This is a special episode of The PM PrepCast for the launch of our new PMP Exam Coaching program.
This is the second of three interviews in this series, in which we focus on the coaching student. It's a lessons learned interview from the perspective of the PMP exam student who used a coach so that we can learn how a PMP Tutor helps his students to achieve success.
In this interview we welcome Derek Satz, PMP and we will be hearing about his trials and tribulations in preparing for this exam. One very notable fact about Derek is this: Derek has 11 certifications to his name and he says that the PMP certification was the most difficult one to achieve.
I asked him why he thinks that the PMP exam is so much more difficult and I read you his answer during the introduction of the interview. It's a long introduction, but worth hearing.
This is a special episode of The PM PrepCast for the launch of our new PMP Exam Coaching program.
In the first two interviews about PMP Exam Coaching, we heard from a PMP Tutor about his work and how he helps students as they are prepping for their PMP exam. Now we want to switch the focus to the students. This is the first of three interviews with PMP exam students who decided to use a coach during their exam preparation.
First off we meet Cathy Vasile, PMP. She had a hard time translating her initial training into PMP exam success. So she decided to work with a PMP coach and achieved success.
We learn about her journey from start to finish, talk about how the coach personalized the training for her needs, and why she feels that this was money well spent.
This is a special episode of The PM PrepCast for the launch of our new PMP Exam Coaching program.
Yes -- you read that right. We are going to tackle the issue of failing the PMP exam and I’m fully aware that you may not want to hear this. After all, if you are a PMP candidate then you are probably preparing for this exam like a madman or crazywoman so that you PASS the exam. And so it’s only natural that you are pushing the thought of failure away.
But… let’s look at this from a different angle: From the angle of lessons learned and how to proactively avoid failure.
My interview guest Dan Ryan (The PMP Exam Coach) has coached hundreds of students for the PMP exam. Many of them failed the exam before they came to him for help. He picked them up, motivated them, pointed them in the right direction and stood by their side on the road to PMP exam success.
That is what a coach does and if you want to know more about what type of coaching we offer, please visit www.pm-prepcast.com/coaching for all the details.
So listen to this interview not with fear about failing your PMP exam. But instead listen to it with the attitude of a project manager who has access to information from previous, similar projects and who uses information as lessons learned to make sure that your own project -- your own PMP exam -- does not fail.
This is a special episode of The PM PrepCast for the launch of our new PMP Exam Coaching program.
In this interview I introduce you to Dan Ryan, MBA, PMP. Dan is not only a certified PMP, he is also a PMP Exam Coach. As a PMP exam coach he works with PMP students from around the world to achieve the goal of passing the PMP exam. And he has done that hundreds of times. He successfully helped, motivated and guided his students to become PMP certified.
And he can do that for you as well because we decided that now is the right time for us to start offering personalized PMP exam coaching to you. To learn more about what type of coaching we offer, please visit www.pm-prepcast.com/coaching. That will give you all the details and introduce you to our coaches.
And please do yourself a favor and listen to this interview even if you think that you don’t need a personal coach for the PMP exam, because the 7 questions that Dan discusses are important. Everyone worries about them and Dan has the answers for you.
This is a quick announcement to let you know that we are doing something different in the coming 5 days: There are 5 interviews coming your way. They are all about PMP Exam Coaching.
If you have listened to The PM Podcast for a while, then you know that the podcast here is a labor of love and my way of giving back to the project management community. My bills, my rent and my food on the other hand are all paid for by my recorded PMP exam preparation courses.
And the word “recorded” is key here because we have decided that now is the time for our company to start offering live, virtual PMP exam coaching where a live coach works one-on-one with a student to propel him or her to the PMP exam. You can find the details about this new coaching program at http://www.pm-prepcast.com/coaching.
And to mark the launch of our new coaching program we are releasing 5 interviews that look at exam coaching here on the podcast. But don’t worry… these 5 interviews are not just pure infomercials for our new coaching offer. Yes, the interviews are meant to promote the program, but each of these 5 interviews is primarily focused at helping PMP exam students on their journey to the exam.
In these interviews we look at the 7 most urgent questions that every PMP exam student asks and how a coach in a would answer them. We discuss how you can pick yourself up after a failed PMP exam and how a coach can assist you here. And I also interviewed 3 students who have worked with a PMP exam coach in the past. We learn about their journey, their exam troubles and how their coach helped them get across the finish line.
