The Project Management Podcast

Play Now: Sierra Hampton-Simmons As a project management trainer, I have always focused not only on teaching my students how to pass their exams but also on how to become better at what they are doing. Yes, of course, I want you to pass your exam and become certified but I always strived to ensure that what I teach helps you to better lead your projects and deliver them successfully for your stakeholders. And that is why I think the changes that the Project Management Institute (PMI)® is making to the Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam on July 1st, 2020 is a good change, even though they could have managed the roll-out a bit better. With this update, PMI® is moving away from the five current and somewhat ‘technical’ domains and shifts the focus of the exam to test a candidate’s knowledge of, and experience in the skills necessary to actually lead and manage a project. Specifically, the three new domains are People, Process, and Business Environment. But why am I telling you all of this when we have a guest for you who is much more qualified than I am: Sierra Hampton-Simmons (LinkedIn Profile). Sierra has nearly two decades of experience as an expert in Certification Management and joined PMI in late 2013. Currently, she serves as the Portfolio Leader/Head of Certification Products. This means that she is responsible for the entire portfolio of Certification Products including the PMP® exam. So she’s the perfect person to discuss both the background and nature of the changes. You’ll even get to hear that PMI is making changes to the type and style of questions a candidate will see during the exam itself.

Play Now: Sierra Hampton-Simmons Are you by any chance thinking about becoming a Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)®? Well then, you are in for a treat today because the Project Management Institute (PMI)® is currently in the process of making a number of exciting changes to this exam and we review all of them. There are some technical change - for example you will encounter two new question types on the exam - and PMI® is also making it easier for everyone who is and will be CAPM® certified if you decide to apply to take the Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam. And here to talk us through these changes is no other than Sierra Hampton-Simmons (LinkedIn Profile). Sierra has nearly two decades of experience as an expert in Certification Management and joined PMI in late 2013. Currently, she serves as the Portfolio Leader/Head of Certification Products. This means that she is responsible for the entire portfolio of Certification Products including the CAPM certification. So she’s the perfect person to talk to about this.

Play Now: Sorry. Your browser cannot play this video. This is a special episode of The PM Podcast in which we are sharing a video from The PM Coaching Podcast. In this interview, Dan Ryan, MBA, PMP, (https://www.pmexamcoach.com/podcast - LinkedIn Profile) interviews Cornelius Fichtner, PMP. Some of the topics are: Cornelius's background and life story What changes are coming to Project Management Professional (PMP) Exam in December 2019 What is the best way to pass pmp exam And also some of the differentiators between PMP and other exams

Play Now: Dr Jim Young, PMP, FNZIM Today, I don’t have a full interview for you. I have something better. I have a free book on how to manage small and medium-sized projects for you. The free eBook you are going to get is titled "Managing Smaller and Medium-Sized Projects" and was written by Dr Jim Young, PMP, FNZIM (http://www.skillpower.co.nz/ - LinkedIn Profile). If you use a podcast app to download and listen to our interviews, then the book has very likely already been downloaded by the app for you. It is a PDF document and you should see it as a separate episode of your subscription of The PM Podcast. If not, then please click on the download button above. PDU Tip You can claim 1 PDU in the "Technical Project Management" category for every hour you spend reading this book. Please study the "Read" section in the CCR Handbook to learn how. Click to download the PDF eBook now

Click to view and download the PDF eBook now... This free eBook "Managing Smaller and Medium-Sized Projects" was written by Dr Jim Young, PMP, FNZIM.

Play Now: For Project Management Professional (PMP)® renewal from Project Management Institute (PMI)®: This episode is part of our PDU Spotlight series in which we help you learn more about PDU credits for your certification renewal. The discussion is based on the article "Need 60 PDUs for PMP® Renewal? Read the CCR Handbook First!" that was published on The PDU Podcast. Read the article... Cornelius Fichtner Today, we are shining a spotlight on Professional Development Units (PDUs). More precisely, I’m going to give you a relatively short overview of the CCR Handbook, which defines all the policies around PDUs. And if you are a project manager who holds a certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI)® then you know about PDUs, because you need them for your certification renewal every three years. And just to be absolutely clear: you need PDUs only after you have passed your exam. If you are still studying for your certification, then you need what PMI® calls Contact Hours. So our focus right now is on the PDUs that you need after you pass your exam, and, because so many of you are Project Management Professional (PMP)® certificate holders, our examples will be primarily about PMP PDUs.

