PMI is contacting all PMP credential holders with important news about their PMP credential expiration date.
What you need to know:
Instead of expiring on 31 December 2008, your PMP credential will now expire in 2009 on the anniversary of the day and month that you earned your credential.
Example: If a PMP earned his/her credential on 14 May 2005 the current expiration date is 31 December 2008. With this change, the expiration date will become 14 May 2009. When this PMP renews his/her credential, the new expiration date becomes 14 May 2012. See below for an illustration of this example. 
One question you may have is, “Does this change in my expiration date shorten my PMP cycle?” The answer is “No. This change includes a transition period that provides all PMPs with a partial year that extends beyond their current 3-year cycle. Thereafter, all PMPs will be on a standard 3-year cycle.”
By late August, you will be able to view your new expiration date online in the PMI certification system and on PMI.org when you log in as a user.
Also, you will receive a series of communications from PMI over the next several months that provides information and guidance on your new expiration date.
By September 2008 – you will receive an e-mail with your new expiration date.
By October 2008 – you will receive by postal mail a new PMP certificate printed with your new expiration date.
The actual renewal process for PMP credential holders is not affected by the change of expiration dates. To maintain your PMP credential before the expiration date, the requirements remain the same:
Earn and report a minimum of 60 Professional Development Units (PDUs) within your 3-year credential cycle.
After you report at least 60 PDUs, you will receive an e-mail from PMI with a link to your renewal form. Please allow 3 weeks for approval before renewal link will be available.
When you are ready to renew your credential, just fill in this renewal form and submit the renewal fee through the online certification system.
We will continue to provide information to you on the PMI.org certification page and through regular PMI communications.
We understand that you may have questions and are happy to provide the support you need. Follow this link to access more information in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) document on PMI.org. E-mail questions to PMPDateChange@pmi.org. Because this change affects all active PMP credential holders, please allow adequate response time.
Monday, June 23, 2008
PMP credentials notice
Friday, June 6, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Project Management Made Easy
For years, many have considered project management to be difficult to learn and understand. When I was first introduced to project management, I found the concept difficult to manage. So I compiled all of the tools that I've used over the years in this Body of Knowledge to share. These are some of the project office tools that I have used to make Project Management easy.
Work changes have outdated most management skills…
The world of work is being so dramatically redefined by enterprise and government that our present skills of managing and leading are mostly ineffective, and often counterproductive. What worked in the past no longer does. Something very basic has changed.
We work now in a world of information and knowledge…
You and everyone else are gaining unlimited access to unlimited information. We are all learning to apply our new knowledge, and we are seeking the freedom to innovate. We expect work of meaning and purpose that makes full use of our creativity and imagination, that unleashes the human spirit at work. The working world and the nature of organizations are being transformed. We are all caught up in the changes.
New leadership skills beyond the old are required…
We can change with the times or be left out. Those who choose to change will need new skills that few managers and leaders now have. These skills must be learned, and can only be learned by actual experience and practice. That takes time.
You can experience new ways to learn…
These tools are specifically designed for managers and leaders who decide to sharpen their
competitive edge and stay in the game.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Main Project Documentation Deliverables
For most projects, you will create:
1. SOW
2. WBS
3. PERT
4. Gantt
5. Management Review
6. Kickoff Event Plan
7. Contingency Plan
8. KPIs
9. Resource Plan
Virtual Project Team Member's Characteristics
Virtual Peoples’ Characteristics
Virtual (simulated) people in the project have unique…
▲ names ▲ learning abilities
▲ experiences ▲ personalities
▲ mixes of skills ▲ productivity variances
▲ moods ▲ capabilities to change
▲ maturity levels …and other human attributes.
The people can be. . .
▲ selected ▲ trained
▲ hired ▲ promoted
▲ assigned ▲ transferred
▲ coached ▲ counselled
The human element is very realistic!
The Virtual Team
To accomplish the project’s work, the project team will consist
of three to ten virtual (simulated) team members, depending
upon the stage of the project. These are selected from the twenty
people available.
Notice that all have names; have primary skills, which implies
secondary skills as well; have specific personality types (in the
same proportion as in the population); reflect the aging of the
work force; and have been with the company for varying lengths
of time.
Some of the virtual people are contractors.
Personality types (Myers-Briggs Type Indicators) are not disclosed
to participant teams, unless they take advantage of education
opportunities for the Project team that result in
discovery and definition of personality types. Ages are never
disclosed.
