Thursday, August 13, 2009

Pengalaman Mendapatkan Sertifikasi PMP

Bagi anda yang telah lama berkecimpung dalam dunia Project Management tentunya telah mengetahui apa itu PMP. PMP atau Project Management Professional adalah sertifikasi Project Management yang dikeluarkan oleh PMI alias Project Management Institute, sebuah lembaga independent yang bermarkas di Pennsylvania, Amerika Serikat. PMP diakui secara luas oleh dunia industri di seluruh belahan dunia sebagai standard untuk kualifikasi Project Management.

Untuk menjaga kualitas sertifikasi PMP, PMI sangat ketat dalam mengeluarkan sertifikasi ini. Hal ini terlihat dari ujian sertifikasi dan proses seleksi kandidat yang sangat ketat. Berikut ini adalah pengalaman saya saat mendapatkan sertifikasi PMP. Pengalaman ini saya tulis dalam bahasa Inggris karena waktu itu saya jadikan laporan untuk atasan saya yang waktu itu membayar biaya training dan ujian sertifikasi PMP. Saya daur ulang di blog ini dengan tujuan bagi mereka yang ingin mengambil sertifikasi PMP bisa mengambil pelajaran dari pengalaman saya ini. Selamat menikmati.


1. PMP Exam Preparation Training
The story was began on January 2008 when I decided to take PMP Exam Preparation training as part of my preparation strategy to get PMP certification. I explained this to my Manager, that gave his support with condition that I should coordinate with PSO team leader. Later on, PSO also agreed with the training.
After comparing some training providers for PMP Exam Preparation training, I choose PMTI (www.4pmti.com) and I’m very satisfied with the choice. Below are some key benefits from this training.

a. Template for PMP Exam Registration
PMP Exam registration is involving many online forms that need us to enter detail information of our Project Management experiences. The information that need to be provided is not only summary such as date, contract person, organization, etc, but also detail information about project management activities of each project such as how many hours we conducted project selection methods in Initiation process for project A, how many hours we conducted risk identification in Planning process for project B, etc.
Below is an example of the online form that we need to complete during PMP Exam registration.

PMTI provided a template that helps a lot to organize our PM experience in such a way that match with online forms that we need to fill during PMP Exam registration. 4500 hours of PM experiences are needed for university bachelor graduate, or 7500 hours of PM experiences are needed for non-university graduate to register PMP Exam.

b. Free Online Training
While we were waiting for the training, we can take 40 hours online training for free. This online training will give us basic PM knowledge as perquisite for PMP Exam Preparation training. We can also use this 40 hours training as PM education hours during PMP Exam registration. Minimum 35 hours of PM education are needed for PMP Exam registration.

c. Key Sheet
Key sheet is a piece of paper that contains of the key information of all PM knowledge. Key sheet works like a brain map. All students had to memorize all the information in this key sheet with the objective that we can create the key sheet during the exam. I found this key sheet is very useful. It was like having PMBOK in my hand during the exam.

d. Total 600 questions
Everyday we took 100 questions, 30 questions in the morning before the class started at 8:00 AM and 70 questions before the class ended at 6:30 PM. On the last day we took final exam that consisted of 200 questions

e. Guarantee as Motivation
PMTI will pay for the second PMP Exam if we failed the first one. If we failed on the second exam, PMTI will refund the training fee. This guarantee will only work with condition that we can memorize the key sheet and passed the 600 question with score at least 60%. We are required to sign a letter of agreement. We were also required to take the PMP Exam not more than 14 days after the PMP Exam Preparation training.
This rule became motivation for the students to memorize the key sheet and passed the 600 question with score at least 60%.


