A New Knowledge Area “Stakeholders” in PMBOK5: Not A Surprise

It is a well known fact that Project manager's spend their time on communicating with stakeholders. On an average 90% of the time are spent on communication. For success of any project a lot depends on how information is distributed among right stakeholders on time and necessary change requests are initiated before the situation goes out of hand. In PMBOK 4 , listing and managing stakeholders were part of Communication knowledge area. Since the dynamic nature of stakeholders presence needed a greater emphasis on how to manage stakeholders in an effective way. This may be the reason why PMI though of including “Stakeholders” as an individual knowledge area.

It is very important for a PM to identify the right stakeholders for right information at right time through out the life of a project and distribute information accordingly. There is no point to give information to stakeholder no longer impacting the success of the project and missing the important stakeholder who was not so active during the planning phase but becomes active in execution phase. Inability to identify the stakeholders can result in failure of project or not meeting the deadline. The importance of this process resulted in addition of a new Knowledge area called “Stakeholders”.

The processes in this knowledge area are apparently following:

1. Identify Stakeholders ( Initiating )
2. Plan Stakeholder Management ( Planning)
3. Manage Stakeholder Engagement ( Executing )
4. Control Stakeholder Management ( Monitoring and Controlling )

It is needless to say as most of the processes these processes are also iterative and PMs should re-asses the validity of stakeholder lists on regular basis.

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PMP Certification FAQ (What is the PMP Certification exam?)

What is the PMP Certification exam?

PMP stands for Project Management Professional certification exam. This is an exam offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and is one of the most respected and recognized certification for project manager. The PMP certification demonstrate that the candidate have the experience, competency and education to successfully direct and lead the projects of any field.

PMI is an organization?

The PMI was founded in the year 1969. It is largest non-profit membership association for the project management profession in the world. The goal of PMI is continuous development in the field of Project Management. PMI started the PMP certification exam in the year 1984. PMI has representative in the form of PMI chapters all across the globe.

What other certification exams are offered by PMI?

Now PMI offers 8 different exams related to the discipline of Project Management. These are –

• CAPM: Certified Associate Project Manager
• PMP®: Project Management Professional
• PMI-ACP: Agile Certified Professional
• PgMP: Program Management Professional
• PMI-SP: PMI Scheduling Professional
• PMI-RMP: PMI Risk Management Professional
• PfMP: Portfolio Management Professional
• PMI-PBA: PMI Professional in Business Analysis

What is the procedure to get PMP certified?

First you will need to find if you are eligible to take the PMP certification or not.

Eligibility Criteria

For Bachelor Degree holder or Equivalent

• Three years or 36 months+ of unique non-overlapping professional project management experience
• The candidate has to have 4500 hours of Project management experience.
• The candidate has to have 35 contact hours of project management education

For Non bachelor/Diploma holders

• Five years or 60 months+ of unique non-overlapping professional project management experience
• The candidate has to have 7500 hours of Project management experience.
• The candidate has to have 35 contact hours of project management education

The detailed eligibility criteria are written in PMP Certification handbook.

If you meet the criteria, then you can file the application at PMI site.

What is the Form Submission Procedure — is it complex?

No it is not. After meeting all the eligibility criteria the candidate has to submit the form online. PMI generally takes five working days to review the form. Once it gets approved they will ask to make the payment for your PMP certification exam.  Randomly PMI select 5% candidates for audit and you will come to know whether you are selected for the audit just after the payment. If everything goes smoothly, in a few days you will receive an acceptance letter/e-mail from PMI. After this you can schedule your exam by visiting or by calling the Prometric Center.

I help candidates in submitting the PMI form. If needed please contact me.

See the flowchart here

Need further help in filling the form click here

What if I am selected for Audit?

