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Tag Archives: CAPM

PMP Exam Changes – 30 June 2020

Posted on July 1, 2019 by | 2 comments

Note:  In June 2019, PMI announced the exam change would occur on the 15th December 2019 – this date has now been deferred by PMI to 30th June 2020.

PMI have announced the biggest change in the PMP exam since the change to a 200 question format last century! 

The just released PMP® Exam Content Outline has radically reformed the examination to reflect the diverse skills and approaches needed by project managers to deliver outcomes and value to their organizations.  The new exam will cover both predictive (~50%) and agile/hybrid (~50%) approaches to project management (the current exam is 90%+ predictive); this change will bring the Agile Practice Guide, bundled with the PMBOK® Guide 6th Edition into the exam.

Of equal significance, the domains and tasks that frame the examination have been completely reorganized to align with real-life practices. The number of domains will be reduced from five to three. Specific project management approaches will not be aligned to individual domains, but will be incorporated throughout the exam.  The new domains are:

People (42%): emphasizing the skills and activities associated with effectively leading a project team.

Process (50%): reinforcing the technical aspects of managing a project.

Business Environment (8%): highlighting the connection between projects and organization strategy.

Predictive, agile and hybrid approaches, will be included across the three exam domains. The best way to understand what is included in the exam is to review the updated Exam Content Outline, download from: https://www.pmi.org/certifications/types/project-management-pmp/exam-prep/changes

Given the extent of these changes, anyone studying current course material will need to have passed their PMP exam by December, or face a completely new course of study.  Based on previous changes to the PMP exam there is no leeway, exams taken on or before the 15 December will be the current exam, those taken on or after the 16 December will be the new exam (including any deferrals and re-sits).

This shift in the PMP exam is focused on supporting information technology and business organizations, reflects the needs of most current PMI members, and should be applauded. However, from our perspective, the shift is moving the core of the exam into areas we have no specific skills in.

My career has focused on supporting major engineering, construction and defense projects which require disciplined project controls. And while we can rewrite our materials, our core differentiation has always been the fact we are not just a training organization, rather we have real-world experience that we can bring into our courses.

Consequently, we have decided to pull out of the PMP training market at the end of this year to focus on courses where we still have core real-world knowledge and experience including:

  • PMI-SP: we are one of the few organizations world-wide teaching this course and the only one with an international reputation in project controls and scheduling – see more.
  • EVM: our new EVM short course is designed for people who need to understand the concepts of Earned Value based n the ISO 21508 standard – see more.

In the meantime – if you are interested in obtaining the PMP credential you have a 5-month window to sit the current exam we all know and understand – see more.

Leading up to the exam we are in ‘known territory’ – PMI use a normal distribution to determine the cut off for pass-fail. The number of candidates does not change the score, it is the ‘average’ score and the distribution of scores in any given period that sets the cut off. This adjustment is necessary because the questions in the exam change regularly and PMI are seeking to balance the degree of difficulty over time. We know how this works and what a ‘pass’ looks like in our training course. The last part of 2019 will be busy given the scope of the change in the PMP exam but that’s all.  Come December the 15th no one will really know what the requirements are for several months……

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Posted in PMBOK6, Training

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CAPM Testing to become easier

Posted on June 28, 2017 by | Leave a comment

PMI has announced a partnership with Pearson VUE to offer candidates for the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)® certification the opportunity to test via an online-proctored (OP) examination. Using this option, candidates will be able to conveniently and easily take an exam in the comfort of their home or office while being monitored by an off-site proctor. Beginning 22 July 2017, candidates will have the option to schedule an OP or center-based

Beginning 22 July 2017, candidates will have the option to schedule either an OP or a center-based (CBT) exam through Pearson Vue. The first exams through Pearson VUE will be held four weeks later on 22 August 2017.

Watch this space for additional information on this exciting development.

For more on Mosaic’s unique Mentored Email™ courses click here!

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PMI Exam Scoring Information – Improvements are on the way.

Posted on April 8, 2017 by | 3 comments

For many people, the information currently provided by PMI on their exam performance has been less than useless. Being told you are ‘not proficient’, ‘moderately proficient’ or ‘proficient’; with the added helpful advice these terms mean ‘below average’, ‘average’ or ‘above average’ tells you nothing.  No one outside of the PMI enclaves has any idea what average means or how wide the average band is.  All you really know is you have passed or failed the exam.

The good news is after years of complaint, PMI has listened and will be rolling out a vastly improved Exam Results Report over the next few months.  The passing score and your actual score remain confidential to PMI for exam security reasons, but with this limitation, the new report will provide candidates with a much better understanding of their performance in relation to the examination pass level.

