Thursday, August 9, 2007

How to reprimand an employee



I know, but sometimes you have to criticize in order to make sure that the direct report gets the message and the problem does not occur in the future. I had problems with this early on and by speaking to people, I understand that this is a common problem. Refer to my earlier post on the One minute manager, one minute reprimands are part of the process.

According to the Wall Street Journal, here are 5 ways that you could do that.


  1. Examine your intentions. Before you sit down with the person, assess your own state of mind. Has his blunder left you feeling angry or betrayed? Do you feel compelled to get back at him? If so, take the time to cool down before you speak to him, otherwise your critique may be too emotionally charged to be effective.
  2. Pick your moment. If a problem arises that's likely to have an immediate impact on staff morale or the performance of the company, it's important to address the issue within 48 hours, Kohn and O'Connell caution. But remember, handling the problem expeditiously is no excuse to lose your head, so stay calm and try not to be reactive. Hint: Always deliver your criticisms in private to minimize emotional fallout.
  3. Pay attention. There may be more going on behind the scenes than you know. Rather than assume the mistake was the result of carelessness or laziness, try to put yourself in the other person's shoes. Was this problem the result of miscommunication? Is your employee overburdened? Or is he the victim of inexperience or office politics? Use this meeting as an opportunity to perform due diligence.
  4. Use the "sandwich technique." When delivering a critique, it's important to censure the behavior, not the individual. One of the easiest ways to encourage receptivity is to preface your criticism with a positive statement about the person's job performance or character. Once you've fortified his ego, deliver the bad news. Ensure that he received the message, and knows how to correct the situation. Then close the conversation with an affirmation.
  5. Prepare yourself for defensiveness. Even the most artfully delivered criticism is likely to elicit negative emotions, so steel yourself for the inevitable. Always try to focus on the end result rather than the immediate reaction.



I think thats well said, but I would add another, which I think is very important.
  • Sleep over it. There are many times when by just taking a break, getting a cup of coffee or just addressing the problem the next day, situations become easier to handle. Either the situation has solved itself or you see the situation more clearly.
And remember, the reason for the criticism should be constructive and never personal.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Book: The one minute manager

I just read the book, the One minute manager by Ken Blanchard. I was pleasantly surprised by how simple it was and how it applies most areas of management. Normally as a manager, you could spend your time making plans, reviewing schedules and preventing problems. At least in IT, the problem with programming becoming managers is the lack of soft skills. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an easy and clean 3-step process to become a better a manager. Soft skills are extremely important and as the PMI says a PM spends 55-60% time in communications, that is quite a lot.

So lets break it down
  1. One minute goal setting: Set a goal that the direct reports know what is expected and what they are aspiring to get done
  2. One minute praising: If you see something you like, praise it right away. I have personally seen that praisings given in public help a lot
  3. One minute reprimands: Again, if you see something that you do not like, reprimand, pause for a couple of seconds, and then explain why. Close with mentioning that this is not personal and its because the person in question has done such good work in the past but this time she/he slipped.

Another point was that there is close contact with new direct-reports, but the contact becomes less as time goes on since the direct reports become independent but they know whats expected of them. And of course "one minute" is a metaphor for a short period of time.

One point to note is how relevant this book is even now, considering that it was published in 1982!! I guess this goes to show that the longer a book is in circulation, there is a good chance that it might be good.

Recommendation: Do read!

Monday, July 16, 2007

Empathy in project management

Empathy - Identification with and understanding of another's situation, feelings, and motives according to Answers.com

I have worked in companies before as a software engineer where I have failed to see that from my PM. Upper management too sometimes just looks at the bottom line and statistics when dealing with projects.

I feel that as a PM you need to empathize with your team members and people you work with. Look for clues, look for hidden expressions, read body language, coz sometime what you hear is not the way it is.

For example, in a meeting I had once an engineer who was working on a hard aspect of the system. This feature was fairly complicated and quick foundational, so as PM of course I was all ears. But other team members were not, I had made it an option in extended meetings that if the topic does not pertain to you, you may walk out and go and do your work. In this meeting, as usual, a couple of people did just that. I noticed the expression on the engineers face as this happened. As the meeting ended, I told him that he was doing a great job and I liked what he was working as the solution showed itself. He said, thanks, and he felt that he did not feel that way.

