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On January 2nd 2021, the PMP certification exam promoted by the Project Management Institute (PMI) was updated with some changes. All the features of the exam currently in use at the Project Management Institute are described in this post.  

Prerequisites for accessing the PMP exam

In order to register for the exam, each candidate must meet all the prerequisites of one of the following groups:

• Four-year degree.
• 36 months of project management experience.
• 35 hours of PMP training.

or

• High school diploma.
• Associate degree or equivalent.
• 60 months in project management.
• 35 hours of PMP training.

The 35 hours of training are recognized by the PMI only if delivered by an Accredited Trainer Partner (ATP). → PMP – Contact hours and PDU (Professional Development Units)  

PMP exam format

• 180 questions.
• 230 minutes.
• 2 breaks of 10 minutes each.
• The questions are made out of a combination of different question types (multiple-choice, multiple responses, matching, hotspot and limited fill-in-the-blank).

 

Target audience PMP exam

As deductible from the prerequisites required to access the exam, the PMP certification is aimed at professionals who have already gained on-the-job experience. Specifically to Project Managers who:

• Want or need training requirements to get PMP certification.
• Want to broaden their knowledge in Agile and hybrid approaches.

 

PMP exam objectives

Surely one of the main objectives of the following training and passing the PMP exam is to develop the skills theorized by the Project Management Institute within the Talent Triangle:

• Technical management skills.
• Leadership skills.
• Strategic and business management skills.

By following the training and passing the PMP exam, candidates will be able to understand and apply the processes and practices required to create efficient and high-performance work teams. Those that pass the exam will also be able to assess that the success factors for each project exist within the organisation. They will learn to plan projects at each stage and scope: budget, scheduling, scope, quality, project activity, procurement and closure. This will allow candidates to execute successful projects and create business value.  

Topics of the PMP exam

The questions of the PMP exam can be divided into three main domains:

• People: questions that focus on the skills and activities needed to lead a project team effectively.
• Process: questions aimed at verifying that the candidate knows the technical aspects of managing a project.
• Business environment: questions on the connection between projects and organizational strategy and how to acquire the maximum added value from this synergy.

 

Examples PMP exam questions

The PMI has published two documents with examples and prototype questions.

• Here you can find some examples of multiple-choice questions,
• while here you can find the explanation and examples of the new types of questions.

Example multiple choice question

An accepted deadline for project approaches. However, the project manager realizes only 75% of the work has been completed. The project manager then issues a change request. What should the change request authorize? Answers: A. Additional resources using the contingency fund. B. Escalation approval to use contingency funding. C. Team overtime to meet schedule. D. Corrective action based on causes - right answer.

Example Multiple responses question

You are running a project to engineer and implement a set of business processes and a software solution for customer relationship management. The project involves a large number of organizations―a major corporation and many suppliers of different sizes. During the project, you observe the effects of the differences between the companies’ corporate cultures. This leads to different expectations on how the project should be handled—as well as to frequent misunderstandings between stakeholders. Another effect is a growing degree of distrust and scepticism. What should you try first to integrate the diverse stakeholder groups? Answers: A. Focus on project work. As a project manager, you should not get distracted by big egos. B. Let the problems grow further until they are obvious for all. Then escalate them. C. Develop a joint quality policy for the project and seek a commitment by all organizations. D. Analyze the probability and impact of the risks linked with the situation - right answer. E. Plan how to respond to the risks - right answer.

Example drag and drop (or matching) question

In this type of question, the candidate has to drag the right process to match the respective process group.

Example hotspot question

The candidate will be asked to interact with the digital graph and make calculations to estimate specific data points.

Example fill-in-the-blank question

The candidate will be asked to fill in space within the sentence with the correct answer. The RACI chart is an example of the ___________________, which shows the relationship between activities and the team members. The right answer to fill in should be: “Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)”     As an Accredited Trainer Partner (ATP) QRP International organizes PMP exam preparation courses. > Both our organisation as our trainers are accredited by PMI and can provide you with the training you need to obtain the PMP certificate. Contact us!

VUCA is an acronym for ‘volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. The term is used to refer to the dynamic and fast-changing nature of the contemporary business environment. Programmes usually find themselves in a VUCA environment and organisations need to be aware of this. The acknowledgement of the VUCA environment helps organisations to be able to respond in order to support their programmes and gain benefits.  

