The Effectiveness of Various PMP® Exam Study Techniques

If you are just beginning or are in the middle of studying for the Project Management Professional (PMP)®, you probably already know that in order to pass, you need to fully understand both A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), Project Management Institute, Inc. (PMI)® and the (PMI)® Code of Ethics. You have probably spent some time thinking about the many study techniques available to you. In this article, I examine four PMP® Exam study techniques, their effectiveness, and some possible alternatives, you may not have considered.

Technique 1 – Reading and Highlighting / Underlining the PMBOK® Guide and PMI® Code of Ethics

Reading text and highlighting or underlining as we go is a technique many of us learned and used during our high school or college days, so it is a familiar technique.

Verdict:

Studies have found that although 84% of students at elite colleges use this technique, they have also found it to be ineffective. It is kind of a security blanket, in that it makes the student feel that they are learning, but the student is actually more focused on highlighting or underlining rather than learning the concept.

Passively reading is a great first step, so don’t discount the need to read the PMBOK® Guide and PMI Code of Ethics; however, highlighting or underlining likely adds very little to your learning.

It does little to enhance understanding of the material and long term recall of the material, which makes this technique ineffective overall.

Alternatives:

Try to find other methods to learn about PMP concepts other than just reading, highlighting, or underlining them such as:
Be more active while reading. For example, ask yourself “why” a concept is relevant, or try to relate the concept to a real world example you can recall when it comes up on the PMP® Exam.

Technique 2 – Using Flashcards

Flashcards are a compact quick use study aid that typically covers one question, formula, or tidbit of information per card. This is another technique you may be familiar with from your high school or college days.

Verdict:

Spreading study sessions out over time, also known as distributed practice, has been found to enhance student performance. Flashcards provide a great method to be able to spread out learning and use the distributed practice method in a controlled and flexible way. You can easily breakdown PMP concepts into smaller “bite sized” chunks to ensure you review and master the material one concept at a time.

Flashcards have been found to be a very effective learning technique. You can pace yourself and easily use the flashcards as many times as you need in order to solidify the concepts in your mind.

Technique 3 – Taking Notes on the PMBOK® Guide and PMI Code of Ethics

Taking notes is the act of write down important information while reading the material to be learned. This is another technique many of us have learned while in school.

Verdict:

Taking notes is a better technique than highlighting or underlining, but can be very time-consuming. If you use this technique wisely then it can be very effective to use while reading the PMBOK® Guide and PMI Code of Ethics. Be careful not to take notes that simply regurgitate information, or your learning will be adversely affected and taking notes would be similarly ineffective as highlighting or underlining.

Alternative 1 – Use Notes to Create Flashcards:

When taking notes, do it in a manner where you can hide terms and definitions easily. For example, create two columns on a single page where the left column contains the terms and the right column contains the definitions. Writing it out this way allows you to hide the definitions with one hand as you try to repeat them to yourself. Or you can leave a lot of extra white space that you can use to rewrite the concept later to “test” yourself.

Then you can compare what you wrote verses the note you took. Using a notebook is not as flexible as using flashcards, but you can use any notes you take as a basis for creating your own flashcards.

Alternative 2 – Use a Brain Dump:

Create a brain dump. After reading about a concept, take a sheet of paper and write down all of the details you can recall about that topic. Don’t forget to verify that the details in your brain dump are correctly recalled and that you did not miss anything.

This is an effective technique for learning a concept since you are actively filtering for the most essential information. You also end up with a way of actively recalling the information over time and most importantly you can recreate the brain dump on the day of your PMP Exam.

Technique 4 – Taking Practice Tests

Taking practice tests can include anything from testing yourself one question at a time or sitting in a quiet location and taking a full length four hour two hundred question simulated PMP Exam.

You can self-test while reading PMP related material. For example, if student A was re-reading a PMBOK® Guide chapter straight through and student B hid some text from themselves purposely as they read in order to recall the information prior to revealing the text (taking a self-imposed practice test) then student B would be more likely to recall the information long term. As student B was going through the self-imposed testing, when he failed to recall information, he simply went back to re-study the concept.

Flashcards are also a form of practice tests as each card poses a test question. Flashcards are not ideal in the sense that the format of the PMP Exam is not necessarily the same as flashcards, but are still effective.

Verdict:

Practice tests are definitely recommended and studies have shown that taking practice tests is a very effective learning technique in a wide array of situations. Self-testing as you read PMP- related study material and using flashcards are both effective methods, but most effective is taking full-length timed practice PMP Exams.

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Teamwork and Creativity Help to Identify Root Causes

In problem-solving methodologies, identifying potential causes is a crucial step between process mapping and data collection and analysis. It involves the best available process knowledge, as well as creativity. Creativity and team management tools, more often employed for solution finding than for root cause finding, can generate deep understanding of the process mechanics and help the team prepare for the distilling and data-based validation of the essential few root causes of a problem.

Problem-solving teams can increase their chances of success by using a consistent methodology for identifying a problem’s origins. Such a methodology must be based on the very nature of root cause analysis. This form of analysis:

◈ Is a process that needs to be understood from the bigger picture.
◈ Is a team exercise that focuses on people and on meeting facilitation.
◈ Uses brainstorming to combine best expert knowledge with out-of-the-box thinking.
◈ Delivers measurable factors and a data-collection plan.
◈ Uses data to derive potential causes.

In the light of one specific example, it is possible to see how creativity and team management tools can be used to look deeper into the first four elements of root cause analysis. Using data to distill significant causes, both from a statistical and then from a practical point of view, is typically covered in Lean Six Sigma training classes. The example considered here is a delivery process where lead time had recently degraded with respect to customer expectations.

Working Through the Process

After carefully describing their problem, the team started the analysis by mapping out the delivery process. Then they brainstormed for potential causes for variation in lead time. To validate those causes, they collected and analyzed data. At first, only a small share of the total variation could be explained with these factors. The team then further elaborated the process map for the steps estimated most critical and revisited the cause-and-effect analysis to collect data for more potential factors by using the 5 Why’s analysis technique to drill down further. This process is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Process of Root Cause Analysis

Preparing the Team

To understand the observed variation in delivery time, the team mapped out the delivery process in greater detail. The team interviewed customers to determine their requirements and the rationale behind those requirements. They also analyzed how the process interfaces with suppliers; for several team members this was the first time they perceived the “big picture” of the process they were working in. Such first victories set the team on track for the next steps.

In preparation for the brainstorming meeting to identify potential causes, the team leader carefully:

◈ Conveyed a high sense of urgency and made participants feel “pain and pleasure” – Competitors had taken market share in line with their lead in delivery speed. A smooth flow of the process would also free up resources and reduce overtime work. Management actively supported the initiative.

◈ Secured creative diversity and included process and business experts and people with different personal styles.

◈ Made the team curious about “creativity tools” to be used – He also checked with experienced team members to find out which tools might be best suited for the specific team.

◈ Removed barriers to a free flow of ideas – The facilitator ensured that rules about inter-department finger pointing was clarified offline. He also verified that stakeholders were analyzed and approached accordingly.