The headline report shows your overall performance with the performance by domain also categorised into one of the four groupings.  On its own, this is a vast improvement on the old report!!

Click here to see a sample of the Exam Report

However, of even more value, backing up this summary will be a detailed report highlighting your performance against the various domains and topics, accessible from within your CCR portal on the PMI website. Below is a preview of this part of the report (provided by PMI):

You still won’t know the exact number of questions in each domain or how they are divided into each of the Tasks within the ‘domain’, but the report will tell you where improvement in your knowledge will be valuable and help you plan your continuing development as a project professional. This additional information will also help training design and deliver better courses based on feedback from our clients all round a win-win-win development.

For once PMI is to be highly commended for listening to their members and delivering a great initiative.

Scheduled roll-out

Anyone taking the PMI-PBA®, PfMP® or PgMP® certification exam on or after 28 April will receive the new report and explanation pages. The new report will then be rolled out to the remaining certifications over the next few months, ending with the PMP® on 28 August. Key dates for the launch of the reports for courses we teach:

PMI-SP – 25th May
(for more see:  http://www.planning-controls.com.au/ )

CAPM – 22nd August
(for more see: http://www.mosaicproject.com.au/index.php?cID=175 )

PMP – 28th August
(for more see: http://www.mosaicproject.com.au/index.php?cID=173 )

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2022 Classroom courses kick off on 20th March

Posted on March 10, 2017 by | Leave a comment

Mosaic’s PMP and CAPM training program for 2017 starts on the 20th March (there’s still time to book into these courses) with regular courses scheduled through to November.

The later than usual start this year was due to our moving office in February after 15 years in the old location.  The worst of the move is over and we are looking forward to getting back to helping our Melbourne trainees pass their PMP or CAPM exams.

All Melbourne classroom courses are held at the Bayview Eden hotel in Albert Park (close to the PMP test centre) and include full catering and everything else needed to fully prepare for your examination. For more information see:

If you aren’t lucky enough to live in Melbourne, Australia our unique Mentored Email courses are available worldwide for PMP, CAPM and PMI-SP exam prep. As a PMI approved R.E.P. all of our courses are guaranteed to provide the training needed to be eligible for the respective examinations.

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PMP & CAPM Exam Site Upgrade

Posted on July 12, 2016 by | Leave a comment

Our PMP and CAPM examination training and information website has undergone a major upgrade. All of the information you need to understand the PMI requirements, apply for the examination and access to our world-class courses is now in the one easy-to-use website.

In addition to our course information there are pages to help you:

All of the information on the site is freely available to anyone interested in either the PMP or CAPM examination – feel free to browse at any time: http://www.mosaicproject.com.au/

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Comminsure Scandal – just more of the same……

Posted on March 8, 2016 by | 2 comments

The Directors of the CBA Bank and Comminsure would appear to have a lot to learn about basic ethics.  You do not set the ethical standards for an organisation by:

  • Saying ‘we are focused on ethics’,
  • Confusing ethical intent with outcomes,
  • Meeting with people screwed as a consequence of unethical behaviour within the organisation,
  • Saying sorry and/or making belated payments years too late.

This approach is at best second rate PR and the belated payments may be necessary restitution (but rarely compensates for the pain an suffering caused by the CBA’s unethical behaviours extending over years). But none of these actions has anything to do with setting ethical standards – ethics are about doing the right thing when no one is watching and proactively correcting errors as soon as you are aware of them. Ethical standards have nothing to do with implementing a pathetic PR exercise after your extensive wrong doing has been exposed to the full glare of publicity and then only paying parsimonious compensation to a few of the victims.

The ethical standards of an organisation are set by the minimum standards of behaviour its managers condone.  CBA Directors and managers have condoned highly unethical behaviours and the CBA continues to employ many of the same people who have been responsible for the creation and sustainment of this unethical culture over many years. This is a fundamental failure of organisational governance.

The only real measure of CBA and Comminsure starting to cut out the unethical rot in its management systems will be the number of people in senior management ranks fired or otherwise sanctioned for either:

  • Condoning the behaviours outlined in the previous Senate enquiry and the latest ABC 4 Corners / Fairfax report, or
  • For incompetence in not knowing (or not wanting to know) the unethical practices were on-going.

A number of Comminsure Directors should be resigning for exactly the same reasons!

