Episode 52- The PMP Exam: 6th Edition Changes, What to Expect, and Tips to Pass Manage This - The Project Management Podcast
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- Management
NICK WALKER: Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. Every two weeks we meet up to talk about what really matters to you as a professional project manager. We’re dedicated to helping you grow, to help you get better at your job. And we do that in several ways. We interview guests who are managing challenging projects in the real world, and we learn from their real-life experiences. We share tips and tools and trends from authors and experts in the field of project management and program management. We want to help you reach that next step.
I’m your host, Nick Walker, and with me are two guys who have enough real-life experience that we could spend hours picking their brains, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates. And Andy, we’re always on the lookout to help project managers improve, and we’re devoting today’s podcast to the subject of certifications.
ANDY CROWE: Yeah, the credential, the PMP Exam. And you know what, Nick, it’s fun because this really does impact people’s lives in some significant and measurable ways.
NICK WALKER: Now, the Project Management Institute released a Sixth Edition of the PMBOK Guide in September of 2017. The PMP Exam changes on March 26, 2018. So today we’re going to focus on two main topics: an update on the changes found in the Sixth Edition, and some practical advice and tips for those who want to pass the exam.
And to do that, to help us out today we have another expert joining us, Louis Alderman. He has a lot of letters after his name: MBA, PMP, PMI-ACP, and CSM. He’s the Manager of Curriculum Development at Velociteach. Louis, thanks so much for joining us today.
LOUIS ALDERMAN: Thank you, Nick. It’s a pleasure to be here.
NICK WALKER: Now, before we dive in, I’m just wondering if you can talk a little bit more about your role at Velociteach.
LOUIS ALDERMAN: Well, you mentioned my title is Manager of Curriculum Development. My role is to do anything and everything that it takes to accomplish that that is not illegal or immoral.
NICK WALKER: Good, good.
LOUIS ALDERMAN: My background is engineering and project management, and I’ve enjoyed bringing all of those skills and abilities to Velociteach. I’ve been here since 2005 developing curriculum. And it’s a lot of fun.
NICK WALKER: Well, we’re so glad you’re with us today. And so let’s dive right in. Let’s talk about the new and much bigger PMBOK Guide. Bill?
ANDY CROWE: Holding it in my hands here right now, Nick.
BILL YATES: It’s big.
NICK WALKER: Okay, guys. How much bigger are we talking about?
ANDY CROWE: It’s bigger. It’s significantly bigger. It’s about 30 percent bigger. So the Fifth Edition, just page count, had 589 pages. The Sixth Edition, a whopping 756 pages. And Louis did some analysis on the inputs, tools, techniques, and outputs.
LOUIS ALDERMAN: I did, Andy. You know, officially there are 665 instances of inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs. But some of those tools are groups of tools. If you include all of the sub-tools in those categories, the total actually goes up to a whopping 1,444.
BILL YATES: Whoa.
ANDY CROWE: It is whopping, and I don’t think you can really do an honest analysis without counting them that way. I mean, we’ve looked at it and sliced it and diced it a number of ways. Fourteen hundred and forty-four, it’s incredible.
BILL YATES: You know, a quick example of that, like you look at data analysis, that’s one of the top levels. But then underneath that you’ve got all these other types of analysis.
LOUIS ALDERMAN: Okay. Let me be the engineer here. Twenty-seven different types of analysis in that category.
ANDY CROWE: Twenty-seven types. So that’s how you get to 1,444.
LOUIS ALDERMAN: It really mushrooms.
BILL YATES: Man, that’s a lot.
NICK WALKER: So let’s get started. We’ve
NICK WALKER: Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. Every two weeks we meet up to talk about what really matters to you as a professional project manager. We’re dedicated to helping you grow, to help you get better at your job. And we do that in several ways. We interview guests who are managing challenging projects in the real world, and we learn from their real-life experiences. We share tips and tools and trends from authors and experts in the field of project management and program management. We want to help you reach that next step.
I’m your host, Nick Walker, and with me are two guys who have enough real-life experience that we could spend hours picking their brains, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates. And Andy, we’re always on the lookout to help project managers improve, and we’re devoting today’s podcast to the subject of certifications.
ANDY CROWE: Yeah, the credential, the PMP Exam. And you know what, Nick, it’s fun because this really does impact people’s lives in some significant and measurable ways.
NICK WALKER: Now, the Project Management Institute released a Sixth Edition of the PMBOK Guide in September of 2017. The PMP Exam changes on March 26, 2018. So today we’re going to focus on two main topics: an update on the changes found in the Sixth Edition, and some practical advice and tips for those who want to pass the exam.
And to do that, to help us out today we have another expert joining us, Louis Alderman. He has a lot of letters after his name: MBA, PMP, PMI-ACP, and CSM. He’s the Manager of Curriculum Development at Velociteach. Louis, thanks so much for joining us today.
LOUIS ALDERMAN: Thank you, Nick. It’s a pleasure to be here.
NICK WALKER: Now, before we dive in, I’m just wondering if you can talk a little bit more about your role at Velociteach.
LOUIS ALDERMAN: Well, you mentioned my title is Manager of Curriculum Development. My role is to do anything and everything that it takes to accomplish that that is not illegal or immoral.
NICK WALKER: Good, good.
LOUIS ALDERMAN: My background is engineering and project management, and I’ve enjoyed bringing all of those skills and abilities to Velociteach. I’ve been here since 2005 developing curriculum. And it’s a lot of fun.
NICK WALKER: Well, we’re so glad you’re with us today. And so let’s dive right in. Let’s talk about the new and much bigger PMBOK Guide. Bill?
ANDY CROWE: Holding it in my hands here right now, Nick.
BILL YATES: It’s big.
NICK WALKER: Okay, guys. How much bigger are we talking about?
ANDY CROWE: It’s bigger. It’s significantly bigger. It’s about 30 percent bigger. So the Fifth Edition, just page count, had 589 pages. The Sixth Edition, a whopping 756 pages. And Louis did some analysis on the inputs, tools, techniques, and outputs.
LOUIS ALDERMAN: I did, Andy. You know, officially there are 665 instances of inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs. But some of those tools are groups of tools. If you include all of the sub-tools in those categories, the total actually goes up to a whopping 1,444.
BILL YATES: Whoa.
ANDY CROWE: It is whopping, and I don’t think you can really do an honest analysis without counting them that way. I mean, we’ve looked at it and sliced it and diced it a number of ways. Fourteen hundred and forty-four, it’s incredible.
BILL YATES: You know, a quick example of that, like you look at data analysis, that’s one of the top levels. But then underneath that you’ve got all these other types of analysis.
LOUIS ALDERMAN: Okay. Let me be the engineer here. Twenty-seven different types of analysis in that category.
ANDY CROWE: Twenty-seven types. So that’s how you get to 1,444.
LOUIS ALDERMAN: It really mushrooms.
BILL YATES: Man, that’s a lot.
NICK WALKER: So let’s get started. We’ve