Programme environment

As often thought, a programme is not simply ‘a big project’. A programme is a flexible and temporary structure in an organisation. It coordinates, directs and oversees the implementation of a set of projects to deliver outcomes and benefits that align with strategic objectives. The environment of the programme is unique and can include major change for the complete organisation. A well-thought programme is a huge undertaking, takes up a lot of time, costs and resources. A programme demands a lot from the organisation itself. It always exists in both an external and internal context and has different types of stakeholders. A programme is under a constant form of pressure and has to deal with constant external pressures and changes. However, the unique environment of the programme always stays the same. To be able to navigate in such a challenging environment, balance is key. The organisation needs to very clearly define what it can accept and offer, decide on what types of changes it can handle and how. It needs to figure out the pace of change that is feasible for the organisation. To be able to do so, the organisation needs strong programme management. Programme management helps organisations protect their significant investments and helps them address common challenges associated with major change initiatives. Programme management also ensures that outputs translate to outcomes and benefits, therefore delivering value to the organisation. The go-to certification for programme management is MSP by Axelos, which recently launched the MSP 5th edition.  

Current state to future state

If organisations are constantly aware and ready to respond to VUCA occurring in their environment, they survive and prosper. That means that organisations must continually improve their ability to respond to changes in their environment, which goes hand in hand with successful programmes. Programmes coordinate, direct and oversee the implementation of change initiatives in order to deliver value to the organisation. This change from the current state to the future state is never linear. Good programme management should therefore favour the incremental change approach. That means that at the start of a change initiative, the path to a future state is not yet completely defined. The incremental and constant change will help clear out what the future state looks like and will improve the ability of organisations to respond to changes in their environment. The MSP 5th edition guides users with a set of programme management approaches, leading to the creation of outcomes of benefit in an incremental way. In order to do this, it uses three ‘lenses’

• Fundamental principles of programme management.
• Governance themes.
• Processes across a programme lifecycle.

 

MSP 5th edition

The principles, themes and processes have also been the core concept of the older version of MSP. What is new, however, is that the MSP 5th edition has taken into account the need and challenges of any real-world change programme. There is a special emphasis on the following:

. Flexibility 

The new MSP edition focuses on providing pragmatic and flexible guidance for a wide range of organisations.

. Adaptability

The new MSP edition is streamlined and covers all essential elements, but leaves room voor tailoring according to the needs of the organisation.

. Drivers for change 

Instead of dividing programmes into different ‘types’, the new MSP edition addresses common drivers for change (reasons). Find out more about the multiple tools that you can use to raise change engagement.

. Responsiveness 

New in the latest MSP edition is the incremental approach to the programme lifecycle. MSP 5th edition looks more at the reasons why a programme is to be undertaken and considers the background and the adaptability instead of basic guidance. The guidance provides more certainty and guides users, by the use of a blueprint, to the future state of the organisation. The MSP 5th edition is adaptable and can work together with other frameworks like Agile, Lean and the sorts.  

Sources:

Axelos webinar MSP 5th edition (4th) MSP – Not just for programme managers Managing Successful Programmes – why a new edition?

Closely related to PMI and the PMP certification are the so-called Contact Hours and PDUs (Professional Development Units). These two terms are important to become and remain PMP certified. We tried to clarify any doubts about the terminology and its meaning within the certification scheme. The first distinction to be clarified concerns the fact that the Contact Hours must be accumulated before obtaining the certification while the PDUs must be collected after, in order to maintain the certification.  

PMP Contact Hours

PMI defines ‘Contact Hours’ as follows:

“One Contact Hour corresponds to 60 minutes of training received.”

The Contact Hours are part of the prerequisites required to access the PMP certification exam. PMI (the Project Management Institute) has established that in order to register for the PMP exam, all candidates must meet certain prerequisites. One of these prerequisites is that the participant has followed (at least) 35 Contact Hours of training. Only if provided by an Authorized Training Partner (ATP) the 35 Contact Hours are automatically approved by the PMI and guarantee access to the exam without revision.  