The root cause of the Comminsure scandal highlighted over the last 24 hours is identical to the earlier CBA banking scandal (discussed in several previous posts) – CBA management designed incentive systems that paid its staff bonuses to screw their clients and inflate profits. The consequences may not have been intended but nothing was done to correct obvious problems once they became apparent, probably because the managers responsible for oversighting the behaviours were on exactly the same incentive structure. And, the bank continued to pay for behaviours that focused on short term profits over the needs of distressed clients for years. Simply leaving the same group of people who created the mess to clean it up is stupidity of the highest order.

As defined in our White Paper: The Functions of Governance, two of the most important aspects of governance are establishing (and enforcing) the ethical standards and culture of the organisation. These functions cannot be delegated for reasons outlined in Dr. Bourne’s post from last week Practical Ethics.

The question is what are the CBA Board going to do about the core problem?

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Posted in Ethics

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CIO magazine lists the top 10 project management certifications

Posted on July 10, 2015 by | Leave a comment

No matter what your IT role is, a project management certification can add depth, breadth and value to your skills. In its latest edition, CIO magazine lists the top 10 project management certifications, their requirements and their cost.

We are pleased to note, the PMP® and CAPM® are listed as the #1 and #2 project management certifications in CIO report at: http://www.cio.com/article/2945413/certifications/top-10-project-management-certifications.html

For more on our PMP and CAPM courses see:  http://www.mosaicproject.com.au/

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PMBOK Health Warning

Posted on April 1, 2015 by | Leave a comment

Health Warning:  Do not attempt to read the PMBOK and drive!

Animal tests undertaken by Mosaic show that reading a single chapter of the PMBOK can induce a state ranging from drowsiness to deep sleep; with the effect on younger animals being significant.

Similar effects have been observed from exposure to PMP training materials in the office……

As a result of these and other ‘real world’ observations, we recommend any prolonged exposure to the PMBOK and any associated training materials be restricted to either the safety of your own home, or a carefully controlled classroom environment under the supervision of a qualified trainer.

Notes:

  1. No cats were injured during this study.
  2. Dr. Lynda Bourne is currently part of the PMI core team developing the 6th Edition of the PMBOK, due for publication in Dec. 2016.
  3. We have designed our courses to minimise the effects identified in this study.
    1. For more on our classroom training see:  http://www.mosaicproject.com.au/
    2. For more on our Mentored email training see: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-Mentored.html
  4. Apart from Note 2, this post is simply a gratuitous excuse to publish some really cute cat pictures sourced from: http://pulptastic.com/29-photos-cats-sleeping-weirdest-places-positions/  we hope you enjoy the other 26 pictures.
  5. This post was originally published in 2014  – it seemed too good to ignore on the 1st April 🙂

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CAPM Turns 10

Posted on December 29, 2014 by | Leave a comment

Towards the end of this year, the PMI Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)® reached its 10-year anniversary. More than 26,000 people from 150 countries hold the CAPM® today. A significant proportion of the 26,00 are our students, we conducted our first CAPM course early in 2005, jut a couple of months after the credential was released, and have been running training courses for this credential ever since.

The CAPM is designed for practitioners who wish to demonstrate their knowledge of the terminology and processes of effective project management. It shows that a team member understands the good practices described in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), which forms the basis of the 150-question CAPM examination. It also benefits professionals who are not on project teams but work closely with them.

Over time, many practitioners who hold the CAPM go on to earn their PMP credential, the major difference in eligibility requirements between the two credentials is a PMP applicant must demonstrate a minimum of 3 years experience working in a project leadership role. CAPM candidates just need to complete an approved training course.

Whilst the CAPM 10th anniversary is a significant milestone, we were offering PMP courses well before the CAPM examination was introduced and have since added our PMI-SP course.  All three are available world-wide via our Mentored Email™ courses; we run public CAPM and PMP classroom courses in Melbourne each month, the next course starts on the 19th January, and can offer in-house training anywhere.  As part of our ‘all inclusive’ package we help everyone navigate the PMI application process and guarantee to work with you until you pass your chosen examination.

For a brief history of the much older PMP credential see: /2014/10/31/the-pmp-examination-is-30-years-old/

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PMP for Christmas??

Posted on November 17, 2014 by | Leave a comment

There are two opportunities to make the holidays a springboard for you career in 2015.

You last chance for a PMP or CAPM before Christmas is our 5 day intensive courses starting on the 1st December – these are timed to allow you to sit the exam in the week prior to Christmas.

Alternatively make good use of the ‘silly season’ and book into the courses starting on the 19th January.  Complete your training, enjoy the Australia day long weekend and be ready for work once Australia ‘wakes up’ after the summer break.

CAPM course details see: http://www.mosaicproject.com.au/capm-courses-melbourne/

PMP course details see:  http://www.mosaicproject.com.au/pmp-courses-melbourne/

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