Plan of Action for PMI-SP Exam

I have finally decided to come back to writing here… it seems I haven’t written for about a year.  The good news is I was away because I was really busy with work and life.  I have acquired so much more experience in such a short year!  I have done about 40 proposal schedules for different programs, ranging from programs worth a couple $100k USD to a multi-billion dollar program.  I’ve also handled about 15 schedules in execution mode at my highest point… that sure was exhausting! While I was doing all that, I was also helping out other schedulers build custom formulas and VBA scripts to streamline the statusing phase of their programs.  It has become of vital importance for me to be up to speed on cost and schedule integration using MS Project Server.  This next year promises to be interesting!  I hope I learn more and expand my skills in different directions…

Speaking of which, I have decided to try to get my PMI-SP certification this year.  I don’t know how feasible it is since I’m so busy, but it won’t happen if I don’t at least try, right?  Since I’m a planner in and outside of work, I have already laid out a plan to achieve this goal.  Would you like to hear about it?

For those of you who don’t know what PMI-SP certification, I will explain it a little here.  You can find more information at Project Management Institute (PMI) Scheduling Professional about page.  The PMI-SP certification is very similar to the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, but specializes on the scheduling aspect of project management.  To be even allowed to take the test you need:

• Advanced knowledge and experience developing, managing and maintaining project schedules
• High school diploma or Associate degree holders need:
  • 5,000 hours of project scheduling experience
  • 40 hours of project scheduling education
• 4 year degree holders need:
  • 3,500 hours of project scheduling experience
  • 35 hours of project scheduling education

I totally exceed these requirements, so I went ahead and applied.  I waited 5 LONG work days to find out they had accepted my application and now I can pay and schedule my test date… The problem is that I’m not sure I’m ready to take the test yet.  The good thing is that I can take the test up to three times in a one year period before I have to re-apply.  All I have to say is that the test is EXTREMELY expensive, to me anyway, and I want to try my best to pass it the first time.  Wouldn’t you feel the same?

• $520 member (subject to change)
• $670 non-member (subject to change)

I quickly became a member because then you can see their Practice Standards and Frameworks for free.

So what’s my plan to study for the PMI-SP certification?  First I have started reading these documents/books:

• Practice Standard for Scheduling
• Practice Standard for Earned Value Management – Second Edition
• Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition (Reaffirmed)
• PMBOK® Guide & Standards
• Dynamic Scheduling® With Microsoft® Project 2013: The Book By and For Professionals by Rodolfo Ambriz and Mario Landa

I’m also going to look all over the internet to see if I can find practice questions for free or low cost.  As I try these questions I’ll go back to the resources above and see how everything aligns.

If you’ve taken this test in the past, what have you done to prepare?

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