmail.com to get account the details.
  • Available since: June, 2021
    (Updated in 2024)
  • Primary Format: Video 
  • Status: Available
    (accessible via laptop/desktop)

Detailed Course Breakdown

The detailed course breakdown is shown below. It details the hours of learning, number of videos and practice questions, along with various exercise details. You can scroll to see the full content. 



You can also see it in a larger screen by clicking the arrow on the link below:

Course Index – ACP Live Lessons, Guaranteed Pass


You can also see the sample videos in a playlist.

ACP Guaranteed Pass Sample Video Playlist (18 Videos) 

If you want to buy this course or have any question, please send an email to managementyogi@gmail.com. 



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Friday, January 15, 2021

PMI-ACP Success Story: Agile is Essential for Delivering Customer Value and ROI – Early and Continuously

By John P S Oliver, ACP, PMP, PBA, RMP



Introduction

Being in the financial services industry which is highly regulated, my organization started to increasingly embrace the agile way of approach in its projects to achieve customer satisfaction and realize benefits early. Being a functional owner with a high focus on improving process efficiencies and effectiveness, we started following the agile approach for the implementation of various improvement initiatives like automation of manual processes, improving compliance etc.

While I had touched upon agile practices during my preparation for PMP® certification, with the continued emphasis on agile approach for our projects, I believed that gaining a deeper knowledge and practice of the agile values, principles and approaches will help me in my quest to become a successful agile practitioner and hence I decided to pursue the PMI-ACP® certification.

First Preparation

Once I decided to pursue the PMI-ACP certification, I reached out to Satya Sir for his inputs on getting the mandatory 21 hours of training in agile practices. Satya Sir advised me to go through the PMI®’s Agile Practice Guide which was one of the primary reference books for the PMI-ACP certification exam. I also came to know about his recently updated book: I Want To Be An ACP, Second Edition.

I started my preparation for the PMI-ACP certification with reading PMI’s Agile Practice Guide. I completed reading the Agile Practice Guide and enrolled with a service provider for an online course of PMI-ACP training. 

Once I completed the online course and received the mandatory PDUs, I submitted my application for PMI-ACP certification.

Upon receiving approval from PMI, I reached out to Satya Sir and decided to use his book “I Want To Be An ACP, Second Edition” for my certification exam preparation.

Own Study

I started my preparation for the exam with creating a plan to complete one chapter with the corresponding chapter end questions from Satya Sir’s book: I Want To Be An ACP, Second Edition.

I had applied for 2 weeks of leave and dedicated 8 hours a day for preparation.

The only books I referred were Satya Sir’s book, I Want To Be An ACP, Second Edition, PMI’s Agile Practice Guide and PMI-ACP exam content outline.

For the sample questions, Satya Sir’s book has 3 complete full set questions in addition to the chapter end questions. I also used the sample questions that came with the online training course that I enrolled for the mandatory PDUs.

I completed the chapters of Satya Sir’s book twice (Initial reading and Revision) and completed the 3 complete full set of questions once.

Book Review - I Want To Be An ACP

The reason for going with Satya Sir’s book - I Want To Be An ACP, Second Edition as the primary reference book was the confidence due to the fact that I had already used his books and study materials in my preparation for PMP® and RMP® certifications and they were instrumental in passing the exams.

My PMP exam experience:
PMP Live Lessons Was Instrumental in Getting My PMP Credential

My RMP exam experience:
Risk Management - Essential for Professional and Personal Success 

The book encompasses knowledge from all the reference books listed by PMI for ACP certification. In fact, in my opinion, this book is a one stop reference book for the PMI-ACP certification exam.

The book follows the pattern of the PMI-ACP exam content outline (ECO), aligned with PMI's Agile Practice Guide and so is easy to follow and cross reference. 

The vision and revision tips in the book helped me to immediately refer relevant topics for revision. The chapter end questions helped me to gauge my understanding of the topics. I used them to revise the portions in relation to the questions where I went wrong.

The 3 complete full set of questions were of high quality and the explanations for the answers helped me immensely in understanding the reasoning behind the correct choice. I was able to improve my performance with each mock exam.

ACP Exam Experience

I completed the initial reading of Satya Sir’s book completely with the chapter end questions and scheduled my exam for 7-January-2021, 8:00 AM slot at the Pearson Vue centre, Chennai. I used the remaining days to complete the revision and the mock exams.

I reached the centre by 7:30 AM on the exam date and completed the formalities. I started my exam at around 8 AM. As I progressed through the exam, I noticed that I was taking more time for each question compared to the time taken in mock exams and hence kept a track of the remaining time. I completed the exam without any break and with 6 minutes to spare. I submitted my responses and competed the survey. I was happy to see the congratulatory message on successfully obtaining the PMI-ACP certification.

Types of Questions Faced

  • The majority of the questions were situational in nature.
  • Very few graphical questions.
  • Very few mathematical questions. 
  • More questions on Value Driven Delivery, Agile Principles and Mindset and Stakeholder Engagement domains.

Suggestions for ACP Aspirants

Dos

  • Plan and schedule the exam well in advance.
  • Prepare a realistic schedule and follow it.
  • Prepare a short list of reference books and use them for your preparation.
    (Ideally not more than 2 if you go for Satya Sir’s book)
  • Schedule enough time for taking up mock questions and revision.

Don’ts

  • Do not use more than 2 or 3 study resources as you can spend the extra time available on attempting more mock questions.
  • Do not attempt questions before you completely study the resources at least once.
  • Don’t panic during the exam if you do not know the answer for a particular question, Mark it for review and proceed with the next one – You can always come back to the marked question later.

Conclusion

I would like to thank the Almighty for his blessings, my reporting manager for approving my leaves for preparation and Satya Sir for his book: I Want To Be An ACP, Second Edition.


Brief Profile:

Name: John P S Oliver

Current Role: Supply Chain Manager

Experience: 23+ years of experience in ITES operations and project management across BFSI, Healthcare, Telecom and Retail verticals.



Book Available for ACP Exam Prep:

Book Excerpts:

PMI-ACP Success Stories:



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