Later on, I went to his office and spoke to him alone, telling him again that his work was good and he should keep going. He mentioned that he appreciated my gesture and was going through some personal problems. He was in fact thinking about filing bankruptcy. He went on to say a few more words, not giving details but enough to communicate that he had a few personal problems. I sat there and listened and hopefully nodded at all the right moments. I feel that he was feeling better at the end of the short talk that he could talk to someone.

This is what empathy is about, caring about the project primarily, but also caring about the people doing the work.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Be a fly on the wall

Sometimes in project management, you want to contribute, make things easy for your team. Some members on your team might find it useful, some might not. Most times, I have seen, PM go overboard and this leads to micro management and too much meddling.

Here is a solution, sometimes, be a fly on the wall. Hover around, see whats happening. Even in meetings, you know that you don't know everything. Let people talk, let them argue over items that concerns them. This will let you discern their interest in the project and also make you aware of the progress within the project.

Remember though, as a PM, its your responsibility or your duty to know as much as possible. Prevent rather than repair problems. Information is really extremely important.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Why projects fail

I have been on a few failed projects and a few successful projects. A project fails because of many reasons. The reason for this post is because I have been letting this blog slide and I hope to be more regular. Also there is an excellent presentation by the people at Head First. I loved the line "Don't go in the basement" as it happens in horror movies. Seriously, people still do go to the basement. These guys have a nice sense of humor.

If any of the projects that you worked on has not failed, stop right now and leave. There is no reason to spoil a good thing.

The four ways that the presentation mentions is
  • Things the boss does
  • Things the software does (or doesn’t do)
  • Things the team should’ve done
  • Things that could have been caught
According to me there are a couple more
  • The project did not get enough support or did not get the right team - there are times that a project is created because the boss makes a bad call, and that is mentioned in the first reason, but my explanation is, sometimes a project is designed because of market pressure or "We gotta do something". Lackluster support is given, company weight is not put behind product and sales and marketing is flat. This is one where there is an A-Rod and a Jeter but the rest of the team is not that good or on the same page. The whole team (those involved) has to be behind the project 100%
  • Project Attrition - Many key members leave the project. This is self explanatory.
What can you do? Review, check, recheck, gut check, progress check, status check, mood check, attitude check. Watch people in the team, there will be signals and notice if the level of communication steadily tapers off, this is a warning sign.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

A recipe for success?

I found this blog while surfing around, have not had time to look at the blog in detail or do not know anything about the author (david anderson) but I loved the recipe for success

Recipe for Success: Focus on Quality, Reduce Work-in-Progress, Balance Capacity against Demand, Prioritize

I think that this works very well. Nicely put.
http://haloscan.com/tb/agileman/Recipe_For_Success
http://www.agilemanagement.net/Articles/Weblog/RecipeForSuccess.html

http://blogs.msdn.com/jmeier/archive/2007/03/11/david-anderson-s-recipe-for-success.aspx
Here is a commentary and interpretation on the above recipe for success.


Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Good new

I have passed the PMP. More to come later

Friday, May 18, 2007

Review of the free PMP Headfirst exam

The exam that the head first folks have put out is quite nice. The questions are a nicely put though a little on the easy side I thought. Maybe because I am used to Rita Mulcahy's hard questions.

There were a couple of questions that were wrong. By wrong I mean, they clashed with what the PMBOK says. For example, the scope management process, according the PMBOK, its scope management planning, scope definition, create WBS, scope verification and scope control. That is the way that it is laid out in the PMBOK. But according to the head first guys it should be scope management planning, scope definition, create WBS, scope control and scope verification. Well, I assume that PMBOK is right. There was another question that was of the same nature. Overall, I think 4-5 questions were either wrong or they did not make sense. But, I am not a PMP so my opinion could be wrong.


Overall, I would recommend taking the exam, one, coz its free and two, coz its very good. I would rate this exam over the Whizlabs exam. Also, do grab the Head First PMP book, it would not be a waste of your time. It make learning the PMP fun. Keep this as a second book that you should read in the tail end of your preparation.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Free PMP Exam

Head First PMP Free Exam and Exam PDF for the pdf.

Thanks to the head first folks for doing this, excellent time for me personally. I am enjoying their book, will post a review when I get some breathing room.