Brainstorming Potential Causes

Like any other brainstorming activity, identifying potential influence factors is a team-thinking process. At the beginning of the meeting, management aligned the participants behind the business criticality of the process through a short intervention. The team also agreed on a schedule and ground rules. Then they went through the process map again, printed on an sheet of paper, which served throughout the meeting.

To capture the team’s experience on what might influence delivery time, the facilitator asked participants to write their thoughts on sticky notes and paste these on a flip chart. As people saw their peers’ contributions, they eventually generated new ideas. The walking and talking involved in the brainstorming set a relaxed atmosphere. Even so, after about 20 minutes, the team reached its first dead point, the time in brainstorming sessions when the team momentarily runs out of ideas. To keep the momentum alive, the facilitator decided to use a fishbone diagram. The facilitator asked participants to come to the flipchart and cluster the different potential causes into major groups.

The facilitator steered the team around a common trap that can arise when using fishbone diagrams. The team had started by writing the defect (“Delivery is slow”) at the “head” of the fish. This would have reduced the continuous variable delivery time into pass/fail information. Doing so would also have generated repercussions when capturing potential causes. A statement such as “insufficient headcount causes slow delivery” can lead a team in a different direction than a study of the influence of allocated work hours on delivery time. Thus, the team investigated the primary metric, “delivery time.”

This clarification, as well as clustering the ideas into major groups, helped generate discussions about the relations between different potential factors, which again generated new ideas. Participants also translated their original statements on “roadblocks to success” into “tunable factors,” imagined as “steering wheels to influence delivery speed” (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Potential Causes of a Problem Can Be Captured as Steering Wheels

The clustering exercise generated several major groups of factors. The team sensed some of these were underrepresented because they comprised only one or two potential factors. A quick re-brainstorming made these groups more complete. Then, the facilitator used printouts of traditional Ishikawa diagrams, the basis for fishbone diagrams, which helped them realize that price aspects had been overlooked and could now be collected through another round of posted ideas.

The facilitator decided not to have the team rearrange the posted notes into any of the traditional Ishikawa diagrams. This would helped the team consider the collected potential causes from still another angle, revealing other relations between factors, and generating new ideas. However, with the team dynamics that had unfolded, the facilitator sensed such an additional exercise as a drain to people’s creativity. Note that if this rearrangement does take place, the original state should first be documented with a camera.

The facilitator used a dead point to take a short break to prepare a creativity boosting game. These games often kick people out of their thinking box by first kicking them out of their seats. Typically, human resources departments can help in selecting creativity games. Searching the Internet also delivers many leads.

A short wrap-up of the game helped understand what defined the borders of the current thinking box: policies (written and unwritten), experiential boundaries (“At the current maturity of our logistics system, improvements must be the result of major investments”), firm convictions nobody knew the foundation of (“We will only find things we have seen in the past”) and several other limitations to creative thinking. It was the first time the team had seen the boundaries of their own thinking explicitly on a white board. They decided to creatively challenge some of these boundaries to discover new factors, such as “If we had no performance reporting to management, the delivery time might depend a lot on the affinity of the personnel for a given customer.”

Delivering Measurable Factors

The brainstorming resulted in 47 potential influence factors on delivery time. Green dots, on which the source was noted, were glued on the sticky notes of the factors where data was already available. Yellow dots stood for factors where data could be made available with some effort. Factors with no measurement system in place were marked with red dots. The result turned out to be a surprise: Data was easily available for only for a few factors. The team conducted a vote, in which each participant had five votes, to decide which of the red factors’ measurement systems were high priority.

The team then drafted a data collection plan: determine factor, (potential) data source and owner. They placed sample size determination, operational definition of the measurement and capability assessments of the underlying measurement systems as action items.

Wrapping Up

After agreeing on a follow-up procedure, the facilitator closed the meeting with a wrap up and a short feedback round among the participants. The team felt that the somewhat-fuzzy objective to identify root causes to their problem had been transformed into operational tasks. The use of creativity tools and a game had also made this work more fun. The facilitator added: Facilitating root cause identification is an art that can best be learned by exercising it.

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Sustaining Results From Six Sigma

Now, more than ever, Corporate America is suffering from a growing lack of commitment, loyalty, creativity and ideas from its own employees. Called employee engagement, this unseen, unquantifiable and unbudgeted influence has long been a powerful contributor to American business success. Sadly, with more than 2,000,000 employees lost to downsizing in the last 18 months, Six Sigma leaders must address the fact that employee engagement is declining.

Six Sigma initiatives are at risk of losing the discretionary effort and intellectual capital that workers once supplied willingly. Discretionary effort is the amount of effort individuals’ expend over and above the minimum they need to do to keep their jobs. Intellectual capital, is knowledge and ideas that advance the organization’s ability to compete. Discretionary effort and intellectual capital drive innovation, product and service quality, customer satisfaction and ultimately, profitability.

The cumulative impact of downsizing, mergers, acquisitions, and corporate restructurings has created a growing “engagement gap” in Corporate America.

Organizations trying to improve operating performance through the use of methodologies such as Six Sigma are under even more critical pressure to close the engagement gap. Why? Because these initiatives are unsustainable unless a significant percentage of the workforce is “in the game.”

A Major Threat to Business Improvement Initiatives

Discretionary effort and intellectual capital are essential to successful business improvement. The risk of not getting more employees engaged to willingly provide discretionary effort and intellectual capital is to become one of the 7 out of 10 organizations whose initiatives have traditionally failed to deliver promised results.

Surveys of younger workers indicate they would rather work for themselves or a small company than a larger corporation. Aon Consulting reported in a research study of about 1,800 workers that employee commitment is declining in every industry, age group, income group and job classification. The Gallup organization also recently reported evidence of declining employee engagement in a major survey that found only 26% of employees consider themselves “actively engaged” in their work.

Have you noticed how many employees today are becoming increasingly cynical? The infamous “flavor of the month” business improvement initiative, always subject to employee skepticism, is now often openly dismissed. How can a company close the engagement gap and achieve a sustained commitment from its workforce so that Six Sigma, Lean or CQI business improvement strategies are successfully executed?

The solution is simple in theory but difficult in practice.

On an organizational level, a company must adopt human resource and management practices, which create a corporate culture that motivates workers to create long-term customer loyalty and shareholder value.

At the individual employee level, the fundamental driver of increasing employee engagement is whether people can fulfill personal values and goals through work. As people have less control over their work environments, they seek other ways to meet personal wants and needs.

The most prevalent values that impact employee engagement are: Empowerment, recognition, respect, self-development, creativity, achievement, advancement, economic security (or wealth), freedom, integrity, family happiness and enjoying co-worker relationships. Although many employees value job security, most no longer believe it’s a realistic expectation.

Ultimately, the more individuals perceive their top values being fulfilled through their work, the more “fully engaged” they are. This leads to giving discretionary effort and intellectual capital beyond the minimum requirements of the job.

A New Mandate for Six Sigma Deployment Leaders: Attention to Engagement

The engagement gap requires business leaders to recognize and embrace the importance of developing strategies to increase employee engagement. For Six Sigma deployment leaders, the need is even more urgent to integrate engagement-building strategies into their initiatives.

