The Project Management Podcast

Cornelius Fichtner, PMP
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Become the project manager everyone wants on their team. Tune in to The Project Management Podcast™ and join Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM, as he interviews global PM experts to uncover what drives their project success. Subscribe at https://www.pm-podcast.com and get actionable advice you can apply today. Each episode is packed with hands-on tips for beginners and experts to help you integrate good practices and the latest insights to lead your projects more effectively. Copyright © 2005 - 2025 Cornelius Fichtner. All rights reserved.

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  1. 2d ago • Subscribers Only

    Free AI for Project Managers Course for Premium Subscribers, Ends October 6

    I have a special offer for Premium PM Podcast subscribers. My course, Artificial Intelligence for Project Managers, is now available on Udemy, and I’m giving 100 Premium subscribers free access. The course is designed specifically for project managers who want a practical introduction to the skills that make up AI literacy. This is more than "how to use ChatGPT for PM" - it's quite foundational. Complete the course and you can also earn 14.75 PDUs. How to get free access Go to: https://pm-podcast.com/ai4pm That link takes you directly to the course on Udemy and automatically applies the coupon. You should see the course price reduced to FREE. Then simply add the course to your cart and complete the checkout process. Important: This free offer ends October 6, 2026, and Udemy currently limits free coupons to 100 enrollments, so the offer may disappear before then if all 100 spots are claimed. Starting in November, Udemy will allow up to 1,000 enrollments on free coupons, which means I’ll be able to offer more opportunities like this in the future. Enjoy the course, and once you’ve completed it, please leave a review on Udemy. Reviews make a big difference in helping the course reach more project managers. Until Next Time, Cornelius Fichtner, PMP

  2. Aug 27 ·  Video

    Episode 558: Why Smart Organizations Keep Doing Dumb Things (Premium Preview)

    Premium This is a preview of our premium episode. Full access is available only to premium subscribers. Click here and learn about the Premium Podcast to access this interview... Play video preview episode | Play audio-only preview episode | Play on YouTube | Play on Spotify Episode Summary Sara Gallagher returns to examine a frustrating reality for project managers: organizations can employ smart, experienced, well-intentioned people and still produce the same bad outcomes again and again. Sara, president of The Persimmon Group and creator of the Big Dumb Questions newsletter, brings more than 15 years of consulting experience to a discussion that starts with artificial intelligence and quickly expands into how organizations make decisions, manage transitions, respond to change, and structure project leadership. She explains how she separates work into simple, complicated, and complex categories when deciding what to give AI, and why simple and selected complicated work offer the most practical opportunities today. From there, Sara and Cornelius examine decision latency and the danger of judging a decision only by its eventual outcome. Sara argues that leaders should focus on whether they made a defensible decision based on the information and criteria available at the time. They also examine project handoffs, where weak preparation can allow value to leak away and risk to increase just as the project reaches a critical transition point.

  3. Aug 21

    Episode 557: PMP Exam Adds AI. You're Studying the Wrong Thing.

    Play audio-only episode | Play on YouTube | Play on Spotify Episode Summary Artificial intelligence can now appear in PMP exam scenarios, but that does not mean candidates need to study AI technology. In Episode 557, Cornelius Fichtner starts with the PMP Exam Content Outline and separates what PMI actually says from what many candidates may assume. AI appears in the introduction as one of the trends PMI evaluates when researching changes in professional practice expectations, but it does not appear as a task or enabler in the People, Process, or Business Environment domains. That distinction matters because the PMP exam measures project management competencies, not technical mastery of the tools a project manager may use. AI can show up as a project risk, a deliverable, or a tool that a team wants to adopt, while the underlying exam question still asks whether you can manage risk, evaluate a tool, address a stakeholder concern, handle change, or make an accountable project decision. Cornelius also shows the kinds of questions candidates should not expect, including technical questions about generative versus predictive AI, prompt-writing techniques, and AI model selection.

  4. Jul 24

    Episode 556: Rethinking the PMO: Identity, Design & What's Next

    Play audio-only episode | Play on YouTube | Play on Spotify Episode Summary Sara Gallagher, President of The Persimmon Group and author of the LinkedIn newsletter Big Dumb Questions, joins Cornelius Fichtner to answer the uncomfortable questions most PMO leaders avoid. The conversation follows four threads: PMO identity, design, accountability, and the future. It opens with the biggest question of all: are PMOs dying? Sara takes an optimistic view, with caveats. She explains that traditional PMOs are built on standardization, which raises weaker projects to a certain ceiling but also flattens excellent, tailored work down to the law of averages. She then paints a concrete picture of what comes next: project managers with robust knowledge bases and AI agents that draft synthesized status reports, simulate steering committee members such as a CFO, and hand results to a PMO agent that standardizes everything for portfolio roll-up. The result combines hyper-customized stakeholder communication with standardization only where it is truly needed, and it frees the PMO to coach project managers in sophisticated stakeholder management and risk practices.

