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The PMP Exam Changes On 31 August 2011. What This Means For You.
By Cornelius Fichtner, PMP - Making the PMBOK® Guide fun.
Every five to seven years, the Project Management Institute (PMI)® performs a Role Delineation Study to determine authority ("the role"), responsibilities & duties of project managers today. The findings are then used to update the Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam. In this way, PMI ensures that the PMP Exam is a reflection of what project managers actually do in the field. If PMI didn't regularly go through this process adding new elements and removing old ones, then you would still be tested on outdated methods that were used in the 1980s when the first PMP exam was given.
PMI completed their latest study at the end of 2010. The findings will lead to an update in the PMP Exam on 31 August 2011. Let's look at what this means to you.
The PMBOK® Guide Is Not Changing
First of all and most importantly: There is NO change to the PMBOK® Guide. The PMP Exam is currently based on the PMBOK® Guide 4th Edition. The 5th edition is scheduled for publication at the end of 2012. This means that the PMP Exam will continue to be largely based on the 4th edition until sometime in 2013. Therefore, everyone preparing for the PMP Exam can continue to do so using the PMBOK® Guide 4th edition until 2013.
The Exam Format Is Not Changing
The PMP Exam will continue to be a computer-based exam, and you have four hours to answer 200 multiple-choice questions.
The Score Report is Not Changing
PMI stated "At this time, PMI does not anticipate any changes will be made to the PMP score report". This suggests that the way the passing score is determined will remain the same.
The Eligibility Requirements Are Not Changing
The education and experience eligibility requirements for the PMP Exam will remain the same. Please read the eligibility section of the PMP Credential Handbook for the details.
The Exam Changes on 31 August 2011. Period.
The new exam will be rolled out on 31 August 2011 and the last day on which you can take the exam under the current specifications is on 30 August 2011. No exceptions.
Professional & Social Responsibility Will Be Integrated
In the current exam format Professional and Social Responsibility is tested as a separate domain. The Role Delineation Study showed that Professional and Social Responsibility is integrated into all of the work of project management and cannot be seen as separate. The Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct should therefore be viewed and tested as an integrated part of a project manager's day-to-day work.
For the new exam, students will have to understand the effects of Professional and Social Responsibility on their daily tasks. Exam questions will ask about ethical considerations during procurement, mix social responsibility with team management and test your application of professional responsibility in a written status report.
Studying, understanding and living the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct in your daily work as a project manager will have a much higher importance for the exam.
The Content Of Your Study Materials Will Change
PMI has communicated the detailed changes to the new exam to all Registered Education Providers (R.E.P.s). It is their responsibility to ensure that the content of their training materials is updated. As a student, you should not worry about this. You have a right to expect that your provider ensures that your training materials have the right content for the exam you are taking.
Recommendations For PMP Students
1.) Take The Exam Before The Change:
If you are currently studying for the PMP Exam then plan your studies in such a way that you can take the exam before 31 July 2011. The new exam comes into effect on 31 August 2011 and scheduling your exam one month before this date will give you 30 days to retake the exam in case you fail on your first attempt.
2.) Use Study Materials From PMI Registered Education Providers (PMI R.E.P.)
PMI R.E.Ps are working hard to update their study materials to the new standard and PMI is supporting them in this effort. PMP students should not worry about the changes of the exam content at all. Instead, make sure to purchase study materials from a PMI R.E.P. and ask them to confirm that the materials which you have ordered are right for you based on your scheduled exam date. You need current materials if your exam is scheduled on or before 30 August 2011 and you need updated materials if your exam is on or after 31 August 2011.
3.) Read The FAQ:
PMI has prepared a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. Reading it will help you to better understand what's coming.
4.) Read PMI's Study Tips:
I recommend that you take a look at the PMP Study Tips Page that PMI prepared on their website.
About the author: Cornelius Fichtner, PMP is a noted PMP expert. He has helped over 12,000 students prepare for the PMP Exam with The Project Management PrepCast at http://www.pm-prepcast.com and The PMP Exam Simulator at http://www.pm-exam-simulator.com
An image of the Author can be found at
http://www.project-management-prepcast.com/images/images/cornelius_fichtner_1.jpg
The Cranky Parking Attendant
By Margaret Meloni, MBA, PMP- www.pducast.com / www.margaretmeloni.com
Once a week I park in a parking garage at a location in Los Angeles. The parking attendant on duty has always been the same person. Last night, the parking attendant made me laugh. It was one of those laughs that just comes right out. You don't know you are going to laugh, you don't think about it - it just happens.