In each interview, you will find tips and tricks and also recommendations for those who are currently preparing for their PMP exam.
This means that if you are currently preparing for the PMP exam (even if you know that you don’t want to use a coach) listen to these interviews to learn about problem areas that other students have faced and how they have been overcome.
And if you are not preparing for the PMP then please recommend these 5 interviews to any colleagues you may have who are currently studying for their PMP certification.
This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for The PMP Exam:
Did you know that The PM Podcast started out as (and still is) a precious hobby of mine and that I took what I learned about podcasting from this show here and created a video podcast that helps you prepare for the PMP Exam?
Of course you do! Because I talk about it all the time.
And so today we are doing a bit of a crossover between those two podcasts with this interview that features Jonathan Hebert (linkedin.com/pub/jonathan-hebert-pmp/1/247/71/en). Jonathan is not only a PMP exam student of mine, he was also the senior project manager of updating my PMP prep podcast to the most recent version.
And in this “lessons learned” interview you are going to hear him talk about his journey to becoming PMP certified from start to finish.
This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for The PMP® Exam:
In this special episode we introduce you to Mark Phillipy who is the host of The Sensible Project Manager Podcast). Mark invited myself and Kevin Reilly to the program to discuss all eight PMI certification exams.
Here is what Mark wrote about this discussion:
The Project Management Institute (PMI) has seven certifications for project managers and one for business analysts. Cornelius Fichtner and Kevin Reilly join Mark to discuss these certifications and end up providing details about each certification.
This episode was a recording of #PMHangout 40 which was held as part of the Sensible Project Manager Hangout Community hosted on Google+ Hangouts On-Air.
This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for The PMP® Exam:
In November of 2014 I was one of 21 speakers for the Conscious Software Development Telesummit (conscioussoftwaredevelopment.com). My topic was "Project Management will Make Me a Better Developer... Right?".
Now you might think that conscious software development is not for you, because you don’t really know what it means, it sounds a bit "new age" and it’s not about project management! And frankly, that’s how I felt at first as well. But then I saw that nearly half of the presenters of the telesummit had been previous guests here on the project management podcast. They were all presenting their unique view of how project management and software development can work together.
And so when Michael Smith (www.linkedin.com/in/abundantmichael) -- the organizer of the event -- asked to be a guest here for you I immediately said yes. And it turned into a great and valuable conversation for you.
We’ll begin by defining what conscious software development is, how it relates to project management for software projects as well as current world shifts, and we close with tips for how you can foster consciousness in both yourself (as a project manager) and also in your teams that very likely include software developers.
Managing projects is exciting and fun. But there comes a moment in every project manager’s career when you realize that there must be more than just bringing tasks to completion. This is the moment when you realize that you want to go from project manager to project leader, which is when you have to pick up The Power of Project Leadership. Susanne Madsen’s book is an in-depth road map that shows you exactly how to re-invent yourself and go from managing your projects at the task level to leading them through vision and empowerment.
So in our interview you can look forward to hearing Susan recommend what she would like you to do differently in regards to leadership, how you can transform your leadership style, discover three of the seven keys to strategic project leadership from the book, and as always we close this one of our leadership podcasts with a number of tips for you to implement right away.
Leadership is one of the core elements of the PMI Talent Triangle and the professional development you do to learn more and improve your leadership skills will count towards the 60 PDUs for PMP renewal that certified project managers need to earn every three years. This is one of our PMP PDU podcast episodes (meaning you can earn PDUs by listening) and it gives you some practical advice and will also help you understand how to develop professionally as a leader. Leadership is essential for project managers working in all disciplines, whether you have the role of project manager in SAFe agile, or work in a hybrid, iterative or predictive environment.
Project managers today need to have so many skills. There are so many opportunities to learn as well, via social media for project managers so I'm delighted to have this opportunity to bring you today's interview.
Just a note on PDUs as you are listening to this episode: Podcasts are a great way to earn free PMP PDUs so make sure you write down that you listened to this podcast, and what you took away from it. There are some amazing tips that will make great learning points for you to reflect on in the future!