PMP PDU

PDUs, Professional Development Units, are blocks of time of 1 hour that a PMP certified professional must spend on training, study, teaching or volunteering. By accumulating 60 PDUs over three years, it is possible to maintain the PMP certification without having to repeat the training course and without having to take the exam again. PDUs come in two types: ‘Education PDUs’ and ‘Giving Back PDUs’. To maintain the PMP certification, a minimum of 35 Education PDUs and a maximum of 25 Giving Back PDUs must be collected. This means that the certification can be renewed with 60 Education PDUs and 0 Giving Back PDUs while it is not possible to do the opposite (i.e. 0 Education PDUs and 60 Giving Back PDUs).

PDU Education

As the world of project, programme and portfolio management is in constant movement and evolution, it is important for the PMI that all certified PMP professionals are always up to date and work to keep up with market changes.

• These PDUs can be acquired by following webinars, seminars, lectures or even by doing personal study.
• As an ATP, all courses and webinars delivered by QRP guarantee automatic recognition of PDU points.

PDU Giving Back

These PDUs correspond to the time spent volunteering, teaching or working, always in the context of project management.

• Collecting PDU Giving Back allows increasing knowledge and skills giving way to grow professionally.
• While not required to maintain PMP certification, Giving Back PDUs are a great way to broaden your career options and enhance your role in the company.

 

PMI Talent Triangle and PDUs

The PMI Talent Triangle exposes the technical skills necessary for a Project Manager by dividing them into three main groups:

• Technical Project Management.
• Leadership.
• Strategic and Business Management.

To maintain the PMP certification, it is obviously required to work also on the specific skills of the Talent Triangle: among the 35 minimum Education PDUs, the PMI requires in fact to collect at least 8 for each skill. The scheme for acquiring the 60 PDUs necessary for maintaining the PMP certification is as follows: As an Accredited Training Provider (ATP) all the courses provided by QRP International guarantee the automatic recognition of Contact Hours and PDU points. Find out more about our PMP Exam preparation training.   March 23th 2021, QRP hosts a PMP Panel discussion. We will discuss the PMP certification with experts and zoom in on; PMP & Agility, PMP implementation, the new PMBoK and Exam. Register here: PMP Panel Discussion. Note; you can gain 1 PDU!

   

The current crisis has helped us appreciate the skills and flexibility of the great staff.

To pivot and adapt to a changing environment is crucially important in this difficult time.

So, what happens when you bring new staff into your team, either through recruitment or by moving them from another part of the organisation? How long does it take to get them up to speed? How quickly can they adapt to the agile way of working?

 

What Onboarding means?

Onboarding is the term used to describe new employees joining and integrating into an organisation or team.

Onboarding isn’t just about induction and orientation it’s about how you manage the whole process of embedding new staff from the interview to the point at which they’re truly part of the team. It is about them moving from being outsiders to being insiders.

Because agile teams are autonomous, cross-functional and self-improving, newcomers into agile environments can face challenges in becoming fully integrated. Agile team members are expected to manage their own tasks and often take on several different roles.

In project teams, the work each team member does might differ substantially from day-to-day. Established team members often know each other very well and are confident of their own skills. All these factors can make it difficult for newcomers to join in.

We found from our research with a co-located team that agile techniques, as well as more traditional approaches, can help with onboarding. Traditional onboarding includes running an induction programme, providing a new staff pack, offering formal training, and allocating a mentor.

The table below shows some of the agile-related techniques used by the agile software development team we researched. These complemented the traditional techniques they also used. This team changed regularly and frequently had to onboard new members of staff.

 

3 Techniques for Onboarding onto an Agile Team:

Pairing

Pairing involves two people working synchronously on one task.

Pair programming is commonly used in IT teams, but pairing can be used for all types of work and is a great way of exchanging knowledge. Usually, one person deals with the detail while the other thinks more strategically and every now and then they swap roles.

In newcomer pairing, try pairing your newbie with an experienced member of staff for the first few weeks. During this time the newcomer will pick up lots of formal and informal knowledge. Although it is not possible for the two to swap roles, the newcomer will gradually become more independent.

If a new staff member starts while the team is working remotely, pairing can be a particularly useful way to help the newcomer stay connected while learning their new role.

