PMP Success Story: Systematic Study and Practice - Keys To PMP Success

By Sandeep Meloth, PMP

I have been practicing project management for more than 10 years, but was never serious about taking PMP certification. 

It was a chance encounter in my company’s external trainings list that prompted me to take up the PMP coaching workshop. 


PMP Coaching Experience
During the workshop, I was able to appreciate many concepts like for e.g. the Project Management Plan document which I had developed for many projects without knowing its importance. 

I wish I had taken up PMP certification few years ago to make project management an enjoyable experience.  Satya has a structured way of teaching and the end of the workshop, the 10 process areas and 47 Knowledge areas are registered in your mind.  His tips are tricks for certain topics and preparing for the exam are really helpful.

Own Preparation
After the workshop, I made a list of topics like Earned Value Management (EVM), change management, mathematical questions etc. that I need to understand better and made a deeper study of those topics. Other than I Want To Be A PMP book, initially I referred the Headfirst PMP book for getting an overall understanding of the topics and referred Rita Mulcahy’s PMP Exam Prep book which I found to be useful when it comes to detailed explanation of topics. Also, I made a copy of the questions at the end of each chapter from the reference books in one place so as to practice in the last month before the exam. I also found the questions in the form of crosswords to be a useful way of learning.

In the last one month before the exam, I practiced all the questions that I had gathered and also worked out few full-length mock exams. 

About the Book “I Want To Be A PMP”
Actually, my sole intention of purchasing this book was to the cover the newly added 2016 changes. However, I found many useful contents like explanations on mathematical questions, many videos etc. in the book. And the best part were the 3 full length practice exams that is provided as part of this book. 

By taking these 3 full length practice exams, you are equipped for the worst case and can be rest assured of clearing the exam in the first attempt.


Final Words
It is not enough to get PMP certified but practicing project management with a good judgement of the guiding principles of PMP and ethics can only make us a successful Project Manager. 

Brief Profile 
Sandeep Meloth is a Product Engineering Specialist in a leading MNC

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PMP Protein: Critical Path Method – Basics

By Manas Das, PMP

Critical Path Method (CPM) is known as one of the key schedule network analysis techniques in “Develop Schedule” process of Time Management knowledge area, under planning process group. 

This analysis is applied on the schedule network diagram, which is created in “Sequence Activities” process – also in Time Management knowledge area and planning process group.


The simplified diagram with the only the key input and outputs, along with the CPM technique is shown below. 

What is Critical Path?
Let’s see the definition of critical path. 
“Critical path is the shortest possible duration within which the project will be completed or critical path is the longest path in the network.”

Above two lines defining critical path may look contradictory to you, but they are not! It means if the critical path is delayed, then the project’s end date will be pushed. Hence it is the shortest possible duration within which the project will be completed. The other aspect – longest possible path, informs us that if you delay on this path, of course the project duration will be elongated. 

It’s worth to understand that activities on a critical path are critical from schedule point of view only and not from functionality or complexity point of view. Project management practitioners, who are new to this concept, confuse on this. All activities on the critical path are known as critical activities. 

Again, the activities are critical, because if you delay any activity on critical path, the project end date will be pushed further. 

More the number of critical paths, more the risks to the project. Let’s check this scenario. Imagine you have a schedule network diagram with multiple critical paths. As it has many critical paths, you can say that there are multiple ways in which the schedule can be delayed. Hence, more risks. 

Let’s take an example to understand more on it. Below, a simple network diagram is shown with various activities. The duration of the activities is in days, e.g., Activity A is of 5 days duration.

There are 3 different ways to complete the tasks which will take different time to complete as below.
Path -1: Start – A -  B – D – F – End = 16 days
Path-2: Start – A – B – E – F – End = 15 days
Path-3: Start – A – C – E – F - End =11 days

But Critical path is Start – A – B – D – F - End being the longest path which takes 16 days to be completed.

Second Definition of Critical Path 
There is another definition of critical path as well, which you can see while using project-portfolio management tools such as Microsoft Project or Oracle Primavera. It goes as follows. 

“Critical path is the network path in which the total float of activities can be less than or equal to zero.”

Total Float and Free Float
To understand the second definition of critical path, first it requires to understand what total float and free float.

There are two types of floats.

• Total Float (TF): By how much time you can delay the task (or activity) so that it does not delay the project finish date or violate schedule constraint. It can be noted as TF.
• Free Float (FF): By how much time you can delay the task (or activity) so that it does not delay the subsequent task(s) or the successor task(s). It can be noted as FF.

