March PMP Certification Numbers Are In

Every month I get a copy of PMI Today and I annotate 3 data points: New PMP® for the month, new PMPs year-to-date (YTD), and total number of active PMPs. The trend continues, with the new number of PMPs in March totaling 5,344. Year-To-Date total is 12,779. There are a total of 375,959 active PMPs. The current trend predicts PMI will hit 400,000 active PMP credential holders this year.

Though I congratulate those who just got their certifications, I'm still worried we're rapidly reaching a tipping point.  I have two hopes.  [1] These new PMPs continue to look for new ways to provide value to their customers.  [2] That I am wrong about the prediction that so many PMPs in the mix will create a devaluation of the certification.

Personally, I would like to know how many of the PMPs certified in March prepared for the exam via boot camps and how many organically prepared.  Does it matter if someone went to a PMP bootcamp?

What do you think? Let me know.

	December (2009)	January	February	March
New PMPs (Monthly)	5,403	3,714	3,713	5,344
New PMPs (YTD)		3,714	7,429	12,779
Total Active PMPs	361,238	367,619	371,014	375,959

Why the game of Candy Land bothers me

Every child's first game, CANDY LAND is a colorful way for a preschooler to experience the joy of game play. The game teaches color recognition and matching while reinforcing the lesson of taking turns and being a gracious winner or loser. You will love to see the smile on a young person's face as they travel through CANDY LAND. That's what Hasbro has to say about it.  What do I have to say about it?

Every father's first game, CANDY LAND is a colorful way for a parent to tell his child that this is not how life really is.  The game teaches color recognition and matching while reinforcing an attitude that you can still succeed, even without a strategy.  It teaches the lesson of accepting an outcome, when nothing is within your control and everything is left to chance.  You will love to see the smile on a young person's face when you play your first game of chess.

I'm a loving father.  But I'm also insanely competitive.  I don't think we do our kids any favors by teaching them to just throw the dice or spin a wheel and let life hand them a destiny.  I'm going to raise my son to not expect a ribbon for just showing up.  I'm going to raise my son to not expect something for nothing.

I want him to know that there are risks is life but there are also great opportunities.  It might not start with a game called CANDY LAND but it sure will in the game called LIFE.

Do you think everyone should be rewarded for just showing up?

The PMP bubble may be about to burst

Steve Koger wrote a very insightful comment on one of my "Ask Derek" posts titled Required Experience to take the PMP.  In the post, I was trying to assist someone who wants to be a good project manager.  They want to get their PMP but they don't have the required experience to sit for the exam.  I do want to be clear of three positions.  [1] I don't believe you have to have a PMP to be a good project manager. [2]  Though the certification may be used more and more as a marketing tool, just to get to the interview, I would hire the person not the credential. [3] I see more people attempting to game the system and get a PMP by going to boot camps and saying they have experience that they actually don't. What is happening is an every increasing amount of non-qualified people becoming PMPs.  Unfortunately, I don't see PMI taking any action to stop it.

This is what Steve wrote:

...while the PMP is more recognized worldwide, I’m not sure it carries as much weight as it used to… is there a marginalization occurring with the PMP credential?

I absolutely feel there is a marginalization occurring with the PMP credential.  Because PMI is a “for profit” organization, they are motivated to get as many people certified as possible. I know they say they are trying to advance the industry of Project Management. I do believe that but I can’t ignore the marketing machine behind the credential. I’m worried there will soon be so many PMPs, the credential is becoming the next Dutch tulip.

I am of course comparing it to the Dutch tulip bulb market bubble of the 1600's.  This was one of the most famous market bubbles of all time.  Speculation drove the value of tulip bulbs to extremes. At the height of the market, the rarest tulip bulbs traded for as much as six times the average person's annual salary.  (Source: Investopedia)

I see the PMP credential adoption being part supply and demand and part good marketing.  Fact 1: Too many projects fail.  Fact 2: Having a qualified and empower project manager at the project helm "could" lower the risk of a project failing.  Assumption 1: If you have a PMP as your project manager, your project won't fail.

