Project Managers who aspire to take the PMP exam need to have 35 hours of documented training in the area of project management. However, many believe they must take specialized and expensive courses, and some are not aware that some of the training and education they already have may qualify. Others think they need to acquire a single 35 hour certificate. Here is a survey of the ways PMP aspirants can satisfy the 35 contact hour requirement.

The Requirement
In the Project Management Professional (PMP) Credential Handbook, it states that the candidate must “Document 35 contact hours of project management education.” This requirement applies to all applicants, regardless of degree or project management experience level. So, just what must the candidate do to satisfy those “Contact Hours of Project Management Education”, where at least 35 contact hours of specific instruction addressed learning objectives in project
management?

Documenting Project Management Training and Education
The first step is to document all education hours regardless of when they were accrued. PM education hours for these purposes do not expire and do not need to be within any recent time frame. However, before submitting the application, the course work must already be completed. PMP Prep coursework does qualify, as it is project management oriented, but it would need to occur before the candidate actually submits the application. Note that “one contact hour is equivalent to one actual hour (60 minutes) of training or instruction received”, as per the PMI.

After documenting all hours, PMP candidates need “classify” content of the courses according to the PMBOK knowledge areas, including project quality, project scope, project schedule, project budget, project communications, project risk, project procurement, and project integration management. If all hours add up to 35 or more, the candidate has already satisfied the requirements. In many cases, the candidate will have either no hours or less than 35 hours of PM training, and they will need to fill that gap with additional project management training.

What Qualifies?
These educational requirements can be met by demonstrating the successful completion of courses, workshops, and training sessions offered by one or more of the following types of education providers:

A. PMI Registered Education Providers (R.E.P.s) – Pre-approved courses offered by PMI R.E.P.s. These can be classroom instruction, live instructor-lead training online, or pure online packaged courses that are available 24×7.

B. PMI Component organizations – PMI chapters, specific interest groups, colleges, or the PMI.

C. Employer/company-sponsored programs – as long as content can be logically mapped to the knowledge areas.

D. Training companies or consultants – as long as content can be logically mapped to the knowledge areas.

E. Distance-learning companies, including an end-of-course assessment – can include live instructor-lead training online, or pure online packaged courses that are available 24×7, as long as content can be logically mapped to the knowledge areas.

F. University/college academic and continuing education programs, as long as content can be logically mapped to the knowledge areas.

Note that one hour of classroom instruction equals one contact hour. Non-classroom instruction, such as online training, also must comply with the rule that one hour of classroom instruction equals one contact hour. Project Management podcasts can also satisfy all or a portion of the requirement. The important thing is to be able to provide complete and authoritative documentation of the training and education, such as certificates, tests, syllabus, course descriptions, and transcript to properly support your claim.

Here are some scenarios of what should qualify:

1. Completion of a 15 week university or college course on project management that met for three hours per week would qualify for 45 contact hours.

2. Completion of a university or college course that was approximately 50% on the subject of project management that met for two hours per week for 15 weeks would qualify for 50% x 30 contact hours, or 15 contact hours. The additional 20 contact hours could be earned with an 8 hour REP classroom training, and 12 hours of REP 24×7 online training.

3. Completion of a single REP classroom course or online, 24×7 set of courses that add up to 35 hours or more.

4. Completion of some combination non-REP classroom project management training, live instructor-lead online project management training, online 24×7 project management training courses, or project management podcasts, as long as they are clearly documentable.

What does not satisfy the PMP Educational Requirements?
The following do not satisfy the education requirements:

1. PMI chapter meetings, unless spent conducting a learning activity

2. Self-study (e.g., reading books)

3. Degree program, such as MBA, in its entirety, but many of the classes within the program will apply and must be documented individually

Conclusion
There are many ways to satisfy the PMI requirement of 35 hours of project management training. Any training must be in the areas of project quality, project scope, project schedule, project budget, project communications, project risk, project procurement, and project integration management. The PMI rule is that one hour of training equals one of these contact hours. Applicants must be able to clearly document the training with proper proof. The final authority is the PMI, and the authoritative document is the Project Management Professional (PMP) Credential Handbook, which can be found at http://www.pmi.org/PDF/pdc_pmphandbook.pdf. Applicants should contact the PMI directly with any questions or concerns.