I am fairly certain that he was not trying to make me laugh. You see, each week when I come in he is very cranky. He has no interest in exchanging greetings and small talk. Smiling is not his thing. (At least not that I have observed.) I know that he can talk because one week as I walked to the elevator he called out, "The elevator is broken, take the stairs." But the next week when I asked, "Is the elevator working?" He did not respond. (I did try the elevator and it was working.)
So how did this person cause me to laugh? Last night after I paid him, he turned and walked away. Now, sometimes he places a receipt on my car and sometimes he does not. So I was not sure if our transaction had completed. I asked, "Are we good then?" He turned and looked at me and using his hands to motion me away said, "Just go park your car."
For some reason, this caused me to laugh out loud. I did not mean it as a spiteful laugh at him. I do not even know why it struck me as funny. It was pretty rude. I think it was so over the top, that laughter was my gut reaction, 'go to' response.
I am not advocating laughing at people. This was truly not my intent. I do not know what goes on in this mans life. He could be sick or in a difficult situation or has recently lost someone he loves. I may remind him of someone who makes him unhappy.
What I do advocate is this:
Don't take things personally. Other people's behavior is rarely about you.
About the Author: Margaret Meloni, MBA, PMP, is an executive coaching consultant for IT professionals. She helps project managers and teams work together better by improving their soft skills. Learn how to successfully combine your technical and soft skills in her webinars from The PDU Podcast (www.pducast.com) and from her website at www.margaretmeloni.com.
Maintaining your membership
PMI Membership (at www.PMI.org)
Due annually - you will receive an email reminder
Regular $129 to join / $119 to renew
Student $40 to join / $30 to renew
NWA PMI Chapter Membership (optional highly recommended)
Due annually - should renew along with your PMI membership
$25 regular / $15 student
PDU requirements
Once you have attained the PMP credential, you must participate in the Continuing Certification Requirements (CCR) program to maintain an active certification status. During the 3 year PMP certification cycle you must attain no less than 60 PDUs toward credential maintenance.
(See the PMP Handbook on the PMI.org site for more information)
PDU Category Structure Update
Since research has shown that people did not fully understand the PDU categories and how to appropriately report their PDUs using that structure, we are pleased to respond to this customer feedback to make the structure more user-friendly and better serve our certification holders and the stakeholders who support them. The updated category structure implementation begins on 1 March 2011.
Steps you need to take BEFORE 1 March 2011
- Register your earned PDUs in the CCR system under the current PDU categories.
- After 1 March 2011, credential holders will need to report any earned PDUs that have not been claimed using the new categories.
- Please note that you will not lose any PDUs during this transition
Overview of changes to the PDU category structure for your information:
- CCR category structure has been simplified, thereby reducing the number of categories from 18 to 6
- All categories use the rule that one hour of learning activity is equivalent to one PDU
- Categories have been expanded to include Web 2.0 learning opportunities
- There will be limits on certain categories to require that all credential holders pursue project management continuing education as part of maintaining their credential
It is also important to note what is not changing in the program:
- The three-year renewal cycle and number of PDUs required to maintain the credential will remain the same
- The re-certification fee structure will remain the same
For more detailed information, access these documents:
Project Management Concepts for Enterprise 2.0
By Cornelius Fichtner, PMP - Making the PMBOK® Guide fun.
Dennis Brooke has been using web based project management communications tools since the late 1990s. In his recent interview on The Project Management Podcast he discussed how Enterprise 2.0 project management tools can make the most of communications between team, sponsors and stakeholders. PMPs can earn 30 free PDUs by listening to the entire series of podcasts
Effective Distribution
Once you complete a report, distribution is the next step. Most people send it as an attachment to an email but that isn’t the most efficient way to make sure that everyone sees it. This is because email, although very convenient, often gets lost in the maze of folders that people use to organize their inboxes. They will read a report, file it away and often forget where they put it when they want to refer back to it. Thus, the PM will receive repeated requests for duplicates which will, again, be filed away and lost!
Enterprise 2.0 project management tools give you more options and are more effective in getting your message out. It takes traditional one way communication-email-and turns it into collaboration, a two way conversation that engages both parties. A PM can set up an internet portal for a project that allows everyone to access the report repeatedly, at their convenience, and see all of the information that is pertinent to them. Successful projects depend on effective communication and that means that all parties need to contribute.
Easy Access
Enterprise 2.0 gives you a format that lets you find everything you need very quickly. It’s visible, interactive and easy to locate. It fosters communications between the team, the sponsor and stakeholders by putting information into a place where people can find it easily.
Enterprise 2.0 is interactive, too. Anyone can comment on a posted document and see others’ comment. “So it’s like sitting around in a room but you’re able to do it on your own time and everyone gets to get their say without having to compete with everyone else,” says Dennis Brooke.