As with the economics of scarcity, the less there is of something where a demand exist, the greater the value. But scarcity and shortage are not the same thing. A shortage is when the demand exceeds the supply, usually meaning the price was too low and the market is not clearing. Scarcity always exists, but a shortage can be fixed. I feel the shortage of PMPs was fixed a few years ago. I see market conditions which indicate the PMP bubble is about to burst.

What I want to see is a limitation put on the number of PMPs certified per year.  I want to see PMI go back and require not only a 4 hour exam but also require everyone pass a practical exam.  I want to know that Project Managers are PMPs, not people collecting credentials.  I want to see the stop of Paper PMPs.

I certainly don't have the answer.  I want to do everything I can to help qualified people get the credential.  But, that will mean nothing if there is a continued devaluation by people who merely pay a fee and pass a test.

Red PM Pill vs Blue PM Pill

Due to a wicked sinus infection, I wasn't at the client site for several days.  I found myself taking pill after pill, trying to get myself back to a condition where I could return to the program and really be effective.  I think I took every colored pill under the rainbow.  I chuckled to myself as I took a blue pill, as I thought about the movie The Matrix. In a memorable scene, the character Neo is faced with a decision.  By taking a blue pill, he could continue believing what he wanted to believe.  By doing so, he was ignoring reality.  The one who was giving him an opportunity of enlightenment was Morpheus.

Morpheus: This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

Welcome to the world of project management, Morpheus.  I've learned over time, which of my stakeholders to give the red pill to and which to give the blue pill to.  To be truthful, many don't even want you to offer them a pill.  It's my job to support and advise stakeholders related to the program.  It's not my job to tell a stakeholder which pill to take.

When managing stakeholders, you really need to understand their motivations and expectations.  Not all stakeholders want the program or project to succeed.  Of the ones who do want the program to succeed, I've witnessed complete polar opposites of figurative pill popping.  On one side of the spectrum, I've dealt with a stakeholder who wanted to know every little detail of what was going on with a project.  This micro-manager almost choked on his red pills.  On the complete other side of the spectrum, I've had a stakeholder who showed up for a project charter meeting, swallow the blue pill, and just let everything take its course.

For those in the middle, there is a bit of a punchline.  Mix both a red pill and blue pill and you get a purple pill.  "Purple Pill" is a trademark for a heartburn medication, which is exactly what you'll need at some point of a project.

So, I'm back in the office today.  I sat in a meeting with 50 other people and listened to a monthly status briefing by a vendor.  As I looked around the room and thought about writing this, I muttered to myself.

red-red-blue-red-blue-blue....

Ask Derek - Required Experience to take the PMP

I'm always looking for ways to help others in their quests to be better project managers.  It doesn't matter if it's about getting the PMP® certification, getting PDUs, or even finding good tools to make a given task easier.  I field questions from both emails and Twitter.  Today I read an email that was not unlike others I've answered directly.  But, I thought others would benefit if I answered publicly.  Here is the content of the email:

I read your article about how the PMP certification is commercialized and an example of a PMP holder hiding behind the credential.  I want to become a good IT Project Manager.  I read the requirements to become a PMP. According to requirements, a person needs 3 years exp before attempting this test. My question is, how can I get exp without a certificate or who would give me a job to get the exp as a project manager and thereby attempt my PMP certification.  Can you please help me set my goals in an orderly fashion so I can ultimately become a good Manager?

Does this sound familiar? It's kind of like the chicken and the egg.  First, I would like to say the person asking the question made a statement that resonated with me.  I want to become a good IT Project Manager. I really want to help because if they wrote that, they are half way there.  Let's be clear.  You don't need to have a PMP to be a good PM. I know very gifted people who do not possess the credential.  I would be a liar if I did not believe the deck is stacked against them.  Companies have bought into the idea that good PMs have PMPs.  But I digress.  Back to the question at hand.

It can be a challenge to become a project manager, if you have no experience.  If you have ever lead a team or managed a task, you have more experience than you give yourself credit for.  PMI will recognize that.  Remember, the PMP is not a test about something you are learning.  The PMP is an exam about what you should already know and do, but categorized within the framework of the PMBOK.  Let's say you're a QA Engineer.  I bet you have a lot of experience in the Monitoring & Controlling Process Group and specifically in the Project Quality Management knowledge area.  Document your experience around what you know and do.