Often when a recession strikes training budgets are unfortunately one of the first to be slashed, according to research that looks at previous recessions this is a fatal error! Trends show that companies who carry on investing in training are then in the healthiest position to gain competitive advantage when during recession recovery. Research from the OGC (Office of Government Commerce) also highlights one of the top reasons for project failure is poorly trained Project Managers when businesses often rely on successful projects & programmes to pull them through downturns and business change.

This view on training was recently hailed by an alliance consisting of some of the UK’s most senior business people including Sir Mike Rake, Chairman of BT group and the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. The alliance took the first-time move to issue a joint call via an open letter to employers advising them to invest in training during the downturn and to make it a top priority.
 
The letter stated “the skills of our people are our best guarantee of future prosperity – and the best investment a business can make in challenging times. We must not pay the price of failing to invest in the very talent on which our future will be built.”
 
This view was also supported by a recent report Nurturing Talent by Cranfield University which stated development of internal talent was a cost effective way to boost business performance during any period especially a downturn. The report also found that successful organisations were those that had invested in long-term focus on employee development.
 
A good example of this philosophy was demonstrated by an American based airline that trained its way out of the 2001 recession whilst still managing to make a profit.
 
By now the importance of well run projects should be obvious. It is critical that projects are delivered within time, cost and quality constraints. There is very little tolerance for delays or overruns. Customised project management training that caters for the exact needs of an organisation and its projects provides much better ROI over generic public courses. During the recession is the time to invest in your internal talent to ensure you come through strong.

It has now well been accepted that the implementation of project management practices adds value to any organization. One recent study showed a 28% ROI1 from project management initiatives in IT organizations. However, what is the reality in developing and following such practices? Are the returns on investment so easily shown? What are the key steps or processes for these returns to actually occur? Experience and examples from the field, points to the following critical steps in becoming a better project management organization.

Set clear goals and establish benchmarks. This allows the organization to prove the value of the PM investment as well as change practices to achieve higher returns. If your organization is lacking hard, historical numbers on projects there are other tools that can be used. Customer satisfaction forms can be used for evaluating success on previous projects and can be continued for all future projects. Even if project baselines are missing (most likely), it is usually possible to find out when previous projects were expected to start and finish and when they actually did – on a monthly or quarterly time frame. Select a sample size, record the accuracy of the initial estimates and move on. You will have more accurate measures later in the process.

Don’t start until you have strong, committed sponsors. In the case of one government department, the primary sponsor was transferred shortly after the initial training program. The new regime had their own ideas and despite pleas from the workers, the entire program was dropped. The sponsor in a pharmaceutical firm not only did the presentation at the kick-off meeting, she sat in on many of the trainings and demanded that all tools and techniques be used by staff This forced people to accept the new processes and once over that mental hurdle, quickly began to like and appreciate the processes. Without sponsor commitment there is little chance for success.

Don’t promise too much, too early. Putting in some basic processes and templates will often show early, positive, results. However, depending on the organization, it may take longer than you hoped! Even organizations that focus on short projects (1-6 months) tend to take at least a year to see success. Why? People are usually in the process of working on, or finishing up, projects when the new systems come into place. Therefore, it will be difficult for them to make many changes until that work is finished. To keep up enthusiasm, get people who are using the new tools to speak up about their individual successes. In one recent example, a PM implemented shorter, problem solving meetings. His director and team all had positive comments which allowed him to introduce other tools as well!

In summary, it isn’t easy to get organizations to adopt new ways of doing things. However, by setting clear and measurable goals, generating a team of supporters, and not promising the moon, positive change will occur!

