Real-life experience with PMP Exam

What is PMP Certification? PMP (Project Management Professional) is a certification from www.pmi.org. PMI (Project Management Institute) offers this famous project management certification as a multiple-choice exam that lasts for four hours. There are 200 questions in total out of which 25 questions are not considered for grading. But PMI doesn't explicitly specify those questions.It is considered one of the toughest certification exams.PMI has certain eligibility requirements before taking the exam: 1) The candidate must be a bachelors degree holder with 4500hours of project management experience 2) If the candidate is not a degree holder, 7500 hours of project management experience is needed 3) Candidate is supposed to have completed 35 hours of PDU (Professional Data Units). PDU is offered upon finishing a course on project management. Note: Kindly check the www.pmi.org website to confirm the eligibility requirements. PMP Exam Details and Eligibility Requirements: PMP (Project Management Professional) is a certification from www.pmi.org. PMI (Project Management Institute) offers this famous project management certification as a multiple-choice exam that lasts for four hours. There are 200 questions in total out of which 25 questions are not considered for grading. But PMI doesn't explicitly specify those questions. It is considered one of the toughest certification exams.PMI has certain eligibility requirements before taking the exam: 1) The candidate must be a bachelors degree holder with 4500hours of project management experience 2) If the candidate is not a degree holder, 7500 hours of project management experience is needed 3) Candidate is supposed to have completed 35 hours of PDU (Professional Data Units). PDU is offered upon finishing a course on project management. Note: Kindly check the www.pmi.org website to confirm the eligibility requirements. After meeting the above mentioned credential, the candidate is supposed to fill the application. It may take 3 to 5 business days for the application to get approved. On receipt of approval the candidate can go ahead and pay the fees. The approval is valid for 1 year and the candidate can take exam in this one year duration. A candidate can make maximum 3 attempts in one year. There is a chance that the application may be audited in which case the candidate will be asked to submit documents to support the details provided in the PMP application form. It may take 1 to 3 months for the application to get approved after the audit. On completion of audit , the application is approved or rejected. If approved the candidate can appear for the examination within one year. Lets see some interesting terms that are commonly used in project workspace starting with project management Project - Project is a temporary endeavour with a definite beginning and end date undertaken to produce a unique product,service or result.WBS (Work breakdown Structure) - WBS is a deliverable-oriented hierarchial decomposition of work to be executed by project team, to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables. Fund limitation - Limitation placed upon funding for the project,whetther in total value or over specified time frames. Decomposition - Subdividing project work packages into smaller, more manageable components called as schedule activities. Planning package - planning package is a WBS component below the control account, but above the work package.This component is used for planning known work content that does not have detailed schedulesactivities. Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3) According to PMI, Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3) made of three elements namely knowledge element, assessment element and improvement element is a standard from PMI that will lead the organizations to excel in project management practice. PMO Admin Job Duties Project Management Office popularly called as PMO is the department overseeing the tasks of a project manager. In general delegation of many different tasks t project manager appens from PMO. In general PMO is lead by a Program Manager. Here are the job roles, responsibilities and duties of a PMO administrator 1) Collect and maintain department specific data, metrics and information needed for project management administration 2) Update data, metrics and information on a constant basis 3) Prepare reports regularly. These reports will be used in business review meetings 4) Prepare departmental reports tracking operation of various departments 5) Respond to department queries on billing, metrics, reporting, department data requirements 6) Maintain project status. Use project status tracking tools such as Microsoft Project, Google App Project maangement Tools etc 7) Audit closed projects, make use of findings, give recommendations to new projects 8) Make sure that project progresses within schedule, under budget. Make proper recommendations including corrective action if needed 9) Support administrative tasks PMO office administration becomes easier if teh candidate is PMP certified. After meeting the above mentioned credential, the candidate is supposed to fill the application. It may take 3 to 5 business days for the application to get approved.On receipt of approval the candidate can go ahead and pay the fees. The approval is valid for 1 year and the candidate can take exam in this one year duration.A candidate can make maximum 3 attempts in one year. There is a chance that the application may be audited in which case the candidate will be asked to submit documents to support the details provided in the PMP application form. It may take 1 to 3 months for the application to get approved after the audit. On completion of audit , the application is approved or rejected. If approved the candidate can appear for the examination within one year. Should I be from IT(Information technology, software) background to be a PMP? There is a misconception that only IT professionals ca attemp PMP.....Only IT people can get maximum benefit out of it..........That is not true.......If you are in NON-IT stream and want to sky-rocket your career go for PMP........You can make a good benefit out of this career move...... What stream should I be in to attemp PMP? You can be from variegated background : IT (Developer,QA,DBA,System Admin, Project Leader....)- java,.NET,VB,C,C++,C#,Oracle,SQL Server,Sybase,MYSQL,Informatica,Informix,Teradata,Tibco,ITIL Certified and many more....... Non-IT - Finance,Accounting,HR,Mechanical,Civil,Electrical,Electronics, Embedded systems,VLSI,B.A,M.A,B.Sc,M.Sc,Law and many more..... Why should I do PMP? If you have work experience and if you want to be paid high.....don't wait...........attempt PMP. Is PMP really valuable? PMP has been rated as the top paying certification by Certification Magazine. How do I attempt PMP? If you have work experience, you can take training from PMP certified professionals, trainers What are the career prospects of PMP?How do I advance my career with PMP? PMP has become the mandatory requirement of Project Manager positions. Even people with 20+years of work experience, who are in senior manager level are asked to take up PMP to hone their Project Management skills.Many companies have made it mandatory for Project Managers to have PMP. So it's really worth taking PMP right now........Don't wait.....It has a great future. Can I take PMP on my own? No.PMI recommends 35 hours of PDU from PMP training providers