In order for a company to create the culture required to implement Six Sigma, deployment leaders must deal with the potential schism that can occur with the development of a caste system of “have” (i.e. “the Black Belts”) and “have-nots” (i.e., the rest of the employees). While “the Belts” may be fully engaged, they typically represent a small portion of the employee population. If the non-Belts are not equal contributors to the desired culture change, they will feel even less engaged than before.

The solution to this dilemma lies not in the Six Sigma methodologies used to solve problems but rather in the approaches used to implement solutions. The usual prescription of more Six Sigma training or communication is not the answer. The reason is simple: People get engaged in improvement efforts when they believe their participation is actually making a difference for themselves. Sitting through a class on Six Sigma doesn’t stimulate engagement. Nor does participating on a project team that drags on for months of analysis before solutions are considered.

Organizations can break the impasse on increasing employee engagement and get more of their people “off the sidelines” and into the improvement game by engineering their improvement strategies around a few core principles:

1) Simplify the Process!

Make it easy for employees to put their best ideas into action and easy for managers to support them. If it takes more than one meeting for employees to see how they can make a difference, it won’t happen.

2) Build Confidence to Take Action!

Employees and managers need a safety net to feel comfortable as they offer ideas that challenge the status quo. Small teams with defined, meaningful assignments and clear criteria for success gives employees freedom to innovate, while providing managers with a way to limit risks.

3) Motivate Employees with Faster Management Decision-Making!

Nothing creates disengagement more than indecisiveness and inaction by managers. Managers must be ready to make decisions quickly once the engagement spigot is turned on.

4) Speed Everything Up!

Motivation to change is perishable at all levels of an organization. Each individual must experience some personal gain to stay in the game. The faster real results are achieved, the more likely people will stay engaged.

Our observation in working with hundreds of organizations has been that most business improvement initiatives, including Six Sigma, have not adequately focused on developing effective tools to increase employee engagement.

All Six Sigma professionals should be mindful of the issue of employee engagement when asking a workforce to travel the extra mile. Not much in the way of improvement is likely to be achieved and sustained unless the employees are fully engaged with their organizations.

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7 Keys To A Change Deployment Process

Launching a continuous improvement initiative of some kind has become the norm for a large cross section of organizations throughout the world today. The aim is often to reinvent themselves as superior competitors, fine-tuned to customer needs and robust to adverse changes in business conditions. Depending on which sector of the world of business one looks at, these efforts have been given different names such as TQM (Total Quality Management), Six Sigma, Breakthrough Management, Lean Transformation, Reengineering, Operational Excellence, etc. Yet, at the heart of each of these programs remains the ultimate goal of achieving breakthrough by fundamentally changing the way business is executed.

In spite of each of the improvement methodologies offering a clear and consistent roadmap to implementation (e.g., DMAIC for Six Sigma, DMADV for Design for Six Sigma, 7 Wastes of Lean, etc.), different companies have experienced varying degrees of success in implementing such programs. In many cases, the benefits, in terms of employee morale and culture, customer satisfaction and the bottom line have turned elusive. The question is — why is there this variation in levels of success amongst adopters of these programs?

The answer lies in the fact that most methodologies offer steps that are necessary to achieve success; they are neither sufficient nor exhaustive. This article explores some of the potential issues that need to be addressed during a change process that can make the difference between a successful and a not-so-successful deployment.

1. The House (Of Quality) Needs Foundations

Underestimating the need for a support structure can be a big mistake in the process of deploying Lean or Six Sigma. It is important to first assess the gap between your current state and the future, desired state. This activity produces a list of things that need to change and, in addition, those that need to be positively reinforced. In the change process, this is not an either/or proposition. Both need to be done. As an example, if one has the fortune of having an army of talented Black Belts but a broken Champion support system, the program can fail in a heartbeat. Again, if both are present and yet, executive support is absent, then that can lead to disastrous results for a program as well.

The role of a consultant is potentially huge in this case. The superior knowledge base can be helpful in foreseeing roadblocks and addressing them at the very outset.

2. Speed Can Be An Illusion

One common trait of all change initiatives is that they go through a series of necessary steps that have their own lead times. Failing to recognize this fact often leads to skipping essential activities that only create an illusion of speed and never produces desired results.

Sticking to an overall game plan and building steady momentum over time brings change that is more coherent and permanent than islands of excellence resulting from scattered activities.

3. Sustaining A Shared Vision

Most executives do a good job of communicating a strong sense of urgency to effect change and move people out of their comfort zones. This often launches a flurry of activities in the right direction to start with. However, sustaining the quality and level of activities is a different ball game. For the abstraction that is called business, it requires more than organizational structure, incentives and job descriptions to have a multitude of people work in a concerted manner towards a common objective — it requires a shared vision. It is one, in which everybody has a role to play, everybody clearly understands his or her role, and everyone knows “what is in it for me?”

Having a shared vision and communicating it well are essential in galvanizing a workforce to come together and stay together, during the process of change..

4. New Vision, Old Contraints

Doing the same old thing and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. As much as new tools and a new roadmap empowers people to do things differently, systemic constraints — be it organizational structure or reward system — if not addressed adequately can seriously damage the credibility of the effort and make cynics out of employees.

Actions to confront big roadblocks early in the deployment phase can do the magic of boosting morale and providing momentum to overcome psychological hurdles throughout the organization.

5. Show Me The Money

In all fairness to the shareholders, every initiative should aim at producing measurable economic benefit to a business. Care should be taken to ensure that there is correlation between the metrics used to monitor improvement efforts and the bottom line. This may warrant adjustments to the accounting procedures2 to enable the identification of reform opportunities, drive the right activities and calculate project benefits consistently. In many cases, gains are realized only after a series of project segments (like a step function).

It is important in such cases to make sure that cost accounting doesn’t disincentivise the very activities that culminate into a breakthrough.

6. Success Breeds Success

Every large initiative can appear potentially daunting and overwhelming if not split into manageable chunks. A process always runs the risk of losing steam if there are no short-term goals and short-term wins defined. Short-term wins create enthusiasm and confidence amongst people and aid in team building.

This makes the ultimate goal look realizable to participants and helps garner support even from those who have been erstwhile resisting change and sitting on the sidelines.

7. Leaders Wanted

More often than not, management is incentivised to minimize risk and preserve the status quo. Change on the other hand requires creation of a new state of business, which naturally requires leadership. A paralyzed decision making process (often the biggest impediment to change) is a symptom of having too many managers and not enough leaders.

Great leaders transform cultures and stimulate breakthroughs. It is vital to have a good number of them on one’s side as champions of the renewal process.

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How to survive project management for the non-project manager

Many small companies and even departments in larger enterprises simply don’t have the need for a dedicated project manager and, more often than not, will appoint someone from within the business to run projects on a case-by-case basis.

Ana BertacchiniSelection is usually made on the grounds of how close these individuals are to the product or the process being implemented, rather than the skillset required to manage a project. That could mean that people whose core expertise is actually HR, marketing or something else are given project management responsibility.

But around 60% of projects fail – and this is largely associated with a lack of understanding of effective governance.

That’s not to say this situation can’t work out favourably, though a successful outcome is much more likely – and easier for the person given this new responsibility – if they have a toolkit to work from. This will provide much-needed guidance on how to approach the task from a project management perspective.