  5. Jul 16

    Personal Pause Update

    Play audio-only episode Your browser does not support the audio element. Download the episode. A brief personal update from your host. My wife recently had a serious fall that required hip surgery and rehabilitation, so my time is fully devoted to her recovery right now. One recorded interview is on its way to your feed shortly, but the schedule will stay quiet for the next few weeks while I reschedule cancelled interviews and we get through this together.

  6. Jul 2

    Episode 555: Master All 7 PMBOK 8 Performance Domains for the PMP Exam (With Sample Exam Questions)

    Play audio-only episode | Play on YouTube | Play on Spotify Episode Summary The seven performance domains from the PMBOK Guide 8th edition form the backbone of how project work actually happens, and they are woven into nearly every situational question on the PMP exam. The catch is that the exam never labels them. Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, takes you through all seven domains: Governance, Scope, Schedule, Finance, Stakeholders, Resources, and Risk. For each domain, he presents a sample question from The PM Exam Simulator, works through the answer choices, and then hands you a structured takeaway built around three skills: how to recognize the domain in a scenario, how to evaluate your answer options, and how to eliminate the traps. Along the way you work through fourteen exam-style questions, including drag and drop matching, choose-multiple formats, and classic four-option scenarios covering everything from negative float and crashing to contingency reserves and psychological safety.

  7. Jun 20

    Episode 554: PMBOK Guide 8th Edition, All Six Principles for the PMP Exam

    Play audio-only episode | Play on YouTube | Play on Spotify Episode Summary Preparing for the PMP exam means developing the ability to make sound decisions under pressure, not simply recalling definitions from a textbook. In this lesson, drawn directly from the PM PrepCast PMP exam prep course and PrepCast PMP Exam Simulator, Cornelius Fichtner walks through all six project management principles from the PMBOK Guide 8th Edition and shows exactly how to recognize and apply them when facing the kind of ambiguous, scenario-based questions that appear on the actual exam. Each principle gets its own sample question from the PrepCast PMP Exam Simulator, a step-by-step walkthrough of why the wrong answers are wrong, and a second practice question so listeners can immediately test what they have learned. The episode covers all six principles in sequence: Adopt a Holistic View, Focus on Value, Embed Quality into Processes and Deliverables, Be an Accountable Leader, Integrate Sustainability Within All Project Areas, and Build an Empowered Culture. Each principle is taught not as a concept to memorize but as a mindset to recognize and apply, because the exam consistently rewards situational judgment over terminology.

  8. May 29

    Episode 553: Revenge of the Risk Register (Premium Preview)

    Premium This is a preview of our premium episode. Full access is available only to premium subscribers. Click here and learn about the Premium Podcast to access this interview... Play audio-only preview episode | Play on YouTube | Play on Spotify Episode Summary We welcome back Dawn Mahan and Jerry Manas for a project risk management conversation that connects movie moments with practical project leadership. Dawn and Jerry, co-editors of Projectland Goes to the Movies: 22 Blockbuster Strategies for Project Success, focus on the chapters they personally wrote and use them to examine how project managers identify early warning signs, assess uncertainty, choose risk responses, and handle the human side of risk. Jerry uses Star Wars to explain fast risk assessment, OODA loops, situational awareness, risk response planning, and the difference between risk as threat and risk as opportunity. Dawn uses The Italian Job to discuss trust, hidden resistance, team pressure, stakeholder behavior, sabotage, and what happens when a new person joins an already established team. Together, they make a practical point for project managers: risk management cannot live only in a register. It has to show up in conversations, sponsor alignment, team formation, stakeholder engagement, and regular project decisions.

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About

Become the project manager everyone wants on their team. Tune in to The Project Management Podcast™ and join Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM, as he interviews global PM experts to uncover what drives their project success. Subscribe at https://www.pm-podcast.com and get actionable advice you can apply today. Each episode is packed with hands-on tips for beginners and experts to help you integrate good practices and the latest insights to lead your projects more effectively. Copyright © 2005 - 2025 Cornelius Fichtner. All rights reserved.

Information

  • Creator
    Cornelius Fichtner, PMP
  • Years Active
    2005 - 2026
  • Episodes
    644
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright (c) 2005-2026 by Cornelius Fichtner. All Rights Reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Project Management Podcast
  • Provider
    Cornelius Fichtner

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