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.

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.

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.

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.

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-

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