Obviously project management is a hugely complex topic but for those with no formal training, it essentially comes down to four guiding principles.

1. Develop an unblinking focus on time management

If you have to deliver something which is time dependent, there is nothing worse than a moving target. So having the foresight and discipline to juggle “business-as-usual” tasks with the project in hand is crucial – otherwise, timelines will suffer.

It may sound obvious but simple things like checking your calendar daily and keeping on top of meetings – in terms of scope and keeping within the time allocation – will help enormously.

2. Create a project plan

In this scenario, where day-to-day tasks run alongside the project, having a plan in place becomes even more important.

However, this doesn’t mean imposing deadlines, sticking blindly to an end date and trying to make everything fit. Far easier is to put a plan together after undertaking an “estimation exercise” with the people who will actually execute the job. Approach the planning process as a collaboration with the people who will execute tasks. This will give you a far more realistic picture.

3. Engage with your team

No-one in a project can work in isolation. I would say 80% of my time is spent talking to people and setting up meetings. This may sound very laborious but it pays dividends in the long run.

It allows you to build good relationships with your peers, colleagues as well as your sponsor – each has a vital role to play in facilitating different aspects of the project. Far better to bring the team along with you on the project journey – you will get much more out of them. Open communication is key.

4. Make use of available tools and methodologies

If everything fails, there are still many effective tools out there designed to help. Many templates, spreadsheets and packages are easy to access and can be tailored for use as project plans.

Appreciating the thinking behind formal methods such as PRINCE2® and Agile can provide you with an important toolkit based on the collected knowledge and experience of project managers around the world. In addition, independent learning can add to the flavour of what’s involved and expected at each stage of a project’s lifecycle.

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Distinction between ITIL and PMBOK

1. ITIL

ITIL (formerly an acronym for Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a set of detailed practices for IT service management (ITSM) that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of business. In its current form (known as ITIL 2011), ITIL is published as a series of five core volumes, each of which covers a different ITSM lifecycle stage. Although ITIL underpins ISO/IEC 20000 (previously BS 15000), the International Service Management Standard for IT service management, there are some differences between the ISO 20000 standard, ICT Standard by IFGICT and the ITIL framework.

2. PMBOK

The Project Management Body of Knowledge is a set of standard terminology and guidelines (a body of knowledge) for project management. The body of knowledge evolves over time and is presented in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (the Guide to the PMBOK or the Guide), a book whose sixth edition was released in 2017. The Guide is a document resulting from work overseen by the Project Management Institute (PMI), which offers the CAPM and PMP certifications.

Distinction between ITIL and PMBOK

ITIL	PMBOK
ITIL is focused on Service Delivery and Service Level Management.	The PMBOK Guide is process-based, meaning it describes work as being accomplished by processes
ITIL advocates that IT services must be aligned to the needs of the business and underpin the core business processes. It provides guidance guidance to organizations on how to use IT as a tool to facilitate business change, transformation and growth.	The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is a collection of processes and knowledge areas generally accepted as best practice within the project management discipline. As an internationally recognised standard (IEEE Std 1490-2003) it provides the fundamentals of project management, irrespective of the type of project be it construction software, engineering, automotive etc
ITIL Version 3 framework defines five phases of IT Service Management Lifecycle. These are part of the ITIL Version 3 Core publications. They are: 1. Service Stategy 2. Service Design 3. Service Transition 4. Service Operation 5. Continual Service Improvement	PMBOK recognises 5 basic process groups and 9 knowledge areas typical of almost all projects. The basic concepts are applicable to projects, programs and operations. The five basic process groups are: 1. Initiating 2. Planning 3. Executing 4. Monitoring and Controlling 5. Closing
There are mainly four IT functions as per the ITIL Version 3 framework. They are: 1. Service Desk 2. IT Operations Management function 3. Application Management Function 4. Technical Management Function	Processes overlap and interact throughout a project or phase. Processes are described in terms of: Inputs (documents, plans, designs, etc.), Tools and Techniques (mechanisms applied to inputs) & Outputs (documents, products, etc.). The nine knowledge areas are: 1. Project Integration Management 2. Project Scope Management 3. Project Time Management 4. Project Cost Management 5. Project Quality Management 6. Project Human Resource Management 7. Project Communications Management 8. Project Risk Management 9. Project Procurement Management
ITIL describes the ideal end state that an organisation would like to achieve.	Much of PMBOK is unique to project management e.g. critical path and work breakdown structure (WBS).
ITIL focuses on the lifecycle of services.	PMBOK focuses on the lifecycle of projects.
The decision as to undertake a project will be made as a result of ITIL Service Strategy and Service Design	The project team may then use PMBOK best practices for accomplishing the goal, objective or output identified during Strategy and Design
ITIL is specific to IT only.	PMBOK project management can be applied to any domain, such as Civil Engineering Construction or Public Sector or IT
ITIL addresses how IT organisations as a whole should operate.	PMP addresses how individual projects within the organisation should be executed.
By taking a larger view of services in the organisation as a whole via a lifecycle approach, ITIL sets out to examine service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation, and continual service improvement.	PMP applies to projects throughout the entire organisation not just IT. The PMP framework, focusing on effective execution of projects, can be applied to any area of any organisation
Take, for example, an organisation that is building and deploying an email service – on one level, ITIL will evaluate what is needed.	PMP will then take this information and further break it down into easier-to-manage increments.
ITIL provides a Body of Knowledge for managing IT Operations which are repetitive in nature.	PMBOK provides a Body of Knowledge (BOK) for managing Projects which are a “temporary endeavor” in general
ITIL Version 3 has 23 processes and 4 IT functions	The latest PMBOK 4th edition has totally 42 processes for the Project Management Body of Knowledge
The UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC) is responsible for the management and distribution of materials on the ITIL framework.	In the US, the Project Management Institute manages the PMP certification. The PMP certification is based on content contained in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), a book published by the PMI

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What is PMBOK in Project Management?

Project Management has always been practiced informally, but began to emerge as a distinct profession in the mid-20th century. PMI published a manual entitled "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)" to identify the recurring elements for project management process. The complete Project Management Body of Knowledge includes proven traditional practices that are widely applied, as well as innovative emerging practices for the profession with widespread consensus as to their value and usefulness.

History of PMBOK

◈ The first credential for PMI was the Project Management Professional (PMP), and the first certifications were awarded in 1984.

◈ 1969 - Birth of PMI - First Meeting is held in Atlanta, GA.

◈ 1984 - First PMP Exams are administered

◈ 1987 - March - "Project Management Body of Knowledge" is released - not hardcopy - sections A through H, 5-6 pages in each section.

◈ 1994 - August - New exposure draft of the "PMBOK Guide" is released - 64 pages. There are eight Knowledge Areas. (Integration Management is not included until the 1996 First edition.) Test is a six hour exam of 320 questions! (There are 40 questions for each of the eight Knowledge Areas. Each question has five multiple-choice answers.)

◈ 1996 - PMBOK Guide, First Edition is released - 176 Pages. Nine Knowledge Areas and 37 processes.

◈ 2000 - PMBOK Guide, 2000 Edition is released. (Second Edition) - 211 Pages, Nine Knowledge Areas and 39 processes.

