Your weeks’ worth of hard work paid off and you cleared PMP examination. Congratulatory emails pour in from friends and colleagues, you're happy with yourself for a few days - and things return to normal. For a few people, a job hop happens soon after the certification, honeymoon period with the new company happens and ends - and then things return to normal. What next?
All certification programs require their participants to keep abreast of the latest happenings in their respective fields - so does PMI. Here is the link for PMI's continuing certification requirements. PMI requires you to collect 60 professional development units (PDUs) in 3 years and then shell out a renewal fee ($60 for members, $150 for non-members) to stay in good standing on your PMP certification.
There are various activities that allow you to accumulate PDUs and the simplest of them is doing your job as a Project manager. For that, you can lay claim to 5 PDUs per year or a total of 15 PDUs per 3 year cycle. So really it boils down to getting 45 PDUs in 3 years to stay PMP certified. It is a lot of time, but believe me - if you don't plan well you'll end up thinking 'that's a lot of PDUs' in the last year. To avoid last year scrambling, it is better to participate in PDU gleaning activities as soon as possible.
Contrary to what many money-making, PDU-giving websites out there would like you to believe, it is possible to get to that magical 45 without much burden on your pocket. Unless you have a willing sponsor in your company for outrageous hundreds of dollars for tens of PDUs, you should look at some of the options below.
1. Manage projects and keep track of your work: As I mentioned earlier, this is the easiest of task of all. 5 PDUs per year, 15 total in Category 2H. Burden on your wallet is zilch; in fact you make money to do this stuff, don't you?
2. Free webinars: These come under Category 3 that’s for courses handled by PMI registered education providers. International Institute of Learning is one of them and regularly schedules free webinars. The last time I checked, they had twelve 1 -hour sessions each worth 1 PDU. That’s 12 PDUs. This is free too, I have attended 3 of their sessions so far, and think they are very informative.
3. Free podcasts: Under category 2-SDL, you can claim a maximum of 15 PDUs. Free 1 hour podcasts from PMPodcast give you 1 PDU each, and there is over 50 hours of audio material available. You can either download these episodes to your iTunes library or listen to them directly from the website. Again, you don’t spend a dime from your pocket; but end up learning a lot.
4. Volunteer work: A maximum of 20 PDUs can be gathered by working in your local PMI chapter or any recognized Project management organization (non-employer) - 10 PDUs per year if you work as an elected member of the chapter and 5 PDUs per year as a volunteer member of the chapter. You can get 5 PDUs per year if you do volunteer work for any legally recognized charitable organization. This activity involves outlay from you for membership fee, traveling expenses etc. but the satisfaction you get out of the volunteer work might offset any feel of pinch to your pocket. Also, monetarily this might be a cheaper option than paying for PDU courses.
Doing the above 4 should get to the magical 60 mark.
If you’re not willing to do volunteer work, then the other option is to look for economical (but not free) options available on the Internet for PDUs. You’ll see some expensive deals and some good ones. Folks who have taken PMP exam based on PMBOK 2000 can look up online courses offered by PMStudy.com or PMCampus.com. PMStudy.com offers 40PDUs for $80 while PMCampus offers 25PDUs for $95. Based on how many PDUs you require, you can choose one of those courses. After you pay up, you’ll get access to their online tests. Get a copy of PMBOK third edition and review it before taking the examinations. The tests will be available for 90 days after registration; though the exams are time-bound, there is no limit on the number of retries to get to the qualifying mark. Once completed, these courses give you the PDU information and a certificate to print.
If you get more than 60 PDUs, note that you have an option to carry over up to 20 PDUs into the next certification cycle – but this applies to only the additional ones accumulated during the 3rd year. Remember to keep record of all your PDU gathering activities, they will come handy if PMI chooses to audit your submissions.
Monday, October 19, 2009
A Network Approach to Gloabl Product Management
Having worked in a product-based multinational company from the united states and from india, i have come to experience first-hand the practicalities of the globalization process. in many ways, it’s like a long-distance relationship : you have to keep nurturing it, else it falls apart before you know it. here are a few thoughts to consider -
1. It’s a network: recognize that globalization isn’t just a means to ‘go where the talent is’, or ‘where the customers are’. it’s about decentralizing the organization such that the teams form a network of interdependent parts, rather than hub-and-spoke setup. true global organizations recognize that the animal must have multiple heads connected to a body, and not multiple tentacles connected to a head.
2. Leading with competency: each of the org units must have a clear charter of competency. setting up an office for sustained performance and results is hinged upon what that office is expected to deliver on a sustained long-term basis. it is something that feeds the growth of the organization, guides the day-to-day decisions, and motivates folks on a consistent basis. if you don’t define competency for each office, it’s merely a network of hired guns with no higher purpose. always ask this question of each org unit – “why do you exist?”. if the answer is more than 2 sentences, you probably don’t have it right.
3. Build mutual trust: the network of organizational nodes must understand that the success of the whole depends on the success of each of the nodes in the network. each unit must trust that every other unit will deliver on their end with quality and timeliness that they can trust. build the team to deliver on a meaningful and mission-critical charter, and let them go. you will see amazing results provided you have selected the team carefully.