Play Now: We are reposting this interview because the price for The Career Optimization Package has been reduced to $6.99 What's Included in the Package? Dev Ramcharan, PMP, CSM, CCTC This is the third and final of three interviews in which Dev Ramcharan (LinkedIn Profile) from AROUCA Career Coaching helps you to optimize and boost your career. In this interview we focus on the late career phase and also touch upon consulting. Allow me to repeat my recommendation on listening to this series of interviews one final time: You will get the most out of this series of interviews if you listen to them in sequence, no matter if you are currently in your early career, mid career or late career. This is because each of the three interviews contains many nuggets of wisdom applicable to any career stage. And of course... Dev’s Career Optimization Package can be found on The PM Podcast website. Just go to www.pm-podcast.com/career and download the free version first. In this final interview you learn that the late career is really the peak of your experience, knowledge and wisdom. As well as the money you earn. But at the same time, this is also the moment to think back to the time when you started out in your career, and now you need to help out and mentor an eager young project manager at the start of his or her career. The one unexpected topic that you will also hear about is adversity in the sense of getting laid off or overlooked for a promotion during any of the stages in your career. Dev shows you that you can use adversity as your ally to move your career forward. And finally Dev closes with his suggestions for a structured approach to personal growth.

Play Now: We are reposting this interview because the price for The Career Optimization Package has been reduced to $6.99 What's Included in the Package? Dev Ramcharan, PMP, CSM, CCTC This is the second of three interviews in which Dev Ramcharan (LinkedIn Profile) from AROUCA Career Coaching helps you to optimize and boost your career. In this interview we focus on the mid-career phase, which starts about 2-3 years into your life as a project manager. In this interview you learn that there is an early mid-career and also a late mid-career, and that both require a different optimization approach. We talk about when and how often you should update the Career Optimization Package and how to perform a career risk assessment. As part of this interview, Dev also recommends the following two books: Carol S. Dweck: Mindset - The New Psychology of Success Kegan / Lahey: Immunity to Change My recommendation is still the same: To get the most out of this you should listen to all three interviews in sequence, no matter if you are currently in your early career, mid career or late career. And don’t forget to get Dev’s Career Optimization Package from The PM Podcast website. Just go to www.pm-podcast.com/career and download the free version first.

Play Now: We are reposting this interview because the price for The Career Optimization Package has been reduced to $6.99 What's Included in the Package? Dev Ramcharan, PMP, CSM, CCTC If you are listening to this podcast, then you are most likely either someone who wants to start a career in project management or you are already working in the project management field and you want to advance in your career. Well… you have come to the right place. This is the first of three interviews that will help you optimize and boost your project management career. My guest is Dev Ramcharan (LinkedIn Profile). Dev is not only a PMP certified project manager, but he is also a professional career coach with AROUCA Career Coaching in Canada. That means he not only understands the profession of project management but he also has the coaching background to guide you and me into successful project management careers! And my oh my is he good! We have recorded three interviews and each focuses on one stage of your career. The stages are early career, mid career and late career. My recommendation is that you listen to all three interviews in sequence, irrespective of your current career stage. So no matter if you are an absolute newcomer to project management or if you are a highly respected and senior VP of project management… you should listen to all three interviews starting with this one here. Also, Dev has developed the Career Optimization Package for you. This package is just over 30 pages long and contains templates, workbooks, tools and plans to help you review, optimize, plan and boost your project management career. You can download this package for free in both PDF and Microsoft Office format from The PM Podcast website. Just go to www.pm-podcast.com/career. You’ll see that there is a 32 page long free version (that’s the one we talk about during the interview) and there is also a premium version. And with all that out the way here's an overview of our first interview with Dev Ramcharan: We start out by looking at the benefits that a career in project management gives you, discuss the key factors and skills that will help you make your project management career a success, then we move on to discussing how to optimize your early career and we close the interview by looking at how to use the Career Optimization Package. Note: During the interview I say that the free package is about 50 pages long, but the correct number is 32 pages. I'm sorry! I was looking at the wrong file. My mistake!

Play Now: This is a quick "Good News Announcement" for The Project Management Podcast. In a nutshell, here is what has been happening and what the very near future holds We have updated our website. It is now much more mobile friendly, uses a modern template and is easier to navigate. Come take a look at https://www.project-management-podcast.com/ We reduced price for our Premium Career Optimization package to $6.99. Take a look at the Premium package here and see how it will help you to improve your career as a PM. Lastly, Cornelius is getting ready to record new interviews for you. Six guests are currently lined up. Additionally, you can also look forward to a new PDU mini-series to help you better understand the ins and outs of earning professional development units.

Play Now: We are updating our website and technology. And as part of that it is possible that your podcast app will be downloading the 15 latest episodes twice. Apologies if that happens to you...