◈ December 2004, - PMBOK Guide, Third Edition is released. 390 pages; 44 Processes; 592 ITTO. August 2005 - Test changes to be based on Third Edition, and test becomes much more difficult! (PMI lowers the passing score to 61% to accommodate the increased difficulty of the exam.)

◈ 2007 - PMBOK Guide earns the ANSI/ISO/IEC

◈ December 2008, - PMBOK Guide, Fourth Edition is released. 467 pages; 42 Processes; 517 ITTO. August 2009 - Test changes to be based on Fourth Edition.

◈ August 31, 2011 - 30% of the questions are changed to conform to the latest 2011 RDS (Role Delineation Study)

◈ December 2012, - PMBOK Guide, Fifth Edition is released. 589 pages; 47 Processes; 619 ITTO! August 2013 - Test changes to be based on Fifth Edition.

◈ January 11, 2016 - Test changes to conform to the latest 2015 RDS (Role Delineation Study)

What is a Project?

In project management, a project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result.

A project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources. And a project is unique in that it is not a routine operation, but a specific set of operations designed to accomplish a singular goal. So a project team often includes people who don't usually work together - sometimes from different organizations and across multiple geographies.

The development of software for an improved business process, the construction of a building or bridge, the relief effort after a natural disaster, the expansion of sales into a new geographic market - all are projects. And all must be expertly managed to deliver the on-time, on-budget results, learning and integration that organizations need.

What is Project Management?

Project management is the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria. It is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.

A project is a unique and transient endeavor undertaken to achieve planned objectives, which could be defined in terms of outputs, outcomes or benefits. A project is usually deemed to be a success if it achieves the objectives according to their acceptance criteria, within an agreed timescale and budget.

Management vs Project Management

A key factor that distinguishes project management from just 'management' is that it has this final deliverable and a finite timespan, unlike management which is an ongoing process. Because of this a project professional needs a wide range of skills; often technical skills, and certainly people management skills and good business awareness.

Why PMBOK?

PMBOK has been used as the standard by which PMP Certification is obtained. PMP Certification is based upon a survey of many companies' best practices. The advantages of using PMP Certified Project Managers and Team members is that resources have already been trained. PMBOK is valuable for both companies and employees. PMBOK is valuable for many reasons. Here are three:

◈ The first reason PMBOK is valuable is that it allows companies to standardize practices across departments. This means that the people in development manage projects in the same manner as those in distribution.

◈ Second, PMBOK can help project managers to work with a standardized system across companies. Someone working for company x who then moves onto company y can use the same practices.

◈ Third, PMBOK discusses what works. The methods documented within the project management community can assist those who are uncertain of how to undertake risk management. PMBOK also discusses what doesn't work. This prevents failure of projects.

Finally, project managers who are familiar with PMBOK standards can custom tailor their project management process to best fit their company's needs. There's an old saying, "To break the rules, first you have to know the rules." When project managers invest time into learning the rules, they also are investing time in learning how and where rules can be broken.

PMBOK Structure

Project management as a practice is rapidly growing and spreading worldwide, and is now seen globally as a recognized and strategic competency, a career path and a subject for training and education. The PMBOK framework consists of five process groups, ten knowledge areas and 47 project management (PM) processes. The knowledge areas group the PM processes by project management content.

The 5 PMBOK Process Groups

Initiating

The initiating process group involves the processes, activities, and skills needed to effectively define the beginning of a project. Setting all permits, authorizations, and initial work orders in place to secure an effective and logical progression of initial project activities sets the stage for subsequent success throughout all project phases. Setting clear phases for work to be completed, initializing teams, and having the budget in place before work begins are vital for a strong start to any project across industry.

Typically activities to be performed in the initiating group:

◈ According to PMI, the process of Initiating helps to set the vision of what is to be accomplished.
◈ This is where the project is formally authorized by the sponsor, initial scope defined, and stakeholders identified.
◈ Stakeholder identification is crucial here because correct identification (and subsequent management and control) of stakeholders can literally make or break the project.

We also need to mindful of the following points:

◈ This process group is performed so that projects and programs are not only sanctioned by a sponsoring entity, but also so that projects are aligned with the strategic objectives of the organization.
◈ Where this is not performed, projects may be started and carried out haphazardly, with no real stated goal or objective.
◈ It should also be noted that management chooses and authorizes the project manager in early this phase.
◈ It's crucial to authorize and establish the PM early as project managers often have accountability but little authority.

Planning

The Planning Process Group sets forth the processes needed to define the scope of the project, set strategic plans in place to maximize workflow, and begin to assemble priority lists and plan team needs. This process group also addresses a more narrow clarification of all project goals and expectations and puts in place the project infrastructure necessary to achieve those goals according to the timeline and budgetary constraints.

Typically activities to be performed in the planning group:

◈ A crucial element of planning is establishing the total scope of the project. While it may appear as though that was accomplished in initiating group, scope (along with risks, milestones, summary and budget) was defined there at a high level.

◈ In planning group, an iterative and more detailed planning process, called progressive elaboration, project documents are developed at a much more detailed level.

◈ In the PMBOK Guide, PMI defines twenty-four discrete processes that are involved in planning.

Executing

The executing process group involves managing teams effectively while orchestrating timeline expectations and reaching benchmark goals. Project managers utilizing this set of skills will demonstrate a high degree of organization and communication skills while addressing team concerns or other complex situations associated with getting the work done on time and within budget.

Here is the typically activities to be performed in this group:

◈ Project manager need to acquire and manage the development team and also cultivate it by performing team-building exercises.
◈ Project Management is not only managing communications but also managing the stakeholder engagement, ensuring project and product quality
◈ If procurement is involved - supporting the effort to contract with a vendor.

Note that:

In the Executing phase, most of the budget will be spent and the deliverables of the project will be produced. And it is likely here where we will begin to see stakeholder change requests. While the project team can implement approved changes, only the change control board can approve or reject these changes.

Monitoring and Controlling

Processing change orders, addressing on-going budget considerations, and mitigating unforeseen circumstances that may affect a team's ability to meet initial project expectations are all part of the core skills and competencies involved in the Monitoring Process Group. Seasoned managers keep the momentum moving forward and guard the project against stalling by actively monitoring progress and using foresight and quick response to address project challenges. While the other process groups occur sequentially, Monitoring and Controlling hover over the whole project and so, happen throughout the project and are not linear. What does it encompass? According to PMBOK GUIDE, these are "processes required to track, review and regulate the progress and performance of the project.

Typically activities to be performed in the monitoring and controlling group:

◈ Identify any areas in which changes to the plan are required
◈ Initiate the corresponding changes (The truth is, you can't assume you'll always stay on plan. In fact, it's likely as not that you won't).
◈ In this group, you often need to get back on track, where you compare plan to actual, measure variance and take corrective action.

Closing

The biggest challenge of this process group is to bring the project to a successful close which means completing it on time and within the budget allotted. The bottom line is that while these process groups are not necessarily easy to implement, not doing so means the team may never realize the full benefits of their highly strategic projects.

