.

“Getting a study buddy was the best PMP strategy I used. It was loads of fun. We would also vent our anger and frustration during our calls :)”, said Meera when asked about the best tip she can provide for PMP preparation.

Meera Sidhu has a Masters’s degree in Neuroscience. She is a Research Ethics Coordinator with the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR).

Don’t miss the ‘MET’ concept, an important aspect during your PMP planning phase, to know how to make it viable for you.

Meera passed her PMP exam with ‘Above Target’ score in all domains.

That only meant that I had to talk to her and share her study and exam prep strategies with you. 🙂

If you find it useful, consider sharing it with someone that may need it.

What made you take up PMP?

I come from the research/healthcare field. As I navigated my career path, I realized that I excel at project/program management.

When I started looking at upskilling further to become a more desirable candidate for the current job market, I figured that PMP certification is the right next step for me.

I did consider going back to school for further education (a Ph.D. or another Master’s degree) but the careers I am interested in do not require that level of education.

What was the core benefit you expected from PMP certification?

I expected that having my PMP certification would make me a more desirable candidate in the job market. I had hoped it would give me the leg up I needed to advance in my career.

Having the PMP (or any other certification) is always a bonus.

You cannot go wrong with learning and bettering your portfolio. I do see elements of the PMP course materials being used in my current job, such as tracking the progress and budgeting of multiple projects at a time.

👇 In a hurry? Watch this short video 👇

[continue reading…]

19 Real Life Project Management Challenges You Face, And How To Effortlessly Overcome Them

Being a manager is awesome.

But, being a project manager is hard.

Being an effective project manager is much harder.

As a project manager, you wear multiple hats, and you are sandwiched right between senior management and your team members—managing expectations from both sides.

This, in addition to dealing with forces from vendors, customers, project constraints, regulatory compliance, and even negative stakeholders.

In this article, you will see 19 practical, real-life challenges that most project managers face on a day-to-day basis.

Chances are you are facing quite a few of them yourself. I share the tips to solve these effectively and efficiently.

I’ve based this on over two decades of my experience managing projects of various sizes and complexity across multiple timezones.

If you have a problem that is not addressed here, please do let me know in the Comments and I shall share my approach to dealing with them.

Before we deep dive, take a moment and share this article in your network and help those that may need this.

Ready with your favorite drink, and pen & paper?

The first thing to notice is that irrespective of the magnitude of the issue, they fall in one of these 9 Knowledge Areas (yes PMI has already nicely categorized it in the PMBOK guide!) –

1. Scope – what work goes in to create the project output?
2. Schedule – how long does it take to complete the project?
3. Cost – how much money does it cost for this project?
4. Quality – how do we ensure the output matches the feature and behavior expectations?
5. Resource – what type of resources (people and physical) and how much of them are needed?
6. Communications – how do we exchange data, information, and artifacts among people?
7. Risk – what can go wrong, how do we identify their occurrence, and how do we deal with them?
8. Procurement – what are the things we require from outside to execute this project?
9. Stakeholder – who are all involved in the project, and who can influence the project outcome?

Yes, I hear you.., there are 10 knowledge areas in PMBOK!

The one we left out here is Integration—which is an all-encompassing oversight area for the project manager—covering right from the initiation stage of the project till completion of it.

And issues you face there belong to one of the above 9—most likely stakeholder, communications, or resources.

Let us look at the most common project management issues you face on a daily basis (in no particular order), and how you can deal with them.

Let’s jump right in!

Quick links

1. Project management challenge #1: Confusion About Project Goal
2. Project management challenge #2: People Conflicts
3. Project management challenge #3: Lack of Communication
4. Project management challenge #4: Inaccurate Estimates
5. Project management challenge #5: Scope Creep
6. Project management challenge #6: Inadequate Project Budget
7. Project management challenge #7: Resource Unavailability
8. Project management challenge #8: Project Management Software
9. Project management challenge #9: Scheduling Conflicts
10. Project management challenge #10: Managing Expectations
11. Project management challenge #11: Skills of Team Members
12. Project management challenge #12: Risk Management
13. Project management challenge #13: Missing Accountability
14. Project management challenge #14: Insufficient Interaction with Stakeholders
15. Project management challenge #15: Unreasonable Deadlines
16. Project management challenge #16: Lack of Teamwork
17. Project management challenge #17: Workflow Management
18. Project management challenge #18: Lack of Ownership
19. Project management challenge #19: Resistance to Change
20. Summary

Get Free PMP Course & Weekly PMP Support!

[continue reading…]

Some call this personal brand, some influencer profile. But I call it for what it is: online authority in your field.

Before we jump in, take a moment to share this in your network and help someone that may need it.

By the end of this article, you will have the step-by-step blueprint to start building your online authority.

This is the easiest way to stand out from the crowd.

What crowd, did you say?

There are over a million PMP-certified project managers worldwide. And that’s just a small percentage of overall project managers. Look around you.

How many project managers are there in your company, and how many among there are PMP certified? This sample size should get you an idea about the size of the ‘crowd’.