In order to qualify to take the PMP exam, you do need to have experience in all 5 Process Groups (Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, and Closing).  Honestly, you could have 99.9% of your experience in one process group and 1 hour in each of the remaining 4.  PMI doesn't care.  You just need to document that you have experience in all.  If you want to be a good PM, I would recommend you get exposure to each of the progress groups. Fewer things are as bad as a PM who does not empathize with all of the functional areas or have experience in the different phases of the project lifecycle.

On a practical note, I recommend you engage others in other functional areas of your current project(s).  Offer to help them in some way.  Don't go in with an ulterior motive.  Honestly, help someone and you'll get the experience you need as a byproduct.  The PMP should be for someone with overall experience. However, I do know managers in specific functional areas who also hold the credential.  I would recommend, if you want to be a good manager, to become educated through practical experiences and not solely through academia.  You can learn just so much from a book.

Did I answer the question?  Is it a good start?

Please post some comments and let me know.

Sometimes a Stakeholder Just Says Bla Bla Bla

Do you have that one stakeholder who comes to your meeting and finds a way to talk about something completely unrelated? You tell them you need to take the conversation offline but it's still really annoying. Bla bla bla! It's important when you schedule a meeting to have an agenda. It's also really important to stick to it. When in doubt, don't have the meeting. 

Creating Unnecessary Bureaucracy

I've rewritten this post several times now.  The catalyst for this toned-down rant was the company-wide distribution of a new dress code policy.  As background to this story, I was hired by a small business to support a Federal Government contract.  If you want bureaucracy, the Federal Government is certainly where you'll find it.  Where I don't expect to find it is with a small business.  I've worked for both large and small businesses.  The bigger they get, the more layers of bureaucracy there is.    It doesn't have to be that way.  I think some small businesses think you have to add a lot of crap to processes, in the hope someone will think there is value.  Draconian policies do not translate to value!  As I read the new policy, I became more and more incensed.   I come  from a military background, so if someone has anything to say about my appearance, they should say it to my face. This dress code policy was not necessarily directed to me.  That is where the problem rests.   When you feel the need to communicate TO and not communicate WITH your people, you have a problem. This situation could have been easily avoided by a superior and a subordinate having a conversation.   Instead, we get a vague policy that runs the gambit of  "no shaggy hair" to "hair color should be kept within the family of traditional hair colors".

Give me a break.   This is a failure of both communication and of leadership.  It doesn't matter if we're talking corporate, project management, or communication processes.  Take a big step back and ask yourself if writing that process makes sense.  Action and communication is what will become culture.  Processes just become a pain in the ass that slow things down.

Image from kailash.balnac.com

Free Process Group and Knowledge Area Study Material

page43

5-9-42

This is the number combination I want you to remember.

5 Process Groups

9 Knowledge Areas

42 Processes

A colleague of mine just passed his PMP® exam.  What was one of his regrets?  He should have memorized page 43 of the PMBoK.  Why?  Page 43 is an excellent road-map.  Go to any process on page 43 and you'll have a corresponding process group and knowledge area.

Want to Report Performance?  You'll find it atthe crossroad of Communications Management and Monitoring & Controlling. By memorizing the items on this page, you will be able visualize where you are within a project lifecycle and answer a bunch of questions on the exam.

To make it easy on you, I created a simple piece of study material, based on page 43 of the PMBOK

• Page 1 has all of the process groups, knowledge areas, and processes

• Page 2 is missing Initiating processes

• Page 3 is missing Planning processes

• Page 4 is missing Executing processes

• Page 5 is missing Monitoring & Controlling processes

• Page 6 is missing Closing processes

• Page 7 is missing ALL of the processes

With so many other things, memorizing isn't going to do you any good if you can't practically apply what you committed to memory.  I can't say I have a use case from the real world, where memorizing page 43 would apply.  But, if you want a leg up on passing the PMP® exam, I think it's a great start.