Instructing

Save $49 on PMP Bootcamp

Joseph Phillips — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 21:44:46 +0000

Is earning your PMP a goal for 2013?

Did you know the PMP exam is changing in July 2013? You better get crackin’.

We can help. Through January 30th you can save $49 on your PMP Boot Camp – just use the code PMP2013 during checkout. Start now!

You need to study how to pass the PMP, not how to do project management.

The PMP Boot Camp tells you how to pass the exam and shows you exactly what you must know to pass.

Our PMP Prep kit gives you everything you need to pass the PMP and get on with your life. The $199 PMP Exam Prep kit includes:

40 hours of project management education: videos, activities, and exams
Complete Course on MP3 – all of the course lecture in MP3 format to download and learn on the go
PMP Cheat Sheets, worksheets, handouts
Excel worksheets to help memorize formulas for earned value management, variances, time value of money, and more
Course workbook – the entire course slides, PMBOK references, and handouts – over 500 pages
Hundreds of PMP practice questions
Exercises to test and practice what you’ve learned
Certificate of Completion

Purchase now and start earning your PMP!

PMP Exam Updates – August 31, 2011

Joseph Phillips — Mon, 23 May 2011 15:43:17 +0000

You’ve probably heard that the Project Management Professional (PMP) examination will change on August 31, 2011. According to the Project Management Institute (PMI) approximately 30 percent of the PMP exam content will be updated to reflect the findings of their project management study. While there may be updates to several portions of the PMP examination, the primary update focuses on the Professional and Social Responsibility domain.

Currently the Professional and Social Responsibility domain is tested as a separate knowledge area on the PMP examination. With the updated exam, Professional and Social Responsibility will be tested throughout all portions of the exam – not in an exclusive area as it is now.

If you’ve been prepping for the PMP I highly encourage you to complete your studies and pass the exam before August 31. It’s better to study and prepare from materials that have been proven effective for the current examination than to wait for the new examination and start your efforts anew. Continue to study with the PMBOK version 4 – which won’t be updated and released until sometime in 2012.

Instructing.com, my website, offers an online PMP Boot Camp that will help you prepare to pass the existing PMP exam. This online course includes 35 contact hours of training and covers everything you must know to pass the PMP examination. The cost of this online course is $55 – until August 1. The content of the course will be updated and the cost of the course will increase at that time. Don’t delay! Pass your PMP exam now.

Kindle Your Lifelong Project

Joseph Phillips — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 15:16:26 +0000

I am thrilled to announce that my book The Lifelong Project is now available on Amazon’s Kindle! It’s the same content, of course, as the printed version of the book, but you can buy it, download it, and read it today. The Kindle version of The Lifelong Project is only $4.99. Here’s where you can find the The Lifelong Project
Kindle version. Happy reading and best in your lifelong project.

What Makes a Good Project Manager?

Joseph Phillips — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 03:50:20 +0000

Good is like eating vanilla ice cream from the carton when you could be enjoying dark chocolate gelato in Rome.

In a recent interview I was asked what makes a good project manager. It’s a good question – and not easily answered. First, what does a project manager do? A project manager is responsible for managing the resources, controlling the scope, and ensuring that the work is completed within a given, reasonable time frame. The project manager is responsible for getting the project done. Project managers are responsible for the outcome of the project. To define what makes a project manager good we have to be in agreement to the role and responsibility of the project manager.

But the tricky part is the whole “good” business. What does it mean to be good? Good is a subjective term. What’s good to you may not be good to me. Subjective terms, like good, like fast, reliable, and scalable have connotations attached to the conversation, the interpretation of the people in the conversation, and the context of the project. A good project manager is one who can get the project done as expected, perhaps with a few hiccups and issues, but the PM is generally OK. A good project manager is reliable, like pizza delivery, but nothing special.

A superb project manager is one that takes charge, leads and manages, and uses the most appropriate tool in the toolbox, rather than all the tools, to get the work done. Superb project management centers on relationships, honest communication, trust, maturity, and experience. A superb PM knows how to manage the project team to ensure quality works is complete – but also leads the team to project closure. A super project manager aims for shared ownership, not sole ownership. A superb project manager knows that projects are completed by people – not just the PM.

Project managers, and organizations, should strive for excellent project management, not good. Like everything in life, project management included, if you know exactly what you want you’re more apt to get it.

Tampa Area Events: The Passionate Project Manager

Joseph Phillips — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:09:44 +0000

If you examine all of the project managers you know, all the artists you’ve ever heard of, and all of the leading scientists, writers, and athletes of the world I think you’ll find one common trait: passion. Are successful people naturally passionate or do they learn to become passionate about what they’re doing? Is passion more of a “self-actualization” as Maslow might say? And how can you, a project manager, have more passion in your projects, your life, and in your relationships?

In this new presentation, “The Passionate Project Manager” I’ll explore passion and why we need, how we can get more of it, and how we can sustain it in our lives. This presentation is in the vein of The Lifelong Project, but it’s not about goal setting – it’s about having the passion for our goals, ambitions, and projects.

I hope you’ll be able to attend one of these three events in February as I’ll be delivering the same talk at all of these PMI events:

PMI-Tampa Bay Dinner Meeting

Marriott Westshore, Tampa, Florida

February 21, 2011, 5:30pm

Registration and details are here.

PMI-Tampa Bay Lunch Meeting

DeVry University, Tampa, Florida

February 22, noon

Registration and details are here.

PMI-Tampa Bay, Sarasota Dinner Meeting

The Meadows Country Club, Sarasota, Florida

February 23, 2011, 5:30pm

Registration and details here