PMP - Project Managment Professional Certification Course

So today was the first day of my PMP course, expected to last a week. It's an intensive course aimed at covering the essentials for the PMP exam. Study guide is 500 pages long,
and the PMBOK is equally as long. Registration for PMP is tedious process since you need to detail all the hours spent on past projects and get them reviewed, signed off my your respective managers.


Day one: Monday 28-Feb
Israeli tutor,from RBS Training. Been working with my company for 6 years, and contracted to push through PMP training worldwide, and also to follow through and assist the management teams in developing a PMI process as a company-wide process for project management.
Very lively guy, full of action and confidence - likes humour and other anecdotes
This guy firmly believes that project management is a very real profession, and the PMI/PMP movement is growing stronger year on year, with more and more companies demanding project managers must have PMP certification. Not everyone can be a project manager, so he says. Not everyone can be a very good project manager, there are some skills that one has to be born with, a "PM has to be charismatic...can you go on a training course to be charismatic??" No, says everyone.


I'm not so sure I agree 100%. Yes, management is hard, I firmly believe that. It also relies on skills one wouldn't necessarily have coming from a technical engineering background. But most of the skills can be learnt through on the job training, and sheer perseverance on the the individuals part. It is an opportunity to learn new skills, appreciate and measure in an objective manner the desired skills required from a PM, benchmark against your skills/personality and build in plans for yourself to improve. Yes, it's hard work, but with lots of practice, it'll eventually pay off. Granted, some charisma and on-the-feet thinking can't come naturally to a person who's default position is careful analysis before proceeding, but over time, should you be thrown in the deep end enough number of times, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it....


Anyway, what the guy said did make some sense - and made a few people think. I questioned my own goals because I know I have many interests, and that project management is an interesting role for me to explore the areas I feel I'm competent in, but not given the opportunities to prove them...


The first half of the day was spent discussing the spirit of PMP, the value of the project manager and the responsibilities/accountability's thereof. Practical guidelines into approaching the PMP exam itself, that this one week course isn't enough and one requires at least 50 hours minimum to prepare for the exam. The exam is computer based, 200 multiple choice questions, 4 hours duration, about 70 seconds to answer. It covers the 9 areas of PMBOK and is based not only on theory, but expects people build and rely on their experience in the field. The requirements for PMP exam varies according to one's educational background/experience. Firstly in order to qualify for the exam, you must prove you've got the minimum amount of hours of valid PM experience: 4500 hours if you have a bachelors degree, 7500 hours if you don't have a formal degree. You have to describe in detail how you spent 4500 hours, which should be signed off by appropriate managers, and proof of education. There is a 15% chance of being audited, so you have to keep all your paperwork just in case.


The trainer likes jokes - so as part of his course he's got this rule that at least one of us should tell a joke after lunch.

He also likes riddles. His riddle went something like this:

A father and his son are driving to town. They meet an accident, the father is immediately killed. The son is injured and rushed to hospital. After a while the doctor comes out and says "I can't operate on this boy because this boy is my son"....How can that be??

The answer of course being "The doctor is the boy's mother, the wife" - Interested how fixated we become and assume the masculine answer...


His joke went something like this:

A couple was moving house, they were well to do, but wanted to move to a better place. Whilst they were packing, reaching the last stages of packing the bedroom, the husband finds a box under the bed that he couldn't recognise. So he takes the box out, opens it and sees something rather strange. He sees 5 chestnuts and £150000 in cash. Astonished by this, the husband confronts the wife...the wife breaks down and confesses that she'd been unfaithful in the past, and she kept that box to remind her of the times she slept around. Every time she messed up, she'll place a chestnut in the box....So the husband thought, well OK, over the years then, that's 5 instances...i could forgive...but what's the £150000 for?? Well the wife said, every time she accumulated 30 chestnuts, she'll sell them for £50000....

He also showed us some video clips that convey the message of project management. The first clip was from a Superbowl ad: A young boy is playing football on his own, realises this isn't too great, he needs company. That was his project. So he arranges a dinner, romantic evening for the parents, and 9 months later baby is born. The boy is proud his plan worked and delivered...