PMP exam prep training is available from many sources, but a large number of candidates are seeking online, web-based PMP prep training for its cost and convenience benefits. However, online training can mean a number of different things to people, including web-based classroom training, reviewing visual material online, collaborating with other students, interacting with training, downloading material, and much more.

Project Management Training Online has been researching what students interested in online project management training value the most. Here is our data, from a sample of nearly 700, about what professionals interested in online PMP prep training want and what is important to them about the training:

1. Over 60% have 5 years or less experience, and another 25% have 6-10 years. Only about 5% have over 15 years experience.

2. Just over 25% work for mid-size companies, and a little less work for consulting or professional services firms. While nearly 20% work for Fortune 1000 companies, the remainder work for small firms, government or other organizations.

3. Over 60% are serious about PMP certification, most of whom need the 23 hours for CAPM, or 35 hours for the PMP. While a few of the rest of those who are “serious” are already CAPM or PMP certificied, most are actively preparing and applying to take the exam. The other nearly 40% are just thinking about PMP certification at the moment.

4. Over 75% people seeking online Project Management certification training selected “online, anywhere, anytime web based interactive training” as a preference. Over 50% specified that downloadable CD/DVD-based training was desirable, and just under 50% specified that exam simulations combined with flash cards and study mode features were highly desirable. Between 20 and 40% listed podcasts, video, and online instructor lead training as desired modes of delivery.

5. When asked what they are looking for in project management training the majority mentioned either that they want to satisfy educational requirements and earn certification, or they simply want to increase their knowledge of project management to become more effective in their careers. The rest of the respondents mentioned that convenience, 24×7 availability, the ability to study on their own, and related factors were the most important things they were looking for.

6. When asked how they are evaluating online project management training providers, they mentioned many thing, including presentation, understandability of the material, thoroughness, PMI standards alignment, cost, good training portal, case-based examples, lively and interactive, and acceptability by the PMI.

We should be self sustained and motivated to promote all our enthusiastic thoughts in our work environments without despair for anything.   Taking the PMP training in preparation for the BIG test can give better chance in the present position or in future position in addition to their hard work.

Earning Big Bucks Easy For Effective Manager

If you are not occupying a managerial position yet, do you have to wait for that time to acquire managerial skills? By that time, that would be too late or there would a stiff competition for that supervisory or managerial position. Fortunately, you do not have to be a college or Harvard graduate or an executive in a top level company to qualify for a PMP training.

To obtain clear understanding on question pattern in PMP certification test, you can get some model questionnaire for $39. Whithou a training programme you can not pass the test by just following this questionnaire. After you pass the test, prospective employers in any part of the globe will quickly hire you and pay you a generous rate accorded to PMP certification holders. But it’s not that simple; the test is tough because the questions are unpredictable.

In order to attend for PMI test, one has to undergo PMP training which influences his own career. If you want to become a managerial expertise in your current job or for your future career challenges, this PMP training will certainly make you through its structured modules and combine theoretical and practical applications.

What Can the Training Offer?

To face the tough Project Management Institute’s (PMI) examination and for obtaining a successful certificate, this Professional Management Planning PMP training will train all professionals who attend it. The PMI, one of the US and UK top institutes churn out topnotch managers in their respective areas of expertise – finance, marketing, engineering, education etc. – along current and global standards.

PMP training is provided by a number of institutions licensed or affiliated with the PMI. The different training strategies will be offered by approved training institutions for offline and online training schedules. Online or video practice exam offer time and geographical flexibility because lessons are easily downloaded. These practice questions are only a portion of the training.

All those attend a training course will face a classroom environment and relevant lectures on the topics which they are interested and a completion certificate after completion of the training. For appearing in comprehensive PMP test every one must possess a successful trining completion cenrtificate. You can seek the exam results and your weak areas from the feed back provided by the instructors.

There are various factors and trends for a project’s success or failure to be learned to understand problem situations, their solutions and ease of analyzing methodologies.  This can be accomplished by undergoing proper training that help to establish your comprehension skills.

