Tips for passing PMP exam

Here are some of the tips that helps you pass the PMP exam in the first attempt



1. Understand the flow of 5 process groups (Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring&Control, Closing) - Refer PMBOK for this material



2. Knowledge on key concepts in 9 knowledge areas (Integration, Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, Procurement, Human Resource, Risk, and Communication) - Refer PMBOK, Rita Mulcahy, any other material.



3. Practice questions from Rita Mulcahy and other free/paid online material would be a great help for the preparation. You take a mock test for 4 hours and test your knowledge when you are close to the exam date, so that if any areas that you are not strong, you will have an opportunity to prepare for some time



4. Always Always do a group study, this will reduce more than 50% of your prep time



5. You have about 50% of the questions are situational based, so it will be hard to find a definite answer, what is the best way to answer them?

You can follow two important methods:

5.1. Elimination of choices: how can you eliminate two bad choices out of four? If you have gone through the material good enough then it would be VERY easy to elimite two wrong ones

5.2. Read the question: Out of the two choices, you can pick the correct choice by reading the question carefully

Following these two steps, almost always you can able to pick the correct answer.

6. Pay a special attention to Time, Cost, Integration, Risk management areas. The questions in these areas are almost direct and easy to answer.

7. Know these important concepts without any glare!

7.1 WBS (Work Breakdown Structure)

7.2 Stakeholders and their respective roles

7.3 Network diagramming methods, Critical Path, Lead/Lag

7.4 Types of Costs, Cost vs Budget, Cost calculations

7.5 COQ/COPQ

7.6 How processes are integrated? which process output becomes an input to next process? etc.

7.7 Type of organizations, Functional - Balanced - Projectized

7.8 Communication channels n(n-1)/2, Types of communication (Direct, Indirect, Written, Oral, Formal, and Informal) - you should know where to use what type of communication

7.9 Procurement types (Time & Material, Fixed Cost, Cost Plus Fixed Fee, Cost Plus Percentage etc.)

7.10 Team development, Acquiring a team

8. Spread your study time in three months, 1 hour each day (this shouldn't be difficult committment). It's probably a less than 20% of your TV time every day :-(

9. Best way remember PMI concepts, pick a sample project and do all the process steps. Do it as a group, you will have FUN and Learn

10. Follow the above 9 steps, you will get PMP certification

Happy Learning...

Sameer Penakalapati

Top 10 qualities of a Project Manager

You might have seen many online posts or seminars talking about how a project manager should be and his/her capabilities as a successful project manager. I have different perspective on it, and will also explain why.

Here is my list in the order of preference

1. Excellent Negotiator

Who is Project Manager? Manage the assigned resources at defined/un-defined constraints. How a PM can manage these, my point and many others felt that it all boils down to how well you negotiate with your team, stakeholders, vendords/external agencies to get to the bottom of the project need or task. I have seen many great project managers are successful negotiators, everything else is next.

2. Advisor

In a real world scenario, you have many constraints and challenges to meet stakeholder requirements so some PMs are successful and others are not? Do you know why? In general, if a requirement or a request from a stakeholder is far from acheivable, most PMs jump in and negotiate to change or remove the requirement from the list but not understanding the impact to the business. The good PMs discuss the need for the requirement by understanding the business need and asess the impact and works with Stakeholders to identify an alternte solution.

In the same way, act as an advisor to the team members on various issues

3. Excellent Communicator
If you want to be effective communicator, you need to understand the audience you are communicating and their roles in the organization. If you are communicating with senior management, then communication is short and dollarize the objective. At the same time, if you are communicating with the project teams, then you need to be more clear and precise on the assigned action items

4. Highest Ethical Standards

One should be able to possess highest ethical standards to be a great leader. Respect all the individuals, treat every one equal, loyal to the organization, respect data privacy & personal information, equal opportunity to the team, work for the team and to the organization

5. Team Player

This is the basic requirement of a Project Manager, and without it would not be PM. How in the earth can you manage the team if you are not a Team Player? How can you buy-in from the team even to get to the project on-track all the time? PM should recognize the fact that every member in the team is equally important to their respective roles, and play by the rules as set for the project or PMO(Project Management Office)

6. Business Savvy

Successful Project Managers know always the business need of doing their project, and how it impacts to the organizational goals. Knowing the business always helps the PM in steering the project to align with the set goals for the project. I encourage organizations to be more suceptible to idea of involving their PMs in key project decisions, it always uncover any risks and plan for managing it well in advance.

7. Problem Solver
It is a basic trait of a Project Manager. Virtually every project in this world may have some constraints to manage, a problem solver can always find a way to manage those constraints. A constraint can be a limited time, limited money, limited resources, limited knowledge, team conflicts and many others to manage, a problem solver know how to isolate the problem and steer the project towards the set goal.