Typically activities to be performed in the monitoring and closing group:

◈ Not only do you formally close the project but you also get sign-off and acceptance from the customer.
◈ The project manager should formally close the project by archiving records, holding a lessons learned session, making final payments, closing contracts and celebrating and releasing the team.
◈ Lessons learned along with other historical information should be centrally archived to be used as input to future projects to prevent reinventing the wheel.

The 10 Knowledge Areas of Project Management

Integration - This is covered first in the PMBOK Guide, but it's about bringing together everything you know so that you are managing your project holistically and not in individual process chunks.

Scope - It is the way to define what your project will deliver. Scope management is all about making sure that everyone is clear about what the project is for and what it includes. It covers collecting requirements and preparing the work breakdown structure.

Time - It relates to how you manage the time people are spending on their project tasks, and how long the project takes overall. This knowledge area helps you understand the activities in the project, the sequence of those activities, and how long they are going to take.

Cost - It is all about handling the project's finances. The big activity in this knowledge area is preparing your budget which includes working out how much each task is going to cost and then determining your project's overall budget forecast.

Quality - This area is where you'll learn about and set up the quality control and quality management activities on your project so that you can be confident the result will meet your customers' expectations.

Procurement - It supports all your procurement and supplier work from planning what you need to buy, to going through the tendering and purchasing process to managing the work of the supplier and closing the contract when the project is finished.

Human resources - First, you have to understand what resources you need to be able to complete your project, then you put your team together. After that, it's all about managing the people on the team including giving them extra skills to do their jobs, if they need it

Communications - Given that a project manager's job is often said to be about 80% communication, in there, the PM writes communications plan for the project and monitor all the incoming and outgoing communications.

Risk management - It involves identifying risks and understanding how to assess risks on your project, that includes how you perform quantitative and qualitative risk assessments. Risk management isn't a one-off activity, it covers controlling your project risks going forward through the project life cycle.

Stakeholder management - It is one of the most important group which takes you through the journey of identifying stakeholders, understanding their role and needs in the project and ensuring that you can deliver those. I think we'll see this area develop further in the next edition of the standard.

If you can grasp all these knowledge areas, you'll have everything you need to know as a project manager covered!

The 47 PMBOK Processes

Standardization of processes remains at the heart of all effective business models and plans. In project management, the PMBOK provides a way or transforming isolated processes into a complete, standardized, and collaborative effort. 47 process are classified under 5 different process groups, that associated with the corresponding knowledge areas in the following table:

Initiation	Planning		Execution	Monitoring and Controlling	Closing
Project Charter	Project Management Plan	Cost Management Plan	Project Status Report	Change Request	Lessons Learned
Stakeholder Register	Requirements Management Plan	Activity Cost Estimate	Deliverables Status	Change Log
	Scope Management Plan	Cost Baseline	Change Request	Earned Value Status Report
	Requirements Documentation	Project Funding Requirements	Project Team Directory
	Requirements Traceability Matrix	Quality Management Plan	Team Performance Assessment
	Project Scope Statement	Process Quality Checklists	Enterprise Environment Factors
	Scope Baseline	Product Quality Checklists	Procurement Agreement
	Schedule Management Plan	Quality Metrics	Issue Log
	Activity Attributes	Process Management Plan
	Activity List	Human Resource Management Plan
	Milestone List	Communications Management Plan
	Project Schedule Network	Risk Management Plan
	Activity Resource Requirements	Risk Register
	Resource Breakdown Resource	Change Request
	Activity Duration Estimates	Make-or-Buy Decisions
	Project Calendar	Procurement Management Plan
	Project Schedule	Procurement Statement of Work
	Schedule Baseline	Stakeholder Management Plan

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The 7 principles, themes and processes of PRINCE2

Are you Agile or Prince?

Many today are supporters of agile project management methods such as Scrum or Kanban. PRINCE2 is more a representative of classic project planning - but there are also voices that follow the hybrid system: PRINCE2 for the clear structure and framework, Scrum for sprints within the project stages. So it makes sense to look at PRINCE2 (Projects in Controlled Environments) and its principles - here the overview of the 7 principles, the 7 topics and the 7 processes.

The 7 Principles - from Good Practice to Best Practice

The seven basic principles of PRINCE2 are the backbone of a project. They are used again and again. You can also ignore parts of it - but if you remove too many vertebrae from the backbone, the project can collapse.

- Ongoing justification. A project has to pay off. Invest, expenditure of time and resources must be constantly justified.

- Valuable experience. Project teams should learn from previous projects. Therefore, project journals should be available.

- Defined roles. Everyone needs to know what the other one is doing. It has to be clear who the decision maker is.

- Defined phases. Difficult tasks are better divided into manageable sections or project phases.

- Defined exceptions. In a well-running project hardly intervene. The project management is only informed if there is a problem or if it becomes apparent.

- Focused product. The result is a product and it should be well defined. The product properties determine the work, not the other way around.

- Customized project environment. PRINCE2 can be scaled and customized. Projects that adapt PRINCE2 to their needs are more successful than dogmatic PRINCE2 projects.

The 7 topics - from clue to certainty

The seven topics are something like the working dimensions of a project. For example, in each project, the organization wants to be defined, the quality or risk to be weighed. While perhaps the principles from above are still informal or self-evident in a project, at the latest the themes of a project should be transcribed. The topics can also be dealt with W-questions.

- Business Case. Compare with the ongoing justification. It's about turning an idea into a worthwhile business case.

- Organization. Compare with the defined roles. Here, the project manager defines all the roles and responsibilities of the participants.

- quality. Compare with the focused product. It is also about quality. To make sure that this is not too abstract, it is important to define and stick to it at the beginning of a project.

- Plans. With a plan you get to the destination. Plans focus on products, timeframes, costs, quality and benefits.

- Risks. This topic serves to anticipate, identify, evaluate and control events during a project. These are recorded in a risk log. Negative risks are referred to as threats and positive as opportunities.

- Changes. This topic is about editing change requests and issues that occur during the project. The idea is not to prevent changes, but to subject them to a standardized procedure.

- progress. The project progress must be constantly checked. The project manager checks where the team is relative to the plan. Escalations to the end of the project are part of the project progress.

The 7 processes - from planning to action

PRINCE2 is a process-oriented method. Anyone who has been scanning these lines with restless eyes and wondering: when will the action finally come - are now in their element! This is about the division of a project into process sections, and here the action is brought into a structured sequence. The project manager closely monitors the project phases and leads the team to a goal. In addition, the English terminology is mentioned here because the processes are occasionally provided with the specified project abbreviations.

- Prepare / Start Up (SU). Create a project mandate that answers logistical questions about the project. It explains the purpose of the project, who does it and how it is done. The project briefing results from the mandate, existing project diaries and discussions with the persons involved in the project. This phase should also discuss feasibility and gather all information for the next process.

- Initiate / Initiate a Project (IP). This phase is about recognizing what needs to be done to complete the project successfully. The project manager describes the project dimensions that need to be controlled, such as time, cost, quality, scope, benefit, or risk.

- Steering / Directing a Project (DP). This project dimension applies to the entire project. The five core activities are initiation, phase demarcation, ad hoc alignment / consulting, project completion.

