PMP or other project mgmt goals

[DancingGeek]

Greetings,

I'm a project manager at a small software shop. One of my goals for the quarter is to outline "professional objectives" - goals for improving my project management skills.

Offhand, the only measurable way to do this that I know is PMP certification. While I'm sure it's very valuable both for my company and me, I'm not sure about the time and $$ right now - company doesn't have a lot of cash to throw around and neither do I.

Any suggestions on other goal-setting from a project management perspective? Or those of you who have done the PMP process, if you think that is absolutely the way to go, I'd be interested in hearing that too.

Thanks very much.

Cheers!
sheri

 

[PDQBach]

Crawl. Walk. Run.
Year1. Year2. Year3.

Crawl: get the company to pay for your membership in PMI; download the PMBOK Guide and start attending local chapter meetings.

Walk: Pay for your own course to teach you how to pass the PMP.

Run: get the company to pay for the PMP exam (i.e., reimburse you if you are successful at passing it).

You may want to compress the time frame for year 2 and year 3 into a single year.

But, initially, just join PMI and learn what it's all about. You may decide that membership is all you (or your company) really need.

 

[DancingGeek]

PDQBach,

Thanks for the info - that sounds like a good plan. My local chapter meets once per month - not sure of the fee - but I can probably swing that.

As far as courses to pass the PMP, do you have suggestions on a route to go? I hate to hammer the $ issue, but the courses I have seen so far are around $700+. I don't mind buying a couple of books at this point, but I don't want to put a lot of money into this until I'm sure this is the direction my company wants to go. Any ideas on a good starting point? I would assume PMBOK is the very first step, but I've read it doesn't give enough info with regard to the exam.

Thanks very much!
Sheri

 

[PDQBach]

Many local chapters offer discounted rates for members to help them study. But it really depends on your personal study habits. You may be very self-motivated and the PMBOK and a couple of additional texts (Kerzner has a few, ESI has some good sample exams) could be enough. OTOH, you may learn best in a structured environment of a classroom.

I'm lazy and needed to attend a course to get me focused. The chapter's self-study course moved ahead in a well-defined plan and that helped me get started. We'd get a reading assignment (from PMBOK) for the next class. We'd be expected to read and understand and then the course would review the topic. Please note: PMI specifically forbids "teaching the exam" and all credible course providers follow that guideline.

If I were you ... I'd attend a local chapter meeting (they usually charge $5 or so extra for non-chapter members) and ask the people there for suggestions and guidelines. Most chapter meetings are attended by the executive (I'm at every one of ours) and they can direct you to some new PMPs and you can get info from them.

In other words: all roads are possible, you are the only one who can choose the road that is applicable to you and your learning styles.