8. Focus on target
As mentioned the constraints above, you still need to manage the project to deliver on-time and on-budget, this is not an easy task, you may have a lot of stress and pressure at times to get around a problem to keep the project stay on-track. A best project manager always stay focussed under all these circustances.

To explain it more eloquantly, here is a small story: Three students were practicing a rifle shooting in a forest, the important trait is a focus on a traget. So the guru (teacher) want to test their skills, he called on the students and showed them an apple tree and pointed them to the apple on the tip of the tree, asked the students to keep the rifle ready.

1.Guru asked the first student shooter, what are you seeing at the target?
First student replied: Apple, Tree, and Sky
2. Guru asked the second student shooter, what are you seeing at the traget?
Second student replied: Apple, and Tree
3. Guru asked the third student shooter, what are you seeing at the traget?
Third student replied: Apple only

Now you know, who are focussed on the traget, third student. The PM should always focus on the project outcome keeping everything out of the sight.

9. Competence

The project manager should be competent in all the three following domains: Project Management, Business, and any specific skill set required for a project. Being competent in all the above three domains, a PM can manage the project with any complexity.

10. Empathy
Empathy is nothing but understanding, what does it mean?

> Understanding the business
> Understanding the stakeholders
> Understanding the need for the project
> Understanding team issues
> Understanding risks
> Understanding project committment..like many other

one should be open minded in embracing the project key needs.

Happy Learning...

Sameer Penakalapati

Note: These are the opinons of the author, the applicability is at your own discretion.

Program Management Office - What you should know?

What is PMO (Program Management Office)?

According to Project Management Institute (PMI) , a group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually. PMO helps to coordinate these efforts with defined standards

Surprisingly most of the businesses doesn't understand the importantce of PMO and how it help businesses to grow. In a simple terms, PMO tracks the project progress and maps to the organizational goals.

Project Vs Program Management
The general process and terminology at program level is similar to the project level. However, the program management processes address issues at a higher level and involves less detailed project-level analysis.

Like project management processes, the program management processes require coordination with other functional groups in the organization as well as stakeholder management in general-but in broader context.


Types of PMO (Project Management Office)

Supportive PMO: It's common type of PMO exist in most organizations. The prupose of this PMO is to provide necessery support to project teams through audits, reviews, standard templates, coaching, mentoring, stakeholder management, administration and any other necessery support activities as required.
Controlling PMO: It provides all the support described in Support PMO structure in addtion it is also responsible for enforcing standards, audits, processes, risk, and governance
Directive PMO: This is not a common structure in many organizations but it's very effective in a project certric organizations. In project centric organization, every initiative will have a standardized project structure with defined goals and budget to manage and control the initiatives. In this type of organization, the PMO owns the project delivery includes stakeholder management, managing teams, controlling the risk and outcomes, and any other related tasks.

Selling PMO concept, especially in IT Services Industry
Traditionally PMO was looked at it as an organizational overhead which steers the policies and procedures largely useless. It's changing especially in the project based IT services industry, the project based engagements.
The following are the key decision points to discuss with your management to get buy-in
> Control project costs by standardizing the project resources
> Reduce the project run-overs by better managing the risks
> Better managed stakeholder expectations
> Leveraging the sucess across other projects in the organization
> Focused approach eliminates expensive mistakes like loosing a customer etc.

Phases of PMO life cycle
1. Initiate a program
2. Planning a program
3. Execute the program
4. Monitoring & Control the program
5. Improve PMO

Qualifications for a Program Manager
1. Ability to map project outcomes to organizational goals
2. Strong leadership skills to manage teams, stakeholders, and other external agencies
3. Should possess outstanding negotiation skills
4. Strong Verbal and Oral communications skills
5. Business know-how
6. Ability to manage all risks with stable focus on the outcome
7. Quick learner, problem solver, risk owner, and flexible
8. Champion of business and people
9. Minimum of a Bachelors degree's in any discipline, a MBA or formal training in PM is required

References:
1. Project Management Institute - Standards for Program Management
2. The Program Management Office - Craig J. Letavec

more to come.....

Happy Learning

Sameer Penakalapati
sameer.penakalapati@gmail.com

How to write business plans? A basic approach

With my 5 years of experience in writing business plans, I learned some of the basic parameters that make you ahead of others. Here is what you need to know

Do you have answers for these questions?

1. You may have an idea for a product or service, right? If so, is it unique of some sort?
2. Have you done any research for information or similar services that you are dreaming for?
3. How practical or capable to make it reality
4. How do you manage required funding? Have any thought about partners or equity funding or other sort of engagements to help you with this venture.