 

Small tasks

Give your newcomer small tasks that they can complete in a day and vary the type of tasks you give them in the first few weeks. They’ll get a sense of progress from regularly completing tasks and get used to delivering chunks of work in short time periods.

As a result, they’ll be able to contribute to daily stand-ups immediately and learn from regular feedback. While working remotely, getting feedback is particularly important for new team members. Doubts can quickly set in without it.

 

Signal availability

At various points in the day, an agile team may work together in small groups or as a whole team to solve a problem. At other times individuals need to have uninterrupted time to concentrate on completing a task.

Find a way for team members to signal their availability throughout the day so newcomers can understand who can be interrupted and who prefers to focus on their own work. This is particularly important when working online.

Use an ‘available to be interrupted’ signal in your virtual environment so everyone in the team knows who they can ask for help. For instance, in Microsoft Teams you can set your status to ‘Available’ or ‘Do not disturb’ as an indicator.

Finally, don’t forget the social aspect of being in a team. Having a coffee break together - either virtually or in-person - and getting to know your new team member informally is important too.

Agile working is about people and culture as much as processes and practices, so spending time welcoming and getting to know newcomers is time well spent.

 

This article was originally published in June 2020 and reproduces by kind permission of the Agile Business Consortium.

Agile Research Network

The ARN is a collaboration between researchers at two UK universities, The Open University (OU) and The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), at the forefront of investigating Agile methodologies.

Further reading Gregory, P., Strode, D., Barroca, L., Sharp, H. & Taylor, K. (2020) Onboarding: How Newcomers Integrate into an Agile Project Team. To be published. Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2020 https://www.springerprofessional.de/en/onboarding-how-newcomers-integrate-into-an-agile-project-team/18021556 Plonka, L., Sharp, H., Van der Linden, J., & Dittrich, Y. (2015). Knowledge Transfer in Pair Programming: An In-depth Analysis. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 73, 66-78.

The abbreviation PMO is most generally used for the Project Management Office. The Project Management Office is a group or department within an organisation whose job it is to maintain the standards for project management and programme management within the structure. The PMO is the backbone of a successful project or programme. The PMO offers guidance to projects and programmes by trying to standardize the practices and increase efficiency. It focuses on standards and offers help by implementing different methodologies. The PMO also develops and maintains metrics to follow the execution of projects and programmes. A best practice PMO has a problem-focused purpose, with its functions and services aligned with the purpose, function and services of the other PMO within the organisation.  

Different types of PMO

The term PMO is mainly used to describe a Project Management Office, however, some organisations use the term to describe either a Programme Management Office or Portfolio Management Office.

• The Project Management Office supports individual projects.
• The Programme Management Office coordinates identify dependencies of projects and supports the transition of outputs to Business as Usual.
• The Portfolio Management Office functions at a corporate level where all change initiatives within an organisation are managed.

All different types of PMO will provide the organisation with the capability to deliver change initiatives in a consistent way and ensure these are constantly aligned with its strategic objectives.   Zooming in on the Project Management Office, there are three different types to be defined:

The Supportive PMO

The Supportive PMO provides support in the form of on-demand expertise, templates, best practices and lessons learned. This is a great solution for organisations where projects are done successfully in a loosely controlled manner.

The Controlling PMO

The Controlling PMO provides support but also requires that the support is used. The PMO sets requirements of specific methodologies, templates and governance guidelines. Projects are also closely monitored by this type of PMO. The Controlling PMO is a solution for an organisation that seeks to align activities, practices and documentation.

The Directive PMO

The Directive PMO provides Project Management experience and resources to manage a project. This type of PMO creates a high level of consistency of practise across all projects and is especially effective in large organisations.  

Purpose of the PMO

The PMO, whatever type, offers guidance and information. It helps the organisation make sure that the right projects are done and that the right decisions are made by the right people, with the right information at the right moment. It helps the organisation govern and deliver projects in line with the organisation's values and organisational goals.