On preparation for pmp

Its been quite for a while on the blog. One of the reasons I stopped writing the chapter reviews was that there was already a lot of good information out there for potential pmp candidates. I would not be able to add too much value.

So I figured I add value by writing about what is not out there, such as how to finish the PMP application. Be sure to allocate at least 10 hours of time for the application. It is quite involved and requires a lot of information.

Here are some tips:
  • Use this template. It is very good. I kept it around at work or at home and when I had some time, I went in and punched in the hours. Make sure that your figures are at least in the ballpark for the 5 process groups. For me, the executing process group was around 38% and closing was around 8%. Can't say whether this is fine, but since my application got accepted, I would say they might accept it.
  • At the end of each project that you do, there is a 500 word limit to describe the deliverables on the project on the PMI application website. I read somewhere that you could just write what you did on the project as a deliverable. Here are some examples:
    • SignOff from Customers, Delivered Task to team members, Design Program and System Process Flow, Fixing bugs in programs and its documentations (as Lessons Learned), Inspect Quality of deliverables, Listed Required Skills and Resources, Maintain Change Request Database and Follow Ups, Maintained Checklist of Program and Customisations, Maintained Deliverables Status, Measure and Control Deliverables, Organised Team Meet, Participated in hiring of required resources, Project Plan, Quality Test, Rectify if any errors, Regularly Updated StakeHolders, Resource Allocation, Resource Risk Analysis, Studied and Documented End User Requirements (Scope), Studied, Designed and Documented Interface with Legacy System, Support Development of Software Applications, Testing of Deliverables, Weekly Status Report
    • Remember, these are just examples, use your own! Most of these were copied from a yahoo group post (that I cannot find), I used my own that were similar but more project specific.
  • It is better to provide more hours that the 4500 they ask for. I provided more, but these hours were within the last 6 years
  • Here is a useful document
  • Its take PMI a week to get back to you
  • I was not audited (yay) so I do not know how that is like
The PMI application is long and tedious and one of the longest applications I have filled, but a good application process, they want you to really think back and evaluate what you have been doing with your career.

Do not lie on the application because if you do get audited, you will not be able to back the numbers.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Update on PMP prep

Whizlabs: I had signed up for Whizlabs exam prep a couple of months back. I finally finished 4/5 exams with a passing percentage. I sent whizlabs the results and now I have my 36 PDUs. Whizlabs gives you 44 PDU's total. I will finish the 5th exam later on during the studying process.

Overall, the whizlabs exams were fine. I was not overly impressed by them. I get irritated by grammatical errors when I am reading, though I guess I might be making tons of those errors myself. Second, the exams were designed in certain areas to take a sentence from the PMBOK and ask a question that relates to that exact point. So unless you remember what was written you cannot get the question right. I hope the actual exam is not like that.

PMI: I registered on their site and am now trying to finish the application process thats quite long.

Head first PMP
: Just got the book, gonna try and see whether it is any good.

Monday, April 30, 2007

Sample PMP questions

http://www.bestsamplequestions.com/pmp-sample-questions/pmp-sample-questions.html

Do not know whether these questions are any good.

There are some more here
Use the following free sample tests as a place to start. The more questions you read and answer the better prepared you will be for the exam. Even if some of the sites with free questions are, well, questionable. Here are four good ones:
About.com offers 20 free questions at http://certification.about.com/od/projectmanagement/a/pmp_test_whiz.htm
Oliver Lehman offer 75 excellent questions at http://www.oliverlehmann.com/pmp-self-test/75-free-questions.htm
The PMI itself offers a PDF document with 5 official sample questions at http://www.pmi.org/info/PDC_SampleQuestionsandAnswers.pdf
Tutorialspoint offers 200 questions at http://www.tutorialspoint.com/pmp-exams/pmp_mock_exams.htm

Got this in an email group list.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Project Integration Management

What is the main role of the PM - to perform integration. Integration Management (IM) is the whole initiation process group and the closing process group and some parts in between.