Play Now: This episode is being reposted because the book we are talking about just made the Amazon Bestseller list for PM Books. And it's available for just $3.99 right now... Update: The price has gone back up again... Todd Williams When project budgets are dwindling, deadlines passing, and tempers flaring, then the usual response is to browbeat the project team and point fingers of blame - usually toward the project manager. That’s not really all that helpful. For these situations, what is needed is an objective process for accurately assessing what is wrong and a clear plan of action for fixing the problem. Enter Todd Williams, PMP who wrote the book Rescue the Problem Project: A Complete Guide to Identifying, Preventing, and Recovering from Project Failure. Todd and I sat down at the PMI® Global Congress last year and in this interview we discuss approaches to project rescue. Here’s a brief book overview of Todd’s book: Rescue the Problem Project provides project managers, executives, and customers with the answers they require. Turnaround specialist Todd Williams has worked with dozens of companies in multiple industries resuscitating failing projects. In this new book, he reveals an in-depth, start-to-finish process. As always when we have an author discussing his book we are giving away two copies and by now you should know how that works. One copy is reserved for our premium listeners and one for everyone else. If you want a chance of winning the book, please go to www.facebook.com/pmpodcast and look for the book giveaway announcement. All you have to do is leave a comment.

Play Now: We are reposting Episode 205 with Todd C. Williams today. This is because we have just learned that Todd's book Rescue the Problem Project jumped to become the #1 Best Seller in Amazon’s Business Project Management books. Also... it's currently available for just $3.99 on kindle. That's a great deal for a book that has a 4.5 star rating! Get it today before the price goes up.

Play Now: Agata Czopek and Cornelius Fichtner In this interview we welcome Agata Czopek (LinkedIn Profile) and discuss that diversity is a fact and inclusion is a choice. Companies with diverse executive teams are 21% more likely to outperform the companies rated in the bottom quartile of diversity. Have you ever experienced a situation that made you feel uncomfortable? Let’s discover the attributes of an inclusive leader and the steps needed to improve team performance by addressing unconscious bias. This interview was recorded ad the crowded Project Management Institute (PMI)® Global Conference 2018 in Los Angeles, California. We learn to describe attributes of an inclusive leader, identify techniques to improve performance by addressing the unconscious bias, and see that privilege is invisible for those who have it.

Play Now: Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam: PMP Exam prep : Agata Czopek and Cornelius Fichtner In this interview we welcome Agata Czopek (LinkedIn Profile) and discuss that diversity is a fact and inclusion is a choice. Companies with diverse executive teams are 21% more likely to outperform the companies rated in the bottom quartile of diversity. Have you ever experienced a situation that made you feel uncomfortable? Let’s discover the attributes of an inclusive leader and the steps needed to improve team performance by addressing unconscious bias. This interview was recorded ad the crowded Project Management Institute (PMI)® Global Conference 2018 in Los Angeles, California. We learn to describe attributes of an inclusive leader, identify techniques to improve performance by addressing the unconscious bias, and see that privilege is invisible for those who have it. Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Agata Czopek: In this episode of The Project Management Podcast™, you will learn how to be an inclusive leader and the steps needed to improve team performance. Cornelius Fichtner: Hello and welcome to The Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com. I am Cornelius Fichtner. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner: We are coming to you live from the crowded 2018 PMI Global Conference in Los Angeles. And with me right now sitting here in hallways just outside of Room 411 is Agata Czopek. Hello, Agata! Agata Czopek: Hello, Cornelius. Cornelius Fichtner: How are you doing today? Agata Czopek: Very well, thank you! Cornelius Fichtner: Yeah, you have just completed the presentation for a second time. How is it for you speaking here at the conference? Agata Czopek: It’s a great pleasure always. It’s always stressful situation but the feedback that I get after the speech, it makes me continue. Cornelius Fichtner: And it is a great topic because PMI actually made you give it twice, right? Agata Czopek: Yeah, I was really surprised by the number of people that showed during the first speech and also the second one, I was well that made the difference. Cornelius Fichtner: Yeah, I came in at the tail end. There were about 120, 150 people in the room, close to that, very nice. So in the opening I said: We are coming to you live from the crowded 2018 PMI Global Congress. You chose the word “crowded”. Why did you choose “crowded”? Are there too many people for you? Agata Czopek: I have realized that I’m a bit of introvert. So a number of people here like, I don’t know, I guess 2 or 3000 for now. Cornelius Fichtner: Something like that, yes. Agata Czopek: It’s really overwhelming. So if you are very small in that crowd and it’s there. Cornelius Fichtner: I feel you because sometimes there are thousands of people around you and you are just sitting there going: “Oh my God, I hope nobody speaks to me because whoa!” Yeah, I have the same feeling. Agata Czopek: I have another like I want to find a friend. Cornelius Fichtner: Yes, yes: “Oh I know you. I know you.” He talked to me. Agata Czopek: Exactly! I’m just having lunch but he sighted me. No, this is impossible. Cornelius Fichtner: Yes, alright! So your presentation is titled “The Future Lies in Diversity and Inclusion. Are you an inclusive leader?” Why did you choose to speak on that topic? Agata Czopek: The topic of diversity and inclusion is close to my heart as being a person who moved to another country. A person that is looking for inclusion myself and having different experience in different countries, how do you feel when you are from somewhere else that you don’t speak the native language here, and how it impacts then the team performance. But on the other side, how big the business case is behind that having the diverse people in you