Today we covered Project Integration Management process that included a 15 question multiple choice teaser for the exam ...will update this section when I go through the slides again - see how we remember all the funny parts but not the real content ;-)

We ended the day by watching a clip from Pulp Fiction, the scene where they had to clean up the mess of the dead teenager who was accidentally shot in the car, and needed the Wolf to come and clean up the mess. The scenes have parallels in Project Initiation, Charter, Objectives, etc...



Tomorrow is Scope and Time Management.

Pyschometric / Personality / Emotional Intelligence Testing - Part 2

CPP - Cognitive Proficiency Profile
I'm sure most of you might not have heard of this CPP Test being used by certain recruitment consultants. Apparently this is quite a mainstream subject, CPP being the brainchild of a Dr. Maretha Prinsloo, to quote PyschometricsForum:

The Cognitive Process Profile is a computer-based assessment that helps individuals to understand their preferred style of thinking along with an insight into the level of complexity they can handle (in bothquality andquantity). The assessment is the brainchild of aSouth African neuropsychologist, Or Maretha Prinsloo whowanted to develop an assessment that would overcome thecultural issues inherent in her country and demonstrate 'true'potential in individuals who may have only had up to 5 yearsschooling compared to the UK standard 11 years

Recently I had to take one of these tests under the examination of a South African contractor based in London. They were so specific about the test itself and stressed the importance of the test being the first thing one does in the morning, the test must be taken in the morning when the brain/mind is most fresh and active. They also stress that if you've taken a similar test before then it defeats the purpose and the results will be invalid, the test itself should be taken just once in a person's life time because familiarity of the test itself defeats the purpose.  They were so serious that because there was a problem with the test venue, the building was closed due to essential buildings work that we had to re-schedule. Apparently, because it's computer-based, the computer logs the date/timestamp of the test, and on submission the auditors review the logs and can tell whether or not the test was indeed taken in the morning or not.  So I'm going to tell you a little bit of the CPP based from memory, but I won't go into too much detail, such that you grown familiarity and result in a void test should you get the chance to attempt one in future.

The context behind my test was as a result of another recruitment process, a company in South Africa. I'd passed the face-to-face interview, the next step was a Pyschometric assessment. If I thought the BBC experience (See Part 1) was bad, it pails in comparison to this assessment. This assessment consisted of the following:

• Computer-Based CPP Test (2-3 hours)
• 10 minutes to answer 35 multiple choice questions based on Abstract shapes and Pattern recognition
• 8 minutes to answer 25 multiple choice questions on English vocabulary
• 8 minutes to answer 25 multiple choice questions on mathematical numeracy
• 120 questions on Personality tests
• 120 questions on Emotional Intelligence

All in all, it was a full morning's worth of non-stop evaluation....being the weekend, I was impatient to get this over and done with, and basically did the whole thing in 4 hours, without double checking my responses. The timed multiple choice questions, in my opinion, were designed so that it's nigh on impossible to complete all...I'd previously played with the Mensa Brain Test app on my ipod for about 1 hour before the assessment as a mini preparation, and that test allowed 1 minute per question, even the BBC questions were time to at least two minutes...so 8 minutes to answer 25 questions is a bit of a tall order!

So what is this CPP anyway?
The CPP is a computer-based testing program that is based around a card game. It's not a game so to speak, there is a collection of cards. Each card has a symbol drawn on it. Each symbol has a meaning. The way in which the symbol is drawn, for example, the accent of the line (thick bold lines, thin lines), colours convey meaning (e.g. a symbol in red indicates severity), dotted lines. Symbols can have more than one interpretation. There are helper cards offering clues. Some helper cards have no meaning and can be discarded. Some cards change the meaning of the symbol. Some cards change direction, etc.

The program first starts off by introducing you to the rules of the game. It takes you through the motions of using your mouse to drag and drop, to turn cards over, etc. It then has a few practice examples to show you how things work.

Essentially, there are about 8 scenarios or stories. Each story contains a collection of these cards. The cards are left covered, and you have to turn each card over to know what it means. You then have to use the available cards to put a story together. Based on the symbols revealed by turning over the cards, you decide which cards to keep for your story, and which cards can be discarded.

The computer is noting down your every move, every mouse click and time on each story. It expects you to remember the symbols without turning the cards over too much, it expects you to remember useless cards.