Develop Project Charter - a project cannot be started without one.
Formally recognizes the authority of a PM, high level requirements and issued by the sponsor. Should be broad enough to not change throughout the project. Only the sponsor can change the charter
. Constraints and assumptions
. Project Statement of Work - created by the sponsor or the customer, further defined in the preliminary project scope statement and the scope statement.
. Enterprise environmental factors and organization process assets
. Project selection method - benefit measurement methods (comparative approach) or contrained optimization methods (mathematical approach)
. Project management methodology
. PMIS
. Management plans

Develop Preliminary Project Scope Statement

Develop Project Management Plan
. Design the configuration management plan (may include a change control system and is used in integrated change control)
. Change control system
. Work authorization system
. Baseline - scope, schedule, cost and quality - scope baseline includes the WBS, project scope statement and WBS dictionary
. Project Management plan approval
. Kickoff meeting

Direct and Manage project execution

Monitor and control project work
. Corrective action - any action to bring expected future project performance in line with the project management plan.
. Corrective action process
. Preventive action
. Defect repair

Integrated change control
Before changing - evaluate impact, create options, get internal buy-in, and get customer buy-in if required
Process for making changes - prevent root cause, identify change, create change request, assess the change, impact of change, perform integrated change control, options??, approve or reject change, adjust project management plan and baselines, notify stakeholders and manage according to new/changed PM plan.

Close project

http://www.yancy.org/research/project_management/integration.html

R02C04-

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Project Management Processes

Initiating - start
Planning - plan
Execute - do
Monitoring and Controlling - check and act
Closing - end

Here is a link to the process chart on the RMC website



R02C03-73

Project Management Framework

What is a project - temporary with a beginning and an end, creates a unique result and is progressively elaborated.

PMI breaks PM into
  • Professional and Social Responsibility
  • Knowledge areas - Integration, scope, time, cost, quality, HR, risk and procurement
  • Process groups - Initiating, planning, executing, controlling and closing

A program is a group of project. A PMO centralizes the management of projects.

The project objectives are contained in the preliminary scope statement and the scope statement and the project is considered complete only when these objectives are met.

Management by objectives (MBO) - organization is managed by unambiguous and realistic objective and works only if management supports it.

The constraints on a project are CTSQRC - cost, time, scope, quality, risk, cost.

Stakeholder management involves identifying all, determining all requirements, determining their expectations, communication and managing stakeholder influence.

The organizational structure is classified into:
  • Functional - most common
  • Projectized - most power with PM, no home
  • Matrix - two bosses, strong matrix - more power to PM, weak matrix - less power with matrix, tight matrix - co located. Weak matrix - project expeditor, manages communication, no decisions, project coordinator - some authority, make decisions, report to higher manager.

Life cycle - two life cycles, one process
  • Product life cycle - new projects can be formed within
  • Project life cycle - a methodology
  • Project management process - all the process groups
R02C02-76

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Random stuff I need to know before I give the exam

BCR - its revenue not profit
matrix power - less in weak, more in strong
balanced matrix - best for PM
PErT S curve - used for the cost baseline which is a time-phased budget for arctivities.
time and cost management - remember the formulas for cost
CPM - include buffers
GERT - allows loops
cost baseline - see S curve, does not include the management reserve. contingency reserve -> cost baseline -> management reserve -> cost budget
direct/indirect costs - direct -> team travel, training - indirect -> taxes, variable ->cost of materials, fixed -> setup, rental
conflict resoln - best
PM powers - expert and reward the best
Hertzberg - hygiene (salary), motivating agents (growth, responsibility)
McGregor - theory X and Y
Straight line depreciation - value
negotiation - means of negotiation
Ishikawa - fishbone, cause/effect
control chart - means, rule of seven, assignable cause
change control board - whoever important, should be on it
sensitivity analysis -
project interface
project expeditor/coordinator - Remember E then C, E no authority, C some authority. both report to a higher boss
difference between quality planning and quality control -


So this is an update. Now I guess I know the stuff.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Professional and Social Responsibility

For the PMP exam you could expect 9% of questions on this topic which is about 18.Thats a lot.

Professional and social responsibility categories:
  • Ensure individual integrity
  • Contribute to PM knowledge base
  • Enhance personal professional competence
  • Promote interaction among stakeholders
Here is a nice article that covers these categories, no sense in repeating.

R01C13-83

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Procurement Management

For the PMP you have to assume that you are the buyer.
The inputs to the procurement management process are enterprise environment factors, organization process assets, contract manager assigned, project scope statement, WBS and WBS dictionary, risk register, resources, schedule, cost estimates and cost baseline for the project.

