In a nutshell, don’t keep your knowledge and experience locked in your brain. Share it!! 

• Share knowledge
• Research
• Build the capabilities of colleagues (i.e., teach, mentor, provide opportunities for your colleagues and your team members to build experience and knowledge)
• Advance the profession (engage in activities that will improve the overall PM profession; engage in activities that will promote the profession)
• Step up, at your own organization, to champion the value of project management. That is, playing a key role in the growth of PM within your organization
• Always record “lessons learned” at the end of a project or project phase; contribute to your organization’s organization process assets (OPAs). These 2 activities contribute to PM knowledge base and will help your colleagues during future projects
• Participate in PM forums, conferences and PMI chapter meetings
• Write articles

PMI expects PMPs to stay engaged with the profession.

Here’s what I learned.

The four PMI standards you should be focusing on are:

1) The Guide to the PMBOK 4th Edition, particularly Chapter 11 (Project Risk Management). Because risk communication represents 27% of the topics on the exam component of the PMI-RMP credential, you should be comfortable with Chapter 10 (Project Communication Management) as well.

2) The Standard for Program Management, 2nd Edition, particularly Chapter 11 (Program Risk Management)

3) The Standard for Portfolio Management, 2nd Edition, particularly Chapter 5 (Portfolio Risk Management)

and especially:
4) The Practice Standard for Project Risk Management, 1st Edition, 2009.
PMI writes: “The Practice Standard can be used by project management practitioners to validate the risk management process being employed in a specific situtation, project or organization. The Practice Standard for Project Risk Management is consistent with the current release of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) — Fourth Edition.” 

You can supplement your study with books such as:

Risk Management: Concepts and Guidance, 3rd edition by Carl L. Pritchard. Pritchard was the Team Lead for Chapter 11 of the current PMBOK Guide.

Risk Management, Tricks of the Trade for Project Managers by Rita Mulcahy. This is a practitioner book with plenty of exercises to develop and reinforce your risk management skills.

Linkedin.com has a PMI-RMP group and a PMI-RMP study group, both hosted by Annette Suh, PMI-RMP

If any of you out there do go through the process of earning this credential, please keep me apprised of your progress and share your experience with the process with the rest of us.

Unlike I.T. “certs”, PMP Certification is a Professional Credential.

• Measures vocabulary, the documented body of knowledge, some standard protocols or practices
• The ability to perform at a certain level is not measured and can only be assumed
• In most cases, there are no experience or prior educational requirements; there are no ethical standards or code of conduct required to maintain the credential; the only requirement to earn the “cert” is the ability to pass an exam
• Certifications are bestowed by the individual owners of the “certification” exam, often a for-profit organization; recognition of the “certification” may vary from cert to cert and from organization to organization

Professional certifications (e.g., PMP, CPA, ABA BAR) are Competence based and, as such, are best described as credentials as opposed to simply certifications:

• Infers a candidate’s ability to actually perform professional tasks (e.g., Project Management) at a given level
• Encompasses both knowledge of the subject and the necessary skills to apply that knowledge
• Certain experience and educational requirements are required and must be verified (++)
• Credential is bestowed by a non-profit, professional association (e.g., PMI, AICPA, ABA, etc.) and, sometimes by local authorities (countries or states). In the case of the PMP, the credential is bestowed and monitored by PMI, a globally recognized not-for-profit, professional association.
• Continuing professional education and professional development activities are required to maintain the credential (e.g., for PMP, 60 professional development units each renewal cycle; this can include seminars, formal education, participation in PMI activities, publications, lecturing and teaching, etc.)

Although approximately 50% of PMP holders work in the I.T. sector, the PMP credential is not an I.T. “cert.” The only connection between the PMP credential and the I.T. sector is that, just like marketing, construction, government, architecture, research & development, political campaign and space mission projects, I.T. projects need to be managed and, therefore, using PMPs to manage the projects verifies that the credential holder has certain experience, knowledge and education; that the individual follows a code of professional behavior; and that the individual has committed to on-going continuing education and to making contributions to the PM profession. — Oh, and yes, that the person passed a rigorous exam, though that is only one part of earning the credential.