A story can have any interpretation you like. There is no right or wrong answer. It tries to measure ones ability to understand symbols, and measure how one translates those symbols into a coherent story in your mind.

Computer presents a series of symbols. You then look up the cards from available pool and then place the cards next to the given series, and build up a story. When you're ready, you then write down in words you see.

Take for example the following symbols:

Hospital

Lightning or Accident

I or Me

And then the computer presents following series, to be interpreted left-right:

So what story can we write about this sequence?

• So the colour red indicates seriousness or emphasis
• A bold/thick line indicates past tense
• So you could say: 
• I had a very bad accident and landed in hospital or
• I was struck by a the worst lightning bolt in history, but thankfully due some protective gear I had on, managed to survive and landed in hospital to recover or
• I was struck by lightning and now find myself waiting in hospital to be seen by an ER attendant

So you're free to write down any story that makes sense to you. And in doing so, some brainy psychologist will interpret your results, and then through some black art assess your mental stability, ability, cognitive reasoning, creative disposition, creative flare, professional attitude, cognitive proficiency and make recommendation if you're good enough for the job, or progress through the next round of the recruitment process...


By the way, I did make it through the next round, and waiting for my test feedback. Once I have that report I'll update this post!


Cheers

When an Expat decides it's time to go back home...

For an expat, deciding to return back to one's home country is possibly one of the most stressful periods in one's life, even more stressful than the period when leaving home the first time round. In my earlier post about myself, I mentioned I left South Africa to settle in United Kingdom, and now have feelings of returning back home to South Africa (even though I'm in a messy situation with my citizenship-status, according to SA Law, SA citizenship is lost automatically on acquiring foreign citizenship)...

It's been 10 years that I've been away from home. I left in April 2001 to brace the shores of Ireland. A recent graduate with one year's work experience, it was a chance in a lifetime to be offered an overseas job, so I jumped at the opportunity, it was an obligation I couldn't really refuse. Whatever I earned went back to home to support my family, I kept funds just enough for me to survive....Of course, at the time I was a single guy, free to do what I wanted, the whole world was waiting for me to make my mark....I turns out, that even though I settled quite well in Ireland, had good friends and thought my work was going well - it all ended abruptly when the internet bubble finally burst, EU started losing money and companies started to shed off their excess baggage, so jobs were cut, people sent back home. I did return home to SA in late 2002, but was lucky to land a job in the UK roundabout the same time. So, as every decent Muslim boy does when he's around 25 years old, thinks about marriage, because I had the funds saved up, and as we're told if we reach that age and can afford it, then we should marry....and the thought of living in the UK without companionship didn't go down too well with the folks and family, so I found my wife and decided to marry, take her with me to UK to start a new life, afresh...

Eight years onwards, happily married with three children, we find ourselves, despite living a fairly comfortable life in the UK, wanting to go back home. The truth is, even though, being from South Africa made it very easy to integrate with British life, and not feel isolated or separate from the people - the lack of having immediate family around you to support you, or even the social events with family - can really get one down. Making friends is also challenging, it's much easier to make friends with similar expats from other countries, than to break the ice with native english folks. So with a handful of friends, we try to live a life...but more recently though, with the kids growing up, we notice they're really growing up in isolation: The people that they know is just their mom and dad. Yes they've got to see both grandparents for short stints during holidays, but that's not enough time for them to experience their grandparent's love, warmth and sincere affection. They're also not getting a chance to spend time with their aunts and uncles & cousins - there is no sense of family...whilst it is true that the life we've started to build together in the UK can be the beginnings of my very own family legacy/heritage in the UK, I think it's a bit unfair on the kids not really getting to know who their family are....ignoring the saying "You can choose your friends but you can't choose your family". Yes, family can be a bit of a pain, but no matter what happens, family are there to support you when the going gets tough, they are your life line, your support network when things get bad...something that is absolutely absent in our current life....you live in this world only once, when you die you leave behind people who care for you, memories and the result of your work if it had an impact on people's lives...when I look at it like this, suppose we die in the UK, it'll be very empty and almost meaningless...I grew up without the love of grandparents (apart from my mom's step-mother), I'd really like my kids to cherish memories of their own grandparents whilst they still around...