Individuals make up our project teams, and we project managers, all too often, are gauged based on what these teams can accomplish, which is why building and maintaining high-performing teams should always be a priority for you and me.
How to do this was recently described in an article titled Four Ways to Build and Maintain High-Performing Teams. And so I’m very pleased to welcome Maria Kozlova (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/maria-kozlova/9/76/336) from Comindware on the show today to discuss these four ways.
Oh… and spoiler alert… one of them is collaboration.
This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP® Exam:
Are you managing projects in marketing? If yes, then… perfect. Because this interview is for you with tips and tricks and insights. And if your answer is no, then… it’s still for you!
And that’s because because marketing projects and the approaches used are not that different. Maria Kozlova (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/maria-kozlova/9/76/336) from Comindware speaks to this at the very start of the interview when she emphatically says that the ideas we talk about translate quite well.
And so even though we focus on marketing projects, by the end of the discussion you will agree that project management offers powerful capabilities of organizing how your team, department or company is working. As with any other business management solution, the methodology and the software need to be selected to best fit your specific business case and objectives like improved team performance, process transparency or financial savings.
This interview with Joy Gumz (www.projectauditors.com) and Pam Welty was recorded at the PMI Global Congress 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona.
This interview is based on the case study presentation "Managing the Devilish Details: A Case Study on Using BIM". In both the presentation and our interview Joy Gumz and Pam Welty discuss how BIM is being used during the design and construction of an office building in San Francisco, California.
We review what BIM is (according to the BIM Handbook it is "a modeling technology and associated set of processes to produce, communicate, and analyze building models"), we hear how it was used during design and construction, and we discuss why BIM was a major factor in the overwhelming success of the project.
We recommend that you watch the Bim In Action Video before listening to this interview because BIM is a very visual approach. And by spending 2 minutes to watch the video first you will have a better understanding of what BIM can do.
This interview is an accompaniment to the interview about Building Information Modeling (BIM) that we did with Joy Gumz (www.projectauditors.com) and Pam Welty.
The video shows you BIM in action and we recommend that you watch it before listening to the recorded interview, so that you can better follow along.
This Interview with Mario Trentim was recorded at the PMI Global Congress 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Most of us rely on soft skills, communication and leadership to manage stakeholders. But while they're helpful, interpersonal skills are far from being the sole way to implement stakeholder management. As a matter of fact, there are hard skills in stakeholder management - tools, techniques and methods that should be diligently applied to enhance stakeholder management and improve project success rates.
In this interview we learn how Mario Trentim stopped the trend of failing projects when he was a PMO manager by researching better ways to manage stakeholders. We discuss an effective stakeholder management cycle and framework as well as how to involve stakeholders in value creation.
Encouraged by the success of his findings Mario went ahead and wrote a book about it. It is titled Managing Stakeholders As Clients: Sponsorship, Partnership, Leadership, and Citizenship. He was invited to The PMI Global Congress to present these findings because he won the prestigious Kerzner award, which recognizes a project manager who most emulates the professional dedication and excellence of Dr. Harold Kerzner.
This Interview with Frank Parth was recorded at the PMI Global Congress 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Multiple independent research efforts are beginning to show a more consistent approach to developing successful megaprojects in the areas of oil/gas, mining, and construction projects than have been used in the past. These megaprojects are characterized by high value (often defined as greater than $1 billion), comparably high benefits, years-long timelines, and correspondingly high risk. While there have been great advances in both project management methodologies and in the tools the project managers have available (such as CAD/CAM, BIM, and advanced project scheduling and budgeting tools), the complexity of these multi-year programs has advanced even more quickly than the tools have. Construction and engineering projects have become more complex and ambitious faster than our ability to manage them. Oil/gas/infrastructure projects now are much longer in duration and far more complex than even ten years ago, with concomitant increased risks and failures. The International Energy Agency estimates that meeting global energy needs will require investing more than $17 trillion by 2030.
In this interview Frank Parth (https://www.projectauditors.com) looks at the classical project management approaches that focus on delivering the final product within cost and schedule constraints once the project enters the execution phase. We talk about multiple lines of research that show that the ultimate success of a complex program has very little dependency on how the program is managed once the construction phase begins and far greater dependency on what happens before that phase begins. If a $10 billion dollar refinery runs late and over budget, the failure has started long before the project schedule was created or the engineering/procurement/construction (EPC) process began. All of the serious research in this area shows that the only part of the effort where traditional project management approaches make sense in the later stages, the engineering and EPC stages. Earlier phases take a different approach to ensure success.