Listening to PMP candidates, project managers, and students of management and project management,  I’ve learned that there are some misconceptions about what the PMBOK Guide is. Some think that it’s intended as a textbook on project management. Others think that it describes some kind of project  management methodology. Yet others have the notion that it’s meant as a study guide for the examination component of the PMP credential. Some even think that the PMP exam is on something called “PMBOK” (whatever that is) and that the Guide to the PMBOK is a study guide or textbook covering the topic of “PMBOK.”

I’d like to clear up some of the misconceptions.

The PMBOK Guide is a standard for the project management profession. Its intention is to serve as a guide to the body of knowledge within the project management community and as practiced by members of the profession. There is no single document that contains the project management body of knowledge. Indeed, some of it is not published at all but, rather, is simply recognized as good practices and norms within the profession. This body of knowledge is growing every day.

The PMBOK Guide is not intended to be used to learn project management or project management concepts. It’s especially not intended to teach or suggest PM techniques or methodologies.

It’s not a “how to” book nor is it a description of a methodology. It’s a standard, not a methodology. PM professionals and the organizations they work for can use the PMBOK Guide as a guide for developing their own methodologies or for creating organization standards.

It’s particularly important to understand that it is not a standard or specification for the examination portion of the PMP certification. For one thing, at least 30% of the material on the examination is not covered by the PMBOK Guide. (There IS an exam on the PMBOK Guide. It’s the CAPM exam, which only covers knowledge of the PMBOK Guide.)

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 groups that DO NOT interface with each other. They are two separate groups. If anything, the standards group 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.

A reviewer on Amazon.com observed that there is a widely held notion that PMBOK = Project Management. I disagree with that observation. The false notion he observed is only held by those people who do not know what the PMBOK is. Also “PMBOK” is not the same as “PMBOK Guide.” PMBOK is an acronym for the Project Management Body of Knowledge. As I said, above, there is no single document that contains the project management body of knowledge. It’s simply the body of knowledge that is collectively known among practitioners. academics and organizations who practice or research project management. The document known as the PMBOK Guide is simply a guide to that massive body of knowledge; an entry-point to further information and a standard for developing protocols, methodologies, techniques and practices within your own organizations and project management practices.

The PMBOK Guide is a reference work, not a text book or a study guide. It’s not meant as an introduction to project management any more than a volume of statutes is meant to be used as an introduction to the practice of law or the Physician’s Desk Reference (PDR) is mean to be used as an introduction to pharmacology for doctors and pharmacists. As with technical references for other professions (such as statute books for lawyers, clinical references for doctors, etc.), non professionals may find the PMBOK Guide difficult to follow and even dry. An experienced and trained project manager should find the PMBOK Guide perfectly understandable and not very difficult to follow. An experienced and professional project manager looking at the PMBOK Guide for the first time may find its format unfamiliar (at first), but he/she should find the material and the concepts in the document familiar (though organized in a way they may not be used to).

On the other hand, an entry-level project manager, or a non-project manager who is thrown into project management tasks may, indeed, find the PMBOK Guide difficult to follow and difficult to understand. This is not unlike a sophomore accounting student opening up a set of GAAP or IFRS guidelines and finding it hard to follow or finding the writing style very didactic and anything but light reading, while this would NOT be the experience of a certified CPA or an experienced accountant or financial professional.

Very important: The PMBOK Guide is not an I.T. text nor should it be considered part of the literature covering the topic of information technology. For some reason, the document is shelved in book stores along with I.T. books. It really should be shelved with books on management. In the same way, PMP examination study guides are also shelved next to I.T. books. The PMP credential is not an I.T. “cert.” In fact, it’s not even in the same class or category of “certifications” as technical and I.T. “certs.” The PMP is a professional credential, in the same category of certifications for other professions, such as accounting, law or medicine. Unlike I.T. “certs”, where the only requirement to earn the certification is the ability to make an appointment at the Prometric center and where the only criteria for earning the certification is the ability to pass a test, the PMP credential has experience, education, continuing education & professional contribution requirements. There is also a requirement to adhere to a professional code of conduct.

Because of the “cert” fever within the I.T. community and among I.T. workers, many non-PMs in the I.T. sector are pressured to add the “PMP” letters to their names. Recruiters are among those who create this pressure. Because they are not experienced project managers, these I.T. people are pressured into lying about their background and skills during the PMP qualification process — and getting friends to lie during the audit and vetting process. This may account for the number of (dishonestly earned) PMPs out there who may have the letters after their name (though they got those letters under false pretenses) but who are not really project managers at all. This is why people see a lot of “PMPs” who have no idea about what they are doing.