There are essential key elements in project management training. There are methods that one needs to learn and apply to make a project successful. It is of significance that people who undertake projects should have mentors who will guide them all throughout the span of the undertaken projects, especially if these projects will help reduce the costs incurred by the company or improve its processes to streamline methodologies currently applied.

The first key step in project management training is to plan the scope of the project. Without adequate planning on the in scope and the out of scope of the project, one will simply be overwhelmed at how the certain problem can get to a larger scale that will include other departments as well. One should take note that the project at hand should only cover a major pain point or area that needs immediate attention. The other problems related to this should not be at all entirely discarded but should be given less priority. During training, the trainer should put much emphasis on the fact that projects should focus on the problems that are costing the company the biggest, not in the reverse order.

Once the scope has been identified, a project charter should be formulated. A project charter is also called a Team Charter. This term is used mostly as a politically correct term since any project will involve a team. A Team charter should contain elements that can be understood in a snapshot. Team Charters should only be high-level analysis. The details should come later at the details part of the project.

A Team Charter should have a business case. This should explain why the project should be done. A business case should present to the top management the need for the project. This should clearly explain what will happen if the project is not prioritized and what will happen if the project were successfully implemented.

Next, the Team charter should present the Problem Statement. The problem should be clearly defined in this part. The pain point of the company and how it impacts the business should be clearly stated. The costs and revenue loss should be shown here in a snapshot type of calculation. Ideally, the cost or business revenue loss should be translated in a per annum figure since majority of businesses do an annual review to check if the business did grow or not.

After the Problem Statement, project management training indicates that the participant should learn how to come up with a Goal Statement. This should clearly emphasize what it is that the team needs to achieve. The Goal Statement should have goals that are measurable in nature such as price, percent, number, etc. There is no point stating a goal that cannot be quantified.

Lastly, Operational Definition should be defined. This means there has to be clear and concise definition of what is being targeted and how a defect is measured or identified. For example, any product that has a blemish is a defect.

After these things are learned, the participant can move on to the actual project tactics or approaches. Team Charter is just a chunk of the big pie of project management training.

There are a number of significant principles which determine success in any project. These are simple and well known principles, however they are difficult to apply and are quite frequently ignored in practice.

1. Precise Business Needs

Successful projects are business driven. This represents the ‘why’ of the project, and it is important because it provides the basis for all decision making.

2. Defined Benefits

Projects are about translating the business need into the business benefit. In addition to the business need, the ‘bottom line’ benefits must also be well defined in terms of source, timing and quantity.

3. Explicit Plans

Effective planning, allows people to work together in a co-ordinated way in order to achieve the project objectives. Effective planning is dependent on being at an appropriate level of detail and being presented in an appropriate way.

4. Agreed Deliverables

Quite simply a ‘deliverable’ is an unambiguous way of defining responsibilities in terms of outputs rather than inputs. Each phase, area and task within the project plan should have a tangible deliverable associated with it, ie. something that one can see, touch, or otherwise validate.

5. Pro-Active Decision Making

Project work has little momentum of its own, unlike routine work. All parties involved are therefore required to take the initiative and actively look for ways of driving and improving the project outcome.

6. Single Point Responsibility

In business tasks are only completed successfully when people have unambiguous accountabilities. ‘Single point responsibility’ for results is of the very essence. The Project Manager is ultimately responsible for making the project happen.

7. Active Follow-Up

Plans have practical value only when they are used to help people do their daily work. They are similarly used as a means of identifying problems while there is still time to overcome them. Plans must therefore be used throughout the entire project in order to allocate tasks and monitor achievement.

8. Open Communications

Time must be invested in communication as it is the key to a successful project. By effectively communicating the project and issues everyone involved has the opportunity to take the initiative and contribute fully with ideas and decisions.

9. Good Teamwork

Teamwork in projects is absolutely critical but does not happen automatically. Project work involves people from different parts of the organisation, often with competing priorities and different perspectives, which can make teamwork all the more difficult to achieve. Teams must therefore be actively developed by the Project Manager.