The six sequential procurement processes are:
Plan purchases and acquisitions - What goods and services do we need for this project?)
  • Make or buy analysis
  • Contract type selection - There are three types of contracts
    • Cost Reimbursable (CR) (best for seller)
      • Cost Plus Fee (CPF) or Cost Plus Percentage of Cost (CPPC) (dangerous for buyer)
      • Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF)
      • Cost Plus Incentive Fee (CPIF)
      • Cost Plus Award Fee (CPAF)
    • Time and Material
    • Fixed Price (best for buyer, more work for buyer)
      • Fixed Price Incentive Fee (FPIF)
      • Fixed Price Economic Adjustment (FPEPA)
The contract SOW describes what work is to be completed under the contract. The types of contract SOW are performance, functional and design.

Plan contracting
Procurement Documents may take one of the following forms:
  • Request for proposal - CR - Performance or functional
  • Invitation for bid - FP - Design
  • Request for quotation - T&M - Any
Request seller responses - get the procurement documents into the hands of the sellers, answering the sellers' questions and the sellers preparing the proposals

Select sellers - receive and review the proposals from sellers and select one.

Contract administration - assure that the performance of both parties to the contract meets contractual requirements.

Contract closure - Finish up all the loose ends of the contract.

R01C12-71

Risk Management

What a chapter! I have to come back to this one or read about it in other books. I cannot take the exam based on my performance in the back of the chapter.

Risk Management Process consists of the following sequential processes:

Risk Management Planning

The goal is to determine how how the risk process will be structured and performed for the project. This is a road map for handling risks on your projects.

The risk management plan can include the methodology for the process, roles and responsibilities for members regarding risk management, budgeting, timing the process, risk categories, clarification for probability and impact on the project, stake holder tolerances, reporting and tracking.

Risks on your project could fall in categories. Here is a visio diagram of a Risk Breakdown Structure. Do download and open. Risk categories are also called sources of risk. From the page

The Risk Breakdown Structure is a hierarchical structure which decomposes identified risk categories into sub-categories. Risk categorization helps to identify potential risks for a project.

Here is the image if you do not have visio.

Risk Identification: Identify/find/locate your risks.
Everyone is involved here. Cannot be done unless the project scope statement and WBS are ready. The delphi technique is a technique used to build consensus of experts who participate anonymously, this can also be used for estimating time and cost. The output is the Risk Register which is the document where risk information is constantly updated during the risk management processes.

Qualitative Risk Analysis
Involves creating a short list of previously identified risks. The main aspects are creating a probability and impact matrix, risk data quality assessment, risk categorization and risk urgency assessment.

The output is the updated risk register where risk rankings are included, watch lists and trends. You might decide to discontinue the project at the end of this process if the risks are unsurmountable.

Quantitative Risk Analysis
A numerical analysis of the probability and impact of the highest risks on the project. Risk assessment can be thought of as risk identification through quantitative risk analysis. The main aspects are determining probability and impact, expected monetary value (product of the risk event probability and the risk event value), Monte Carlo analysis (simulation) and decision trees.

The output includes an update to the risk register. Updates include prioritized quantified risks, amount of contingency time and cost reserves needed, among others.

Risk Response Planning - What are we going to do about each top risk?
Risk response strategies or risk mitigation strategies are selected thta enhance opportunities and reduce threat. These include avoiding, mitigating, transferring (deflect, allocate) for threats and exploting, enhancing and sharing for opportunities. Else you can just accept the risk.

The outputs again update the risk response register and also the project management plan updates.

Risk Monitoring and Control - Look out for risks according to the risk response plan
Terms to watch out for: workarounds, risk audits, risk reassessments, status meetings, reserve analysis, status meetings, reserve analysis and closing risks no longer applicable.

Outputs are risk register updates to include outcomes of risk reassessments and risk audits and lessons learned. Also requested changes, recommended corrective and preventive actions, updates to the project management plan and organization process updates.

Here is a good link with bullet points on risk management.

R01C11-56

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Communications Management

This is becoming a lessons learned blog.

Most of the chapters in Rita's book are really good, but this chapter misses the mark. If there is one chapter that they should be working on it is this one. I need to read this topic in other books to see whether there is anything more that has not been covered in the book. Also, I was dissatisfied by the questions asked at the end of the chapter.

