PMP Experience - Syeda Tabassum

PMCLounge.com is full of PMP aspirants. One of our community members, Syeda Tabassum, recently shared some tips that helped her clear the exam in the second attempt. Read on,

First time I took the exam for granted and little over confident owing to my decade long career.

For my second attempt I focused on the exam questions and procurement KA. This is how I dissected each question,

Understand the question properly. What is being asked and what is the situation.
For each question do the following:
- What phase the project is in? Are we at the beginning, middle or end of process group? For example if project is in Executing Process Group then obviously the answer cannot be ‘a plan’ or a variance report. If the situation describes project is in planning process group then the answer cannot be a process/document from Executing/M&C/Closing Process Group. We don’t really need an Integrated Change Control process until we reach Execution Process Group.
For decision making questions like ‘what should the PM do?’ My approach was this:
- Does PM have the authority to make a decision?
- If PM does not have the authority then who’s next? Should it be sponsor or client who should take the call.
- If PM has the authority to take a decision is it exclusive to her or other team members can take the call when needed.
- When and during what circumstances do we need CCB and steering committee.
Some documents are live and can be updated any time during the project. For example – risk register, issue log, lessons learned. However other documents can only be changed thru change control process.
Scope, Schedule and Cost is at the heart of the project. Other KAs like Risk and Quality are discretionary.
There was one analytical question from EVM in the exam. This one needed no calculation or project management knowledge.