- Controlling a Phase / Controlling a Stage (CS). Here the tasks of project manager and team manager are described. The project manager authorizes work packages that break down the project into manageable activities. He assigns these to the teams and their leaders and monitors progress and progress if necessary. At the same time, team leaders have these tasks: Coordinating the daily work and communication between the team members and the project manager.

- Managing the product / Managing Product Delivery (MP). Here the communication between team leader and project manager is controlled. The product delivery is divided into three sections: Accepting a work package, executing a work package and handing over a work package.

- Managing the phase transition / Managing Stage Boundaries (SB). The project manager and a steering committee review each phase. The panel decides whether the project should continue. The project manager meets with the team to record the learnings for the next phase. The main activities are: planning the next phase, updating the project plan and the business case, reporting the end of the phase or creating a change or exception.

- Closing / Closing a Project (CP). When is a project over? This banal question is not so easy to answer at the end of complex projects. This makes it all the more important to adhere to these guidelines: declare the project over, identify follow-up actions, complete the project diary and hand over the product.

This overview describes the framework conditions under which projects should take place. As always, a project is only as successful as the motivation and discipline of those involved. At the same time PRINCE2 offers enough flexibility - up to the use of agile methods - to lead projects to success. PRINCE2 brings the discipline to the project. It depends on the project manager to apply rules creatively.

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CSM vs PMI-ACP: Which Agile Certification is Right for You?

Those who go through the work to earn a professional certification enjoy a multitude of benefits. Earning a certification builds confidence, makes you more competitive in the job market, solidifies understanding of a discipline, and establishes credibility with your stakeholders. Considering the effort, money, and commitment required to get certified, those rewards are well-deserved.

That sizable investment also means that most people must be discriminating as to which certification to pursue. Few have enough time, money, and energy to get more than one certification in a field, so a question we often get is, “Which one do you recommend?”

This article explores two popular agile certifications: Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM), awarded by the Scrum Alliance, and the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)®, awarded by Project Management Institute. Each certification and awarding organization offers different considerations that might go into choosing one over the other.

Highlighting the most salient “plusses” of each certification seems the best way to illustrate the value proposition for each certification. Of course, to highlight a benefit of one certification is not to say that it is unique to that certification. But to appreciate the benefits of each, it seems helpful to ask, “What does each certification say about you when your signature includes CSM or PMI-ACP?”

◈ PMI-ACP: You Understand Scrum and Other Agile Methods

Scrum is, by far, the most widely used agile approach, but it is not the only approach. The PMI-ACP addresses agile from a more holistic perspective and not specifically Scrum. When preparing for the ACP, it was helpful to understand about those other perspectives to see how agile principles are applied with different methods.

◈ CSM: You Have Learned and Worked with a Certified Scrum Trainer.

The biggest benefit of getting a CSM is that there is a very small, highly qualified number of individuals from whom you can receive your CSM training. Only Certified Scrum Trainers® (CSTs) can deliver a CSM course, and the qualifications for becoming a CST are extremely rigorous including vetting by Scrum Alliance peers in face-to-face interviews.CSTs all have considerable field and classroom with years of hands-on work in organizations with agile teams. Getting a CSM means you have learned from a Scrum professional who has deep knowledge about Scrum and has a lot of experience working with agile teams. That typically translates into hearty classroom examples of what agile looks like and how it works in the field when discussing concepts in class.

◈ PMI-ACP: You Have Agile Education and Project Experience

The experience requirements for the ACP are relatively strong. To apply for the PMI-ACP exam, you must have several thousand hours of experience working on projects. This experience includes general project experience, as well as project experience working on agile project teams or with agile methods and practices. Having a PMI-ACP means you have some context for understanding the various approaches to managing projects and you can speak to the benefits of agile and when it’s the right approach.The ACP also requires 21 hours of agile education and may be done either online or in-person. Those education hours may address agile philosophy, techniques, or principles, and there are no specific requirements for instructor qualifications, (unless it is an ACP prep course, in which the trainer must be ACP certified). So, in general the quality requirements for the agile education component of getting certified are more rigorous for the CSM.

◈ CSM: You Are a Member of Scrum Alliance.

Another benefit of a CSM is affiliation with Scrum Alliance. As a CSM, you are a member of an organization entirely dedicated to Scrum. There is, and always has been, no question that Scrum Alliance folks understand agile and that they are a leading resource pertaining to all things Scrum.This might not be as important if it weren’t contrasted with PMI, which has long been the keeper of the more traditional, plan-driven, “waterfall” approach to projects. In fact, one of the downsides of the PMI-ACP when it first came out was that many people disregarded it precisely because it was from PMI. That’s changing, however, and their evolving image reflects years of rebranding to put agile front and center in their publications and events. Nevertheless, some still see PMI as the one-stop shop for all things anti-agile. CSMs have never had that credibility gap as members of Scrum Alliance.

◈ PMI-ACP: You Passed A PMI Exam

The PMI-ACP exam process is more intensive than the CSM. For example, the CSM exam consists of a combination of multiple-choice and true/false questions and you must answer 24 out of 35 correctly to pass. There is no separate fee to take the test; it’s included in the cost of the class. It is taken online and you have two attempts to pass the test within 90 days of class. If you do not pass within two attempts and/or 90 days, you may take the test again for $25 for each successive attempt. So, the barrier to entry for the CSM as it relates to the test is relatively low.On the other hand, the PMI-ACP certification, like all PMI certifications, is earned after going through the notoriously rigorous PMI application and testing process. The PMI-ACP exam is not nearly as difficult as the PMP, but passing it is more difficult than the CSM exam. Even the application process, while considerably easier than it used to be, still requires pulling together details about project experience, contact info, etc.The PMI-ACP exam is a three-hour, 120-multiple-choice question exam taken at a testing site. If you do not pass, you must pay another, relatively substantial fee. So, considering the difficulty of the exam and the testing process, it’s more of an accomplishment from a testing standpoint than the CSM.

Of course, a test proves nothing other than you answered the minimum number of questions correctly to receive a passing score. A test doesn’t make anyone a better practitioner. But for most people, a PMI certification indicates that you have taken the certification seriously enough to make the investment to get through the process of passing one of their tests. PMI’s certification program is very well developed and has a long tradition, and there’s something to be said for that.

◈ CSM: You Have Attended a Course Using Agile Tools and Artifacts.

The courses for getting your CSM are rich with hands-on exercises and must be taught live, in person; there is no means of getting CSM certified through an online course. This speaks to Scrum Alliance’s quality program for its courses, and it benefits those with CSMs in that you will have had that classroom experience of working on an agile-like, co-located team and participated in Scrum activities and utilized Scrum tools to create Scrum artifacts.

◈ PMI-ACP: You Are Committed to Continued Professional Growth in Agile

Maintaining a PMI-ACP requires 30 hours of continuing education in agile within three years of passing the exam. There is a fee involved, as well, but it’s mostly about keeping your skills and knowledge sharp through training, reading, or some other learning activity.On the other hand, keeping your CSM only requires paying a Scrum Alliance membership fee two year after completing your CSM. Therefore, a CSM who got certified seven years ago can continue to use that designation as long as they continue to pay their fees – even if they haven’t participated in any agile professional growth since then. For that reason, the PMI-ACP sustains its certification value over time better than the CSM.

