#PMP Most people who follow my blog probably are not as familiar with the PMP designation so I figured I would put up some information on it. The PMP designation stands for Project Management Professional and is the most desirable designation for people who practice project management across industries. It is especially well regarded in the IT and Engineering/Construction industries. The link below has more details on it:

PMP Information

In order to qualify for the designation you must pass a 200 question 4 hour exam with a passing grade of 61% in addition to having at least 3 years and 4500 hours of managing project tasks. You must also have 35 PDU hours(Professional Development Units) which typically come from some form of in class and/or virtual training. 

I qualify because I have the requisite PM work experience hours and I will be able to get the PDU hours via PMI approved training via my consulting firm. 

PMP Exam Format

The PMP exam is designed to objectively assess and measure project management knowledge. Concepts covered in the PMP exam are directly derived from the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) Guide. The PMBOK® Guide is an internationally recognized standard (IEEE Std 1490-2003) which outlines project management fundamentals; and is applicable to a wide range of industries.

There are 200 total multiple choice questions which make up the PMP exam

25 randomly placed "pre-test questions" are included, and do not count towards the pass/fail determination

Individuals have 4 hours to complete the exam

Individuals must score 61% or higher to pass the exam (106 of 175 questions)

The nine PMBOK® Knowledge Areas contain a total of 42 processes which are applied to five basic process groups. These five basic process groups, which are common across all projects, are listed below along with the percentage of questions one should expect on the PMP exam:

Initiating (11%)

Planning (23%)

Executing (27%)

Controlling and Monitoring (21%)

Closing (9%)

Questions regarding Professional and Social Responsibility make up 9% of the exam

The PMBOK itself is 12 chapters covering the above material. I will be using it and Rita Mulcahy's PMP Exam Prep as my guide. I also purchased the Flashcards and the Exam Simulation Software also found on the same page.

Compared to the CFA, the material is easier, especially if you have any experience with project management. I would compare most of the material so far(only read 3 chapters) to Ethics in the CFA material. Lots of grey areas where you need to understand how PMI expects you to behave vs how you would behave on your own. Having lots of hands on experience doing this stuff for a living either directly or indirectly helps a lot as well but you need to be careful to answer questions using the PMI methodology, not your own common sense. I expect to do 1-2 chapters a week which should have me wrapping up the studies by November. I want to finish this up before year end, take the holidays to re-energize myself and then go hard for the Level 3 which will be quite a bear. I will not have the conducive environment I had for Levels 1 and 2 since I now travel for work and typically work 50 hours a week plus travel time. I'm debating whether I'm going to do it next year but I'm so close to finishing I might as well wrap it up as soon as I can.