After submission of you’re the PMI take approximately five working days to review your form and then they will ask you to make the payment. Just after the payment the software randomly selects candidates for the audit. If you are one of them then do not worry or panic. All the procedure will be mentioned in step-by-step method. You just have to follow them and complete the audit procedure. Audit generally takes few days to complete the required formalities. Once the formalities are completed then PMI will take few days to review it and then you will receive an acceptance letter/e-mail from PMI and then you can schedule your exam.

I help candidates in completing their PMI audit. Please contact me.

What are the mode of the Exam?

Most of the candidates select computer based exam which is conducted in the Prometric testing centers Online. There are other options available too which you can find in the PMI handbook.

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UPDATE: PMP® EXAM IS CHANGING IN 2016

PMI has just posted the new PMP® Exam Content Outline (which is the equivalent of the exam syllabus for the PMP® Exam) to be effective from 11 Jan 2016 online. It has included a few changes which will affect PMP® aspirants in their exam preparation if they plan to take the PMP® Exam after 11 Jan 2016.

After an in-depth analysis of the changes, it can be concluded that the changes are considered just “minimal”. If you own current editions of PMP® Exam Prep book or courses, you will also be well prepared for the upcoming changes!

UPDATE: PMP Exam Changes From Jan 11, 2016. What You Need To Know? from Trainings24x7

What Is The Passing Score For PMP Examination???

PMP Passing Score For PMP Examination (Myths Vs. Facts)

“Can you please let me know what the passing score for the PMP exam is? How many questions have to be answered correctly, out of 200 to pass the PMP?” 

I got this email last week in my inbox. One of our subscribers asked this questions and I decided to provide him a detailed explanation on this. However, there are many myths roundabout the PMP passing score as many people talk about it differently. If you asked me “what is the exact passing score for PMP examination?”, my direct answer is – There is no pre-defined criteria mentioned by PMI® on this. It means – there is NO exact passing score for PMP examination. However, a long ago, there was 61.5 % passing score officially published by PMI®.

How Does PMI® Calculate Passing Score?

Actually, PMI® determines passing score based on the difficulties of the set of PMP exam questions someone has answered. I have analyzed that – the best way to ensure your PMP exam is – to get minimum 75% to 80% in quality PMP Exam Sample Questions (click here to get free one full simulation test – 200Qs).The PMI no longer will officially state a passing score. They do not want us to study just enough to pass, they want us to really know and understand the PMBOK and the processes and why they exist.

 

How Many PMP Exam Question Should You Answer Correctly To Pass The PMP Exam?

 

For better understanding – there is a way of knowing how much you have to score. You can state that it should be 115 out of 175, with the remaining 25 used as assessment questions. But as it is not determined during the exam which are the 25, it makes it comfortable to assume that getting 150 out of 200 should be the target for getting pmp certified.

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Difference Between Contact Hours & PDUs

There are many PMP aspirants who are still confused about which one is needed Contact Hours or PDUs in order to apply for the PMP Exam.  So, is it 35 contact hours you need and not 35 PDUs to apply for PMP? Let me explain if you are still more confused about these terms.
In a simple language –
Contact Hours – are hours that are needed to earn before becoming PMP certified. It can only be earned as a traditional course time that focuses on project management. If you are PMP exam aspirant then you will need at contact hours certificate (at least 35 contact hours certificate which is mandatory credential for PMP exam conducted by PMI).
People are also confused whether it is necessary to earn 35 contact hours from PMI R.E.P only. The answer is – “NO”.  PMI has made it clear in its handbook about the different ways to earn the 35 contact hours.
How to earn 35 Contact Hours?

