PRINCE 2 Foundation exam via EXIN

Zorodzai

Now that EXIN will be offering PRINCE 2 certification will it still be a requirement that one attends accredited training as part of the certification process ?

EXIN Testing with Pearson VUE

Per January 1, 2014 there will be a new, higher price for the ITIL Foundation exam, due to the changes in ownership and organization of the Best Management Practice Portfolio (BMP). Take your exam this year for the These changes however also mean that in Q1 of 2014, EXIN will offer other BMP exams, including the Prince2^® Foundation, at Pearson VUE.

EXINmarketing

Hi Zorodzai,
For PRINCE2® certifications at EXIN it is NOT required to attend an accredited training.

EXIN can offer you a sample exam for the foundation and the practitioner exam. Normally we offer these sample exams on out website, for PRINCE2 there is an exception and you can get these by requesting them at our customer support via our contact form.

Please select "other products" as the subcategory and ask for the specific sample exam (PRINCE2 foundation or practitioner).

Kind regards,
EXIN Marketing

Zorodzai

Thanks for the response......so so tempting

N2IT

Z you aren't kidding.

Zorodzai

Lol......I need to finish off my 70-461, I promised myself "no more distractions" hahahaa

newmove

Prince2 foundation is very easy. Common sense will do in most cases but the same common sense would be a disaster in the practitioner level.

Zorodzai, Please what are the modalities for UoL international programmes? How long does it take? and how good are they? Do they waive some modules based on cert? I couldn't glean these from their webpage.

TechGuy215

It is pretty tempting, however I don't think PRINCE2 is utilized much in the US. I believe PMP holds reign as far as Project Management certs go here.

Zorodzai

@newmove - apologies for the delayed response. To my understanding UoL do not provide waivers for certifications done. To my understanding they are world recognised. A list of the alumni will give you a good picture of how good it is. One thing I have noted is it's very "British" in it's methodology so for people like me who went through education systems derived from British standards it's pretty straight forward; main issue is it is quite rigid.
A 'normal' degree consists of 12 modules with one being able to register a maximum of four modules a year (academic year is from September - September) meaning one requires a minimum of 3 years to complete. If I could attend WGU I would likely choose that over UoL as it allows for faster completion.....just my 2 cents

N2IT

I know very little about the Prince 2. Is it more Waterfall based or Agile? Any recommended reading material for the F exam?

N2IT

Actually I like the SCRUM Agile certification, that looks very interesting. I'll most likely continue to research that certification. If it's not Agile or Scrum I am not really interested in learning about. The App Dev world is a lot of fun and I hope to stay in this side, branding myself with Scrum and Agile will help IMO.

Zorodzai

To be honest I don't really know much about PRINCE 2 except that it (along with PMP) comes up a lot on job postings that I am interested in.....

N2IT

AS much as I want to sell out on the branding aspect of certifications I don't believe in the PMP at all. It's long and drawn and doesn't really apply to most projects I deal with. Agile on the other hand is something that I see actually being leveraged in real world scenarios over and over again. For me it's SCRUM and Agile all the way. ***That's why I wanted to make sure it was more like Scrum than PMP. It sounds like it's more like the PMP.

N2IT

It's more like the PMP than Scrum, but I liked that it really focused on different parts of quality management that are real world. I also liked the fact it focused on some of the business analyst roles. A lot of times they are one in the the same so this additional information gave really good context into the methodology and how it is applied.

Zorodzai

@N2IT - sounds like you have been going deep into PRINCE2 . DO you intend to certify or just learn the methodology ?

N2IT

I took the exam and passed *** I did fail the first time. That was painful.

I got bit by the bug I may roll into the practitioner certification next.

BTW This is all your fault

Zorodzai

@N2IT - hehehehhehehe
Nice one, now to find something else to tempt you into doing......

N2IT

Let me finish practitioner first please

So what were you thinking??!

Zorodzai

Good idea to go for the Practitioner exam. This year I want to try remain focused and finish off my SQL 2008 Developer route (before the cutoff date - 31 July) before sitting for SSCP and, hopefully, PRINCE2. Project management is becoming more important as I am getting bigger roles in the work projects we do - SSCP is more out of personal interest as my line of work (card payments) is quite heavy on security.

N2IT

Z - I like our conversations they are a lot of fun.

SSCP sounds like a nice one, especially in the line of work you do. Obviously finishing your SQL is very important and I think the security certification would serve you well especially in the future. Don't forget about the CISSP as well. That can look very good for consultants etc.

With that said I always enjoyed project management. I am currently a business analyst, however prior to this current role I was a "service delivery lead" which was a bizarre name for a project manager . We just reorg'd at work and I am hoping my position transitions from more of a technical development role to a pure PM role.

petedude

N2IT wrote: »

For me it's SCRUM and Agile all the way.

Isn't Agile just a fancy way of saying, "get it done now"? :: ducking ::

I have noticed these methodologies are working their way into everyday business. For example, I see increasing numbers of work teams having "stand-up" meetings.

Even though it's been quite a while since I've done programming as part of my regular role, I'm still kinda tempted to grab Agile/Scrum certs.

N2IT

Petedude it really is in a lot of ways.

The positive spin is creating software for a customer who really doesn't know what they want, they just know they have a problem and it needs a solutions applied to it. So instead of letting the customer fully drive the development effort you build what you think they want show them a proof of concept and then hit the software through cycles of iterations.

It's impossible IMO to be effective in software using old school industrialized project management methodologies. For service or infrastructure it's fine, but with software and even data architecture for that matter it requires more speed and "agility".

N2IT

I don't think I mentioned this but I really liked Prince2 from a business analyst vantage point. It speaks more to the processes and tools a BA would use as well as a PM. While both roles aren't totally integrated they cross over more than PMI (I believe) indicates.

PMI is still the de facto standard for project management so there is always value there. I just have a hard time stomaching the material once again especially after sitting the CAPM and RMP.

Zorodzai

N2IT - thanks for the info. My job role is really a bit of a mess. Officially I am an Electronic Financial Transactions Consultant (EFT Corporation - Electronic Funds Transfer Corporation eft) and most of my work is technical, however I do get involved in advising on best practice, project planning (assisting clients in defining what they want then putting it all together so our team can put forward a proposal) and basic onsite project management.

Because of the nature of EFT security is quite important hence the interest in SSCP (PCI-DSS certification would probably be better for me but no way am paying so much for a certification in such a highly specialised security area).

N2IT

Here in the states that would be more of a Technical Business Analyst. We also have Process BA's and Operational. You might want to look at IIBA and their CBAP or CCBA certification. It's more around requirements gathering etc, not actually managing projects. (Just a thought).

Zorodzai

aahh ok - thanks for the pointers. To be honest, don't know of any of those - let me google them [Zoro you promised to focus only on SQL....... ]

N2IT

I'm good at bringing people off track.

ItsmHarun

prince2 foundation is easy to pass exam