Customizable Features
One of the best features of Enterprise 2.0 is that you can tailor it to your audience and make the best use of their limited time. You can create portals with a summary and drill down into areas like scheduling, status reports and other information that your audience is looking for.
There is, however, the potential for abuse. Just like email, you have to train people to use these tools. And like email, everything that is entered at the portal is there forever. People must realize that they need to be just as professional, diplomatic and responsible as they are when they use email.
Enterprise 2.0 saves an astounding amount of time. Enterprise 2.0 makes it easier to find the things you need, saving people time and frustration. Best of all, it has templates that can be customized to serve the best purposes of the audience you want to reach. It has a dashboard that gives people visual access to what they want to see and inspect then drill down into the details that they need in order to find out what they want to know.
Plus, since Enterprise 2.0 is online, it’s accessible to people all over the world immediately, whenever they want to see it. Even team members offshore can access it with a satellite connection. With Enterprise 2.0, there are no limits except those that you impose.
The source for this article is an interview between Dennis Brooke, PMP (www.dennisbrooke.com) and Cornelius Fichtner, PMP on episode 187 of The Project Management Podcast. You can listen to the entire interview and hear more of Dennis Brooke’s techniques at www.project-management-podcast.com.
About the Author:Cornelius Fichtner, PMP is a noted PMP expert. He is the host of The Project Management Podcast and The Project Management PrepCast where he has helped over 15,000 students prepare for the PMP Exam.
An image of the Author can be found at
http://www.project-management-prepcast.com/images/images/cornelius_fichtner_1.jpg
Why PMI Won’t Say If You Passed Or Failed Your PMP Exam
By Cornelius Fichtner, PMP
The PMP Exam is changing on August 31st 2011. If you are taking the exam on or after this date, then your 200 questions will be based on the new PMP Exam Content Outline. To learn more about the detailed changes to the exam, please read my article “The PMP Exam Changes on 31 August 2011. What This Means For You”.
In addition to what you can find in that article, PMI recently announced the following: If you are taking the PMP Exam on or after 31 August 2011, then - for a limited time only - PMI will not immediately tell you if you have passed or failed your exam.
Let me explain: If you take your PMP Exam today, then “pass” or “fail” will immediately be displayed on your screen and printed on your examination report. But because PMI is changing the exam, they require some time to validate the new structure. They also need to make sure that the percentage of people passing/failing the new exam is in line with the percentages of the old exam. In this way, they can make certain that the new exam is just as fair as the old exam. And all of this means that in the first 4-6 weeks after the new exam is in place, they cannot immediately give you your result. You will have to wait.
Here is PMI’s original statement on this:
“As we transition to the new examination, PMI must update its examination reporting processes. This means for a short period of time examination results will not be available immediately following the examination. There will be a 4-6 week period between taking the examination and receiving the results via email. We know this will be disappointing to candidates, but please let them know the delay is necessary any time an exam changes to validate the new examination structure.”
Here is what this means for you as a PMP candidate:
1.) If you are taking the computer-based PMP exam on or after 31 August you will not receive immediate results (pass/fail) at the Prometric testing center.
2.) If you are taking the paper-based examination there will also be a delay in receiving your examination results.
3.) PMI will notify you (via email) when your results are available at PMI.org.
PMI expects that the new examination structure is validated by mid-October. Once this has happened, exam takers will once again receive their results immediately at the Prometric testing center.
Here are my recommendations for those planning to take the exam between 31 August 2011 and about mid-October:
** Don’t be disappointed: If you are planning to take your PMP Exam between August 31 and mid-October, then don’t be disappointed that you won’t receive your results immediately.
** Smile: Yes! Smile with the knowledge that you are helping PMI to assess the new exam. You have just done a great service to PMI and all other PMP exam takers coming after you. Thank you.
** Be patient: Even though PMI says that you should receive your results within 4-6 weeks we are all project managers and we know about deadlines. Allow PMI to do their due diligence and ensure that the new exam structure works.
** Reschedule: If you cannot take the suspense of having to wait for up to six weeks, then reschedule your exam for around the end of October 2011.
** Don’t leave without a receipt: After you have taken your PMP exam at the Prometric test center you will very likely still receive a printed document. It confirms that you have taken the exam but won’t have your result. Don’t leave without it.
My final recommendation to all PMP candidates is that you should simply relax. If your scheduled exam falls into this “no immediate results” window and you cannot change it… take it easy. There is nothing you can do about it. PMI is doing everything to ensure that the new exam works for you and everyone else. And this process is just part of that. Stay positive and focus your energy on your studies.
About the author?
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP is a noted PMP expert. He has helped over 15,000 students prepare for the PMP Exam with The Project Management PrepCast and The PMP Exam Simulator.