• Contact Hours are earned by attending Project Management relevant instruction.
• Any class you took at any age could be counted as Contact Hours if it had any PM instructions
• If your organization provided any training to use the software they use, you can claim that as Contact Hours
• Attend PMP training from a Registered Education Provider (R.E.P) who is eligible to award you with Contact Hours.
• You can easily earn this with Trainings24x7

PDUs (Professional Development Units) – PDUs are earned when you become PMP certified. You do not need Contact Hours after becoming PMP certified. There are some ways to earn PDUs to maintain your PMP. You may refer PMI Handbook for PDU calculations of your respective certification and it does provide detailed information of each activity.
(PMP)® is the globally recognized certification of project management knowledge, skills and of course experience as well. So it’s not surprising that PMI takes a great care to make sure the quality of its certification process, from application through post certification.
PDU’s must be earned only from PMI R.E.P (Registered Education Provider) as clearly mentioned in the PMI Handbook.

Hope, this article has helped you and cleared your all confusion about both terms. Best of luck for PMP Exam!

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List Of Free PMP Sample Questions Websites | Trainings24x7

Are PMP exam ready and looking for PMP FREE Sample Questions OR Simulators for practice? If YES, then in this article I’m going to give you a list of free PMP sample questions websites or resources from where you can get more than 1000 practice PMP questions for free. Below you will have the list of the best websites that will help you prepare PMP questions with answer.
I will also list the best reference books for preparing the exam.

It is universally true that – to obtain the PMP certification, you need to do lots of practice on realistic questions. Recommendation is given to do at least 1000 of such questions before actually passing the exam. That is why I have listed here the list of websites from where you can get more that 1000 FREE questions and their answers. You must practice them until you achieve more than 80 percent of the questions.

Golden Tip before practicing questions: – Read the PMBOK 5^th Edition at least 5 times to familiarize yourself with PMI’s vision and terminology.
Websites providing free PMP certification exam questions:

• Trainings24x7 200Q http://trainings24x7.com/online-pmp-cert-course/ (Recommended)
• PMPForSure 100Q Test http://www.pmpforsure.com/
• http://www.headfirstlabs.com/PMP/free_exam/
• http://www. oliverlehmann.com/pmp-self-test/75-free-questions.htm
• http://www.certchamp. com/pmp-sample-questions.jsp
• http://www.pmroadtrip.com/pmp_exams. html
• http: //certification.about.com/od/projectmanagement/a/pmp_test_whiz.htm
• http://www.indicareer.com/sample-questions/pmp-sample-questions/pmp-sample-questions.html
• http://pm-prepa.blogspot.com/http://www.preparepm.com/mock1.html
• http://www.pmexam.com

       (For more link)

How To Avoid PMI Audit?

Can I Avoid PMI Audit? How To Avoid PMI Audit

The simple and short answer is – NO. You cannot avoid PMI audit because PMI clearly states that – “The Selection of an application for audit is random”. PMI reserves the right to audit all applications. Since it receives thousands of applications from around the world, only a percentage of them are actually audited. Technically, your application can be audited by PMI even after passing the PMP exam.

 What Does an Audit Mean For You?

It only means your exam application process is going to a little longer which you need to prepare and mail (physically post!) those documents to PMI after having them signed by the colleagues you have mentioned in your application.
Since the process of audit is random in nature, so there is nothing to do to avoid the PMI audit. What you can do is to get well prepared for a PMI audit so that you can pass the audit very easily and smoothly.

 In case your application gets audited then below is my recommendation:

• Get all the certificates and keep copy ready
• Contact with all the people whose name you propose to the list as your managers / supervisors on your PMP application. Let them know that you are going to apply for PMP certification exam so that if PMI contact them they should not be surprised and keep themselves ready to respond.
• Do not overlap your experience.
• Be specific about work responsibilities.
• If you fill the form truthfully; you don’t have anything to fear from the PMI audit.
• If you are still confused then join pmp training class where you can get the help of filling pmp exam application form then do not worry as many other gets confused here therefore our recommendation is to join PMP training from where you can get assistance in filling the form and YES we help our all candidates in filling their PMP exam form.

If you follow the above steps then it will help you prepare better.

 PMP form filling process article http://trainings24x7.com/filling-form-procedure/

 Best Of Luck !

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