10. Strong Leadership

Successful projects are usually led by an individual who is committed to the project objectives, and who has a completely clear view of where the project is going and how they intend to get there. The leadership qualities of the Project Manager are as important as their technical management skills.

In this article we’ll address the people swirling around your project: stakeholders. You’ll find some tips and other resources for optimizing stakeholder involvement in your project.

“Who cares?”

“What do they care about?”

“What am I going to do about it?”

Those are the three simple questions a project team can ask to understand their stakeholders and develop a strategy for keeping them happy.

As we developed a workshop on stakeholder management built on those three questions one of our project management experts, put all the pieces together when he said, “That’s just risk management for people.”

We think he’s right. Review this classic risk management process. Can you see the parallel?

1. Identify risks.

2. Analyze and quantify the risk.

3. Develop a risk response.

So on your next (or current) project consider treating your stakeholders as opportunities or threats.

Step One: Identify risks (stakeholders)

Just as with risk management, we can only manage stakeholders that we are aware of, so be creative and energetic in identifying stakeholders. Cast your net wide and consider all those stakeholders that won’t make a peep unless you step on their toes. Regulators, end-users, your customer’s customers, and internal support staff such as accounting or procurement. Too many project managers don’t include these secondary stakeholders in their normal communication

plans yet get indignant when they obstruct the project. In risk management we identify threats and opportunities. Stakeholders can be project adversaries just as easily as advocates.

While you are trying to uncover the hidden stakeholders, don’t forget about the obvious ones: your team, your sponsor, and the people who will be approving the funding.

TIP: Make sure your stakeholders have a name and email id. Stakeholders are people, not organizations. “Facilities” isn’t going to sign off on your change request, but Cindy, who runs the department, might.

Step Two: Analyze and quantify the risk (what do they care about?)

Risk management calls for prioritizing the risks according to probability and impact. We can prioritize stakeholders similarly – by authority and interest. Interest means “how much do they care?” and authority equates to their ability to affect the project.

Now analyze the high priority stakeholders. You won’t be able to quantify your stakeholders as much as your project risks, but you can organize some key information: What do they care about? How will the project affect them? How does this project fit into their priorities? What do you need from them for the project to run smoothly?

Step Three: Develop a risk response (What are you going to do about it?)

What we do to leverage our supporters and minimize the effect of our opponents will depend upon the answers to the questions above. The more we know about our stakeholders, the better we can plan to work with them. One thing is certain: ignoring them will sap their support and inflame their opposition, so plan for communication.

Rapid changes in information technology continue to bring us new ways to flood our stakeholders with data, but that doesn’t necessarily make us effective communicators. Who needs information? What information? How often? In what format? These questions form the basis of your communication plan. As you develop your communication plan remember these two tips:

1. Positive personal relationships are the foundation of effective communication. Personal relationships magnify the value of the technology we use to deliver information.

2. Use two or more mediums of communication for every stakeholder. For example, meetings should be accompanied by documentation.

The Secret to Success

What’s the secret to risk management? Do it. Proactive, systematic risk management means finding the problems before they find you. Risk management doesn’t have to be complex, but it does have to be disciplined. The same holds true for our stakeholders. Understanding who they are and what they want often isn’t that difficult. The key is to be proactive, to reach out, and influence them before they influence you.

About LSA Global

Since 1995, LSA has helped organizations create and maintain distinct competitive advantages through human capital.

We work with leading organizations to drive success through their people and the strategies, structures, systems, and processes that attract, inspire, develop, and retain top talent. Our solutions focus on the areas of:

Sales Revenue Growth

Leadership and Management Performance

Human Resource Performance

Strategy Execution and Transformation

Customer Service, Satisfaction, and Loyalty

Project Management Performance

Engineering Performance

We believe our clients’ success in the marketplace is realized through increased revenue, decreased costs, and higher productivity. We are fiercely devoted to the success of our clients and proud that over 85% of our business comes from repeat business with satisfied clients and that we have a 97%+ customer satisfaction rating.