Furthermore we discuss an overview of current project management practices; current research on megaprojects; development stages for efforts on this scale; and some recommendations.
This Interview with Brian Irwin was recorded at the PMI Global Congress 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona.
While organizations might find it easier to first address the processes and tools they will use when they’re delivering agile projects, it is individuals and their interactions that ultimately determine the level of enduring agile success an organization is able to realize. The change required to enable long-term agility is cultural in nature. For change to occur, the beliefs and values held by individuals in the organization must be examined.
Organizational change cannot be mandated through top-down edicts and policy. An environment that fosters both individual and organizational transformation must be created. One way to help individuals through a change of this magnitude is through the use of deep questioning which is born out of genuine curiosity.
In his presentation at the congress (and also in our interview) Brian Irwin outlines a method of critical thinking through the use of Socratic questioning to enable individual, guided discovery and provides an example of its use.
Another year has gone by and so it is once again time for our annual “bloopers” episode.
Yes, this is the episode when we take you behind the scenes and have some fun. And so, here are about a dozen or so recording snippets that we have withheld from you, because things just went awfully wrong in the studio and we had to edit them out.
This Interview with Jim DePiante was recorded at the PMI Global Congress 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona.
If securities dealers sold securities the way we project managers sell our projects, the authorities would throw those securities dealers in jail.
A project has all the characteristics of any investment. There is the asset itself, the price, the return and the risk associated with the return. How is it then that project managers routinely “sell” investments without knowing the price, nor what the asset or its return will be, all with a straight face and without going to jail!?
Projects must be understood as investments. It’s not enough to say that a project is like an investment. A project is an investment, strictly speaking. In this interview, we review the four characteristics of an investment/project.
This Interview with David Hillson was recorded at the PMI Global Congress 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona.
When most people talk about risk management, they are thinking only about uncertain future events that would have a negative effect on achievement of project time and cost objectives. However the definition of risk in the risk chapter of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge includes much more than mere threats to the project schedule or budget, and other risk standards agree. If we limit our view of risk to look at only one part of the risk picture, we will not be proactively managing all the risks that might affect the success of our project, and we will end up taking risks without knowing it.
In this interview with David Hillso we explore the other types of risk that are usually missed from the typical risk process. Drawing on leading thinking and current best practice, we explore the full range of project risks that need to be managed, starting from the proto-definition of risk as “uncertainty that matters”.
Risks that matter include those with positive effects as well as those with negative effects (opportunities as well as threats). They can also affect any project objective, not just time or cost.
In addition, uncertainty in projects arises from much more than future uncertain events (“stochastic risks”). Other sources of uncertainty include variability (“aleatoric risk”), ambiguity (“epistemic risk”), and emergence (“ontological risk”).
With illustrative examples of each type of risk, and an in-depth look at risk responses in project management, this interview helps us to identify all types of risk that might affect our projects, and offers ways for us to tackle them effectively.
Episode 300! Who would have thought back in 2005 when I bought myself a cheap Logitech desk microphone to record the first episode that this little hobby of mine would take all of us to this point here. I certainly had no such expectations.
And for this 300th episode I decided to turn the tables. This is our very first “Ask Me Anything” episode. So I reached out to ten project managers who were guests previously here on the show, and I asked them to send me their question. The question could either be personal or project management related.
And because I contacted ten project managers and asked each of them to send me one question I did of course end up with 15 questions. Talk about scope creep!
What is it that makes you unique and draws people to you and the podcast?
Kevin Reilly
What do you consider to be the most important emerging trend that will have the biggest impact on the evolution of project management in the next 5 years.
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM, is the host and the author at The Project Management Podcast. He has welcomed hundreds of guests and project management experts to the podcast and has helped over 60,0000 students prepare for their PMP® Exam. He has authored dozens of articles on projectmanagement.com and PM World 360. He speaks at conferences around the world about project management, agile methodology, PMOs, and Project Business. Follow him on Twitter and connect with him on LinkedIn.
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