Resource Planning
A participant team selects its project team on the basis of personal
information provided in the workshop manual. This data may be
biased, of course—the Performance Review by a former/current
supervisor; the Resume by the writer himself/herself.
The workshop manual includes a page, like the one on the next
page, for each available virtual person
Contingency Planning
Contingency Planning
Unplanned events occur as the project progresses, and teams
respond, adapt, or recover according to their contingency plans.
Although there is a minor random effect, most unplanned events
occur as responses to decisions made by the participant team.
Unplanned Events
▲ Approval delays
▲ Slow project progress
▲ Absences
▲ Resignations
▲ Specification changes
▲ Program modifications
▲ Funding delays
▲ Changing priorities
▲ . . . and many others
Planning for Quality
Quality must be emphasized throughout the project.
▲ Quality customer relations
▲ Quality project management processes
▲ Quality of individuals selected
▲ Quality of project team (as a unit)
▲ Quality meetings
▲ Quality education
▲ Quality penalties for out-of-spec work
▲ Quality as a corporate value
Quality principles are supported in all respects!
Project Scope Changes
As their project progresses, participant teams are asked to perform
additional tasks not included in their original plan.
Teams can decide to ask for additional budget to cover the added
project scope. If they do, negotiations begin with their virtual
project sponsors, resulting in an increased budget.
The Task List, Work Breakdown Structure, Network Diagram, Bar
Chart, Resource Plan, Contingency Plan and Key Performance
Indicators are then officially changed to reflect the added project
scope. Project tracking is altered accordingly.
Project Management - Earned Value
▲ Earned value (C/SCSC)
To comply with C/SCSC, teams develop much more complete budgets
for each of the 21 weeks of the project, and establish a BCWS chart as
a baseline. As the project progresses, they track BCWP and ACWP, plus
cost and schedule variances, for a complete look at earned value. Current
users of earned value will learn to fully understand the meaning and
application of earned value concepts.
▲Time must be allowed to manipulate the tasks and project data,
reconfigure the project, produce planning documents, and print tracking
charts and management reports.
▲ Plan your own project (workbook)
There’s nothing like putting the participants’ new learning to work right
away. They do just that as our instructor guides each individual through
the proper structuring of his or her own project (current or future). We have
developed a 50-page workbook specifically for this day of application to
their real work. This can also be used as a stand-alone workshop.
Sample/Example of Project Definition/Statement of Work
Project Definition/Statement of Work
eXcellerator Development Project
Project Objective(s):
To deliver a working eXcellerator Development Project 21 weeks after start date, at a cost of
$775,000, and with a MTTF of 1200 hours.
What we expect to produce with this project:
1. Driver bearing
2. Bearing incorporated into a mechanical package of our design
3. Driver subassembly (the bearing and mechanical package)
4. User software in two versions–domestic and foreign language version
5. Operating software
6. Driver final assembly
7. User documentation and manuals
Project Name: eXcellerator Development Project
Project Customer: (the user) M.S. Caine, plus the successor TRP projects:
MiniDriver, MicroDriver, and Upgrade Control Building
Project Manager: Participant Team (Us)
Project Sponsor: Lincoln Miller
What we expect not to do:
1. No development work on Micro- and MiniDrivers.
2. No other work related to TRP (Technology Renewal Program).
3. No work toward making MegaDriver a stand alone commercial product.
4. Nothing that increases MTTF substantially beyond 1200 hours.
What someone else must do:
1. To the extent we are not able to see the big picture, be responsible for
our interface with successor TRP projects and products.
2. To the extent we are not able to, coordinate between us and the Control
Building Upgrade project.
Project Management Workplace Objectives
To learn by actual experience and practice
how to:
▲ Manage by project
▲ Use fundamental principles and tools
▲ Organize and lead a project team
▲ Plan, schedule, and control a project
▲ Get quality work done on time and within budget
▲ Emphasize the human side of project management
▲ Experience a project from beginning to end
▲ Value the customer’s viewpoint
Managing by Project
Increasingly, work is done by short-lived, real-time, project specific
teams. As the core of an organization shrinks, better use must be made
of the resources that remain and of the growing numbers of
contractors, temporaries, and part timers.
The complex resource management challenges that result are
natural applications for project management skills.
Project management skills apply to all of our work. They facilitate any activity comprised of defined interrelated tasks
that must be completed on time and within budget, while
meeting specified customer requirements.