For critical tasks, Total Float can be “0” or can be “Negative”. Critical tasks will have Free Float as “0”. To understand it with an example, you can refer this post:

Primavera P6 - Critical Path is Not Always The Longest Path

Taking one of the figures from the above article, we have two critical paths shown, which are highlighted in read in the graphical side of the Schedule Layout.

 Critical Path 1: Start – Activity A – Activity B = 5 days 
Critical Path 2: Start – Activity E – Activity – Finish = 8 days

As you can see Activity A is not on the longest path (the path is only of 5 days duration), but still it is highlighted as a critical activity. Because this activity has negative total float of value “-1 day”. Of course, the other two activities – Activity E and F are critical activities, because their TF values are zeroes. 

References: 
1. “6.6.2.2: Critical Path Method” from PMBOK Guide 5th Edition.
2. “6.7.2 Critical Path Method (CPM)” from Book - I Want To Be A PMP by Satya Narayan Dash.


Brief Profile: Manas Das, Project Manager Infosys Technologies
Manas Das has 12+ years of work experience and is playing a Project Manager role for retail portfolios in NA geography for Enterprise Application Services.

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PMP Success Story: Journey Was Worth The Time and Effort

By Krishnadas CK, PMP

Introduction
Getting recognized within my organization as a credible Project Manager was the primary motivation behind pursuing PMP®. 

Roadmap to get PMP certified
My initial idea was to obtain 35 contact hours by e-learning and then cover the PMBOK® Guide before appearing for the exam. After completing an initial round of e-learning, I changed my plan and decided to attend classroom coaching to ensure that I pass the exam in the first attempt itself!

PMP Coaching Experience
I registered for classroom training with one of the providers in Bangalore for a June 2017 weekend batch (4 days in total). Given amount of project management knowledge required to be certified as PMP, I wasn’t expecting much from 35 hours of classroom coaching apart from getting the needed contact hours. Contrary to my expectation, Satya Narayan Dash (who was our coach) covered all the important concepts and knowledge areas within limited time, in the best way possible.

The key takeaways from the class were:

• Understanding key concepts to be aware of while becoming a Project Management Professional.
• Areas to focus on while preparing for exam.

What helped me the classroom session were:

• Real-life examples shared during interactions.
• Examples given on blog (https://managementyogi.blogspot.com)  clarifying concepts.
• Advice on a having a structured plan to approach the exam.

Own Study
I took approximately 6 months (March to Aug 2017) to prepare and get certified as PMP. Initial 3 months were e-learning with an average dedication of 10 hours per week. 
Next 3 months were used to read reference guide and books. I used:

• PMI PMBOK Guide 5th Edition
• I Want To Be A PMP by Satya Narayan Dash
• PMP Exam Preparation 8th Edition by Rita Mulcahy
• Various blogs/articles – Microsoft Project User Group (MPUG) at https://www.mpug.com , https://edward-designer.com/web/pmp/ etc.

Also, took 3 full mock-tests with other practice questions adding up to another 3 full tests before appearing for the exam.  During the latter 3 months, average time dedicated was 20 to 25 hours per week. 

PMP Exam Experience
After covering the topics once, attending classroom coaching and planning my further study in detail, I scheduled the exam one-month in advance. I scheduled the exam at Bangalore in the morning of 28th August, 2017.

Though I referred and was advised of various approaches, based on mock-tests I realised, I am more of a person who would spend quality time the very first time. Hence, decided to stick to one question per minute approach. Exam was completed and submitted with 5 minutes to spare.

During the exam, I struggled more on the questions related to Initiating process group where exam demanded you to attend to situations directly with the senior management without the involvement of sponsor. There were also questions that required to have a clear understanding of Risk register and Issue register. There were only 4 or 5 mathematical questions and they weren’t very difficult ones.

Suggestions for PMP Aspirants
Dos:

• As with the project management approach, understand the requirements for exam, narrow down the scope, prepare an overall realistic plan and then a detailed one suiting your personal and professional constraints before executing it diligently.
• There are different approaches to pass the exam, find or create one that suits your personality. For instance, I was told that we need to read the book 3 or 4 times in many online success stories but I was more of a person who will dedicate time to understand the concept first time I read it. 
• Try to understand the concepts thoroughly and keep it in memory. I read different books which helped me to view it from different perspective and also saved from reading the same contents.

Conclusion
I look forward to improve both professional and personal life by putting in practice the knowledge gained through the PMP certification.

Thank you to all, who supported me in this journey! And All the best to those who are going to pursue PMP certification, it was worth the time and effort ;-)

Brief Profile
I am Krishnadas CK, a Japanese bilingual Project Management Professional with more than 7.5 years of experience in IT Service industry. Currently performing PMO role in Fujitsu Consulting India, Bangalore.

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Book available for PMP exam:

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