Perhaps it's just the way we were brought up. Muslims have a strong sense of obligation and duty to family, especially their parents. We are taught the values of parents, especially that of the mother first, then the father, immediate family and extended family. We are taught to be kind and gentle, to love them even despite their misgivings. And when parents are getting old, it's the child's responsibility (and the right of the parent) to take care of their parent's needs financially and emotionally...This has been growing on me for some time, even though I provide financially for my family back in SA, it seems a little impersonal and detached being so far away. In times of crisis, I'm not able to travel home...My in-laws are elderly and not in the best of health. My parents are also seeing their age take a toll on them: My father may have prostrate cancer, my mom has trouble with her vision, my eldest sister now has breast cancer and is undergoing radio therapy, my second eldest sister has also just been diagnosed with breast cancer [correction - they assumed she had cancer, it turns out it's benign now 18/03/2011]. My youngest sister lost here husband aged 32 (5 years ago) to stomach cancer. My brother's second wife died soon after what supposed to be a routing operation...all of these things happening, and I'm not around to be there in person to offer my support....

But emotions aside, the decision to move back to SA must be based on some logical reasoning as well. Granted there are tensions within SA and SA is a country that is in its teenage years of true independence, politically there are concerns that SA could follow the route of Zimbabwe...but if people keep the spirit of Mandela alive, SA can become the best African countries to live in. The SA constitution is one of its kind in the world, it offers total freedom of expression to live, the right of people of all colours, races to live side-by-side, offered equal opportunities - a true multicultural, free society...if this country maintains its standard of human rights and constitution, what better country to have my kids grow up in and experience life. There are many challenges, but the opportunity to make a difference is great - something that I've always aspired to contribute - is to make a difference. Contrasted to the UK on the other hand, the UK is so developed, so well organised, everything works like clockwork, society is so used to things that it feels almost boring to live here, there are no real challenges - there isn't any real poverty, which is a danger because children growing up in this environment have to sense of hardwork and don't appreciate that life is hard, nothing comes for free...

When I first left home, my aim was to learn as much as I could, in the hope of returning one day to SA and contributing back to the development of the country. Since then, times have changed, the world is gone flat. South Africa is no longer behind, yes it could still be considered a third-world country. But the world is within the reach of people's fingertips, thanks to advances in telecommunications, the internet, the ever increasing availability of affordable consumer electronics and web technologies. In terms of IT infrastructure, SA companies are utilising the state-of-the-art technologies, in some cases setting the standard for other countries to follow, this is most apparent in the mobile communications world. One of my reasons for leaving SA when I did was the lack of opportunity for real world programming, that is writing real software systems from the ground up - to work for real software development companies. Instead of being users and managers of systems, or doing minor integration, I wanted to be part of the teams that actually wrote the underlying software, that's why I moved. There just wasn't that opportunity...In the eight years of being away, things have changed. Take Canonical for example, a local SA company embracing the culture of open source software. Ubuntu a very popular open source Linux distribution is an African inspiration. Cape Town is becoming the centre of investment, and is being touted the Silicon Valley of the Africa. The opportunities are just beginning...South Africa is no India, it's definitely not a Bangalore. South Africa doesn't have two hundred thousand IT graduates or 74000 MBAs (according to Friedman) and cannot even compete with the likes of India and China...but still, SA as a country has a growing economy, is a prime candidate for investment.... The world is flat, people are able to travel overseas often, all it takes is an overnight trip...

Just look at India - people used to leave the country in droves for Europe and the US...not anymore. In my recent trip to Bangalore, I saw first hand the opportunities that city presents for its people. The top companies are located in India, not just workshops for maintenance works - companies are investing huge amount of resources to setting up state-of-the-art R&D facilities. What once started off as a place for cheap, cost effective outsourcing has now changed such that innovation, and inventions are coming out from India itself...and the people that work for these companies can travel to company headquarters located throughout the world. The salary is excellent, the amenities are just as they are in a western country, why leave India at all??

The same can be said of South Africa in the next few years, well that is the hope...but it's still good to hope right? What else is good about SA? The weather is much better than the UK, there is more land, and the natural sceneries are breathtaking...