If you can answer yes.... Congratulations... please continue

Here is what you need for a solid business plan:

Business Plan components:
1. Write your Vision / Mission
2. Opportunity
3. Market Strategy
4. Business Strategy
5. Organization and Operations
6. Management
7. Core competencies and Challenges
8. Financials
9. Risks & Contingency Plan

Once you have all the information ready, you can present it in few different ways.

Executive Summary
It should be one page document with Vision/Mission, Opportunity, Strategy, Other financials information

Presentation / Reference manual

Arrange presentation in the order of business plan components above and also can provide hand-out with some specific details

If you need further information or help, write me at 'sameer.penakalapati@gmail.com'

I am not a sales guy, but here is why it matters?

Yes, true, I am not a sales guy so i don't need to sell...that's what you think?...then read, here is why it matters!.

Think about these situations....


1. To sell your idea to your boss, eventually you may get a bonus!
2. To sell your self (resume) to a potential employer
3. To sell your service or product to a new or existing client

and many more day-to-day job and life situations, hence some of the basics might help you to make a successful sale


1. A successful sale is to determine and quantify how a buyer could get benefit your idea/service, dollarize the benefit wherever possible

2. Determine how your sale increases buyer productivity, increase in productivity not only saves money but also reduces the development life cycle, which is a big selling mantra

3. Quantify a loss of not buying your product or service, plan a very calculated approach to prove your point, else it may be tough sale.

4. Make your sale pitch with 2-6 slide presentation. Hand-out can be provided to support the presentation with the details

5. At end of your sale pitch, ALWAYS ask for an oder. Many end sale without asking an order, you don' ask - you don't sell, always remember


more...keep watch my blog for more interesting topics


Cheers
Sameer Penakalapati
sameer.penakalapati@gmail.com

Why negotiation skills are so critical in personal and professional life? here is what you should know

Negotiation skills comes across every part of our life, negotiating with your kids, spouse, business, at work with your peers, your boss...you name it. But many fail to handle well, few points to know though this is a subject of its own to cover every situation.



1. Always go for 'win-win' negotiation, keeping everything neutral (emotions, egoism etc.)

2. Understand your fair interest and the interest of the person you are with negotiation

3. If you are a buyer and in negotiation with a seller on an offer/point of a discusion, always support with some benchmark or reference, it's easy for the negotiation

4. If both parties are not comfortable with the negotiation, take a time to come back later as it leaves both parties time to think

5. Avoid confrontation at any stage of negotiation

6. A good negotiation leaves a future merit for a business relationship, or even a good friedship

7. Keep your negotiation not more than half-an hour to an hour at a stretch, take a break, it gives some time to think through it before you reopen the discussion

8. Show your inerest to open for new ideas

9. Treat everyone involved in the negotiaton with great respect

10. Thank every one at the end of the negotiation, no matter if you made a deal or not

Are you midst of outsourcing your IT? or had a futile attempt? here uncover these facts

IT outsourcing is not new to the industry any more and it is matured than ever, but we still learn tragic stories and how companies go wrong with it so badly. I would like to offer few tips to uncover surprises which can save tons of money (few hundreds to millions of dollars)
1. Don't get into the trap of big/small outsourcing companies; look at their ability to deliver what you need.
2. The IT management (CIO/Directors/Managers) must communicate to their IT organization why and how outsourcing strategy is good for their company
3. Ask vendors about questions on attrition, skill development, hiring strategies, data protection, data privacy and many others may be unique to your business/industry.
4. Don't make your vendor selection factor alone based on low cost, but you should give equal importance on skills availability, expertise knowledge, responsiveness, flexibility, can-do attitude (be like your partner)
5. Do not sign-up for a big multi-year contract to start with, always try with low-risk, low-impact to business type projects typically a 3-6 months duration.
6. Setup a Vendor Management office to track the performance of the vendor(s) based on the Service Levels agreed in the contract. Make sure you also have a clause in the contract for penalty for not meeting service levels.
7. Always have minimum 2 outsourcing vendors to compete at your advantage in terms of price, quality, service, and to mitigate risk
8. When the relationship evolves with the vendor involving them in critical projects and support activities, keep your vendor management have an eye on vendor business (specifically their finances, key management changes, acquisitions etc.) to uncover surprises
and many more...if you need more information, write to me at sameer.penakalapati@google.com

Do you know what your customer is looking for?

Well, many people seems to have a trouble with it. My experience working with sales teams to senior management, many get excited to share what they are good but a little focus on what customer wants.

Here are some tips to avoid costly mistakes

1. Listen, Listen, Listen
2. Question to know their 3 most pain areas
3. Ask your customer, what needs to be done to make their job easier and more productive
4. Know your customer business, industry, and current challenges
5. Know your customer vision, and strategy
6. Align your product/service to their vision/strategy
7. Always dolarize the return on investment
8. Present case studies and references with ROI
9. Position yourself as an advisor not a salesperson
10. Show your willingness to help the customer

More will come......