Bill Clinton Says Project Managers Help Tackle Global Challenges

Unfortunately I couldn't attend the PMI Global Congress 2010 North America but I like this article so much it is written By Cyndee Miller, senior editor, PM Network on October 11, 2010

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton sent out a powerful message: Project managers will play a significant role in taking on the toughest global challenges.

"If you're a project manager and you're a professional, there's always going to be something you can do for the next 50 years in the 21st century," Mr. Clinton told the audience Sunday night at PMI Global Congress 2010 -- North America.

Saying he was "fascinated" by project management, Mr. Clinton saw how the profession played a role in his own career.

"The more I thought about coming here, the more I thought about how much my life [in politics] and my work now revolves around good, or not-so-good, project management -- how to allocate money, time and people in a way that achieves the desired objective," he said.

Read more :http://blogs.pmi.org/blog/voices_on_project_management/2010/10/bill-clinton-says-project-mana.html

Ready .... Steady ... GO Microsoft Lunched Project 2010

Microsoft Lunched Project 2010 (Project Standard/Professional and Project Server 2010) along with Office 2010, SharePoint 2010 and Visio 2010 in New York City : http://www.the2010event.com (by the way I’ll be monitoring questions throughout the event along with other colleagues (Project 2010 Virtual Launch Event – May 12th), so looking forward to giving you plenty of answers!).

In the meantime ignition has started and key Microsoft Project 2010 assets has started to be released, expect a lot more in the coming days.

Microsoft Project 2010 Downloads as of May 11th, please note that none of the main three key portals have been updated yet (Microsoft.com/Project; TechNet and MSDN):

• Microsoft Project Professional 2010 Evaluation
  • http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee404758.aspx
• Microsoft Project Server 2010 Evaluation
  • http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee410540.aspx
• Microsoft SharePoint Server Enterprise 2010 Trial
  • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=230ecdfb-89ec-4d4a-8a85-89fd98329f7b
• 2010 Server Language Packs for SharePoint Server 2010, Project Server 2010, Search Server 2010, and Office Web Apps 2010
  • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=046f16a9-4bce-4149-8679-223755560d54&displaylang=en
• Project 2010 Reference: Software Development Kit
  • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=46007f25-b44e-4aa6-80ff-9c0e75835ad9
• Microsoft Project 2010 Demonstration and Evaluation Installation Pack
  • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=f48eacb9-6ea7-4aca-bc10-d3677ef81a9d
• Databases That Support SharePoint 2010 Products
  • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=990041e5-0a73-4d2f-895d-2232d1a229f5

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