Project Management Best Practices

I get this question a lot and find myself answering it over and over again, on message boards, blogs and in person. In doing so I’ve come to realize that a large number of PMP aspirants do not understand what the PMP credential is nor do they have have a sufficient knowledge of what is covered on the exam component of the certification process.

First of all, unlike I.T. vendor “certs” and other commercial “certifications”, where the only requirement to earn the “cert” is the ability to pass an exam, the PMP credential is a professional credential. The credential is competence based and, as such, is best described as a credential as opposed to simply a certification. The credential infers a candidate’s ability to actually perform professional tasks (e.g., Project Management) at a given level. Unlike vendor “cert” exams, the exam component of the PMP credential is more than simply knowledge based. It encompasses both knowledge of the subject and the necessary skills to apply that knowledge.

In addition to passing a rigorous exam, the PMP credential requires a certain minimum amount of documented (and verified) experience in the profession, a certain level of education (both formal, academic education as well as professional training), adherence to a professional code of conduct, and a commitment to on-going continuing education and contribution to the project management community.

Having said that, what does the examination portion of the PMP certification process cover? Is studying the PMBOK sufficient to succeed on the exam?

The short answer is that, if you are pursing the CAPM credential, then the PMBOK can be enough. This is because the CAPM exam is only based on the material on the PMBOK. Nevertheless, I would strongly recommend supplementing any CAPM exam study with at least one study guide and with a good exam question test bank.

As far as the the exam portion of the PMP certification process is concerned, the exam covers a lot more than just the material in the PMBOK Guide.

If you are pursing the PMP credential, then you need to prepare for questions from other areas (i.e., non-PMBOK Guide) as well.

For one thing, while the PMBOK Guide only changes once every 4 years, the exam component of the PMP credential is constantly changing. Much of the material that showed up in the 4th (2008) edition of the PMBOK Guide has ALREADY been showing up on the PMP exam for several years – e.g., PTA, TCPI, etc. PMBOK Guide 4th edition came out in December, 2008, but these topics have been showing up on the PMP exam as early as 2006. The group at PMI that develops the standards (such the PMBOK Guide, the Standard for Risk Management, etc.) and the group at PMI that develops the the certifications and their corresponding exams (such as PMP, CAPM, PMI-SP, etc.) are two separate (and independent) groups that occasionally communicate with each other but DO NOT work each other. They are two separate groups. If anything, the standards group (who, by the way, I have met personally and have been to standards development meetings with) looks at the work that the credential group (PMP, CAPM) does and uses it as one of the many inputs for what they put into the standards such as the PMBOK Guide.

In a nutshell, you should expect the exam component of the PMP certification process to cover the following:

• Your PM Experience
• Knowledge of globally recognized standards (the PMBOK Guide is the “guide” to this) including the 5 project management process groups and the 42 project management processes described in the PMBOK Guide.
• Trends and research in the PM profession.
• Professional responsibility and contributing to the PM profession.
• Understanding (though not memorizing) the inputs / tools & techniques / outputs of the various project management processes.
• Organizational theories and Quality methodologies
• PM situational scenarios: A combination of knowing concepts & definitions and applying those concepts to given scenarios; being able to answer questions about those scenarios based on what you’ve learned as an experienced PM — for example, knowing that the best next step to take in a situation is whichever step will move the project along and reduce/avoid impact (unless that step is unethical or violates the code of professional behavior).

About 60% – 70% of the above is either directly from the PMBOK Guide or requires (among other things) knowledge of one or more concepts from the PMBOK Guide. So you do need a solid understanding of the topics in the PMBOK Guide. But you also need a good study guide (Andy Crowe, Rita Mulcahy, Tony Johnson, etc.) along with a good (not cheap and definitely not free) exam question test bank. The test bank one I recommend (and I’ve seen them all) is the one from Crosswind PM. Not only does it have over 3,000 questions, it has over 2 dozen complete four-hour (200 question) sample exams. I’ve spoken to Tony Johnson and he tells me that he updates his test bank CD one or more times over the 4 years between PMBOK Guides because, I as said above, changes in the PMP exam is not synchronized with the quadrennial (once in 4 years) changes to the PMBOK Guide but,  rather, the exam is constantly changing, independent of (not in anticipation of) the changes to the PMBOK Guide.

Remember, the PMP credential is not some I.T. vendor “cert” where all you have to do is read a study book and pass a test. It’s a professional credential that certifies that you are an experienced project manager (and have been for several years) and that, IN ADDITION to have been working in a PM role or performing PM tasks, you ALSO UNDERSTAND the job of a PM and the globally recognized standards, knowledge and trends of the profession. You won’t find all this information in any one book. However, the PMBOK Guide (along with PMI’s other standards and frameworks) serves as a guide to this information. You can use it as map for the continuing development of your PM knowledge and as a guide to the continuing development of standards, procedures, protocols and new knowledge in the PM profession.

So, yes, the PMBOK Guide can be enough for the exam component of the CAPM credential, though I would strongly recommend that you supplement it with some study materials; but, NO, you can’t just study the PMBOK Guide and be assured of passing the exam component of the PMP credential without using some other study material — especially if you’ve only been a PM for a few (i.e., 3 or 4) years and are still new to the profession and especially if your PM training over the years has been limited.

Good luck. It’s a journey, but PMP certification is a worthwhile credential to earn.

Jerry Bucknoff, PMP

Tags: CAPM, CAPM difference from PMP, certification, Guide to the PMBOK, PMBOK, PMBOK Guide, pmbok study, PMP, PMP certification, PMP preparation, PMP study tips

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 6:31 pm and is filed under PMP Certification . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.