Considering that the org structure is of pyramid type, there is less space at the top, and more contenders to fill that space.

By simply standing out, you can attract those opportunities without any specific effort at all.

As a manager, you manage one or more of these:

People. Resources. Schedule. Risks. Vendors. Outcome.

A simple way to grow faster than ever is:

👉To build authority in your field.

Here are 3 ways of doing it:

🧵

— Shiv Shenoy, PMP (@shivshenoy) September 9, 2022

What do I get by building online authority?

The world has, and our worlds have, been shaken in the past 2 years due to the pandemic.

Layoffs became all the more common, coupled with a bad economy.

Being active on LinkedIn, I noticed a trend.

Those project managers that were known online found it much easier to get another job.

Some even pivoted into creating massive value and building a freelancing business with their authority.

By building your online authority, you can –

• build a community to help & serve
• be on top of the mind of people that can hire you
• be approached by thought-leaders with opportunities
• build a strong professional network that can be leveraged
• create/recommend products and services in your niche
• offer your services to create a secondary income
• future-proof yourself quite easily

Most people, while understanding the power of building online authority, do not know how to proceed.

The fact is that it is much easier to build your authority online.

I built my business from the ground up, solely based on online authority.

I’m going to give you the blueprint to carve your online authority.

Recently, I ran a poll on LinkedIn for project managers.

I asked them a simple question: [continue reading…]

Avishek Patra has over a decade of rich experience, with 5+ years in various roles of project management.

When not working, Avishek loves to listen to music, watch movies, or play football.

Avishek faced the challenge of not getting the right profiles as he does not have an IT background.

He discovered during his research that PMP would help him.

And yes, Avishek did this only with PMBOK.

👇 In a hurry? Watch this short video 👇

What made you take up PMP?

I took up PMP after researching a lot about project management certifications.

I wanted one that adds value in terms of not just knowledge, but also credibility. With PMP, I could capitalize on the demand from recruiters.

I’m from non-IT background, and PMP gives me a lot of credibility as a project manager and helps me change my industry.

I have heard a lot of about Scrum certification, but I came to a conclusion that is favorable and more suitable for Software and IT people.

My next goal is to get a Scrum certification as an add-on to my PMP credential.

I’m super happy to have made the transition, thank you PMP!

That’s awesome! Which study resources did you use for your exam preparation?

Only two resources – one for study and one for practice!

• For PMP preparation, I religiously followed PMBOK and prepared notes from it.
• For the simulator, I chose the PrepCast simulator. It’s great with over 2000 questions, with great explanations. Using it also felt like a learning experience when I was analyzing my wrong answers.

Also read:

• Here are 6 PMP mindset hacks no one is telling you!
• 5 PMP traps you must avoid while aiming for PMP this year
• How Jiteen passed PMP without touching the PMBOK book!
• Get your WHY and you will find PMP preparation DAMN easy
• 9 top tips to pass PMP exam, from my 9 yrs of coaching experience

What was your approach and study plan?

My approach was simple right from the beginning. [continue reading…]

There are mindset hacks you can use to pass PMP exam without fear or anxiety.

No one talks about these.

I’m going to share these with you 6 PMP exam mindset hacks in this article.

How do I know about these?

I have used some of these for my own PMP exam.

Over the years I have trained 5,324+ PMP students. I’ve had 4,784+ one-on-one calls with PMP aspirants and students around the globe.

Chances are, I’ve come across every conceivable blocker. It’s given me a chance to work together with my students to get past each one of those.

While we have covered study strategies in a separate course, I’ll share the mindset hacks today.

These are employed as a solution to one or more problems we tend to face while preparing for this exam. Use these and you will be able to take your PMP exam with supreme confidence.

May I request you to take a moment and share this article in your network to help anyone that may need this?

Don’t miss the interesting exercises I have suggested below. And let me know your results, I’d love to see your progress.

I’ve included a short video below you can watch quickly and take notes of.

Let’s begin.

Have you felt a feeling on the lines of..

“I don’t feel confident enough to take the exam”

Or..

• “In spite of having studied for several months, I don’t feel ready for the exam”.
• “I feel like I’m lost.”
• “I’ve studied twice, still I don’t think I’m prepared 100%”
• “I want to be able to recall all concepts at will, then I’ll take the exam”

Or you may feel some other variation of these.

You may feel the overwhelm by the enormity of the exam.

This, or a strongly felt need for perfectionism, is a safety mechanism of your mind. It’s a way to protect yourself.

👉 PMP Mindset Hack #1: Know that it’s just an exam.

I’ve seen people losing sleep over the exam. I’ve had students that lost appetite as the exam approached.

While some amount of ‘butterflies in the stomach’ is healthy, too much is not.

Know that the exam result is not a reflection on yourself. It is just an exam. An event. Not the end of the world.

Allow yourself to have the right perspective.

When you realize this, you will not allow it to bother you.

👇 In a hurry? Watch this short video 👇 [continue reading…]