Project management is one of the essential processes of an organization for the simple reason that it answers a lot of your questions and adds order to the company. With this, project management training is important to ensure that you have the right skills and knowledge when it comes to doing project management. What’s more, project management training can help you become a better person as you will have better sense of your time and resources.

The Advantages of Project Management Training

Project management training carries with it several advantages for those who desire to learn the art and science of better management of projects and goals of the organizations. To give you some idea, here are some of them:

1.  Project management training will teach you the importance of time and setting of goals and objectives. A company without any set of objectives and goals is like a ship lost in the middle of a stormy sea.  Hence, if you do not want to get lost and see if the organization can succeed in its endeavors, you need to create a list of objectives. However, it should be given its own time frame, considering that some of these goals need to be accomplished immediately. A project management training will then help you prioritize these goals as well as assist you in making great use of your time.

2. You will know the remaining resources and the needs of the company. It is obvious that you will never be able to finish any project or proceed to the next one when you do not have any available resource. This could be in the form of time, money, or manpower. You can make use of project management courses to help you determine how to estimate the resources that you will need in the next project or phase. This way, you can set more realistic budget for the organization and that you will not be experiencing any delay in the process.

3. You will learn how to produce documents for review. If completing projects is not daunting enough, wait until you start documenting the entire procedure. As a matter of fact, you are recommended to detail every step taken before, during, and after the project is completed. The purpose of this is to have solid record that you can refer to or verify during review. Project management training will provide you with the skills that you need in producing well-documented project completion proofs.

4. With project management training, you can work better with information systems. Project management is not done manually, particularly at this day and age. You can already make use of several applications and programs like Gantt chart to keep track of the milestones or progress of projects. Project management training will show you how to work around them without creating a much steeper learning curve, particularly to those people who do not have enough knowledge in computers or are not comfortable working with them.

Admittedly, project management training can be a lengthy and laborious endeavor. There are books to read and understand; projects to formulate and evaluate; credentials and certifications to secure; and a myriad of other activities that can discourage an organization and an individual from pursuing it.

However, project management training definitely has its advantages to both organizations and individuals. Read on and be persuaded to take the road to project management expertise.

Organizational Benefits

The field of project management continues to develop globally. Thus, you will observe the common standards, processes and terminologies by which project managers perform their work nowadays.

From this relative uniformity, the organization will be able to train its workforce in the global methods of project management. This, in turn, will enable it to adapt itself to global trends that can affect its future. And in these times of globalization, this ability can spell the difference between making a profit and folding up!

Furthermore, the organization’s workforce will possess more discipline and direction in pursuing projects due to their proficient skills honed by the project management training. Indeed, when your employees know the project management cycle intimately, you can expect better results. It does not hurt either that teamwork is also enhanced due to better communication!

With a better project management workforce, your clients will benefit from the positive changes, too. And we all know that clients almost always rule the universe of organizations! And then there is also the matter of generating confidence and trust in the organization’s ability to deliver the desired results, which is the best advertising one can have in a highly competitive field.

And did we mention that when you provide project management training for your employees, you have higher opportunities to keep them within the company? This is because you are satisfying their self-actualization needs, which is often more important than the survival needs among professionals!

Individual Benefits

Let’s face it. There are hundreds of thousands of project managers in the world, some of them gaining their experience in the school of hard knocks as well as in prestigious schools. What advantage do you have over them, then?

Well, with the project management training course, you definitely will possess an advantage! With it, you can show commitment and dedication to the profession, with the proper code of ethics, to boot. Needless to say, it definitely will look good on your resume as an achievement in your profession.

With this achievement, you have one foot inside the door of opportunity for advancement in many areas. You can have greater net earnings, greater scope of job opportunities, greater job responsibilities, and a greater position in the echelons of project management. Of course, your project management skills will be absolutely improved during the training process. That in itself is a good enough reason to engage in a project management course!

Indeed, your decision to pursue a project management training course will redound to your benefit. Even the prospect of blood, sweat and tears ought not to dissuade you from improving upon yourself and contributing the development of your chosen profession.