Communication between sender and receiver
This topic pertains to any kind of communication be it within the project or in your real life.
Sender responsibilities
  • Non-verbal - 55% of all communication is supposed to be non-verbal such as physical mannerisms or body language
  • Paralingual - The pitch and tone of your voice
  • Feedback - Make sure that the receiver understood what you were trying to say

Receiver responsibilities
  • Feedback - Make sure that what you understand, is what the sender expects you to understand
  • Active listening - Nod, repeat, maintain eye-contact (I get irritated with people who say uh-huh, oh yea and contant interruption while listening)
  • Paralingual again

Communication Methods
  • Formal written - project management plans, project charter, official documents
  • Formal verbal - presentation, speeches
  • Informal written - emails, memos
  • Informal verbal - meetings, personal conversations
Communication Channels
The total number of communication channels between n stakeholders is n(n-1)/2. So if there are 5 stakeholders in a project, there are 10 channels of communication.

R01C09-62

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Human Resource Management

Team motivation
One thing I did not realize that HR Management is quite a big part of being a PM. The only difference is that in real life we do not call it that. Most of the projects that I have encountered come up in matrix organizations where you have more than one boss to give TPS reports. In such cases keeping the team motivated is a very difficult task. I particularly liked the Maslow's Heirarchy of needs.


The needs of any person are categorized from bottom to top meaning that one cannot ascend to the next level from the bottom until the levels below are fulfilled. Quite cool.

Sometimes the PM's input has no effect on the salary of the team member. Money is a big motivator but not the biggest motivator. Monitory benefits aside, keeping the team motivated and hungry to give more and perform better is one of the most important aspects in getting a successful project done.

Conflicts on a project
There have been many instance where the PM might think that the reason his project is not doing too well is because of the personality of the people in the team. There are projects sometimes where the PM might prefer not to have these one or two people on board. "Their personalities just do not seem to gel with the rest of the team members, they are either too confrontational or too timid or just plain dumb."

The seven sources of conflict in a project are schedules, project priorities, resources, technical opinions, administrative procedures, cost and lastly personalities. Notice that personality is the last source of conflict. Once you understand that point as a PM, I believe that the project is going to get a lot easier to manage.

The conflict resolution techniques are confronting or problem solving, compromise, withdrawal, smoothing or brute force. Every situation calls for a different technique in my opinion.

R01C09-74

Friday, April 6, 2007

Quality Managements in Projects

Quality is the degree to which the project fulfills requirements. Quality Management then is following policies and procedures to ensure that the project meets those requirements. In general quality management is divided in three areas which are quality planning, quality assurance and quality control.

There were two points about quality management that resounded with me.

Gold Plating
In IT projects, we are all about gold plating, trying to give the customer more that he wants. "Lets plugin this feature where the customer can view this document in pdf, xls, xml, txt, csv, sanskrit.." Did the customer ask for this in his requirements document. If yes, then we should be building the particular feature else not.
Gold plating introduces bugs or holes in our products.

From this page

Gold-Plating is the process of building bells and whistles into an application that were not called out by the end-client.


This is so true. Eager programmers (and I am guilty as well) will go out of their way and build a feature in that is not required. This causes their other responsibilities to get postponed and thus slowing up the project.

Quality Assurance
PMP is big monstrous process where if you read the PMBOK, you will see that there plans and processes and plans and processes. There is documentation and checkpoints and every stage that ensure that its processes and plans are followed.

On the contrary we have agile development and test driven development (TDD). TDD is all about quality where you are developing tests before you write any code. Though this is not comprehensive quality control, it does address parts of it.

As I study I keep trying to figure out to what degree does PMP apply in IT projects. The search is on.

Here is good page for bullet points on quality management.

Update: An article on quality at pmstudent.

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About

I plan on giving my PMP soon (a couple of months). I have been studying since the last month and I figured that to learn something well, you gotta be able to teach it or talk about it. I will talk about my experiences and process to get to be a PMP. Thats the goal of this blog, discussion.

As of now, I have purchased the Rita Mulcahy book and have signed up for the Whizlabs pmp course to get the required 35 contact hours. I have studied the Rita book half way the first round. I plan on going through the book thrice. I have not even looked at Whizlabs yet, dont plan on looking at it until I finish the Rita book at least once.