2. PMP Exam Registration

a. PMP Exam Fee
PMP Exam fee is $405 for PMI member and $555 for non member. The membership fee is $129. All in US Dollar.
I decided to join PMI membership to get lower fee plus the other benefits such as free online seminars, free magazines, free articles, etc. PMI membership is good for 1 year and can be renewed in year basis.

b. Eligibility
To be eligible for PMP Exam, someone has to have:
1. 35 hours PM Education
2. 4500 hours PM experience for someone with bachelor degree or 7500 hours PM experience for someone without bachelor degree

c. PMP Exam Registration Forms
In these online forms , we need to complete all information about personal data (address, organization, etc), PM education, and PM experiences. Thanks to PMTI templates, I can complete these forms without having any problems.
After we complete all the forms and submit them, PMI will then process the application. In 5 working days, PMI will send notification if the application is accepted or not. If the application is accepted, we can choose any date until the next year to take the examination.

d. PMI Audit
PMI randomly selects some of PMP Exam applicants for PMI audit. After I completed my PMP Exam registration form, I received a notification from PMI that I got selected for PMI Audit.
Below are the information that were audited by PMI.
1. PM Experiences
PMI will send some PDF files based on PM experiences that we entered during PMP Exam registration. We will need to send these files to the specific contact persons that we entered on the online registration forms. These persons will need to print the files, review the information, approve or reject the information, sign the forms, put it in sealed and signed envelope, and send them back to applicants (all in hard papers document).
2. PM Education
Copy of certificate will be required to proof our PM education hours.
3. Proof of Bachelor Degree
Copy of certificate will be required as proof of bachelor degree. In my case, PMI also requested for Transcript document because my certificate is not in English.
After all of the documents above are completed, we can send them to PMI headquarter in US. PMI will then send notification if our audit is passed or not.


3. PMP Exam

a. Booking the Exam
After I passed PMI Audit, PMI sent me a notification with PMI Identification Code. With this code, I can go to prometric at http://www.prometric.com/ to select the available exam date and location. I selected exam location in London – Ontario because the all test location in Winnipeg and Toronto were already fully booked.
Prometric will send confirmation email with confirmation number that need to be printed.

b. The Exam
The exam was very strict. We need to show confirmation email from Prometric and notification email from PMI, plus 2 ID’s with photo that issued by government. Prometric will provide 5 blank papers, very simple calculator, and 2 pencils. There was about 10 PC’s in the room with some cameras which are recorded.
Before the exam was began, there was 15 minutes time to read the instruction. I used 5 minutes to read the instruction and 10 minutes to create the key sheet.
The test was automatically started after 15 minutes. There were 200 questions that need to be answered in 4 hours. After 4 hours, the exam was automatically stopped. A quick survey was then popped up before the exam result was displayed.

c. Exam’s Material
More than 60% of the exam’s material is from PMBOK that covers all 5 PM Process (Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring and Control, Closing) and 9 Knowledge Area (Integration, Time, Scope, Cost, Quality, Risk, Procurement, HR, Communication) plus PM Professional Responsibility as defined in PMI Code of Conduct.
Other material is coming from other sources that related with PM practice. More than 80% of all the materials were covered by PMTI PMP Exam Preparation training.

5 comments:

  1. Terimakasih banyak Bang atas infonya... btw boleh panggil abang kan :)

    Ane lg belajar jadi project management di kantor baru, kalo atau contoh project atau manual book boleh di share Bang di chalid.alys@gmail.com. sekali lagi terima kasih banyak ya Bang atas ilmunya, semoga bermanfaat dan sukses selalu Bang.... Amin....

    ReplyDelete
  2. this i a good resource for people who wants to know more about project management

    PMP
    Prince2
    Money Management
    Project Management
    Management Training

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have taken a 4 -day classroom boot camp for my PMP Certification at pmstudy.com. I found it excellent as all courses are conducted in a high-class environment, with all study materials. Thanks to PMstudy.com for my success! 

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi seona,
      The PMP certification establishes a common language among project managers and helps each other work within a common framework. Once you have the PMP, you need to consider how you're applying the processes, tools, and techniques to projects. I took a training course for my preparation in pmstudy.com and got ready for the exam on day 5!You can visist http://www.pmstudy.com for more infoThe PMP Certification

      Delete
  4. Saya tertarik dengan tulisan anda mengenai pelatihan sap.
    Saya juga mempunyai tulisan yang sejenis mengenai sertifikasi sap yang bisa anda kunjungi di sertifikasi sap

    ReplyDelete