So where are we in deciding what to do?? Well, we did a little brainstorm and currently we've got the pros and cons of both countries on our local whiteboard - see pics below.... We are leaning towards going with the heart, rather than the head - and should an opportunity present itself, we're willing to give it a try ;-)

UK pros and cons

SA pros and cons

Kids whiteboard overtaken for brainstorm

What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis

A refreshing read, always good to see someoneelse confirming much my own ideas and thoughts about what people, companies and industries need to think about, to adapt, change, and prepare for the future that will be dominated by Generation G, the Google Generation.Yes, consumers are very much in control. The web brings about openness, collaboration and a whole new way of organising society & community.  In fact, this little gem was the trigger that kicked my ass into gear to set-up my own blog. It's nothing much at the moment, but who knows it might just get me noticed and connected with like-minded people that share my interests, and it could be the start of something beautiful. 


Yesterday yet again validated the power of the link as explained in the book and Jeff's blog. See for yourself, Jeff replied to a recent blog post of mine, prove that this guy lives and breathes what he's talking about. I wish more people, especially companies set in their ways, start listening, really listening about the new way of doing business, building relationships and conceding to the fact that consumers must be listened to, they're in the driving seat for sure. 


For long, we've heard the "customer is king" mantra, but now we're getting to the point of talking the talk and walking the walk. Something that is especially close to me is TV, since all my professional life I've been involved in creating systems that "changes the way people are entertained and informed" - but that world is an absolutely closed world. We the people, consumers, have little control over what we want to watch, the number of channels to choose from, and the option of using multiple service providers; compared to other markets such as mobile phones, where the consumer is a little more in control. Short of derailing this review into a rant about lack of choices of Digital TV, I'll save this for another topic on my blog :-)


Back to the book...

What Would Google Do? is definitely a catchy title, and even though much of the new behaviours described in the book can be attributed to the Internet in general and other big players like Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Twitter, etc - Google, no doubt has become, and is - synonymous with the Internet...well actually now, according to recent reports it's probably Facebook or Twitter that own the Internet.... Google is ubiquitous, as open as it allows itself to be, and has been the enabler and provider of many great things, more often than not taking the lead in disrupting, forcing us to change our ways of working, thinking, and even living...


I've learnt alot from this book, even though I thought I understood much of the features of the link economy already, Jeff provides enough examples, providing context and facts that increases the learning experience. Certainly, the content hit the nail on the head for me, and opened up my eyes to embracing the new way of doing things, i.e. to actually do something and experiment...

Definitely worth a read, but if you don't want to spend money, you can always get the essence of Jeff by reading his blog on buzzmachine.com, or listen to him participate in Leo Laporte's weekly podcast on TWiG - This week in Google

Tribes by Seth Godin

This book at first appears to be too thin on the ground, incoherent snippets from blog posts turned into a book - but get a little further ahead and it builds up momentum, driving deeper into the subject of leadership. Be warned though this isn't your usual "How to be a good leader" books of which there are hundreds of such books...it's about the reality that anyone can assume a leadership position, as long as one is committed and has the grit to persistently face resistance no matter how tough the going gets, and from that all, over time you will get people following you...forming your own tribe.

I've recently become a follower of Seth Godin's Blog.

Interesting bits that struck a chord in me & that'll stick with me are (quotes from the book):

Leaders have followers, managers have employees.

Leaders initiate, managers react.

Become a heretic, question the status quo.

Sheepwalking - the outcome of hiring people who have been raised to be obedient and giving them brain-dead jobs and enough fear to keep them in line.

The only thing that makes people and organisations great is their willingness to not be great along the way.

The desire to fail on the way to reaching a bigger goal is the untold secret of success...

The longer you wait to launch an innovation, the less your effort is worth...

The tactics of leadership are easy, the art is the difficult part...

The yin and yang are clear: without people pushing against your quest to do something worth talking about, isn't to be worth the journey.

Persist...

What's hard now is breaking the rules. What's hard is finding the faith to become a heretic, to seek out an innovation and then, in the face of huge amounts of resistance, to lead a team and to push the innovation out the door into the world.

Don't settle - it's an obligation not to settle.