4. The safe route trap: the safe-route mentality is a big trap that must be avoided. companies find it hard to transition from a centralized model to a decentralized model, mainly because it requires some level of risk. it requires reshuffling and re-factoring of organizational alignments and a big bet on an unknown. companies end up taking the safe route of offshoring unimpactful things ‘just to test out how it could work’ or to ensure no major shake-ups are needed. thus starts the downward spiral of mediocre expectations leading to mediocre performance. it’s a self-fulfilling cycle – mediocre expectations attract mediocre talent which under performs, leading to even lower expectations.
5. Travel: like any long-distance relationship, frequent travel and face-time is critical to establishing a person-to-person working relationship. for instance, same words have different meaning if they come from someone you know rather than from someone you’ve never met, simple as that. people often kickoff a transition using a week-long ‘transfer-of-information’ sessions and expect that henceforth, everything would be nice-and-dandy. during the transition period, people often attach certain metal picture and adjectives to each other (e.g. ‘he is talkative’ or ’she is a geek’), and those tags last far longer after the memory of the person has faded. there starts the trouble, when the pre-determined adjectives drive one’s picture of the other. as such, in an interdependent organization, frequent renewal of the working relationship is extremely crucial.
6. Burnout: for coordinated projects across continents, people do burn-out taking night time calls. most of personal lives unfold in the evenings, and the rhythm of life is seriously disrupted even at two nights a week. it’s worse if some of the folks on the call are at a significantly higher level of discomfort than others – they simply don’t share the sense of urgency to keep the calls to-the-point. these calls are unavoidable, so it’s important to have a structure for maximizing the productivity.
7. Asynchronous communication: set up proper message boards, intranets, doc shares, workspaces, or whatever makes the asynchronous communication a bit easier. invest in documenting everything *before* the plans are executed.
8. Establish redundency: have a good bench strength. have a farm system to develop the talent required to sustain the competency.
9. Dual echo chambers: the emails and words on phone don’t convey the difference between someone meaning ‘dude you are smoking something man’ from ‘i don’t think so’ from ‘i didn’t think so’. aside from that, the hallway conversations and sidebars in meetings amplify completely different parts of spectrum of signals that the business continuously emits, and those differences don’t come out until its too late. when they do, it’s in a charged up environment, to the detriment of the entire business.
1. It’s a network: recognize that globalization isn’t just a means to ‘go where the talent is’, or ‘where the customers are’. it’s about decentralizing the organization such that the teams form a network of interdependent parts, rather than hub-and-spoke setup. true global organizations recognize that the animal must have multiple heads connected to a body, and not multiple tentacles connected to a head.
2. Leading with competency: each of the org units must have a clear charter of competency. setting up an office for sustained performance and results is hinged upon what that office is expected to deliver on a sustained long-term basis. it is something that feeds the growth of the organization, guides the day-to-day decisions, and motivates folks on a consistent basis. if you don’t define competency for each office, it’s merely a network of hired guns with no higher purpose. always ask this question of each org unit – “why do you exist?”. if the answer is more than 2 sentences, you probably don’t have it right.
3. Build mutual trust: the network of organizational nodes must understand that the success of the whole depends on the success of each of the nodes in the network. each unit must trust that every other unit will deliver on their end with quality and timeliness that they can trust. build the team to deliver on a meaningful and mission-critical charter, and let them go. you will see amazing results provided you have selected the team carefully.
4. The safe route trap: the safe-route mentality is a big trap that must be avoided. companies find it hard to transition from a centralized model to a decentralized model, mainly because it requires some level of risk. it requires reshuffling and re-factoring of organizational alignments and a big bet on an unknown. companies end up taking the safe route of offshoring unimpactful things ‘just to test out how it could work’ or to ensure no major shake-ups are needed. thus starts the downward spiral of mediocre expectations leading to mediocre performance. it’s a self-fulfilling cycle – mediocre expectations attract mediocre talent which under performs, leading to even lower expectations.
5. Travel: like any long-distance relationship, frequent travel and face-time is critical to establishing a person-to-person working relationship. for instance, same words have different meaning if they come from someone you know rather than from someone you’ve never met, simple as that. people often kickoff a transition using a week-long ‘transfer-of-information’ sessions and expect that henceforth, everything would be nice-and-dandy. during the transition period, people often attach certain metal picture and adjectives to each other (e.g. ‘he is talkative’ or ’she is a geek’), and those tags last far longer after the memory of the person has faded. there starts the trouble, when the pre-determined adjectives drive one’s picture of the other. as such, in an interdependent organization, frequent renewal of the working relationship is extremely crucial.
6. Burnout: for coordinated projects across continents, people do burn-out taking night time calls. most of personal lives unfold in the evenings, and the rhythm of life is seriously disrupted even at two nights a week. it’s worse if some of the folks on the call are at a significantly higher level of discomfort than others – they simply don’t share the sense of urgency to keep the calls to-the-point. these calls are unavoidable, so it’s important to have a structure for maximizing the productivity.
7. Asynchronous communication: set up proper message boards, intranets, doc shares, workspaces, or whatever makes the asynchronous communication a bit easier. invest in documenting everything *before* the plans are executed.
8. Establish redundency: have a good bench strength. have a farm system to develop the talent required to sustain the competency.
9. Dual echo chambers: the emails and words on phone don’t convey the difference between someone meaning ‘dude you are smoking something man’ from ‘i don’t think so’ from ‘i didn’t think so’. aside from that, the hallway conversations and sidebars in meetings amplify completely different parts of spectrum of signals that the business continuously emits, and those differences don’t come out until its too late. when they do, it’s in a charged up environment, to the detriment of the entire business.
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