Project management is a profession. While there are many professional project managers out there practicing their profession, there are quite a lot of non-project managers who have been thrown into PM responsibilities and roles. While they do, indeed, hold a “job” as a “project manager” and are being asked to perform the tasks of a project manager (and may even have a title called “project manager”), they are not project managers. They’re just people who have been asked to do the work of project managers.

The PMP credential is not for people want to move into project management. It’s for people who ALREADY ARE project managers and have been for several years. The PMP credential verifies that the individual has the education, years of experience, professional training, adherence to a professional code of ethics, commitment to ongoing continuing education and commitment to ongoing contributions to the project management profession. The exam portion of the credential verifies that, in addition to all of the above, the individual has an understanding of the profession he/she has been practicing; that the individual knows that project management is NOT common sense and that he/she is not managing project by seat of his/her pants or via intuition; that the individual understands that sound project management is based on the past experiences of other members of the profession, based on research and sound empirical (scientific) study; that the “art” and practice of project management is based on science, not intuition.

Finally, as to the question “what would be the best alternative book”: there is no alternative. The PMBOK Guide is the accepted global standard and the recognized guide to the project management body of knowledge. That’s all it’s intended to be and it serves that purpose well. It’s not the end to all ends. The members of the project management profession who contributed to the document did not aspire to cover all there is to know about project management. It’s not perfect and it’s constantly changing (every 4 years) as the profession continues to grow and mature.

You can (and should) supplement the PMBOK Guide with other PMI standards and frameworks — e.g., The Standard for Program Management, The Project Manager Comptency Development Framework, The Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures, etc. There are supplemental standards and frameworks developed by other professional and academic organizations as well. However, as the GUIDE to the “body of knowledge” within the profession, the PMBOK Guide is the standard. There are other books and sources on other topics of project management, including sources on methodologies, leadership, PM tools, general management, the management of people, budgeting, scheduling, quality management practices, organizational behavior, etc. as well as industry specific literature on project management, such as marketing project management, I.T. project management, construction project management, research & development project management, etc. However, such topics are outside the scope and purpose of the PMBOK Guide. Of course, since anywhere from 60% – 70% of the material in the examination portion of the PMP certification either comes directly from the PMBOK Guide or requires understanding of the concepts in the PMP Guide, a knowledge of the material in the document is important to anyone who is planning to sit for the exam. So, while the PMBOK Guide is NOT a study guide for the exam and is not intended to serve as such, familiarity with it is important part of both practicing the PM profession as well as earning the profession’s certification.

For more information on the relationship between the PMBOK Guide and the PMP Credential, see:
Is studying the PMBOK Guide enough to pass the PMP certification?

Looking at the Apollo program, we can see a very vivid (and real life) example of how the Triple Constraint works in a large, very expensive, politically charged and highly visible project.

Project: Put a man on the moon

“First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him back safely to the earth.” (President John F. Kennedy, Joint Session of Congress on May 25, 1961)

Scope: Landing a man on the Moon AND returning him safely to Earth

Time: Before the decade is out

Cost: Whatever Congress will approve

What are the immutable constraints here?

Time is a the most immutable constraint. NASA was determined to meet, the late, President Kennedy’s goal to send a man to the moon and return him safely to Earth before the end of the decade. This constraint simply cannot be changed. So Dec 31, 1969 would be the drop dead date.

The scope constraint defines the specifications and parameters of the project. In this case, it’s landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth. “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.” (President John F. Kennedy, Speech at Rice University, September 12, 1962)

Cost can be modified, if approved by the “sponsor” (Congress). For all intents and purposes, the White House and Congress were prepared to spend as much as necessary to achieve the goal on time. “To be sure, all this costs us all a good deal of money. . . Space expenditures will soon rise . . . from 40 cents per person per week to more than 50 cents a week or every man, woman and child in the United States, for we have given this program a high national priority.” (President John F. Kennedy, Speech at Rice University, September 12, 1962)

Because of the tight schedule, and challenging scope, something may have had to give. While Congress was able to keep throwing money at the project, they could not add any more time to the project nor could they change the scope in any way. (As an analogy, think of creating a baby as a project. Even if unlimited funds for medical bills and care were available, from conception through gestation to birth, neither the time — 9 months — nor the scope — deliver a healthy baby — could be changed; even if we throw more people on the project. If it takes 1 woman to make baby, could we do in it 1/3 of the time if we use 3 women?!)

