PMP Exam will change in 31 July 2013

PMI Launches Project Management Global Sustainability Community of Practice

Greetings from PMI’s Project Management Community of Practice.

Realizing the importance of promoting awareness about global sustainability, Project Management Institute (PMI) has launched Project Management Global Sustainability Community of Practice. The primary objective of the community is to advance the understanding about the importance of global sustainability and to provide the knowledge, practices, tools, and techniques to integrate global sustainability into all types of projects, programs and portfolios. This community has been established also to educate the global sustainability community about the value of utilizing project, program and portfolio management to achieve global sustainability.

I am proud to be chosen as the first Community Council Manager of the Project Management Global Sustainability Community of Practice. I hope to turn this community into a vibrant forum which actively pursues economic, social and environmental balance by encouraging project managers to incorporate global sustainability in all current and future projects. The task is challenging and I look forward to teaming with you to advance this noble cause. The main objective of the community is to enhance the awareness of organizations, governments and individuals on matters related to sustainability. The community will also help devise strategies and practical guidelines that lead to more sustainable projects. The Global Sustainability Community of Practice will also serve as an advisory body offering expert opinions and consultancy on matters related to economic, social and environmental stability.

Through this email, I invite you all to join PMI Global Sustainability Community of Practice at http://sustainability.vc.pmi.org/Home.aspx

I solicit your support to work together as members of Project Management Global Sustainability Community of Practice and play our due role in the well being of humanity. Let us help our governments and organizations in devising sustainable policies. Let us manage our projects in ways which result in better economic, social and environmental balance. Let us make this world a better place for us as well as future generations.

Best Regards,

Mohamed Khalifa Hassan, PgMP, PMP, PMI-SP,PMI-RMP
Community Council Manager,
Project Management Global Sustainability Community of Practice,
Project Management Institute (PMI), USA.

Study strategy to pass the PMI-RMP Exam

Today 2/11/2009 I passed my PMI-RMP exam, it was quietly tough exam but not much.
After I passed the exam I registered a record as the first one in in Kuwait who have all PMI Professional certificates.

The PMI-RMP^® credential recognizes demonstrated knowledge and expertise in the specialized area of assessing and identifying project risks while mitigating threats and capitalizing on opportunities. (Ref. PMI.org).

In order to pass the exam you need to study :-
1 - Risk Management Knowledge area in PMBOK.
2 - PMI-RMP standard.
3 - Risk Management tools and techniques that in the standard Appendix.
4 - Communication Management Knowledge area in PMBOK.

If you need any more information or if you have any question please add your comment

Mohamed Khalifa, PgMP, PMP, PMI-SP, PMI-RMP
Project Management Consultant & Professional Trainer

Lessons Learned

Today I met one of my friends and he told me that he saw my blog and he tried to leave comment but he can't because there is many restrictions to write a comment , this was a good and bad surprise for me , the good thing that now only I come to know why there are very few comments in my blog and the bad thing is I discovered that many of people tried to write comments but they can't because of this restriction.
The first think I did once I open my blog is to remove this restriction in order to open for the comments.

This what we call it in Project Management " Lessons Learned" , when you make a blog try to remove this restriction form the comment setting.

All my best wishes

PMI Kuwait Yahoo Group

Five years back when I started the coaching and training business I was trying always to contact my trainees before, during and after the course in order to give them a real value and also to trace what is the course impact in their professional and personnel life and I consider this as important as the course itself. My Aim is to move the training industry one step ahead and focus more on the trainees himself more than the material or the class or anything else.
The Real value of Project Management Training coming from the best practice and sharing knowledge between practitioners.

For all my Project management courses I initiate a group for only my trainees called PMIkuwait@yahoogroups.com, I'm trying to make a small and closed community in order to help my trainees to master the Project Management knowledge and also give a chance to all of them to know and help each other to become a project management gurus , learn from others, announce my new free workshops and seminars, share templates and Q&A, try to help our friends to solve their problems and so on .
I'm thinking now to open the group for others in order to increase the contribution under one condition which is we will be very selective in adding a new member.

PMP Certification is not a pre-requesit for PgMP Certification

PMP is not a pre-requesit for PgMP

Many of my friends called me and they say that they want to get the PgMP certification because it is more suitable for them than PMP since they are managing programs (Group of Projects) not only one project at a time but they don't want to apply for PgMP unless they become first PMP.

This is wrong because you can be PgMP regardless you are PMP or not and there are many PgMP certified they are not PMP oreginaly and they go ahead with PgMP since it is sutable for them.
to know more about the eligability to enter the PgMP exam you can visit www.pmi.org
I'll start deliver my PgMP training course in Kuwait next week.

Passed My PgMP Exam

It is my pleasure to announce that I passed my PgMP (Program Management Professional) exam yesterday (27 April 2009). Thanks GOD

The PgMP credential recognizes demonstrated experience, skill and performance in oversight of multiple, related projects that are aligned with an organizational strategy.(www.pmi.org)

The PgMP exam is quite tough and it needs a good preparation plus program management experience

I need to share with you my experience about the PgMP exam, the exam questions it was subjective and very tricky, I think more than 90% of the exam was situational and scenario based questions.
My advice in order to prepare yourself for the exam is to do the following:-
1 - Read the Program Management Standard at least 4 times.
2 - Study the PgMP exam specification.
3 - Use PgMP questions and answers to enforce the concepts.
4 - You may have some questions need calculations so you need to know EVT , CPI , SPI
5 - If you are not sure about the answer try to use the avoidance technique (avoid the wrong answers first).
6 - Try to manage your time in the exam.
7 - You need to train yourself to concentrate for 4:00 hours and keep your focus.
8 - Keep in your mind that you are program manager not a project manager.
9 - Your Program management Experience is the key success in this exam.

Best of Luck

Project Management Office in dingerous

In the last 10 years many organizations start to have a Project Management Office to support their projects. this concept was accepted in many organizations.Many consultations companies was working on that and make a good success stories in many companies , the budget was not the issue the only thing is to have a PMO to control the project and to have a sustaines in the company business.
Many of freelancer consultants like me started convince the companies to have a PMO with a methodology , processes , templates and tools to manage the projects and programs. It was a great idea at that time but now after the crises the first department in dangerous is the PMO because it is cost the companies and since there is no projects so there is no need to have it .
This what happened in many companies, but some smart PMO managers does another initiative in order to keep the PMO , they change the PMO objectives from managing the project to managing the change in the company strategy , it is realy a good idea but still they are in denger because if they are not able to manage the change it will be more desaster not only in the PMO but also in all the company.
Consultants and professionals needs to change the message from deliver the projects on time , on cost on scope and on quality to be another message like manage the change , effectively manage the company resources, achive the strategic plan, ....
The PMO managers have to change the message imediately to match the current situation , there are many other business opened in the market due to this crises like Mearging companies, reevaluate the assets , Audit , change management , restructure, ... all these issues need a project management services in order to do it.
I don't think that the old model of the PMO will work in this crises we need to find another objective for it to save the organization's resources and to pass this crises safely, I think this is our responsibility now since we consider ourselves as Project management gurus, even if we didn't face a crises like this before still we are able to study and see how can we manage this crises , our aim should be save the company not only the PMO because the PMO will be nothing if the company closed.
I don't know if I'm right or wrong .. Please comment