Opinion of this type of studying for a certification

Any opinions are most welcomed

I am transitioning into a Project Management role and have been reading a lot of Six Sigma and now some PMI material. The PMI books covers the whole framework, including the PMBOK.

Well the book is rather large. Normally I usually pick up a book and read it cover to cover. I would say I have done that my whole life. Well with the move and the new position and being a family man I don't have that luxury. So what I ended up doing is bringing the project management book into my boss and had him look through the table of content and highlight the critical items that I will need to know and then he put a check mark by items that were secondary. Some items he left completely unmarked.

Has anyone tried this method? For me it is very uncomfortable to do this, it's very unnatural and weird. But I am going to try it nonetheless.

What's the forums thoughts on this method? I won't be a senior PM so some of the body of knowledge I won't need a lot of information on, I won't be having involvement in certain parts. Like the project charter will be defined by high level executives and a senior project/program manager. So scope won't be a major focus for me as a whole. At least in some of the high level documents and requirements.

However time and cost will be a big focus point for me. Along with quality and human resources. Risk is captured in the scope phase so he suggest I don't focus on that nor should I focus on the procurement processes.

I probably went into a little more detail than what was required, but I wanted to paint an accurate picture.

Please let me know your thoughts of this learning style.

The idea is to learn along with my real world knowledge/job.

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Comments

pham0329

You're studying for a certification or for your job? If it's for the certification, just because your boss didn't mark it doesn't mean it won't be on the exam. He may have marked the items that he thought would be required for the job

Whether it's for the job or for the exam, not every subject in the book carry the same weight so I don't see a problem with you picking and choosing which subjects to study. I did this for a lot of my certification when it came to IPv6. I figured there's not a lot of companies out there implementing IPv6, so I would rather focus my time and energy on something that I can use instead. If I ever need to learn IPv6, I'll come back to it.

Devilsbane

When I did the 70-298 and 70-299 I read the 299 book cover to cover but then only skimmed a few areas on the 298.

I agree with Pham, your boss probably just marked it for what you need to know. If you plan on taking the test you will either want to fill in the gaps or at least do some research to make sure those areas aren't important on the test. You might be able to study 80% of the content and pass the test, but I wouldn't advise it. Your goal is (or should be) knowledge and not a sheet of paper.

N2IT

Devilsbane wrote: »

When I did the 70-298 and 70-299 I read the 299 book cover to cover but then only skimmed a few areas on the 298.

I agree with Pham, your boss probably just marked it for what you need to know. If you plan on taking the test you will either want to fill in the gaps or at least do some research to make sure those areas aren't important on the test. You might be able to study 80% of the content and pass the test, but I wouldn't advise it. Your goal is (or should be) knowledge and not a sheet of paper.

Thanks for the replies.

I plan on covering all the material, I was more concerned about skipping around.

***Side note: I went back to my old way of studying and started from Chapter 1 and now I am working my way through the material. Almost on Chapter 3. Very LOOOOOONNNNG chapters.

Webmaster

N2IT wrote:

Has anyone tried this method? For me it is very uncomfortable to do this, it's very unnatural and weird. But I am going to try it nonetheless.

I would take half of his advice, as in make sure you master the topics he highlighted as critical but also do that for the other topics

I used to read of real-life example project documents also for non-IT projects, just to see how others did it (and their interpretation of pmbok knowledge varied enormously). Instead of reading the entire cover to cover, I would take out one topic/chapter and use several other sources (books and example projects, practice exams even) before moving on to the next topic/chapter. The material becomes easier to grasp and retain when you can apply it and have experience with projects (ideally but not just as a PM). At some point it'll become clear for yourself which topics are more critical then others.

N2IT wrote:

The idea is to learn along with my real world knowledge/job.

So that sounds like a good idea.

N2IT

Webmaster wrote: »

I would take half of his advice, as in make sure you master the topics he highlighted as critical but also do that for the other topics I used to read of real-life example project documents also for non-IT projects, just to see how others did it (and their interpretation of pmbok knowledge varied enormously). Instead of reading the entire cover to cover, I would take out one topic/chapter and use several other sources (books and example projects, practice exams even) before moving on to the next topic/chapter. The material becomes easier to grasp and retain when you can apply it and have experience with projects (ideally but not just as a PM). At some point it'll become clear for yourself which topics are more critical then others.
So that sounds like a good idea.

Just an heads up

Finally pieced my hours together and officially applied for the PMP. Fingers crossed wish me luck