The PMO

• Seeks to implement appropriate project selection and prioritise criteria that assess the contribution to strategy, along with validation of the business case.
• Services to support the management of dependencies between delivery, deliverables, business changes and benefits across the projects and programmes.
• Can imply the use of appropriately tailored methodology like PRINCE2 and MSP or other Project/Programme Management methodologies in order to ensure projects and programmes are delivered well, efficiently and effectively.
• Provides a benefits framework and support for Project and Programme sponsors in order to deliver the benefits aligned with the organisation’s goal.
• Designs and implements functions and services that address the current or prospective problem/question that is recognised and acknowledged within the organisation.
• Listens to the decision-makers in the organisation and designs functions and services accordingly.
• Adapts to the maturity of the organisation, the culture, structure and level of sponsorship. Based on this it determines the value of the services to the organisation.
• Keeps an overview of all ongoing, previous and future projects and programmes and serves as a repository for all documentation.
• Creates quality reports that can be used for decision making by executives and boards with up to date, reliable and credible data.
• Demonstrates the value of the services it provides.

Organisations are not static, they constantly adapt and change to reflect the changing business environment. This means that also the challenges and questions to be answered will constantly change. It is the responsibility of a well-organized PMO to keep its eyes and ears open and be aware of the changing environment. The PMO is always looking for the new challenges and questions to be answered along with a continuous evaluation of the current functions and services provided by the PMO so they can be adapted as required. The PMO directly reflects the organisation and therefore neither the PMO is static. This means that the PMO can also decide to stop some services or introduce new services, with appropriately skilled resources. The PMO is very dynamic.  

Capabilities within the PMO

The set of capabilities and fulfilled roles will be different for every PMO, depending on size, complexity and many external factors. However, for a good functioning PMO, there are some obvious areas that should be covered.

• Stakeholder engagement: to ensure the right people are receiving the right messages in the right way – avoiding any misinterpretation
• Project management: to be able to support and/or challenge with credibility
• Analysis: to be able to collate, interpret and analyze often complex data
• Communication: to listen to and be able to present the right messages in the right way so that they will be accepted – even the difficult ones
• Negotiation: to act as a broker between the sponsor, business and PMO. Not usually a daily demand but potentially an invaluable skill at the enterprise level.

 

PMO Roles

The PMO is essentially providing services to an organization, but what this actually entails can differ between organizations. It is a complex and ever-changing environment and roles and the context of projects and programs highly influence the PMO. The PMO related roles are: . PMO Manager, who has the daily responsibility of the PMO. The Project Management Office Manager is to ensure that their company’s standards are upheld and clearly defined throughout the entire process of each project’s development and execution. PMO Managers are responsible for overseeing the work of all project management office personnel, and thus must take ownership of the resulting quality of each project. . PMO director is a senior level role and is most definitely concerned with taking ownership and accountability for change activities within a business. They are there to make sure an organization has everything in place for strategic initiatives to be delivered successfully. They are often focusing on creating the right environment with strong capability and capacity for delivery to succeed. . PMO administrators help to keep all those things organized. These administrators control documents, facilitate communication between the project office and stakeholders, and collect data to meet reporting requirements. . PMO Analysts hold a managerial position, but they work with employees from all levels who touch on the projects they are assigned to. As both analyst and manager, a successful PMO analyst is a talented multitasker. . Coach, who is responsible for providing ad hoc assistance to individual project managers or project teams. . Communication Specialist is the figure responsible for the communication plan and ensuring that all stakeholders receive timely communications regarding their projects. . Methodologist is this figure is responsible for the methodological content chosen for project management processes. It manages the evolution of templates and best practices, as well as for instructions on their use. Other probable roles within a well organized PMO can be defined into four different levels:

• Project Support roles: Project administrator, Project Co-ordinator, Project Support Officer.
• Portfolio, Programme and Project Support roles: Project Management Officer, PMO Officer, PMO Specialist roles (Project Planner, Project Scheduler, Project Controller).
• Leading and Managing PMO’s roles: PMO Manager, PMO Lead.
• Directing PMO’s roles: Head of PMO, PMO Director, Portfolio Director, e-PMO (enterprise PMO).

 

P3O - Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices

For the higher-level roles within the PMO, a P3O (Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices) certificate is often requested. P3O is a methodology that helps organisations build support structures that enable the successful delivery of their portfolios of change management programmes and projects.   Source: Axelos: Value of the PMO  Axelos: Implementing and leading a best practice PMO