Something to keep in mind as you compare these two certifications is that both are scheduled to undergo changes in the coming months. Scrum Alliance is currently revising their entire certification program. At this point, many of the details are still unknown, but changes to the CSM may include things like being able to take a class online. It will continue to be an entry-level certification much like it is now. Other than that, we’ll have to wait and see.

What’s happening at PMI regarding the PMI-ACP is more certain. First, PMI has partnered with Agile Alliance to develop an Agile Practice Guide, coming out in September of this year (2018). This partnership clearly speaks to PMI’s intent to enhance its credibility in the agile world.

Also, the PMI-ACP exam will be updated in first quarter of 2018 to reflect the content in the new Guide. Given the history of PMI, their investment in putting agile at the forefront of their image, and the significant growth of that certification since it was first awarded in 2011, the PMI-ACP is likely to retain its value and continue to be a sought-after certification, both from professionals and the organizations that hire them.

So, the question as to which is better, CSM or PMI-ACP? There really isn’t a right answer. CSM after your name means you have learned about Scrum from a CST, who is a true, experienced, expert. You have participated in a class that utilized hands-on exercises so you have at least classroom experience with basic Scrum activities and artifacts. And you’re a member of the Scrum Alliance, an organization dedicated to helping professionals apply agile and Scrum practices, principles, and values to create healthy, happy work environments.

PMI-ACP after your name means you have 1000s of hours of project experience, some of which includes working with agile techniques and practices. You have passed a rigorous exam that took significant commitment of time, money, and effort to complete, and you understand the repertoire of agile methods, including Scrum. It also says that you either have or will be continuing to invest time, money, and effort to keep abreast of what’s happening in the field and to your knowledge and skills sharp.

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ITIL - Information Security Management

Information Security Management (ISM) ensures confidentiality, authenticity, non-repudiation, integrity, and availability of organization data and IT services. It also ensures reasonable use of organization’s information resources and appropriate management of information security risks.

Information Security Manager is the process owner of this process.

◈ Information security is considered to be met when

◈ Information is observed or disclosed on only authorized persons

◈ Information is complete, accurate and protected against unauthorized access (integrity)

◈ Information is available and usable when required, and the systems providing the information resist attack and recover from or prevent failures (availability)

◈ Business transaction as well information exchanges between enterprises, or with partners, can be trusted (authenticity and non-repudiation)

ISM Security Policy

It is required for ISM security policies cover all areas of security, be appropriate, meet the needs of business and should include the policies shown in the following diagram:

ISM Framework

ISM Process

The following diagram shows the entire process of Information Security Management (ISM):

Key elements in ISM Framework

ISM framework involves the following key elements

Control

The objective of Control element is to:

◈ Establish an organization structure to prepare, approve and implement the information security policy

◈ Allocate responsibilities

◈ Establish and control documentation

Plan

The purpose of this element is to devise and recommend the appropriate security measures, based on an understanding of the requirements of the organization.

Implement

This key element ensures that appropriate procedures, tools and controls are in place to underpin the security policy.

Evaluation

The objective of Evaluation element is to:

◈ Carry out regular audits of the technical security of IT systems

◈ Supervise and check compliance with security policy and security requirements in SLAs and OLAs

Maintain

The objective of Maintain element is to:

◈ Improve on security agreements as specified in, for example, SLAs and OLAs

◈ Improve the implementation of security measures and controls

Preventive

This key element ensures prevention from security incidents to occur. Measures such as control of access rights, authorization, identification, and authentication and access control are required for this preventive security measures to be effective.

Reductive

It deals with minimizing any possible damage that may occur.

Detective

It is important to detect any security incident as soon as possible.

Repressive

This measure is used to counteract any repetition of security incident.

Corrective

This measure ensures damage is repaired as far as possible.

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Business Process Vs Project Management Process

There is a lot of ambiguity differentiating process management and project management process. The two procedures seem to be identical but actually business process and project management process are two absolutely different set of skills. Business Management circles are debating that we should be creating organizations that are led by process management and, in turn, form Quality Management Environments for support. Whereas there are also some circles that tend to fall for Project Management because of the operational efficiency and reduced manpower.

This is of course a lengthy conversation and demands detailed explanation. However; I think that the choice depends upon the type of organization and kind of business. But first I am going to elaborate the definitions of the processes and later move to pros and cons.

What is a Process and Business Process Management?

Process Management defines around the governance of ongoing operations of a process. A process is generally ongoing and normally doesn’t have an end. It is a recurring series of repetitive tasks. Process Management is a continuous analysis for improvement or reengineering with no clarity defined beginning and end states.

Business management process or BPM is a methodical approach of assembling an organization’s workflow to make it sustainable and capable for an adaption to the changing environment.

What is a Project and Project Management Process?

Project Management aims to accomplish an objective by initiating, planning, executing and controlling the work. A project has a beginning and ending either well defined or not. Unlike process a project is not repetitive and project management is mainly focused on managing a project using different processes to achieve the desired results.

Project Management or PMP is the integration of all processes, methods, knowledge and skill to meet some pre-determined objectives. Project Management Methodologies differ from project to project and system to system.

So, as we see, there are some critical differences between BMP and PMP. The principal difference is the time dependability factor. The choice is up to the CEO’s and managers to select any of them, keeping in mind the intricate details.

Benefits of BPM:

BPM is a series of repetitive steps so stakeholders are confident to achieve a concrete goal. A process is generally automated in a standardized optimized way or can be manually operated without assisting technology. It is visualized by a flowchart of logical steps, so it is easy to maintain and monitor. Following are the methodologies and tools of Business Processes Management.

◈ Life Cycle Improvement of a project by modeling, implementation and monitoring.

◈ Process Discovery of a system to identify the areas of operation which could benefit and increase efficiency

◈ Simulation of a process before execution or during development.

◈ Enables Business Analysts, Managers, and Architects to create and design business process diagrams.

Challenges of BPM:

BPM sometimes becomes a challenge because of the following issues

◈ Slowing or halting of a process at a specific stage due to a human error or difficulty.

◈ The Duplication of work and redundancy due to inefficient processes often having some areas that are repeated or unnecessary.

◈ Lack of recognition because the management does not have a way of viewing where processes stand, what the status is, and how they are performing generally, and specifically.

◈ Communication gaps between the systems which cause malfunctioning.

Benefits of PMP:

PMP is time driven and requires extreme programming and predetermination instincts. A project has different phases or is subdivided into further projects. Sometimes a project is a part of a bigger project of a bigger project. Project Management is a bigger picture of process management. Following are some benefits of PMP.

◈ Project management provides a “roadmap” that is easily followed and leads to project completion for better Efficiency in Delivering Services.

◈ Improves growth and development within your team and inspires you and your team to look for ways to perform more efficiently.

◈ It provides opportunities to expand your services by great performance that leads to more opportunities to succeed.

◈ Increase in Quality and quantity and all risks are analyzed

Challenges of PMP:

PMP has following challenges

◈ Late completion of projects gets over-budgeted and causes dissatisfaction of clients.

◈ Project management is sometimes reactive and is not seen as providing value

◈ Project management is considered ‘overhead’ because of the heavy time and overtime required to complete the job.

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