When the scope is immutable and you MUST get it done by a certain date — no exceptions — and throwing more money at the project will not change the parameters or change the maximum amount of time available for the work, if something to has to give, then that something could very likely be the safety and well-being of the project team.

Does this mean that it’s OK if some astronauts die during the project?

The answer is yes. In fact, some astronauts did die (Apollo 1).

Time and Scope cannot be changed. Cost can be modified but, while time and scope are the independent and immutable variables, the dependent variable of cost will have no effect (i.e., cannot change) the other two. Therefore, something will have to be sacrificed in order to meet the project deadline within time and scope. The sacrifices that might have had to be made (and, as it turned out, were made) were identified as part of the project assumptions and constraints.

Norrie and Walker maintain that the added strategy constraint is central to the achievement of the other three, traditional, constraints. The project and its deliverables must result in the realization of business benefits. These benefits must be aligned with the organization’s strategic goals.  [Norrie, J. & Walker, D.H.T, Project Management Journal, Vol, 35, No.4, 47-56, 2004]

In 2009, Harold Kerzner distilled the idea of strategic alignment with organizational goals further as: “Value.” [Kerzner, H. & Saladis, F., Value-Driven Project Management, 2009. Also see : "PMI North America Global Congress, 2009, "Session Closing Remarks", Orlando, FL. October, 13, 2009.]

The Apollo program (of projects) certainly met the strategic goals of the United States in the 1960s.

As far as value is concerned, in the Rice University speech, quoted from, above, President Kennedy identified the value that the United States (and the World) would receive from the space program in general and the Apollo program in particular.

Perhaps most projects do not have the political power, unlimited funding and strategic importance of the Apollo program. Very few have Apollo’s stark consequences, let alone the level of acceptability for such consequences. Nevertheless, one of the lessons learned from the project is that even such a unique and extraordinarily large and expensive project such as this one shares the same triple constraints with the, more down-to-Earth, projects that most of us participate in today, 40 years later.

© 2009, Jerry Bucknoff, MBA, PMP

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 certifications. 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 your 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 DO NOT interface with 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 (Tony 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 of 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 pass 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

In part 1 of this series, we defined the P3MO as an acronym for “Project, Program, and Portfolio Management Office.” It’s based on the concept of a PMO (project management office)  elevated to cover project portfolio management as well as project and program management. In part 2 we will discuss the relationship between the three components of the P3MO: project management, program management and portfolio management.

Project management ensures the successful completion of initiatives and their associated deliverables within the time, scope and cost parameters agreed to by the end-users of the product, service or result. The project manager manages stakeholder expectations and communication between all team members and stakeholders.

P3MO Relationship Venn - Click on image to enlarge

Program management provides overall leadership and vision to the project management process. The program manager is responsible for delivering value to the community of stakeholders.

Portfolio management aligns the portfolio of projects and other work with the objectives of the organization and ensures that the work delivers value to the business.

The relationship between projects, programs and portfolios

Portfolios are made up of projects, programs and other work. (Other work includes on-going operations, ad-hoc activities and other “business as usual” work.)

The diagram, above, represents a typical portfolio structure.

Where needed, sub-portfolios are possible, in which case they would each be consolidated up into the parent portfolio for the purposes of portfolio optimization, strategic alignment and financial control.

Projects that share a common benefit or serve a common business unit or market may be collected into a program. For example, projects supporting an enterprise-wide directive from the board of directors, such as the acquisition of a new operating company, could be managed as a program. Other examples would be a group of projects serving a single market or geographic region; or the collection of projects supporting the roll out of a new product or service.

A good rule of thumb would be, if managing 2 or more projects together would result in benefits and control not available from managing them individually, then these projects should be managed as a program, with one individual (either the function head or an assigned program manager) accountable for its success.

While the nature of initiatives (projects and programs) is time-based with a defined start and end, the portfolio is on going, its mix of initiatives fluid and changing over time.

Coming up in December and January . . .

Part 3 – Realizing value from the P3MO

Part 4 – Implementing P3MO best practices

Part 5 – The three “pillars” of project success